Swayam Saraiya
Professor Thomas
WRIT 2
1/29/21
Modernism in Dracula
The misfortune of Harker and his associates against the cunning monster that is Dracula can be aptly told as a tale of the struggle between stubborn modernism and wishful traditionalism. Bram Stoker’s Dracula utilizes the juxtaposition of modernism and traditionalism to warn about the consequences of modernism and the result of failing to understand traditional values such as religion.
Stoker first tells about the consequence of modernism through Lucy’s illness. As Lucy loses blood and receives bite marks from Dracula preying on her, the clash of modernism and traditionalism becomes starkly apparent. Dr. Seward comes close to understanding Lucy’s affliction stating “[the] wound, or whatever it was, might be the means of that manifest loss of blood” (Stoker 178) but he “abandoned the idea as soon as it formed, for such a thing could not be.” Dr. Seward is able to discover the source of Lucy’s illness but rejects it as he only believes in modern medicine. Stoker wishes to demonstrate the consequences of failing to remember traditional methods of medicine as the disease Lucy is afflicted with is the embodiment of traditionalism attacking modernism. Additionally, this thought is echoed and then confirmed by Van Helsing who realizes “it is the fault of our science that it wants to explain all, and if it explain not, then it says there is nothing to explain” (Stoker 272). Van Helsing represents the view of the author on modernism: that the focus on only modernist thoughts and solutions leads to dire consequences. Stoker, through the juxtaposition of traditionalist illness versus modern medicine, warns about the dire results of subscribing to only modern views.
The struggle between modernism and traditionalism can also be seen through the character of Dracula through his motivations. If Dr. Seward and Harker represent the stubborn modernism that Stoker wishes to warn about, then Dracula represents the perfect traditionalist villain who wishes to destroy what the modernists standard for. Dracula’s views on society can be interpreted through his monologue to Harker where he laments that the “warlike days are over. (Stoker 44)” Dracula much prefers the days of war that have long passed, where power and strength decided the winners, the days that his family was at the peak of their power. Thus he represents the force of traditionalism in the story, bringing back the past methods and superstitions to battle modernism. Additionally, Dracula argues that “blood is too precious a thing in these days of dishonourable peace” (Stoker 44) which he later aims to shatter. The idea of spilling blood through battle is not very prevalent in the time and setting of modernist Europe at the time and thus in order to attempt to gain power and return to the traditional society, Dracula does exactly that. To defeat Dracula, the group has to deploy traditional methods such as superstitions and religious symbols. Stoker utilizes Dracula as a warning for modern society, that such traditional values like religion cannot be forgotten or the past shall come back to haunt.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula utilizes the clash between traditionalism and modernism to warn his audience of the risks that forgetting history and traditional values can have. Harker and his associates who value reason over religion are forced to resort to traditional methods to defeat the traditionalist Dracula.
Works Cited
Stoker, Bram, et al. Dracula. Baronet Books, 2018.
