Conditional Belief in Dracula

LEYI SUN

Read the Faculty Introduction here.

Dracula, Bram Stoker’s famous gothic horror novel, is filled with superstitious and religious elements. The vampire that used to exist only in folktales becomes not only a real creature but also one of the main characters. Crucifixes, the sacred wafer, and garlic are used by the human protagonists to combat the vampire. Nevertheless, the novel was published in 1897, during the late Victorian period when many authors began questioning the power of religion because of the influence of scientific and technological development. Accordingly, modern machines and emerging technology play a critical role in the story as well. Instead of telling the story of how God helps humans in the battle with Dracula, it demonstrates the challenge that Christianity faced. Characters first start questioning the power of God, and then such questioning evolves into a conditional faith in Christianity: they only believe in God when he is proven to be able to offer tangible help. Such transition, from mere suspicion to conditional belief, is due to the development and utilization of science and technology.

 As Herbert Schlossberg claims, though religion in Victorian England had gone through a slow recovery, this resurrection did not last long (1). He mentions, “it was as difficult to embrace Christianity in 1900 as it was to reject it a century ago” (1). Schlossberg presents a stark contrast: firm faith in Christianity a century before versus the questioning attitude in the late Victorian era. Critical scholarship centered on the Bible emerged in the nineteenth century, testing and determining the correctness of authorship, dating, context, as well as the truth of claims in biblical texts (22). Essays and Reviews, an 1860 volume of seven essays written by authors including Jowett, Temple, and Pattison and published in England, attacked the morality, doctrines, miracles, and many other aspects of Biblical history (25, 26, 27). Meanwhile, scientific advances were undermining the power of religion. While scientists in earlier times perceived their jobs as Natural Theologists and sought to prove the existence of God with discoveries in the natural world and scientific evidence, from the 1870s to 1880s more of them grew disillusioned with the Church and believed that their career in science should not serve religious purposes (Turner 360, 365, 372). Public perspectives towards religion were also changed by popular scientific texts. The publication of John William Draper and Andrew Dickson White’s books stimulated great interest among the public and prompted people to reconsider the relationship between religion and science (Schlossberg 35, 36). In 1859, Darwin published The Origin of Species. With the advent of Darwinism, those who previously supported Natural Theology eventually accepted that “natural selection replaced God” (Schlossberg 38). Therefore, historically, progress made in the realm of science posed a serious threat to the domination of Christianity. 

In Dracula, the questioning of God and Christianity is firstly revealed by Jonathan Harker’s belief in the crucifix, the symbol of God in Roman Catholicism and a weapon of humans against vampires. In Transylvania, Dracula’s region, Jonathan is kindly offered a crucifix necklace on his way to meet this vampire for the first time. He is first reserved about the effect of the crucifix, stating “as an English Churchman, I have been taught to regard such things as in some measure idolatrous, and yet it seemed so ungracious to refuse an old lady meaning so well and in such a state of mind” (Stoker ch. II). Not knowing what would happen afterward, the Protestant regards wearing this Catholic symbol as excessive and ignorant. Nevertheless, Jonathan Harker later becomes aware of the crucifix’s value: when Dracula becomes frenzied as blood comes out of a cut on Jonathan’s throat, it is the crucifix necklace that expels the furious vampire away (ch. II). After this incident, Jonathan Harker, though committed to the Church of England, starts to rely on this symbol of Roman Catholicism. He thanks the old woman and places the crucifix beside his bed as “it is a comfort and a strength to me whenever I touch it” (Stoker ch. III). Other critics mention this scene in their articles as well. Stephen Purcell specifically argues that Jonathan Harker’s use of the crucifix does not represent his conversion to Christian values and morality. Instead, he relies on the crucifix only because it is testified to be useful with or without holiness (295). However, Jonathan Harker asks himself, “Is it that there is something in the essence of the thing itself, or that it is a medium, a tangible help, in conveying memories of sympathy and comfort?” (Stoker ch. III). He is uncertain about the source of the crucifix’s power: does the power come from the object itself (the fact that the crucifix once saved Jonathan) or does it come from God (the religious value with which the crucifix serves as the “medium” to convey God’s comfort and sympathy to his children)? Such uncertainty reveals that the reliance on the crucifix does not ignore the role of God completely. More importantly, although he once thought the crucifix was dated and useless, Jonathan Harker is now thinking about whether God is helping him through this crucifix. Once a faithful adherent of the Church of England, Jonathan Harker is now vacillating between his original belief and Roman Catholicism and questioning the power of God, to whom he had always been devoted.

The characters’ questioning attitude, later on, becomes conditional belief. Lucy Westenra has received no help from God when Dracula is draining her blood, so she no longer anticipates that God will play the role of the savior (Stoker ch. XI). Lucy, the first victim, is bitten and had her blood drained several times before she is transformed into a vampire by Dracula. Throughout those attacks, God neither keeps Dracula away from Lucy’s house nor stops him from draining her of her blood. On the night when Dracula attacks her again, Lucy witnesses her mother’s death and faces Dracula, who appears in the form of dust seeping into the room. The poor girl records this moment in her memorandum and prays “What am I to do? God shield me from harm this night! I shall hide this paper in my breast, where they shall find it when they come to lay me out. My dear mother gone! It is time that I go too. Good-bye, dear Arthur, if I should not survive this night. God keep you, dear, and God help me!” (Stoker ch. XI). Lucy particularly mentions “when they come to lay me out” and “it is time that I go too,” indicating that she accepts her doomed fate and recognizes the fact that she will die soon. Therefore, though Lucy mentions God many times and asks him to save her, she does not expect God will appear as her savior. 

In the article “An Up-To-Date Religion: The Challenges and Constructions of Belief in Dracula,” Elizabeth Sanders claims that Dracula’s depiction of Christianity is a form of compromise, between extreme belief and extreme disbelief (78). One of the three main aspects she examines is the protagonists’ prayer to God. As Sanders discusses, “prayer seems to comfort the heroes and justify human decisions and actions, but does not facilitate any real contact between the moral and the divine” (89). Those prayers lack substantial power or meaning as the characters have no anticipation of God’s agency to help them. Maybe praying to God does bring Lucy calm or comfort, but the effects are only psychological. As God offers no concrete help, Lucy shows no more expectation and loses hope in God. The loss of hope can be interpreted as conditional belief: God fails the character’s expectations and does not manage to save her, thus she stops believing in God as the savior. 

There is a transition from Jonathan Harker questioning God at the very beginning to Lucy Westerna’s conditional belief in God later. In the earlier part of the novel, Jonathan Harker is merely suspicious of whether God is still the omnipotent being he has always believed in, whereas in the later part, Lucy adopts a conditional faith in God—she knows that God didn’t offer a hand before, so she is reserved in her faith. What leads to this shift are technology and science. There are several events in the novel when the characters use science, and one of them is blood transfusion. Van Helsing puts much effort into saving Lucy Westenra, but transfusing blood is the most important among them. As he puts it, “She wants blood, and blood she must have or die” (Stoker ch. X). The first blood transfusion is incredibly successful. When Arthur’s blood flows into Lucy’s veins, her life is brought back (Stoker ch. X). After this first experience, the transfusion of blood, a modern medical technique, is verified to be effective and crucial to save Lucy’s life. Therefore, when she suffers from Dracula’s attack again, blood transfusion is the first thing done without any delay (Stoker ch. X). Blood transfusion is immediately adopted because they believe that it is going to work. The reason why they have such belief is that the blood transfusion was successful before. In other words, they have belief in blood transfusion because it saved Lucy before. Similarly, there is another moment in the novel when science and technology are trusted because they have been proven to be effective. On the eve of preparing for the final battle against Count Dracula, Quincey Morris suggests bringing Winchester rifles: “I propose that we add Winchesters to our armament. I have a kind of belief in a Winchester when there is any trouble of that sort around. Do you remember, Art, when we had the pack after us at Tobolsk? What wouldn’t we have given then for a repeater apiece!” (Stoker ch. XXIV). Morris specifically uses the word “belief” and describes his past experience to show where his belief comes from: the Winchester rifles had once successfully driven the wolves away and gotten them out of trouble from Dracula. Again, the characters rely on the gun because it has saved them before. 

Science is an evidence-based subject: a hypothesis is first proposed, then people seek evidence to prove or disprove its validity, and finally they rely on science based on the hypothesis that has previously been proven. In Dracula, the hypotheses are the blood transfusion and the rifles. Evidence for the blood transfusion is the fact that it brought Lucy back, whereas evidence for the rifles is their aid in expelling wolves. Only after evidence reveals itself would the characters start trusting science and technology. The evidence-based characteristic of science and technology prompts the characters to adapt this process of looking for clues to prove the validity of their belief in God. God becomes the hypothesis, and the characters must wait for the evidence to prove his existence. The conditional belief then comes in: the belief in God is conditional on whether God produces evidence. Once tangible evidence of God’s help is found, the hypothesis is proven and there emerges a reason for having faith. Jonathan Harker’s experience with the crucifix inspires him to question and think about God as a hypothesis rather than an axiom. As for Lucy, she sees no evidence of God’s salvation. God as the hypothesis cannot be proved, so she has no expectations that he will show up.

There is another condition when Stoker’s characters do believe in God: when they are facing or thinking about the afterlife. Lucy Westenra leaves a memorandum during the night when she has a premonition of death, not expecting God to save her life but praying to him to shield her lover Arthur after she is gone (Stoker ch. XII). After being coerced to drink Dracula’s blood, Mina Harker fears her impurity when the sacred Wafer, the symbol of God’s body, leaves a scar on her forehead. She feels deep dread and despair towards carrying that mark until “the Judgement Day” to receive God’s punishment (Stoker ch. XXII). When Lucy and Mina are thinking of their afterlife, they still have faith in God’s power to fulfill their wishes and cleanse their souls. Such belief when facing death is an exceptional form of the conditional belief discussed above: the belief exists despite the lack of evidence from God. The reason for the existence of such a belief is that the characters are thinking about their afterlife. While, in their present life, they can draw conclusions from their experiences and wait for proof of God’s existence, characters will never know what will happen to their souls after death. It also doesn’t make sense in their present life to search for proof of how God will save their soul in the afterlife. Thus, the other condition of believing in God is when characters are facing death and when it is impossible for them to find any proof. So, if there is room or a way to find God’s tangible evidence, the characters wait for such evidence to appear before trusting in God; if there isn’t any, their faith will be with God regardless of whether God gives them evidence.

In history, the development of science and technology undermines the power of religion, and Dracula reflects the influence of science on Christianity as well. In the novel, science doesn’t create the characters’ doubt towards God, but it provides a way for the firm believers to handle doubt. Being an evidence-based subject itself, science leads the characters to think of God as a hypothesis and wait for him to give evidence. Thus, in the novel, Christianity leads to people’s faith with a condition: God needs to show tangible evidence that he helps or saves his people. If this condition is satisfied, characters are still God’s followers. Otherwise, they keep waiting for evidence and only believe in God in order to be saved in the afterlife.

Works Cited

Purcell, Stephen. “Not Wholly Communion: Skepticism and the Instrumentalization of Religion in Stoker’s Dracula.” Christianity & Literature, vol. 67, no. 2, Mar. 2018, pp. 294–311. SAGE, doi:10.1177/0148333117708257. Accessed 22 Oct. 2018.

Sanders, Elizabeth. “An Up-To-Date Religion: The Challenges and Constructions of Belief in Dracula.” Religion & Literature, vol. 47, no. 3, Nov. 2015, pp. 77-98. EBSCOhost, proxy.library.nyu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=119242763&site=ehost-live. Accessed 22 Oct. 2018.

Schlossberg, Herbert. Conflict and Crisis in the Religious Life of Late Victorian England. Taylor & Francis Group, 2009. ProQuest Ebook Central, https:/search.proquest.com/docview/2133946183/bookReader?accountid=12768Stoker, Bram. Dracula. Project Gutenberg, 2018. Accessed 11 Oct. 2018.

Turner, Frank M. “The Victorian Conflict between Science and Religion: A Professional Dimension.” Isis, vol. 69, no. 3, 1978, pp. 356–376. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/231040. Accessed 26 Oct. 2018.