{"id":981,"date":"2023-09-19T12:16:14","date_gmt":"2023-09-19T16:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/?p=981"},"modified":"2023-09-19T12:16:14","modified_gmt":"2023-09-19T16:16:14","slug":"van-helsings-critique-of-certainty-and-modernity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/2023\/09\/19\/van-helsings-critique-of-certainty-and-modernity\/","title":{"rendered":"Van Helsing\u2019s Critique of Certainty and Modernity"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

Bram Stoker\u2019s Dracula<\/em> highlights the \u201cambivalence of modernity\u201d described in Ledger and Luckhurst\u2019s chapter on the \u2018Fin de Si\u00e8cle\u2019 (Ledger and Luckhurst, xiii). We see the fear of uncertainty played out in Harker\u2019s journal, where he expresses that \u201cit was the doubt as to the reality of the whole thing that knocked [him] over,\u201d not his harrowing experience with the Count (Stoker, 200). In an age of uncertainty, people need to find things that they can place their trust in, such as science; however, it is this search for certainty that Van Helsing pushes against in his conversation with Dr. Seward.

When Van Helsing shows Dr. Seward the newspaper article about the children whose throats had bite marks like Lucy\u2019s, Dr. Seward infers that there may be a correlation between the bites on Lucy\u2019s neck and the bites on the children\u2019s necks; however, Van Helsing already believes that the bites \u201cwere made by Miss Lucy\u201d (206). He criticizes Dr. Seward of being \u201ctoo prejudiced\u201d because he is listening to what he believes, not what the evidence is showing him (204). However, for Dr. Seward to listen to the evidence rather than his beliefs would result in him ignoring what science has shown to be possible. Van Helsing takes this opportunity to deliver a message critiquing \u201cthe authority of science\u201d which is so crucial to the Fin de Si\u00e8cle (Ledger and Luckhurst, xv).

Van Helsing argues that \u201cthere are things old and new which must not be contemplate by men\u2019s eyes, because they know \u2013 or think they know \u2013 some things which other men have told them\u201d (Stoker, 204). He seems to be discrediting science as being only something \u201cwhich other men\u201d have created. This statement puts science on similar grounds as religion; that is, it is something that has been told to us by others and that we then believe. As discussed in class, the crisis of faith at this time was concurrent with the permeation of science \u2013 how can one have faith if science has disproven the biblical story of creation? Van Helsing\u2019s direction to have \u201can open mind\u201d seems to be the response to this question, and one that encourages a sense of uncertainty (206).

Van Helsing believes that \u201cit 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\u201d (204). By claiming that the problem with science is that it desires to have an answer for everything, Van Helsing seems to be arguing that there is not, in fact, an answer for everything. Acknowledging that there isn\u2019t an answer for everything and that no one knows everything creates a sense of uncertainty. This uncertainty is placed in conjunction with modernity when Van Helsing describes that \u201cwe see around us every day the growth of new beliefs\u201d (204). Growth is quintessential of modernity, but the idea of \u201cnew beliefs\u201d sparks an interesting debate as to what constitutes a belief for Van Helsing.

In his statement about what people \u201cknow – or think they know\u201d because of what \u201cother men have told them,\u201d Van Helsing suggests that knowledge and science are beliefs held by people who have been told what to believe (204). Perhaps, the \u201cbeliefs\u201d that he is referring to in his comment about \u201cthe growth of new beliefs\u201d are the same developments of \u201cpsychology, psychical research, sexology, and eugenics\u201d that Ledger and Luckhurst outline as \u201c\u2018new\u2019 human sciences\u201d (xiii). In these few passages, Van Helsing calls out the new \u201cknowledge\u201d and developments of modernity as creating a false sense of certainty and truth that prevents Dr. Seward from seeing the reality of Lucy\u2019s situation.<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bram Stoker\u2019s Dracula highlights the \u201cambivalence of modernity\u201d described in Ledger and Luckhurst\u2019s chapter on the \u2018Fin de Si\u00e8cle\u2019 (Ledger and Luckhurst, xiii). We see the fear of uncertainty played out in Harker\u2019s journal, where he expresses that \u201cit was the doubt as to the reality of the whole thing that knocked [him] over,\u201d not … Continue reading Van Helsing\u2019s Critique of Certainty and Modernity<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5365,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[125361],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2023-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5365"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/981\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/britishlit\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}