His skin is pale, with slicked-back hair, lips blood red, and his pearly white teeth sharp; he’s Dracula, the original vampire. Bram Stoker’s famous novel Dracula, which was written in 1897, started the vampire craze that still lasts today. It has sparked numerous novels, movies, and songs across the world through the year, and its popularity is still growing. As times have changed, so have Dracula and his predecessors. Dracula is about Count Dracula meeting this human Jonathan Harker for business and Jonathan along with his friends learn that Count Dracula is a vampire. In the end Count Dracula is killed before he can reach the safety of Transylvania. Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula is the pinnacle of all modern concepts of vampires; however, the modern concepts of vampires are superior because of the traits of the vampire characters, the central idea of the storylines, and the historical context from which the vampires are based.
Every vampire has some sort of unique ability, which makes him or her stand out to other vampires and shows superior characteristics compared to Dracula. Bram Stoker created the basis for all vampires to come. Stoker created Dracula to be a very dark and evil creature with the ability to shape shift, defy gravity, read minds, turn others into vampires with his blood, and transport (Stoker). Though his abilities are vast, he also has weaknesses that diminish his strength. Dracula cannot go out in the daylight, or he will burn, and though he is immortal, if he is decapitated and staked through the heart he will die. A weakness unique to Dracula is the fact that he has to be near Transylvanian soil in order to rest and regenerate his strength (Stoker). Stoker makes Dracula a mysterious creature in his novel, ...
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If one wants to be powerful, the only way is through the right path because with deceiving and tricking it only leads to problems, which is what happens to the count. Stoker life showed signs that he believed in this since he followed in his father’s footsteps and was very close to family, which was one of his keys to success. What Dracula was lacking was the trust between him and the other vampires. If he followed good practices like Helsing he would be all powerful, but then again ‘good’ Dracula, is an oxymoron. Stoker lived in a changing time period where there was a mix of different feelings and ideas coming about.
Florescu, Radu, and McNally, R. T., Dracula: A Biography of Vlad the Impaler, 1431-1476 (1973)
In the novel Dracula, by Bram Stoker, there is much evidence of foreshadowing and parallels to other myths. Dracula was not the first story featuring a vampire myth, nor was it the last. Some would even argue that it was not the best. However, it was the most original, using foreshadowing and mood to create horrific imagery, mythical parallels to draw upon a source of superstition, and original narrative elements that make this story unique.
First off, in Stoker’s Dracula the reader’s suspension of disbelief is lower as compared to folklore tales. He is a tall creepy old person when first revealed, but later on in the novel he is shown to be more sinister. This creates a sense of mystery and confusion. Another reason is that he is a well developed antagonist. Often times he outsmarts the main characters creating a sense of suspense and irony because the readers know what is going to happen but the characters do not. But the most important reason of them all is the fact that Count Dracula takes elements from folklore and builds upon it. Stoker uses classic folklore to create a foundation for Dracula, for example; Dracula’s powers give him the ability to live forever, or shapeshift into other creatures as well. They also give him weaknesses such as: holy objects and daylight which mitigates his powers. These powers regularly add to the mysterious tone in the book. Count Dracula climbing down the castle wall upside down or moving slowly across a yard as a cloud of vapor makes the reader question what is happening. He has the ability to control the weather and animals as well. Stoker gives him powers from legend to make him a formidable force in the story. Although his appearance is unpleasant, he is quite the seductive character. He uses this to his advantage when trying to turn Mina and Lucy into vampires. Dracula preys on ‘weaker’ beings in a hierarchical system where he feasts on the women and once the women have turned to vampires, they feed on children. He can also use telepathy to tell where other vampires are, however, this works against him in the final chase of the book. In short his powers are unique and interesting and help to make the Count a powerful
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In Bram Stoker's "Dracula", Dracula is portrayed as a monster made evident by his gruesome actions. An analysis of Dracula shows that: shows his evil nature in his planning, brutally killing Lucy Westrenstra causing a violent response from Dr. Seward and others, and how his evil ways lead to his downfall. To characterize Dracula in one way, he is a ruthless, cunning monster who uses tricks, torture, and wits to manipulate people to his will. However when he trifled with some courageous people, he had no knowledge that it would be his undoing.
Bram Stoker took the legend of Vlad Tepes and used it as an idea for Dracula. He was the ruler of an old country called Wallachia. He is most famous for impaling his enemies on sticks around his castle. He taught himself how to miss vital organs in the body, causing the victim to die a slow painful death. This is why people consider him an ancient vampire. What people don’t know about him is that the rich loved him, but the poor hated him. To anyone that didn’t have to seal to make it by he was great. But to the poor people who couldn’t buy food, they were always in fear of him. He was abused as a child, and this is what is thought to have caused his behavior. (Melton 1053)
From Transylvania to Hollywood, vampires have transformed from unfamiliar, mysterious personalities to one of the most dominant monsters in the horror genre today. Vampires are one of the oldest and most noted creatures in mythology, with many variations of them around the world. Although the most famous version is Bram Stoker’s Dracula, many variants have come before and after telling of the same legend with their own added ideas and modifications to relate to their cultures. Today, there is a multitude of literary and film works that convey and resurface peoples’ fear of vampires. As gothic works like Dracula, by Bram Stoker and Scooby-Doo! and the Legend of the Vampire directed by Scott Jeralds share certain traits reflective of the genre; These factors include setting, actions of each vampire, the initial reactions to news of them, and how their presence affects the people who live within the region the vampires inhabit.
Since the 19th Century, Bram Stoker’s Dracula has entertained its readers taking them to heights of excitement in the climax
In the book, Dracula by Bram Stoker there are many characters that display qualities of good verse evil. The Count Dracula is a mysterious character who appears as an odd gentleman but the longer the story goes on Dracula shows his true self. Dracula started infiltrating the lives of anyone who crossed his path and he was not stopping his destruction of others’ lives. Many people were affect by Dracula’s actions but there were two people that Dracula caused an impact on during his rampage. Dracula is an evil, cunning, and selfish character who harms the life of a young man and ruins the future of an innocent woman.
it horrifies us and reinforces our sense of boundaries and normalcy” (Halberstam 13). Assuming that Bram Stoker’s Dracula sets the archetype of the vampire, it is clear that modern vampires have demonstrated a decrease in the Gothic horror despite similarities in the Gothic imagery and themes, and such a shift is attributed to a changing value of the limit within society and postmodernism. The Count is the benchmark of the vampire archetype as the monstrous Other that “announces itself as the place of corruption” (Anolik and Howard 1). Dracula is associated with disruption and transgression of accepted limits—a monstrosity of great evil that serves to guarantee the existence of good (Punter and Byron 231).
Over the years people have given new out looks on the original vampire, Dracula. He was a tall non-attractive looking man who would never come out during the day. Hollywood however has made new vampire stories such as Twilight, True Blood, and The Vampire Diaries/The Originals that have new ideas of a vampire. These novels/books all have differences, but some still have key characteristics of the original vampire.
‘Dracula’ is a novel that probes deeply into people’s superstitions, fears and beliefs of the supernatural. The creature Dracula is an evil being with no concern for others, he kills for his own ends and cannot be stopped, and this is what makes ‘Dracula’ truly frightening.
Dracula, by Bram Stoker, is a classic tale of Gothicism. Traditionally, gothic tales only carried single theme of horror. Through Dracula, Stoker breaks this single theme barrier. The theme throughout Dracula is clearly displayed through the characters as they step from ignorance to realization in this tale of horror.
Dracula, the most famous vampire of all time, which readers were first introduced to by Irish author Bram Stoker in 1897 with his novel Dracula, which tells the story of the mysterious person named Count Dracula (Stoker). The book is an outstanding masterpiece of work, which is why it has been a prototype for various movie releases over the decades. Whenever a film director decides to make a movie on behalf of a novel the hope is that the characters concur from the novel to the movie, which leads to the exploration of the resemblances and modifications between the characters in Dracula the novel by Bram Stoker and Bram Stoker’s Dracula 1992 movie directed by Francis Ford Coppola.