Drugs In Victorian Literature Analysis

The use of drugs throughout the Victorian era could have influenced the imaginations of the authors and the mental state of characters. In the Victorian era, drugs such as marijuana, opium, morphine and cocaine, were very big in society. According to the article, “Victorian Drug Use” by Dr. Andrzej Diniejko, “Dangerous drugs were commonly used for making home remedies and less frequently as a recreation for the bored and alienated people. The recreational use of opiates was popular particularly with pre-Victorian and Victorian artists and writers” (1). It can be argued that many of the literary works of Victorian era were influenced by stimulants, and depressants. As stated in the article, “Representations of drugs in 19th-century literature”, …show more content…
Dracula, Frankenstein, “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde” all have unusual elements to them. As stated by the article “Glossary of the Supernatural” , “The supernatural is a key defining element in the Gothic. Whether they invoke the supernatural directly or rely upon the imagination of the reader to provide it, Gothic writers use the supernatural to build suspense, and create special effects for the reader” (1). Without Count Dracula Deville, the book Dracula is just a drab story about an insane asylum and people getting sick. In the article, “The Victorian Supernatural”, the author, Roger Luckhurst, explains how science, religion and the supernatural all got combined in the Victorian era. He states, “it is much easier to grasp the religious and scientific strands of the century as closely intertwined. ... Because the advances in science were so rapid, the natural and the supernatural often became blurred in popular thinking, at least for a time”(1). In a erie and most definitely supernatural way, Dr. Van Helsing is able to give the other characters insight of what they are about to go through. The others characters in this book know that Dr. Van Helsing it an educated and reputable man, so when starts telling this along with the evidence he had already shone them- there was no choice but to believe. Van Helsing states, “All we have to go upon are traditions and superstitions…. We even scouted a belief that we saw justified under our very eyes. Take it, then, that the vampire, and the belief in his limitations and his cure, rest for the moment on the same base. For, let me tell you, he is known everywhere that men have been” (266). In this part of the book, the reader can see how science, religion and the supernatural have been combined. In the book Frankenstein, the element of the supernatural was a bit different. In the book, Victor has a special type of relationship