Modernity In Dracula

Throughout the novel, Stoker makes references to modern conveniences for instance Dr Steward maintains his journal using a phonograph, which was considered new and expensive during the time of Dracula's writing, even Mina Murray is shown using modern technology by typing her letters on a type writer. Both instances give the novel a sense of credibility, since it seems that everybody in England is trying to walk into the future of progress as well as advancement. Even though the novel begins in a ruined castle, the setting moves to the modern setting of Victorian London, where ironically the advances in technology make it easy for Dracula to prey on its civilians because of their blindness to the connection between the supernatural and modernity. …show more content…
These people are unaware of the fact that something supernatural like Dracula is seeking to undo their society in order to regain his family's lost power. By having Johnathan be his real estate agent, Dracula is trying to spread his influence of power onto the unsuspecting city of London,furthermore since Dracula is able to slip through key holes by turning into mist or transform into an assortment of animals, Dracula represents an alien force; which science itself cannot defeat, but rather a mixture of old superstitious traditions and modernity. While most of the people who live in modern London are unaware of the fact that modernity and the supernatural are one of the same, Dr Van Helsing is the only character who is able to understand the incomprehensible because he has knowledge of the supernatural and the technological advancements of modern day Europe. Interestingly enough Van Helsing is the only other character outside of Dracula who does not come from England. In other words since the west is the cradle of modernity, it needs the help of foreign powers to help it if modernity is faced with a threat that it cannot completely …show more content…
Striking the turnscrew through the lead with a swift downward stab, which made me wince, he made a small hole, which was, however, big enough to admit the point of the saw. I had expected a rush of gas from the week-old corpse. We doctors, who have had to study our dangers, have to become accustomed to such things, and I drew back towards the door. But the Professor never stopped for a moment; he sawed down a couple of feet along one side of the lead coffin, and then across, and down the other side. Taking the edge of the loose flange, he bent it back towards the foot of the coffin, and holding up the candle into the aperture, motioned to me to look. I drew near and looked. The coffin was empty. It was certainly a surprise to me, and gave me a considerable shock, but Van Helsing was unmoved. He was now more sure than ever of his ground, and so emboldened to proceed in his task. “Are you satisfied now, friend John?” he asked.I felt all the dogged argumentativeness of my nature awake within me as I answered him:—“I am satisfied that Lucy’s body is not in that coffin; but that only proves one thing.”“And what is that, friend John?”“That it is not there.”(B. Stoker,