{"id":332,"date":"2016-04-01T12:11:40","date_gmt":"2016-04-01T16:11:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/?p=332"},"modified":"2016-04-01T12:11:40","modified_gmt":"2016-04-01T16:11:40","slug":"skepticism-of-science","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/2016\/04\/01\/skepticism-of-science\/","title":{"rendered":"Skepticism of Science"},"content":{"rendered":"

Throughout the novel\u00a0Dracula<\/em>, Bram Stroker plays upon the superstitions of the people during this time. During the Victorian era, modernity was coming into the forefront of society with the industrial revolution and the invention of new technology. At the basis of modernity lays this belief of positivism: the belief that science is at the basis of all things (art, literature, etc.) From the beginning of the Renaissance period, humans started rationalizing all things in life, as if they wanted to prove that there is an explanation for everything in the world.<\/p>\n

In this novel, it is the character of Van Helsing who questions this belief. He says: “Do you not think that there are things which you cannot understand, and yet which are; that some people see things that others cannot? […] 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” (204). In this passage Helsing explain that there are things in life that do not have an explanation, and that force one to look elsewhere for the answers. The doctor is, of course, referring to the idea of Lucy being bitten by a\u00a0vampire, but there is more to this passage than just a direct connection the novel.<\/p>\n

In my opinion, we can make the claim that\u00a0Dracula<\/em> is a novel that casts doubt on the fixed theories and scientific beliefs of this time. Thus, it is not the blood-sucking vampires that causes the fear, but it is indeed the fear of doubt the readers experience that makes this a\u00a0truly horrific novel.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Throughout the novel\u00a0Dracula, Bram Stroker plays upon the superstitions of the people during this time. During the Victorian era, modernity was coming into the forefront of society with the industrial revolution and the invention of new technology. At the basis of modernity lays this belief of positivism: the belief that science is at the basis … Continue reading Skepticism of Science<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2672,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[123782],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-332","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-2016-blog-post"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2672"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=332"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/332\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=332"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=332"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.dickinson.edu\/secretlives\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=332"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}