Liminality in Dracula
Name: Aaron Ma
ID: 301227201
Course: ENGL 101W
Section: D905
Date: 15 June 2014
Liminality in Dracula
Stoker’s novel is riddled with examples of liminality, most significantly the title character
Count Dracula, who is neither living or dead but, as Van Helsing calls him, one of the “un-dead”,
existing in this threshold state. This essay will analyze liminality in Dracula in Modernity,
Christian Salvation, Science and Superstition.
Firstly, this novel shows the consequences of Modernity. Early in the novel, as Harker becomes
uncomfortable with his lodgings and his host at Castle Dracula, he notes that “unless my senses
deceive me, the old centuries had, and have, powers of their own which mere ‘modernity’ cannot
kill.”(Stoker 43). Here, Harker voices one of the central concerns of the Victorian era. The end of
the nineteenth century brought drastic developments that forced English society to question the
systems of belief that had governed it for centuries. Darwin’s theory of evolution, for instance,
called the validity of long-held sacred religious doctrines into question. Likewise, the Industrial
Revolution brought profound economic and social change to the previously agrarian England.
Moreover, though Stoker begins his novel in a ruined castle—a traditional Gothic setting—he
soon moves the action to Victorian London, where the advancements of modernity are largely
responsible for the ease with which the count preys upon English society. When Lucy falls victim
to Dracula’s spell, neither Mina nor Dr. Seward—both devotees of modern advancements—are
equipped even to guess at the cause of Lucy’s predicament. Only Van Helsing, whose facility with
modern medical techniques is tempered with open-mindedness about ancient legends and non-
Western folk remedies, comes close to understanding Lucy’s affliction.
In Chapter XVII, when Van Helsing warns Seward that
ID: 301227201
Course: ENGL 101W
Section: D905
Date: 15 June 2014
Liminality in Dracula
Stoker’s novel is riddled with examples of liminality, most significantly the title character
Count Dracula, who is neither living or dead but, as Van Helsing calls him, one of the “un-dead”,
existing in this threshold state. This essay will analyze liminality in Dracula in Modernity,
Christian Salvation, Science and Superstition.
Firstly, this novel shows the consequences of Modernity. Early in the novel, as Harker becomes
uncomfortable with his lodgings and his host at Castle Dracula, he notes that “unless my senses
deceive me, the old centuries had, and have, powers of their own which mere ‘modernity’ cannot
kill.”(Stoker 43). Here, Harker voices one of the central concerns of the Victorian era. The end of
the nineteenth century brought drastic developments that forced English society to question the
systems of belief that had governed it for centuries. Darwin’s theory of evolution, for instance,
called the validity of long-held sacred religious doctrines into question. Likewise, the Industrial
Revolution brought profound economic and social change to the previously agrarian England.
Moreover, though Stoker begins his novel in a ruined castle—a traditional Gothic setting—he
soon moves the action to Victorian London, where the advancements of modernity are largely
responsible for the ease with which the count preys upon English society. When Lucy falls victim
to Dracula’s spell, neither Mina nor Dr. Seward—both devotees of modern advancements—are
equipped even to guess at the cause of Lucy’s predicament. Only Van Helsing, whose facility with
modern medical techniques is tempered with open-mindedness about ancient legends and non-
Western folk remedies, comes close to understanding Lucy’s affliction.
In Chapter XVII, when Van Helsing warns Seward that
Cited: Bram Stoker. Dracula. Ed Hindle & Preface Frayling. Penguin Classics; Revised edition, April 29, 2003