Superstition

Dr. Seward, psychiatrist and the overseer of an entire asylum for the mentally ill, looks to Van Helsing for direction and instruction (even if Van Helsing is Seward's mentor, there is something to be said there). There is a cross that Jonathon Harker is offered; he takes it only out of sympathy for an old woman. After his stay in the Castle, he escapes and falls into a fit. He is then nursed back to health by nuns in a convent as he runs from the castle of Count Dracula. Both he and Mina are then wed by Catholics and seem to be growing more fond of Catholic devises, thereby abandoning their secular leanings for something mystical and certainly more superstitious.

Then there is Dracula; a centuries-old vampire set loose in the enlightened, science-driven London. Dracula, who is defeated by superstitions and religious rights that the 'modern man' has since left behind. Dracula is capable of doing the damage he does because of the doubt of others. Could it be that Dracula by Bram Stoker is a call for moderation? Is a middle ground between the abandonment of religion and the total digestion of science called for?

We have for support in the matter Van Helsing, a man dedicated to both science and superstition. Seward writes, in a letter to Arthur, "I am in doubt, and so have done the best thing I know of; I have written to my old friend and master, Professor Van Helsing, of Amsterdam, who knows as much about obscure diseases as anyone in the world." In this glib we see proof that Van Helsing is the professor and master of Dr. Seward. We also see that Seward is in doubt; doubt being a word commonly used to describe one's faith or belief in the supernatural. It is obvious that Seward here is not doubting his faith in God, but rather that he is not thinking of the supernatural at all. He determines that since the disease is not physical, "I have come to the conclusion that it must be mental." Never does he think - and all of modern science does this - that the condition could be something from outside of their books of medicine.

Yet it is Van Helsing, the mentor of Seward, that realizes Lucy's condition is far more dreadful than something that can be found in medical journals. "Van Helsing had a way of going on his own road, no matter who remonstrated." The reason I enjoy Dracula so much is that Van Helsing is not simply a man of science, but also a man of God, and spreads that to others. In fact, it is only after his visit to Mina that she first uses the name of God in the novel (as far as I'm aware - I could be wrong).

The conclusion can only be a need to temper science and religion; not giving too much sway to either is certainly the way to defeat our own demons.