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Sherlock Holmes and Dracula

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Dracula is a tale in which there is a transition from a state of ignorance about the nature of the count to a state of determination to destroy the vampire and stop the evil disease he spreads. There are elements that come together to understand the vampirism present at that time but they should be worked out by the characters. Then horror comes when they realize that the count is an actual vampire spreading a devil-like disease among the human beings. There is somehow a research work in this process of discovery in which an old tradition of vampirism is disclosed again in the middle of the Industrial Age. Tenacious imagination is the key thing for those who are convinced of the horror and reality of vampirism. This way, the story of Dracula can be seen as a narrative depicting the transition from imagination to horror that brings about knowledge. In general imagination can be seen a line-opener of many possibilities of thought, but this is only materialized in effective knowledge when the researcher is determined to face horrendous discoveries without flinching but following through. First, let us fix a few elements of the mentality of Victorian times that are very important to understand how imagination plays an enlightening role against the mainstream way of thinking of those times. Victorian times are the golden era for the British Empire. Through the development of material means, the Empire has grown and subjected less materially developed cultures. It has also expanded its material potency expressed by a modern industry able to supply all what human beings and markets require. The state of science and rational thinking appears to be the tools necessary to continue exploring and conquering the world. Any “nonsense” belonging to an unreal world should be deemed as unnecessary and backward superstition. In fact, the materialistic views of Western Civilization can be seen as an advantage and a disadvantage at the same time: they have opened up the possibility to create more complicated and efficient machines but on the other hand, it has castrated the possibility to discover mysterious things whose existence cannot be denied nor rejected by materialistic science. This is when imagination plays a ground-breaking role by fixing an idea that should be ordinarily rejected. In the case of the Dracula story, this is the existence of devilish forces expressed by vampirism. Knowledge could never come first in this case, as the standard tools of knowledge in Victorian times and Western civilization ban the possibility of something “beyond reality.” Imagination is then the agent to erode this dogmatic belief, and only by following through imagination it is possible to discover things even if they are fraught with horror. Moreover, the latter fixes an important aspect of the Sherlock´s principle in the Dracula tale: horror enlightens. Furthermore, it becomes the carrier of knowledge. Any hidden threat should be disclosed first in order to realize its magnitude. In the case of vampirism, the story does not take it for granted. The characters are not used to that as they belong to a time where superstition is supposed to be forgotten. In the atmosphere of the novel, vampirism

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