"The Sick Rose" by William Blake
William Blake’s poem entitled, The Sick Rose, discusses the role of society on a rose or a woman who is becoming sick based upon the ill effects of the world around her. Lucy, in Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, follows the course of this poem as she is being controlled by the society around her, especially Dracula. In the novel, Dracula’s love of power, blood, and twisted relationships leads him to be a powerful figure in society that many don’t know about, acknowledge, or realize needs to be stopped. Lucy is one of those innocent people who follows what society thinks and wants of her and because of such she becomes this “sick rose” that “life [is] destroyed” because of the affects Dracula had on her. The innocence that surrounds Lucy allows Dracula to gain control of her and destroy her through his control, similarly to how a rose becomes sick through the damaging effects of the nature it is surrounded by. The rose is a symbol of who Lucy is and what her role is in society because without her becoming “sick” and being “destroyed” there would never be the initiation for the rest of the characters in the novel to take charge and overcome Dracula and his evil doings. Lucy, like a rose, must suffer in order to bring to pass the true events of what is going to happen.
William Blake’s poem entitled, The Sick Rose, discusses the role of society on a rose or a woman who is becoming sick based upon the ill effects of the world around her. Lucy, in Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, follows the course of this poem as she is being controlled by the society around her, especially Dracula. In the novel, Dracula’s love of power, blood, and twisted relationships leads him to be a powerful figure in society that many don’t know about, acknowledge, or realize needs to be stopped. Lucy is one of those innocent people who follows what society thinks and wants of her and because of such she becomes this “sick rose” that “life [is] destroyed” because of the affects Dracula had on her. The innocence that surrounds Lucy allows Dracula to gain control of her and destroy her through his control, similarly to how a rose becomes sick through the damaging effects of the nature it is surrounded by. The rose is a symbol of who Lucy is and what her role is in society because without her becoming “sick” and being “destroyed” there would never be the initiation for the rest of the characters in the novel to take charge and overcome Dracula and his evil doings. Lucy, like a rose, must suffer in order to bring to pass the true events of what is going to happen.