Abstract
The last three decades of the nineteenth century saw interesting development in the genre of vampire fiction and produced its arguably most famous example in Bram Stoker's Dracula. This paper examines how the state of Victorian science and psychology informs the depiction of the encounters with the vampiric in three texts: Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla (1872), Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) and F.G.
Loring's "The Tomb of Sarah" (1900). On the one hand, the scientific approach works well as a framework for dealing with the unknown.
Instead of re-evaluating their world view in order to bring the supernatural into it, the characters bring the supernatural into their own world, identify and catalogue it, and ultimately dispatch it. The vampires are truly defeated when they become part of the known, much like a disease that, when diagnosed, can be treated.
On the other hand, scientific progress also acts as an impediment to certainty, since many occurrences which in the past would be without a doubt attributed to the supernatural have scientifically explainable counterparts. This leads to doubt and inaction on the part of the characters while they attempt to gather evidence and apply conventional methods.
The reluctance to upset the status quo by something that does not fit into the enlightened, rational world inhibits sharing crucial information and leads to unnecessary casualties in each case. Both the positive and the negative aspects of the characters' methods of dealing with the supernatural provide valuable insight into the Victorian approach to new scientific theories and discoveries, and in a broader sense illustrate how the notions of objectivity and authority, tradition and innovation were entangled in the Victorian culture, fostering a unique set of reactions to the unknown.