This paper examines Bram Stoker's 1897 gothic novel Dracula through the lens of its central thematic conflict: the struggle between science and religious faith. Beginning with a plot overview, the paper traces how key characters — particularly Dr. Van Helsing and Jonathan Harker — embody the Victorian tension between rational, scientific thinking and belief in the supernatural. The analysis argues that Stoker consistently portrays science as insufficient against Count Dracula's evil, while religious symbols and superstition ultimately prevail. The paper also situates the novel within its historical context, connecting its themes to the broader nineteenth-century clash between scientific progress and entrenched religious tradition in English society.
The paper demonstrates thematic literary analysis by identifying a central binary opposition — science versus religion — and tracking how Stoker develops and resolves that tension across the novel's plot. The writer uses character function analysis effectively, showing how figures like Van Helsing and Jonathan Harker serve as representatives of competing worldviews rather than simply as narrative agents.
The paper opens with a comprehensive plot summary that establishes the narrative context. It then introduces the novel's major themes before narrowing its focus to the science-versus-religion conflict. Subsequent sections analyze specific scenes and characters as evidence, examine the Darwin evolution argument as a scientific fallacy, trace the ultimate triumph of religious methods, and conclude by connecting the novel's themes to Victorian social history. The structure moves logically from description to analysis to cultural contextualization.
Bram Stoker's novel Dracula was published in 1897. Set in nineteenth-century Victorian England and other countries of the same era, the novel is told in an epistolary format through a collection of letters, diary entries, and similar documents. The main characters include Count Dracula and a small group of men and women led by Dr. Van Helsing. Count Dracula is the antagonist — a vampire — while the group led by Van Helsing serves as the story's protagonists. The novel follows Count Dracula's endeavor to relocate from Transylvania to England, and ultimately his demise.
The story begins with an English lawyer, Jonathan Harker, visiting Dracula's castle to assist him with some real estate matters. During his stay, Harker discovers that the Count is a vampire and barely escapes with his life. The narrative then shifts to a ship's log describing how that vessel was found ashore with no crew members and only the dead captain tied to the helm. It is later revealed that Count Dracula, in the form of a dog, had boarded the ship as it departed and had consumed all the crew members.
Having traveled from Transylvania to England on that ship, Dracula tracks down the lawyer's fiancée, Mina, and her friend Lucy in London. He infects Lucy, who begins showing strange and alarming signs of illness. Dr. Van Helsing is brought in and realizes that Lucy has been bitten. After many failed attempts to cure her through blood transfusions, the male protagonists eventually resort to killing the vampire that Lucy has become, in the only way vampires can be destroyed. The team — including Mina — then turns toward tracking down and killing Count Dracula. Dracula attacks Mina and develops a telepathic link between himself and her, which Dr. Van Helsing later uses to track down and ultimately kill the Count. This cures Mina, and the novel ends on a positive note (Stoker, 1897).
As a literary work, Dracula was an extraordinary piece. When it was first published, reviewers and critics offered high praise, and the book was ranked above the works of Edgar Allan Poe, Emily Brontë, and Mary Shelley. Many regarded it as the best horror story of the century. Beyond its narrative power, the novel contains several important underlying themes, including the belief in salvation through religion, the dangers of modernity and science, and the threats posed by female sexual expression. The most significant of these are religious salvation and apprehension toward science.
Throughout the book, a conflict between science and religion arises repeatedly. As the protagonists discover the truth about Count Dracula, they are torn between their religious beliefs and what science has taught them, at times questioning their own sanity. Stoker demonstrates the failure of science when Lucy is bitten and Dr. Van Helsing attempts to cure her through medicine and blood transfusions — and fails. At the same time, Stoker shows the dominance of religion and superstition when the same friend is ultimately killed through the use of garlic and crucifixes. Count Dracula is said to have lived strong and healthy for centuries, defying the laws of science entirely, yet he is scarred the moment a crucifix touches him — making religious faith more powerful once again.
The ultimate theme is the dominance and success of religion in defeating the evil embodied by Count Dracula, and religion's ability to go where science cannot and answer what science cannot. Another illustration of this is Dracula's ability to change form — between man, bat, and dog — while still retaining his extraordinary senses and human state of mind. No scientific law or finding of that era could explain this, but in religious tradition all of these forms were associated with evil: the ultimate nature of Count Dracula.
Throughout the novel, Stoker portrays religion as the more dominant force — and as a savior of sorts. At the beginning, when Jonathan Harker visits Dracula's town of residence, he is offered charms said to keep evil away. Even though Harker is a man of rationality and science, he feels somewhat safer with the charms, and those same charms are eventually shown to be the reason he escapes alive. Van Helsing is presented as the most respected member of the group, owing to his vast knowledge and expertise in science. His character represents the scientific perspective of the story. At several points he attempts to solve problems through scientific and medical procedures, but fails. Yet he is also portrayed as a man open to the existence of supernatural entities that science cannot explain. Through these characters, Stoker illustrates the general mindset of people of that era: no matter how firmly one is grounded in science, it is ultimately faith in religion and superstition that provides the solution.
In this book, Stoker demonstrates religion and superstition through symbolism that overpowers technology, expressing a fear of science and practices that were unknown at the time. Religion is portrayed as strength, and science as the weaker force because of its consistent defeat within the text. Science cannot save Lucy from turning into a vampire, yet garlic can ward vampires away. Dracula can live for centuries, but is scarred by a crucifix or communion wafers. In the most desperate moments, the characters always depend on their faith to help them through, because it is familiar and not unknown to them.
You’re 59% through this paper. Sign up to read the remaining 3 sections.
Sign Up Now — Instant Access Already a member? Log inAlways verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.