In the wider novel how is Van Helsing presented as a Gothic Hero?
Within the wider novel Van Helsing is presented as a gothic Hero through his knowledge of
the supernatural and ability to overcome the challenges that rationality presents in the
supernatural world as well as his ability to lead the other men in the fight against Dracula.
Van Helsing has a lot of sophisticated knowledge of vampires due to the fact that people of
the past have kept records of them and their experiences with them and thanks to Van
Helsing’s ability to Keep an open mind he is able to acknowledge these writings and records
as fact. Examples of this can be seen in the traditions and superstitions of Eastern Europe
that Harker describes in Chapter 1 as ‘an imaginative whirlpool’ This shows how unlike
Harker, Van Helsing has overcome his rationality and colonialist mindset and as a result of
that has been able to interpret the superstitions of eastern Europe as a fact. Van Helsing
states that “the record of the past give proof enough for sane peoples” This shows how Van
Helsing is able to understand the records as elements of the supernatural and though he is a
scientist he acknowledges them as fact due to his open-mindedness. This presents him as a
Gothic Hero as unlike Seward and Harker he does not diminish the findings at first and has
accepted them as fact that the supernatural and vampires in particular, exist. Van Helsing’s
knowledge on Vampires is later shown in the same extract when he states, “This Vampire
which is amongst us is of himself so strong in person as twenty men.” This shows that Van
Helsing understands the physicality and nature of Vampires and thus knows not to
underestimate Dracula’s power.
In addition to this, Stoker included Van Helsing as a character to overcome the obstacle of
killing Dracula without any prior knowledge of his powers or ways in which to kill him. By
including Van Helsing, Stoker is imposing the title of a gothic hero upon his character as he
takes charge of the other men and educates them about Vampire lore. We can see this in
the way that Van Helsing interprets Mina’s diary and uses it to defeat Dracula by learning
about his powers and method of spreading his vampire disease. Mina’s diary serves as a
large plot device in the novel as she has collected proof that Lucy was a victim of the
vampire disease that Dracula spreads. Van Helsing is able to use this as proof of vampire’s
existence and use it to plot against Dracula in the following chapters of the book. It also
provides proof to the other men such as Seward as they are rationalistic and thus need
proof in a form that makes sense to them such as documents within a diary. Mina’s diary is
also helpful to Van Helsing as it shows what occurred during Whitby when Lucy was taken
by Dracula for example the quote “something dark stood beside the seat where the white
figure shone and bent over it.” This is proof to Van Helsing that Lucy was taken by Dracula
and thus links to later in in the records that mina collects when Lucy becomes, “The bloofer
lady” and attacks the small children, this also proves to Van Helsing that she has become a
vampire as it is similar to the diary of Johnathan that Mina also gives to him later, when he
meets the three women.
By using the diary and his own prior knowledge of the supernatural Van Helsing is able to
develop a plan to defeat Dracula which we see in Chapter 27 as he travels to Transylvania
with Mina who due to her own experience of being attacked by Dracula is now able to guide
Van Helsing to him through her connection to him. Once at the castle Van Helsing learns of
Dracula’s coffin underground and is able to kill Dracula with the help of the other men at
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