Vlad III Dracula And Dracul Vlad The Impaler

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As of late, society has stolen the traditional idea of a vampire. These undead creatures are manipulated in countless genres and media, ranging from comedic reliefs and complex villains to sparkly heartthrobs. Songs, video games, movies, books, and TV shows all are guilty of this. Movies in particular have done the most with vampires, and clearly show their evolution in society’s eyes. In the earliest movies such as Nosferatu; directed by F. W. Murnau, and Dracula; directed by Todd Browning and Karl Freund, vampires are used as devices of horror. They are meant to be unhuman and terrifying. As time passes, they become portrayed in sympathetic lights and with more human traits. Emotions such as love, guilt, and fear were added to vampire vocabulary, …show more content…

Bram Stoker’s Dracula has increased the number of vampires in media exponentially, partly because of one man: Vlad the Impaler. He, as well as other various sources, led to what is known as the vampire today. To understand how one person inspired so much, one must start at the life of Vlad III Dracula, famously known as Vlad the Impaler. Vlad was born in Signisoara, Transylvania in 1431 (Goldberg 18). His father, Vlad Dracul, was a knight in the Order of the Dragon under Emperor Sigismund (Goldberg 19). Dracul gained political power, and eventually the throne to Wallachia (Goldberg 25). After failing to help the Turks obtain new territories, they made him give up his throne unless he sacrificed one thing: his sons (Goldberg 31). At the age of 12, he was sent to the city of Adrianople (Goldberg 33) and was raised with violence. Meanwhile, Vlad Dracul’s rule was threatened once again. Local leaders known as boyars (Goldberg 12) rebelled and killed Dracul (Goldberg 13). As a result, Dracula was sent into the Turkish army as an officer and began to thirst for power (Goldberg 41). When Wallachia was temporarily unoccupied in 1448, Vlad Dracula claimed it for two short-lived months and was only 17 when he did this. When the previous ruler returned, it was reclaimed almost immediately (Goldberg 46). Vlad the Impaler took the throne again from 1456 to 1462 (Wertsman 1996). In fact, he attempted and failed to hold onto Wallachia …show more content…

Upon its release, it performed mediocrely, and was not even one of Stoker’s best works (Stepanic 3:38). It was only mentioned briefly in Stoker’s obituary (Stepanic 3:40). Without the events that followed, Count Dracula would have been lost to history, sitting on a shelf collecting dust. 25 years after the novel was published, a German studio adapted the story into the famed Nosferatu in 1922 (Stepanic 3:55). It was a silent black and white film, and was directed by F.W. Murnau (Wertsman 1996). The plot followed Stoker’s novel to a tee, except for the name and some minor events, and because the studio did not pay royalties, they were sued to bankruptcy (Stepanic 3:55). Stoker’s widow, Florence Balcombe Stoker, sought to avoid the copyright issue from occurring again. She gave the stage production rights to a family friend, Hamilton Deane (Stepanic 4:21). Deane’s play was a major hit, and had over 391 performances at the Little Theatre in London (Wertsman 1996). It also played at the Lyceum Theatre and Grand Theatre Derby (Wertsman 1996). The major success could be credited to Bela Lugosi, who played the vampire in the stage production as well as the Universal Studios’ film (Stepanic 4:40). Lugosi’s incredible acting helped make Dracula (1931) known as “the first horror film” (Wertsman

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