Anyway that said I like John Seward. Iāve seen some analyses of his character and they got me thinking.
His asylum is actually really humane for the time, and he views Renfield more as an equal than heās supposed to in their dynamic. I donāt think anyone else would have let him keep the flies, or the spiders, or the birds. And I donāt think it was normal at the time to view delusions as having logic, or to try to understand whatās happening in his patientsā heads instead of just assuming the worst and containing him.
Also, I relate to the guy. I think heās autism-coded, at least to the extent that people like us were viewed at the time. His proposal scene was just. Intensely relatable. Itās absolutely shitty and inexcusable how the guy takes out his issues on his patients, but heās working in a system where that shit is wayyy too easy, and I think itās the rare person that WONāT abuse power when itās given to them.
I was in a similar situation as him this past year. I worked at an elementary school: a system essentially designed to contain children under the guise of helping them. And thereās a lot of good people there doing their best to ACTUALLY help, but itās a bad system, and even good people have bad days, and itās really easy to get away with yelling at a kid. Itās almost expected; itās almost the point.
I went there because I was fascinated by kids, but the longer I stayed the more I learned about myself. I viewed the kids as equals, because the level of power I had over them made me feel safe enough to interact with them normally. Meanwhile I was terrified of the teachers and staff who were āsupposedā to be my peers. I did my best to listen to the kids and answer their āstupidā questions and talk them through their feelings even when the teachers were running out of patience, but on my personal bad days it was hard not to snap at a kid who was giving me a hard time.
I thought I went into childcare because kids fascinated me, but realized somewhere along the line that the reason I was really there is because I still feel like a child. Someone helpless, who needs to be kept in a controlled environment and given love and care and told what to do. And I treated them the way I hoped to be treated.
Jack Seward is fascinated by psychology. He views Renfield as an equal despite (and maybe as a result of) having power over him. But heās reluctant to spend time with his supposed peers, and was clearly terrified all through his proposal to Lucy. He is trying to understand Renfield, but when heās at his worst itās too easy for him to take his feelings out on someone who, like a child, is a societally designated target for subhuman social treatment.
And I wonder if, in the same way that I feel like a child, Dr. Seward feels like he is a ālunatic?ā
I know thatās a GROSSLY outdated term, but its connotation is important here. āNeurodivergenceā is something thatās understood and becoming more widely accepted. Between Dracula and today weāve made great strides in the field of mental health. We know what schizophrenia is now, along with mood disorders, personality disorders, dissociative disorders, adhd, autism, (and probably more that Iām forgetting,) and have found a deeper understanding and better treatment for them.
Dr. Seward would not view Renfield, or by proxy himself, as āneurodivergent,ā but ālunatic.ā Someone dangerous, to be contained and quarantined from normal society and studied. Someone to fear. And I think thereās an extent to which he is treating Renfield the way he would hope to be treated.
So yeah. I wonāt say the guy did nothing wrong because he very clearly has. But everyone does shitty things, and I kind of relate to the guy. I totally forget like 90% of this book but I canāt wait to see where his character goes.
