I read that every known superstition in the world is gathered into the horseshoe of the Carpathians, as if it were the centre of some sort of imaginative whirlpool; if so my stay may be very interesting.
-- Jonathan Harker (Chapter 1 paragraph Page 4)

Importance: Superstition is a major theme in the novel, and Jonathan is aware of it from the opening pages. His slightly condescending attitude toward it little prepares him for what he experiences, and sets up a tension between our expectations of reality and our experience of it.

We are in Transylvania, and Transylvania is not England. Our ways are not your ways, and there shall be to you many strange things. Nay, from what you have told me of your experiences already, you know something of what strange things there may be.
-- Count Dracula (Chapter 3 paragraph Page 25)

Importance: Here Dracula sums up the tension between the Eastern and Western world, as well as between the simple, superstitious peasants and the...