Industrialization In Dracula

Industrial revolution represented in Dracula and Frankenstein

The world was going through a major change when Frankenstein and Dracula were published. The U.S and Europe were the main forces of the Industrial Revolution, which was basically the transition from humans completing tasks using their own hands or tools, to humans using machines to do those things for them, due to the fact that it made their lives easier.

However, not everyone was fond of the idea of modernization. Mary Shelly feared the consequences of industrialisation, on humans whose body, mind, and spirit depends on the natural world. Which is why her novel ‘Frankenstein’, could be seen as a warning against careless progress, and an example of where the Industrial Revolution
In his novel ‘Dracula’, Bram Stoker wrote how modernization affected that era, and the disadvantages of modernization. Early in the novel, as Harker became uncomfortable with his lodgings and ‘Count Dracula’ at the Castle he notes that “unless my senses deceive me, the old centuries had, and have, powers of their own which mere ‘modernity’ cannot kill.” (Chapter three). Here, Harker says one of the main concerns of the Victorian era. Initially Stoker began his novel in a ruined castle, which then moved to Victorian London, where the advancements of modernity were responsible for the ease, with which the count targeted upon English society. Also when Lucy fell victim to Dracula’s spell, neither Mina nor Dr. Seward—both devotees of modern advancements—were able to treat the cause of Lucy’s situation. Van Helsing, who had a facility with modern medical techniques and open-mindedness about ancient legends and non-Western folk remedies, came close to understanding Lucy’s problem. Which showed how modernity could not be useful towards everything. Modernity became the focus when the novel shifted to England. Dr. Seward recorded his diary on a phonograph; Mina Murray practiced typewriting on a newfangled machine, and so