Shayne Richard
Dr. Tredennick
LITR 100
11/20
Dracula
London, England, along with much of the world, was a place experiencing a great
revolution and a new way of thinking across all aspects of life. Stoker Sees new technologies, a
new modernized version of women, as well as Charles Darwin’s new Theory of Evolution.
Stoker understands and accepts some of the changes taking place around him, however is
skeptical of some of the effects of the modernization going on in 1897 England. In the novel,
Dracula, Stoker criticizes modernization.
One of the ways Stoker criticizes modernization is by stressing the importance of
religious or spiritual symbols, which people were beginning to move away from in the changing
times. During Jonathon Harker’s trip to Transylvania, he describes the little he has read about the
Carpathians, “I read that every known superstition is gathered into the horseshoe of the
Carpathians, as if it were some sort of imaginative whirlpool;” and immediately denounces the
Easterners by stating “if so my stay may be very interesting.” (Stoker 8). Stoker immediately
introduces the superstitious tendencies of Eastern Europe that they have had to adopt to stay safe
from Dracula. He also illustrates Harker’s snide remark about Easterners and their superstitions,
paralleling him to society becoming so caught up in western science and rationalism that they
have left behind some of the important spiritual devices that Victorian England held so highly
before.
In order do defeat Dracula, it was necessary to use superstitious items. Harker is the first
to come to this realization during his stay at the Count’s during the scene when Harker
accidentally cuts himself shaving and Dracula lunged at his neck, “… he suddenly made a grab
at my throat. I drew away, and his hand touched the string of the beads which held the crucifix. It
made an instant change in him, for the fury passed so quickly that I could hardly believe it was
ever there.” (Stoker 33). Harker later comes to the realization that if they were going to defeat
Dracula, they would need to supplement their modern technology with the religious symbols. An
abstract parallel can be made to society, Stoker suggesting that no matter how advanced modern
science gets, spiritual values and symbols are still important
Stoker, however does show a bit of acceptance for modern technologies, and even that he
had an interest in them. However, he still shows that modern technology and science isn’t
