The group's efforts to fight Dracula draw on these superstitions, which prove "real," inasmuch as they work, eventually, to kill the Count. All the preparations designed to ward off vampires-garlic, the wooden stake, decapitation-come from Transylvanian superstition dating back to the Middle Ages. Harker sees, in Transylvania, that many of the peasant-folk have special charms to ward off the evil eye. Seward professes a similarly orthodox understanding of God's goodness, and all characters typically end their conversations by saying that their group's success is in God's hands.īut superstition and occult practices become interwoven with these Christian beliefs. Arthur has special Christian scruples about the discretion of Lucy's body, in order to save her from her undead status he eventually acquiesces and aids in her "true killing," thus releasing her soul. The Harkers are observant Protestants, and God-fearing people their love is made permanent in the eyes of God through their speedy marriage. Most of the characters in the group profess a serious and proper Christian belief. The tracking of Dracula requires methodical investigations in each of these fields, and the fields themselves, by the end of the novel, appear very much interrelated, even entirely entangled. The novel also considers the interactions of Christian belief, superstitious or "occult" practices, and rational science.
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