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Views of the Modern World

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Views of the Modern World
The views of the modern world

Bram Stoker’s horror novel, Dracula, focuses on superstitions that occurred in the modern Eastern Europe. In modern society, unexplained theories such as superstition and religion are considered dubious and aberrant. For example, myths and the supernatural are considered irrational because one can’t prove it mechanically or scientifically. In Dracula, most of the characters are modern people who are narrow minded and clueless about the reality of the world. As Jonathan, Mina, Van Helsing, Lucy, and Dr.Seward experienced the pre-modern world, they soon realized the deeper reality of the world. They encountered Lucy turning into a vampire and she died by her husband’s hand. Even with all the evidence that proved superstition was real, the group was uncertain until the end. As a modern people, they were thinking sensibly in order to reach a reasonable conclusion. As time went on and they were continuously exposed to situations that they could not answer, their belief in reality began to falter. The reality seems unclear when it’s examined scientifically but is fully comprehensible when pre-modern is included. Bram Stoker suggests that one shouldn’t be narrow minded. He states that the modern world is narrow minded, skeptical, unbelieving. The modern world prevents fuller understanding of ultimate reality. However, traditions and superstitions are clues to understand that deeper reality. Stoker doesn’t want us to overlook the pre-modern and he suggests that people shouldn’t be so philistine. I believe that the message of Stoker is correct because just modern explanations are not good enough in the world. One should be fully open minded in order to analyze and comprehend a certain situation whenever necessary.
The experience of Jonathan Harker in Dracula greatly supports the idea of being open-minded. Jonathan Harker was a businessman who traveled to Transylvania in order to sell house property to Count Dracula. While traveling to

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