Published in 1897, at the end of the
Victorian Age and on the cusp of the modern 20th century, Bram
Stoker’s Dracula is a story that is
acutely aware of its place in time. The world of Stoker’s Dracula was both an example of, and at odds with, the distinctly
Victorian sensibilities that were commonplace even a few years earlier. The
cultural and definitively British way of life was undergoing a change that began
with the advent of the Industrial Revolution, but was also being hastened out
the door by a move towards more modern, secular, and scientific worldviews.
The unshakeable conviction that the British
way of life -- both at home and in England’s far-flung colonies -- was
undeniably right and good and God-given was butting up against the realities of
an evolving world. Science was supplanting faith, and the works of Charles
Darwin and other scientists were challenging the world order. Stoker saw and
recognized this, and created characters that were archetypes of proper subjects
of Queen Victoria in the age named after her. All of these characters were
essential to the story, but none more so than Dr. Jack Seward. Jack Seward was
an everyman who represented both the old and the new, and embodied the best of
both. His interactions with the other characters showed this time and again.
As Quincey wrote early in the novel, when he
learned that Art had won Lucy’s hand:
My Dear Art, --
We’ve told yarns by the camp-fire in the
prairies; and dressed one another’s wounds after trying a landing at the
Marquesas, and drunk health on the shore of Titicaca… there will be only one
other, our old pal at the Korea, Jack Seward (62).
It is in
this throwaway line that Stoker tells us much about the man Seward is. While
Jack Seward represents the modern, staid, conservative English physician, he is
simultaneously revealed as typical colonial adventurer of Victorian England.
Much like Arthur Conan Doyle’s Dr. Watson, he is a man of letters and
education, but one who’s dabbled in the violent and the adventuresome life of a
British gentleman. He’s hunted, presumably on safari, in far flung corners of
the empire and participated in conflicts and imperial skirmishes.
While Dr. Seward would seem to be a quiet,
contemplative physician; Stoker left us further clues to the contrary. Quincey
Morris is the personification of the rough and tumble American frontiersman who
moves effortlessly, if a bit crassly, amongst his very English compatriots, and
we learn through him that Dr. Seward is -- in fact -- an adventurer in his own
right. After beginning their pursuit of Dracula and their race to beat his ship
to Varna, Quincey remarks:
I understand the count comes from wolf
country, and it may be that he shall get there before us. I propose that we add
Winchesters to our armament. I have a kind of belief in Winchesters when there
is any trouble of that sort around. Do you remember Art, when we had that pack
after us in Tobolsk (282)?
Even though
he is speaking to Art, it is implied that Quincey, Art, and Jack Seward have
all spent some time together in dangerous situations, and this is confirmed
when, later, Seward says, “I think I had better go with Quincey. We have been
accustomed to hunt together and we two, well armed, will be a match for
whatever may come along” (307).
Stoker created a complex character
in Seward and throughout the novel we get hints like this -- hints about a life
that is much more than that of a simple doctor. He is the very modern man of
science who embraces the newest technology and, rather than write out his
journal, records it on phonograph. He studies the unique eccentricities of his
zoophagous patient, Renfield, and is excited about a possibly new diagnosis of
insanity. He relies on modern chemistry and chloral hydrate to sleep, and
although he successfully runs his hospital and has the prestige that comes from
it, he still attempts to woo Lucy and improve his station and fortunes by
asking for her hand.
At odds with this very modern man of
the 1890’s, he is also comfortable with all things traditionally Victorian. He
defers to Art as Lord Godalming; as is only proper given their different
stations. While Seward is a doctor with a very respectable post at his
hospital, Art is still nobility and is treated as such by Seward. When faced
with a medical problem that he is at a loss to explain with modern treatments,
he defers to his mentor, Dr. Van Helsing, who relies as much on myth and
folklore as medical procedures like blood transfusions. Van Helsing represents the old world and is
juxtaposed against the new world that Seward embraces. And, although he is
proud of his modernity, he also always acts like a proper British gentleman
when it comes to the woman in the novel. To save Art’s feelings and Lucy’s
honor, he conspires with Van Helsing to lie about having transfused Lucy and to
also cover up the death of Lucy’s mother, respectively (137). He is always
polite and respectful to Mina, and his treatment of her is both brotherly and
paternal.
At the climax of the novel, as the
foursome of heroes converge on the gypsies carrying Dracula to his castle, the
majority of the action focuses on Jonathon, who is driven by his need to avenge
his beloved Mina, and Quincey, who strikes the killing blow to Dracula. Art and
Seward are reduced to standing guard over the gypsies with their rifles.
However, this course of action does not in any way change the importance of
Jack Seward to the novel. While the wild American and the wronged husband
strike the final deathblows, Jack Seward upholds the traditionally Victorian
values the so perfectly personified throughout. While he is a man of science
and seeming frailty, he is in fact anything but. Seward faced the danger
bravely and with stereotypical British resolve. He followed the lead of the
others, and proves critical in stopping the threat that was Dracula.
Quincey and Art had spent time with
him in dangerous situations – as evidenced by the hints peppered throughout the
novel by Stoker – and they trusted him to be there as he had in the past. That
trust in his backbone and strength, and the manner of man Seward was, was
critical in their triumph of good over evil… and the redemption of Mina. By
extension, Jack was a critical piece in saving Mina. Additionally, he was an
exemplification of both traditional Victorian values, and the emerging cultural,
scientific, and social changes that were on the horizon for England.
Work Cited:
Stoker, Bram. Dracula: Norton Critical Edition. Ed. Auerbach, Nina and Skal, David J. New York. W.W. Norton and Co. 1997. Print.
