Dracula and Science, Superstition, Religion, and Xenophobia Essay Example

not enough. The character Dr. Van Helsing in Dracula is prime example of how this film believes in religion’s power more than science’s. Van Helsing is a scientist, but he is also a believer in Christianity.

This provides an interesting set of circumstances because he has a mixed view of the world. The fact that a man of science and religion chooses religion as his power against evil helps to exemplify the idea that Dracula encourages. This is showing that not only is religion stronger for those who are uneducated, but that even for someone who’s profession is based on science, religion is still what he relies on. One way that the argument between science and religion relates to the time period that this film was made in is through the Scopes Monkey Trial. The Scopes Trial was a trial in 1925 that occurred in Dayton, Tennessee.

This trial was about a teacher who was accused of teaching evolution to students, which violated Tennessee’s “Butler Act,” which made it illegal to teach evolution in public schools. This became one of the most famous legal cases of the 20th century, and was one of the most media covered trials of all time. The Scopes Trial is widely considered one of the classic debates of the 1920s. This argument between fundamentalists and modernists was one of the defining moments in the longtime debate between science and religion because it was one of the few times that the argument was made in the court of law.

In this case the modernists won, and the teaching of evolution became more widespread and apparent across the entire United States. What is it that

many religions are founded on, but is often considered silly and foolish? Superstition. Superstition has always been thrown aside as foolishness, but in Dracula it is one of the characters’ greatest powers. The superstitions prove to be right in every situation and only fail when they are meddled with. One example of this is when Van Helsing puts the wolfbane flower around Mina’s room, and later that night Dracula forces the maid to take it down from the window and off of her neck as well.

This proves that the superstition was correct, and that the old world logic it comes from is factually founded. The region that the superstitions that save Mina come from is Eastern Europe. The reason why the superstitions come from the East is because while the west is more advanced and has more science based knowledge, the West is less developed and still relies on superstition. Dracula takes the side of the West in basically saying that science is overrated and that old world logic is what people should be relying on.

The message is that people should not be putting all of their faith into science, and that they should still be reserving some for old world superstitions and religion. Another theme in this film and the early 1900s is anti-Semitism. In Dracula it is outrageously apparent the physical features of Count Dracula alone. He has a large nose, bigger ears, and to add to his physical Semitic features he also greedy, which is yet another stereotypical attribute of people with Jewish backgrounds.

It is not surprising that Dracula was made out to be Jewish during this time period, because in the

early 1900s the Jews were everyone’s scapegoat. Often times they were called “vampires” or “bloodsuckers” because they were portrayed as shady individuals who were often involved is sketchy business deals. These racist nicknames made it easy to create a Jewish Dracula, because the Jew was already portrayed as exactly that, a vampire. During the early 1900s there was a great deal of anti-Semitism around the world, especially in Europe.

The most obvious example of it is The Holocaust, where there were nearly seven million Jews murdered. This was caused by Adolf Hitler manipulating different medias into portraying Jews in a poor light. This manipulation of the Jewish image in Germany was then adapted in other countries, which is what was happening during the time that this film was made. A reason that the Jews were disliked so much is that many of the immigrants in the early 1900s were from Eastern Europe, and were often Jewish. This caused a great deal of controversy because Jews were a minority, and were becoming disliked all over the world.

Countries, such as England and the United States, did not want to be seen as the country that accepts the “bloodsuckers” and “vampires” of the world. These countries also were all Christian nations, and were not always the most accepting of other cultures and religions, so to be asked to accept large amounts of people from other countries of a different religion was not viewed kindly by the public. Besides being fairly unaccepting of other cultures or religions, another reason which the public did not wish to bring in immigrants is that they were seen as dirty because they often came

from rural areas.

When considering who to allow into your country, and who you want in your country, you are not often going to choose the dirty farmer over a mildly hygienic businessman. An example of Dracula’s xenophobia is when Dracula comes out of his coffin in the beginning on the film. When Dracula emerges from his coffin rats come pouring out of it as well. These rats coming out of Dracula’s coffin symbolize the immigrants that were not wanted in the United States. When people think of rats they think of disgusting, messy, unclean rodents.

Those rodents are exactly the thoughts that Tod Browning wanted the viewers to think of when Dracula is first shown in the film. Rats are also very efficient reproducers, which is once again a reference to immigrants. Because the immigrants were from Eastern Europe, they often did not have any sort of birth control, and it was perfectly acceptable to have a large number of children in one’s family. The large amount of reproduction coming from the immigrants was not only looked down upon by upper class Americans, but they were also scared of it.

The wealthy Americans were afraid that the immigrants would start to become such a large percentage of Americans that they would begin to take over. A quote from The Great Gatsby, by F Scott Fitzgerald, helps to show the type of fear that was around in the 1920s: “The idea is if we don’t look out the white race will be – will be utterly submerged. It’s all scientific stuff; it’s been proved. ” (Fitzgerald 18) In this quote Tom Buchannan is talking about a book that

he read about how if the White Anglo-Saxon Protestants were not careful, other races would rise and come take over the country from them because of their massive population.

While it sounds a bit crazy and racist, he was not the only one in the country who felt that way. This was a somewhat common view of the situation in the United States back then. Many of the great debates of the last century are addressed in Dracula, including religion and science, superstition, and xenophobia. Throughout the film, characters that represent different cultures are portrayed in extremely stereotypical lights, and are shown from the perspective of an early 19th century upper class American.

This film attempts to persuade the viewer into following along with the beliefs of the director, whether it is believing that religion is greater than science, or that superstition and old world knowledge should be more trusted, or that the United States should not allow Eastern Europeans or Jews into the country. Whether or not the film succeeded, that is a different paper, but the truth is that there is a great deal of propaganda in this film relating to some of the great debates, and a great number of people have seen it.