This novel is a good illustration of how scientific advancement buttheads with religion in 19th century societies. This progress in science led to people questioning the validity of religion, causing societal unrest. Given that people argued that science was a direct contradiction to religion, it of course made many assume that science itself was evil. Stoker plays off this sentiment in Dracula. Throughout the novel it is the spiritual world against the scientific world. On the one hand Seward uses science to understand the world and fight against Dracula’s forces. Whereas Dracula operates through the supernatural. Seward refuses to diagnose Renfield through reasoning that involves the supernatural, so he is left perplexed. When Seward attempts to save Lucy through blood transfusions, he fails, and she turns into a vampire. These are just two examples that demonstrate this war between old world beliefs that involve the supernatural and new world beliefs that rely on scientific explanation. A good example of this in the text comes from Van Helsing.
“You are a clever man, friend John; you reason well, and your wit is bold; but you are too prejudiced. . .. Ah, it 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. But yet we see around us every day the growth of new beliefs, which think themselves new; and which are yet but the old, which pretend to be young. . ..(Stoker 204)
Here Van Helsing argues that while science is a great explanation for many things and great for the future, Seward allows it to blind him because he believes in it unequivocally. He argues that the problem with science is that when it has no explanation it remains that way, the answer is that it has no explanation. He says the reason for this is because science attempts to explain everything so when it can’t, it refuses to accept any other non-scientific explanation. This quote perfectly represents the societal tension of science and spirituality in the 19th century, Seward will not accept this idea that science cannot explain something, he is gung-ho on approaching the world through science and only that way, despite the traditional societal pull to see the world spiritually which is represented through Van Helsing and Dracula. These two sides of society are represented through the characters in this novel as this quote demonstrates.