Dracula

Blood is the essence of life in Dracula. For vampires, it is the food that allows them to live forever. For mortals, blood is the substance that keeps their hearts beating, and which makes them prey for Dracula. Blood is often the most obvious sign that violence has been done to someone. Blood also has sexual connotations, given its relationship to intercourse, virginity, and fertility. It is also a corrupting force. When Dracula gains access to Mina’s mind, it is because he forces her to drink his blood, mixing it with her own.

Wolves appear throughout the novel, beginning with Jonathan’s journey to Castle Dracula. Wolves symbolize the predatory nature of the vampires. They are feared in the wild, and are willing to attack people in villages if hunger—and a lack of prey—forces them from the woods. Dracula is able to command the wolves, and can also become a wolf. Every appearance of a wolf is threatening, because wolves are always a danger. They are driven by appetite and are fearless fighters.

Van Helsing brings communion wafers—known as The Host—from Amsterdam. The wafers act as barriers to evil, particularly the heathen evil of the vampires. The communion wafers represent the body of Jesus Christ.