the duality of Dracula's inverted castle in "Castlevania: Symphony of the Night"

Besides being a clever way to reuse the same map in order to conserve disk space, I was always curious about Castlevania: Symphony of the Night pulling a fast one on the player and just flipping everything. Like, literally everything. The entire physical map of the castle is flipped upside down, revealing new paths and stronger enemies. It's always seemed like a feat of level design that this castle works both upside-down and right-side-up, but I also wondered if there's something deeper going on with the castle besides just being bad ass.

https://www.polygon.com/2018/10/26/18027418/castlevania-requiem-symphony-of-the-night-ps4-psp/, Alucard, Dracula's son, and the protagonist of the game.

Obviously the castle, in any Castlevania game, is kind of a big deal. And for a game that deals heavily with vampires, monsters, and the otherwise undead (I mean, death itself is a character throughout the series), its almost expected of the series to utilize gothic themes. The original story Dracula by Bram Stoker is an extremely well-known piece of gothic horror, so really it's unavoidable. Regardless, I mainly wanted to talk about this theme of duality as it shows up in Dracula's castle--and perhaps in other places as well.

Inverting the castle that you just spent upwards of four hours exploring is kind of a literal interpretation of what duality represents. The inverted castle is a literal opposite of the normal one. But, keeping in mind that this is Dracula's castle we're talking about, this castle almost acts as a manifestation of his duality; his physical, monstrous state, and his near incomprehensible spiritual state are captured by the different versions of the castle. The first version is what you would expect: controlled, refined, typical vampire stuff. Thing start to get crazy when the castle flips, though--as you might expect. New passages can be revealed, along with new, strange foes. It seems purposeful that the one most well-equipped to handle, essentially, this manifestation of Dracula, is his son. Being part-vampire himself allows him to easily navigate this labyrinth of a castle with ease.

Generally, in gothic media, an exploration of duality typically refers to a deep-dive into the dark side of humanity. Think Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. The struggle between good and evil is manifested through this castle, and through Alucard himself. Although his monstrous blood is what allows him to aptly navigate this castle, Alucard is still haunted by his origins; his name is literally Dracula's name, backwards (I'm starting to notice a trend here). If we were to compare the inversion of Dracula and Alucard to the inversion of Dracula's castle, which character gets which castle, if any?

I think the clearest answer would be Alucard representing the normal castle, and Dracula the inverted one; ironic, since Alucard is the inverted version of Dracula. The normal castle, while refined in appearances, is still plagued by monsters, ghosts, and demons. But, in being only the first half of the game, this castle is far easier to control. The inverted castle, on the other hand, basically represents the spirit of Dracula. It's winding, confusing, and extremely dangerous. I'm still left wondering, though--is the castle a symbol of Dracula and Alucard's relationship? Or is it a reflection on only Dracula's character? I think that both can be true. Both characters experience a sort of internal struggle of their beliefs, especially Alucard. Even in the game's manual (which I had to dig up on Internet Archive to find--I really could have used that on my original play through), Alucard's internal struggle of being a human and a vampire is outlined in the rules of the game. Dracula's struggle, in comparison, may just take a more physical/symbolic form through the castle itself.

I think duality can be spotted in a lot of different places throughout this game, particularly in the sense of good and evil. But I've always found Alucard to be one of the more interesting protagonists (sorry to any Belmont lovers). His story, directly intertwined with Dracula, offers a much closer view of Dracula's character and Alucard's internal struggles. Dracula's castle, and Alucard's ability to traverse it, could be interpreted as a sort of conquering over Alucard's "evil" side that he inherited from his father; simultaneously, it could offer a deeper look into Dracula as the big bad. And perhaps he wasn't as big of a bad as we thought.