Dracula: East vs. West

Joe Spillane
Victorian Literature
Essay #2


Embracing the Irrational Mind in Bram Stoker’s Dracula

Bram Stoker’s Dracula presents a story of two different worlds. The first is England, representing the rationality of a man made world that is governed by the rules and regulations set up by mankind. The second is Transylvania, which represents an irrational world governed largely by the laws of nature and superstition. The characters in this novel are faced with a conflict between the new world of logic, reason, and science, and the old world of magic, superstition, and Darwinist survival. They are trapped between these two worlds and must decide how much they believe in the world of science and hard facts, and how much they reject the possibility of the supernatural. Being caught between these two gives the reader insight into Stoker’s view that man must embrace both the irrational and the rational. This is accomplished with the portrayals of England, Transylvania, Harker, Dracula, and Van Helsing. Van Helsing I believe to be Stoker’s representation as the ideal compromise between these two worlds.
The first way Stoker sets up this opposition is to point out the differences between the two worlds. The world of the West (New World) is the symbol of scientific thought, rationality, and certainty. The world of the East (Old World) stands for mystery, natural law, and irrationality. In the earlier parts of the novel he does this by comparing the world of Jonathan Harker to that of Dracula’s. Transylvania is in many ways unknown to Jonathan Harker, other than what he had heard from rumors, which makes him apprehensive since Harker comes from a place of rigid cataloguing and documentation that is attributed to the rational world of man. Stoker writes, “I was not able to light on any map or giving the exact locality of the Castle Dracula, as there are no maps of this country as yet to compare with our own Ordnance Survey maps” (2) Here Stoker is pointing out how then new world relies on the documentation of all knowledge and the old world still maintains mystery. The Old world is undocumented and therefore unconquered by the modern man. This also would suggest that Harker has left what is known to him and ventured to a place foreign to his rational mind. The farther east Harker travels, the more the rules and regulations he lives by are left behind in fact. This can be seen when Stoker writes, “It seems the further east you go the more unpunctual are the trains. What ought they to be in China?” (3) The train schedules in the novel are used to show how the man-made constructs of society don’t hold sway in the old world of Dracula. The expectation that the train will run on schedule only works in a world that chooses to observe the rules that man has agreed upon to follow. In Transylvania these rules are not agreed upon like they are in England. Transylvania lends itself not to the laws of men, but to the laws of nature. Late in the novel Stoker describes Transylvania when Van Helsing writes, “There are great frowning precipices and much falling water, and Nature seem to have held sometime her carnival.” (367) This suggests that the laws and influence are not present in the old world, and that the rational mind holds no sway in a world that is governed by superstitions and folklore magic.
Another important difference is that Transylvania exists outside of the influence of British law, and since England represents rationality and progress in this novel, Transylvania tends to be represented as more primal and less civilized, and therefore Dracula represents the Old World and Harker, Seward, and Morris represent the New. Stoker writes, “We are in Transylvania; and Transylvania is not England. Our ways are not your ways, and there shall be to you many strange things.” (21) Both parties here (Harker and Dracula) are aware of each other’s differences of lifestyles and Dracula attempts to make Harker feel less threatened by the strange things he sees. Harker is the embodiment of a character who is trapped between these two worlds as Harker tries to maintain his Western identity when surrounded by the “strange things” he will encounter in Transylvania.
When Harker explores the library in Dracula’s castle he comes across many books about England but takes particular comfort in one. Stoker writes, “It somehow gladdened my heart to see it-the Law List.” (20) In the oppressive walls of Dracula’s castle, Harker finds comfort in the sight of England’s Law List which further reminds him that while he mentally wishes he were still in the safety of man’s laws, he physically is trapped in world that doesn’t follow the same rules he is accustomed to. Here Stoker alludes that Dracula finds the laws of man foreign himself; furthering the gap between his world and the world of Harker.
Dracula represents the bestial, animal-like, side of humanity, and he too is trapped between the world of the past he clings to, and a forever changing world that he must take part in to survive. From his aquiline physical characteristics to his mental state of hunter and killer Dracula embodies what the Old World in this novel represents. Stoker writes, “Ah, sir, you dwellers in the city cannot enter into the feelings of the hunter.” (19) Here Dracula shows how he believes he would be misunderstood by the New World he wishes to infiltrate. Dracula too recognizes that the way of life he has been accustomed to, a life of bloodshed and violent expressions of power, is not going to work in the New World. Dracula makes extensive work to research his new home and surroundings so he can exist in the New World without drawing too much attention to himself. He has the benefit of combating the New World by using its very own tools of knowledge to work in his favor. For Harker, Seward, and the others, the only way they can fight this evil is by consulting the character of Van Helsing.
Van Helsing is the character that straddles the line between these two worlds. Van Helsing possesses a great sum of scientific knowledge that is related to the New World, but also possesses a vast knowledge of the occult and superstitions of the past. Stoker describes him when he writes, “He is a seemingly arbitrary man, but this is because he knows what he is talking about better than anyone else. He is a philosopher and a metaphysician, and one of the most advanced scientists of his day.” (114) By describing Van Helsing as philosopher and metaphysician, it would suggest that Van Helsing commands the scientific method of thought that modern rationality would demand, and also the spiritual and philosophical methods of thought that would be attributed to the old world. Van Helsing seemingly becomes the embodiment of the resolution to the conflict of old versus new. Stoker writes,
“You are a clever man, friend John; you reason well, and your wit is bold;
but you are too prejudiced. You do not let your eyes see nor your ears hear,
and that which is outside your daily life is not of account to you. Do you not
think that there are things which you cannot understand, and yet which are;
that some people see things that others cannot? But there are things old and
new which must not be contemplate by men’s eyes, because they know-or
they think they know-some things which other men have told them. (191)
Here in Van Helsing’s criticism of Seward, Stoker reveals that Van Helsing puts great stock in the rational logic of the new world man, but also admits that man’s need to categorize and explain all things in rational terms is somehow flawed. Van Helsing believes that in order to be successful one must incorporate modern thought and old world folklore in order to combat evil in the world. This would seem to suggest that both Dracula and Seward would fail at combating each other because they would both be improperly armed. Seward would be guided by the rules of logic and reason that would forbid him to successfully fight an evil that is irrational, and Dracula would try and fight with brute strength and irrational(beast-like) methods that would lead to his being discovered and destroyed in the new world. Since Van Helsing seems to be the most well-informed and powerful character in the novel it would suggest that Stoker believes that he represents the ideal man. Van Helsing has the ability to use rational methods of thought and at the same time has the ability to maintain an open mind and consider things that would seem implausible as viable options for scientific consideration. Van Helsing feels Seward is too “prejudiced” because of his inability to combine the theories of the new world with the theories of the old world. This is where I believe Stoker makes his stand on what should be considered “proper” or “legitimate” methods of science and is encouraging the reader to keep an open mind themselves, and to consider the possibility that there are things that happen that are foreign to the rational mind of the modern man that are worth looking at within a modern scientific scope.
The two worlds in this novel are seemingly complete opposites that cannot exist because the stand in direct confrontation with each other. It can be argued that Stoker is urging his audience to explore not only new scientific research but also to consider the possibility that legend and folklore bare some possibility of truth if they are looked at in a scientific manner. Embracing the two worlds will make someone much more powerful and well equipped to deal with any situation if you look at Van Helsing; suggesting that this would be the ideal course for the modern man to take. The story echoes of man’s fear of his own bestial nature, but Stoker is suggesting that man has to consider his darker side lest he be taken by those who have never evolved out of it. Even though the two worlds stand in opposition to each other they are parts of humanity that mankind must recognize, even if it then must be repressed.