Happy Hal-LIT-oween: Bram Stoker's Draculicious Love Story

“No man knows till he experiences it, what it is like to feel his own life-blood drawn away into the woman he loves.” 

Title: Dracula
Author: Bram Stoker (1847-1912, Irish)

​Some people might say that falling in love is the scariest thing there is.  Well, let me tell you--it's even scarier when the person you love turns into a vampire!

To give you a little context for this quote, you'll need a bit of background info.  So the story starts out with the lovely Lucy hanging out with her girlfriend Mina.  Lucy apparently has guys just knocking down her door to marry her because she gets 3 marriage proposals:  one from a doctor named John Seward, one from an American named Quincey Morris, and one from a guy from a good English family named Arthur Holmwood. She ends up choosing Arthur, but unlike the real world and in high school, everyone ends up staying friends.  

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Unfortunately for Lucy's fiancé, Lucy starts looking pale and mysteriously losing blood.  Not thinking much of the two little bite-sized holes on her neck, the men decide Lucy needs blood to stay alive, so Holmwood gives her some of his.  It helps for a bit, and Holmwood runs home to check on his ailing father, but then she's back to the same pale, almost dead place, so Dr. Sweard (who still loves her) infuses her with some of his blood.  That's when he says today's quote, which is really a sweet thing for him to say, since she didn't choose to marry him and all.  

Alas, Lucy still dies.  Well, kind of.  She actually turns into a vampire and starts crawling out of her tomb at night and going on the prowl until. . . well, I don't want to spoil it for you, but it ends in a gruesome blood bath!  And things don't go too well for her friend Mina, either, whom Dracula has an attraction to!  

Renegade Thought of the Day: What do you think is the scariest part of falling in love?  

If you fell desperately in love with someone who only liked you as a friend, would you donate your own blood (or plasma--see why here!) to save that person's life?  

Renegade Challenge:  Look into donating blood or plasma and truly saving a life! 

Bonus Helpful Halloween Recipe and Tip:  If a Vampire knocks on your door, never let him (or her!) inside.  They have to be invited in.  And if they do get in?  Well, try offering them some of that extra garlicky hummus dip you have sitting in your fridge!  

Creepy Bonus Video: (Teachers please preview clip--although it is rated PG, it is scary and may not be suitable for everyone!)  Watch the trailer for the movie, Bram Stoker's Dracula, made in 1992, if you dare.  The trailer focus on Dracula, who turned into a vampire after the suicide of his wife, and then falls in love with Lucy's friend Mina, who looks to Dracula like the beloved wife he lost.  (And I've been told I look a little like Winona Ryder--Yikes!)