Importance of Knowledge

One of the things that I kept noticing throughout this text was the importance of knowledge and what power that gives a person. For example, when Dr. Seward and Mina meet for the first time she comments that he will know her once he has read her diary. In knowing someone you have a sort of power of them. It is only once the characters know and understand Dracula that a proper fight is able to be waged against him. In their knowledge of him, they are able to fight him. The same goes for Dracula. In the beginning of the novel he asks Jonathan for all sorts of information about London and London society. He must have knowledge in order to exert his power over those in London. Van Helsing says to Dr. Seward when handing him the diaries of Mina and Jonathan "you will be master of all the facts, and we can then better enter on our inquisition. Keep them safe, for there is in them much of treasure" (187). Van Helsing indicates that the knowledge of facts allows for a certain mastery and better understanding of all things. There is also in knowledge much treasure. At the risk of sounding cliche, these instances give credence to the adage that knowledge is power.