A Warning Against Rationalism: Bram Stoker's "Dracula" and the Soul of 19th Century England Anonymous College

The British Empire entered the age of modernity at the turn of the 20th century on the heels of the industrious Victorian Era (1837-1901), which had been a time of rapid technological advancement. By the end of the 19th century there was electricity, steam-powered trains, and industrial plants; and England was unrecognizable from its agrarian past. In the process, English thought evolved to become more rational and science-driven, and was quickly casting off the superstitious thinking of earlier eras. At the same time, religious faith was also going by way of superstitious thinking. In fact religiosity had been on the decline since the Victorian Crisis of Faith, when the study of geology proved that the world was far older than the bible indicated (Roberts 227). By the dawn of modernity, Anglicanism and the Church of England had become more about state power, and secularism was entrenched deeper into the English conscience with every year. It was in this context that Dublin-born Bram Stoker (1847-1912) published Dracula (1897), a novel that pitted ordinary mortals against flesh-hungry, blood-sucking vampires in a spiritual battle for the soul of England. Although Stoker was both a man of faith and a science enthusiast, his...