The Influential Era
Bram Stoker wrote the ground-shaking classic and gothic horror, Dracula, during the momentous Victorian Era. The Victorian Era was a time period of strict gender roles and a life regulated by vigorous religion. Women had specific duties that they had to do in order to be accepted into society, such as being pure, serving her husband, and raising children. People in this time period were also required to have an immensely close relationship with God and follow Christianity’s every rule. However, substantial changes occurred that altered Victorian society for good. New discoveries in science like the idea of Darwinism by Charles Darwin and the Industrial Revolution proposed new ideas and thoughts to the world that had never…show more content… Despite this, the Gothic movement was picking up steam. Gothic literature is a stem off of Anti-Transcendentalism, a tremendous movement going on during the Victorian Era that explored the darker side of human existence. Gothic literature is an exceptional mix of fiction, Romanticism, and horror. By comparing the people of Transylvania and London, Stoker easily establishes why combining faith and science is the only way one can prevail. London is a direct contrast to Transylvania, and it reflects the Victorian Era’s changing view on religion and science at the time. The Victorian Era was shaken by new discoveries in science, such as Charles Darwin’s, “The Origin of Species”, where he invented the idea of Darwinism. Darwinism is the idea that species originated by decent with some variation from their parent forms through a process called natural selection. Natural selection picks the cream of the crop to survive so that they will produce the best offspring. The people of Transylvania are portrayed as a group of people stuck in the old ways, because they still believe in things like the “evil eye” and other superstitions. The people of London present themselves as more “modern” because they do not believe in superstitions, they believe in science. Stoker wants to bring the two societies together; the simple people of Transylvania and the more advanced world of London. By…show more content… Events like the Industrial Revolution and new advances in science deeply affected the world and the new view of society. These events shook the old ideas of what it meant to be a good Victorian and paved the way for new expansions. Being a good Christian and a pure woman will get a person far not only in this life, but in the next as their strong relationship with God will lead them to salvation. The real threat in this novel is not the mere idea of becoming a literal vampire like Dracula. No, it is the fear that a person will fall into the voluptuary of sin and face eternal