Dracula reflects both Bram Stoker’s context and his interest in controversial ideas. Use ‘Dracula’ and ‘Van Helsing’ to demonstrate what concepts and concerns have endured and how they have been represented in both texts.

JUSTIN LIANG

Dracula ( novel) written by Bram stoker is a text which reflects its English Victorian era context, where gender roles were repressed and science and religion had a conflicting relationship. Van Helsing (Stephen Summers) is a contemporary reproduction which demonstrates the same concepts and concerns that have endured but evolved, and so they have been represented for the modern day audience. The evolution of the concern of Gender roles and the idea of the new woman is very obvious through the
Only is Van Helsing able to come close to understanding the dreadful bestowment of Lucy, through his open-mindedness about ancient legends and non-Western folk remedies. Van Helsing believes that “it is the fault of our science… that it wants to explain all: and if it explain not, there is nothing to explain” which portrays to the reader, through the utilization of personification of ‘science’, that believing in only contemporary ways will lead to dire consequences, and without an understanding of history, the world is left extremely vulnerable. Stoker questions the value of science as he obviously believes that the ignorance of science is not enough to protect the society from the ambiguous.
The same very concerns appear in the film, however it is obvious Sommers as a modern day director has incorporated high tech trigger happy action into his scenes to appeal to the audience. It almost seems like the clichéd superhero or Batman type film where the hero, Van Helsing, unlike in the novel, is very dependant on the equipment, and mission information provided by the advisers or the personal scientist at headquarters like in any modern-day super hero film. The shots are fast, spontaneous and bullets are flying.
Sommers values Science because so does the modeen era. The image of religion in the film is only a cover up for the secret scientific world of technology which is clearly portrayed