Dracula: Barrier of Sanity vs. Insanity
Dracula Essay Rough Copy
The setting of Bram Stoker’s Dracula is in the late nineteenth-century London, where the flourishing of technology is replacing people’s belief of the old superstitious ways. The characters in this novel experience contacts with the supernatural beings that is unable to be proven even by the most advanced technology at the time, which leads them to doubt their own sanity. However, the progression of the novel proves that peace is restored into the characters’ lives after their doubts and confusions about what is reality and who is really mad. Ultimately, the categorization of the sane against the mad is unnecessary since the distinguishing factors shown in the novel are ambiguous. Subsequently, no characters can truly be justified with being labelled as one type over the other.
While certain characters in the novel, most notably Renfield, are placed in mental asylums for displaying mad or unstable behaviours, it does not qualify them to be categorized as mad since the non-institutionalized characters undergoes irregular and unstable behaviours as well. These characters must go through their own forms of insanity to access the entirety of the truth that Dracula brings upon them, and thus they behave in ways similar to what is considered to be insane.
The alternative reality Dracula brings into the logical and civilized London society can only be accessed by the characters through their own forms of insanity. Insanity is a psychological state of the mind being deranged and arousing irregular thoughts or actions (Barber 505). Sleepwalking is a form of psychological disorder resulting from troubled thoughts (Anitei). It is also thought to be a method of interacting with spirits from other realms (Anitei). During Lucy’s sleepwalking experiences, “her intention…disappears…for as soon as her will [thwarts] in any physical way” (Stoker 93). This shows that she only expresses her intention of meeting Dracula through an unnatural method.
The setting of Bram Stoker’s Dracula is in the late nineteenth-century London, where the flourishing of technology is replacing people’s belief of the old superstitious ways. The characters in this novel experience contacts with the supernatural beings that is unable to be proven even by the most advanced technology at the time, which leads them to doubt their own sanity. However, the progression of the novel proves that peace is restored into the characters’ lives after their doubts and confusions about what is reality and who is really mad. Ultimately, the categorization of the sane against the mad is unnecessary since the distinguishing factors shown in the novel are ambiguous. Subsequently, no characters can truly be justified with being labelled as one type over the other.
While certain characters in the novel, most notably Renfield, are placed in mental asylums for displaying mad or unstable behaviours, it does not qualify them to be categorized as mad since the non-institutionalized characters undergoes irregular and unstable behaviours as well. These characters must go through their own forms of insanity to access the entirety of the truth that Dracula brings upon them, and thus they behave in ways similar to what is considered to be insane.
The alternative reality Dracula brings into the logical and civilized London society can only be accessed by the characters through their own forms of insanity. Insanity is a psychological state of the mind being deranged and arousing irregular thoughts or actions (Barber 505). Sleepwalking is a form of psychological disorder resulting from troubled thoughts (Anitei). It is also thought to be a method of interacting with spirits from other realms (Anitei). During Lucy’s sleepwalking experiences, “her intention…disappears…for as soon as her will [thwarts] in any physical way” (Stoker 93). This shows that she only expresses her intention of meeting Dracula through an unnatural method.