In the year 1897, Bram Stoker releases the crown jewel of the 20th century: his vampire epic Dracula. Ever since Dracula, Transylvania, and castles have been associative of vampirism, the world has become “bloody”. There are slight deviations to the novel, but the majority of them are fairly partial to the novel. Worldly views show Dracula as an old man with a new face. The inception of Bram Stoker’s Dracula has been the melting pot of the recreations and incarnations of the world’s deadliest, bloodsucking vampire, Count Dracula.
On a bumpy train ride to the quiet, picturesque landscape of Transylvania, a man named Jonathan Harker is set to visit one of his boss’s clients, a man named Count Dracula. Upon arrival, Jonathan is on pledge to “Come freely. Go safely; and leave something of the happiness …” (Stoker 23). But slowly, Jonathan realizes that he is becoming a prisoner in the Count’s castle, and that his host is a vampire! Finally, after surviving three months in the castle, Jonathan escapes with his dear life. He comes back to London and assembles a band to defeat the “devil”--ridding the world of evil. The killing of Count Dracula greatly diminishes the evil of the world, but not completely. The reason is that Satan (or a Satanic figure) can never completely die out. He will come back to haunt us with his dark power. Which is an interesting perspective, if one thinks about the actual “Devil”. When Bram Stoker writes Dracula, he is “basing his vampire on an actual historical figure. Stoker’s model was Vlad IV Dracula” (“Vlad Dracula”). The name Dracula is Romanian for “Devil”. Vlad was a terrible person, who was known as the “Impaler” (“Vlad Dracula”). This is a nifty name for a terrible tyrant. In the vampire novel Dracula...
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...uge hit for crowds. Gary Oldman skyrockets to fame as his portrayal of the Count. The fine details of this character make him a huge hit with fans. By the late 90’s, the vampire era slowly slumps down. But miraculously in 2008, Twilight releases to a huge audience, and the vampire epic is brought back into its old fashion, with a new theme ahead for the future generation: love between humans and vampires.
Count Dracula is written into vampire history and lasts to this day. He is now unarguably the most worlds’ most famous vampire. Count Dracula is the lasting legacy that Bram Stoker leaves on this Earth. Even to this day, he is never able to hide from the aura of vampirism and awe that he is leaving behind today. In the dawn of the vampire age, Bram Stoker’s Dracula has given a spark to the fire of vampire culture that has been ever growing into the 21st century.
This fictional character was soon to be famous, and modified for years to come into movie characters or even into cereal commercials. But the original will never be forgotten: a story of a group of friends all with the same mission, to destroy Dracula. The Count has scared many people, from critics to mere children, but if one reads between the lines, Stoker’s true message can be revealed. His personal experiences and the time period in which he lived, influenced him to write Dracula in which he communicated the universal truth that good always prevails over evil. Religion was a big part of people’s lives back in Stoker’s time.
The late nineteenth century Irish novelist, Bram Stoker is most famous for creating Dracula, one of the most popular and well-known vampire stories ever written. Dracula is a gothic, “horror novel about a vampire named Count Dracula who is looking to move from his native country of Transylvania to England” (Shmoop Editorial Team). Unbeknownst of Dracula’s plans, Jonathan Harker, a young English lawyer, traveled to Castle Dracula to help the count with his plans and talk to him about all his options. At first Jonathan was surprised by the Count’s knowledge, politeness, and overall hospitality. However, the longer Jonathan remained in the castle the more uneasy and suspicious he became as he began to realize just how strange and different Dracula was. As the story unfolded, Jonathan realized he is not just a guest, but a prisoner as well. The horror in the novel not only focuses on the “vampiric nature” (Soyokaze), but also on the fear and threat of female sexual expression and aggression in such a conservative Victorian society.
While Cullen chose the path of compassion and became a doctor (Meyers, 2005; pp. 339), the Count planned to invade the British empire (Stoker, 1897/2001; pp. 328). Healing or invading, both can get lonely with time. Cullen, as a physician had decided to turn a human into vampires only if he could save them from death. All the humans that Cullen changed, he called them as his family. They were part of his coven and moved with him wherever he went (Meyer, 2005). On the other hand, count Dracula took by force and against the will of his victims. He possessed the power to hypnotize and control his victims, as he controlled Mina when he forced her to drink his blood (Stoker, 1897/2001). He lives with three beautiful female vampires in his castle, but their relationship to the Count is not clarified in the book. In chapter 3, when they are scolded by the Count for attacking Harker, they taunt him that he does not love, Dracula responds that “Yes, I too can love; you yourselves can tell it from the past” (Stoker 1897/2001; pp. 39). Although they exist in the castle and are fed by the count as noted in Jonathan’s diary entry, Dracula has no apparent interest in them. Similarly, after he changes Lucy Westenra to a vampire he stops visiting her. He feels no need to connect or form relationships with the humans he changes. As immortals, both Cullen and Count Dracula are destined to
Through the gothic writing of Stoker, there was a huge intimidation of Dracula coming forth from it. “Stoker spared no effort to present his demonic vampire as dramatically as possible” (Leatherdale 105-17). With this sinister presence of death, people start to panic. As a vampire hunter, it was Helsing’s job to help notify people on how to rid themselves of this demon. Stoker portrays survival in the form of teamwork between the men and women of the novel. These characters soon take survival into their own hands. “‘We must trace each of those boxes; and when we are ready, we must either capture or kill this monster in his lair; or we must, so to speak, sterilize the earth, so that no more he can seek safety in it’” (Stoker 373). At this point in the novel, the characters know about the existence of vampires. The consequences are also put on top priority. The men know of the consequences, yet still want to go after this demon. “By chasing Dracula, the men risk being sentenced to an immortal life as a vampire. This immortality is endless time lived in physical form” (Poquette 35). Knowing the risks of hunting a vampire, the characters ignore them to protect their loved ones. A vampire hunter is an important factor in the novel because without one, the other characters wouldn’t know what to do. Stoker chose right in including
Miller, Elizabeth. “Dracula: The History of Myth and the Mystery of History.” Journal of the Dark 9 (1996): Accessed November 9, 2013. http://www.ucs.mun.ca/~emiller/myth.html
"When the Count saw my face, his eyes blazed with a sort of demoniac fury, and he suddenly made a grab at my throat” (Stoker 28). Also to help with the influence in the two, Stoker gave the name Dracula after the real Vlad the Impaler. “Vlad the Impaler was well known for the punishment that he adopted, the impalement, this is the reason why he was named Tepes, which means The Impaler.” (“Vlad”) However instead of being an infamous vampire, Vlad was known for his method of impaling criminals and enemies and raising them in the town for all to see. To add onto Vlads amazing personality and how he was as a person. He was also known for his various means of torture. He would “cut limbs off of people, blind them, strangle them, burn them, cut off their noses and ears, scalping, skinning, and he would even sometimes boil people alive” (“Vlad”). However Dracula wasn’t as vicious and as evil as Vlad was, he was still just as blood thirsty. "With his left hand he held both Mrs. Harker 's hands, keeping them away with her arms at full tension; his right hand gripped her by the back of the neck, forcing her face down” (Stoker 310-311). Vlad the Impaler, the basis of where the infamous Dracula was born, was a very vicious and blood thirsty
Keeping all of these in mind we can see why the story of Dracula is so attractive to us. The Dracula character being a cult figure is because of the fact that his character carries the sins and the emotions of the 20th century: killing, rape, incest, fascism… On the other hand, despite all these Dracula did not forget his true love. Maybe everyone of us finds his/her darkness in the Count and that’s why many people sympathise with him. Whatever it is, the truth is that in the end Count Dracula dies but in real world he has promoted to immortality as a heroic and charismatic character.
Coppola accomplishes this by introducing an exposition that reveals the creation of the Count Dracula. However, in this account Dracula is not “born” sinful, but is created by the loss of his eternal love and her damnation by religion. In this prologue, which is a creation of Coppola, a human Dracula is shown leaving his bride, Elisabeta, to protect his country, land, and religious convictions. The warrior prince survives, but man’s deception leads to his bride’s death. Dracula returns to his castle inconsolable due to the mortality of the woman he “prized above all other things on earth” (Bram Stoker’s Dracula). Overcome by his anguish and the priest’s pronouncement that her soul is damned and can never gain entrance to heaven, Dracula abandons God. He thrust a sword into the Cross of Christ and cries, “I renounce God! I shall rise from my own death…to avenge her with all of the powers of darkness. The blood is the life…and it shall be mine” (Bram Stoker’s Dracula). Throughout the movie, Coppola illustrates that even though Dracula is evil, it is a result of the death of human love. Evil is not separated from emotion, but born from it. Dracula has sentenced himself to an eternal life of grief. The story then flashes forward 435 years into the
Matter of fact, one of the most inhumane monster like encounters was when Harker first met Dracula and he said, “'Enter freely and of your own will!”’ Harker thought to himself: “[He] Stood like a statue, as though his gesture of welcome had fixed him into stone. The instant I stepped over he moved impulsively forward…grasped [my hand] with a strength which made me wine” (Stoker22). This supernatural confrontation with Dracula dehumanizes him in a way that makes him more monstrous then human. Stokers emphasis on the phrase “'Enter freely and of your own will”’ holds a much deeper and frightening connotation behind it, causing the hairs of his readers to stand up in fear. Another time we see Dracula’s obscure energetic behavior, is when he begs Harker to teach him ‘fluent’ English: “I long to go through the crowded streets of London, to be in the midst of the whirl and rush of humanity, to share its life, its change, its death, and all that makes it what it is” (Stoker 27). Dracula’s use of terminology to describe a humane society are so horrifying that it barbarizes him into something much more dangerous than a monster. Stoker creates this perfect illusion that’s only evident to the eyes of the reader, and it shows how dangerous and monstrous Dracula truly is.
As the saying goes, “Women can do everything Men can do.” In the Gothic Novel Dracula by Bram Stoker, there is a constant theme of sexuality, from both male and females in society. In the Victorian era, the roles of male and females have caused a lot of tension. After reading Dracula, some would argue the roles men and women hold in society. As mentioned in Dr. Seward’s Dairy from Val Halsing., “Ah, that wonderful Madam Mina! She has man’s brain—a brain that a man should have were he much gifted—and a woman’s heart. The good God fashioned her for a purpose, believe me, when He made that so good combination” (Stoker and Hindle, 2003 250). A women’s mind is not the always the first thing on a males mind. Some would overlook what a woman really has to offer.
The vampire is an embodiment of society's deepest fears. Throughout literary history, the vampire has always been characterised as a vile figure of pure evil. However the depiction of the vampire is affected by the social, historical and political context of the time. As said context shifts, so does the collective fear of society and the portrayal of the vampire follows suit. Dracula, I Am Legend and Twilight are three extremely popular books of vampire fiction created during vastly different points in history. In Dracula, the titular character, is depicted as an anti-christ figure as Bram Stoker, the author, warns people about the dangers of straying away from traditional Christian ideals. I Am Legend, a post-apocalyptic novel, emphasises
While the character of Renfield is ostensively extraneous to the central plot of Dracula, he fulfils an important role in Stoker’s exploration of the central themes of the novel. This paper will examine how Renfield character is intertwined with the three central themes of invasion, blood and otherness. Firstly, through Renfield’s inner struggle we learn that he is ‘not his own master’ (Stoker, 211). The theme of invasion is revealed by the controlling and occupying powers of Count Dracula. Secondly, the recurring theme ‘the Blood is the Life’ (Stoker, 121), is portrayed throughout the novel and has been interpreted through Stoker’s character Renfield. Then finally, a look at the social construction of the ‘other’ in Dracula and how, through Renfield, who is ‘unlike the normal lunatic’ (Stoker, 52), the Count emerges as the ‘other’ of all ‘others’.
Podonsky, Amanda M. "Bram Stoker's Dracula: A Reflection and Rebuke of Victorian Society." Student Pulse: The International Student Journal. N.p., 2010. Web. 25 Mar. 2014.
The author’s op-ed piece was published in 2009, the very peak of the vampire contagion, where one could find these creatures wherever they looked. This pandemonium that arose from vampires is what drove del Toro and Hogan to pen “Why Vampires Never Die.” Furthermore, the purpose behind this essay is to give an abridged description of the past of vampires for the people who had become fanatics of the creatures. Also, this essay showed how vampires have persisted in pop culture. They suggest that vampires have been remade by diverse cultures at different times, and this change echoes that society's angst and concerns. The novelist’s imply that Stroker’s Dracula may mirror an exaggerated human on a prim...
In the novel Dracula, Stoker uses unbelievable strength, illusions and supernatural abilities to create his diabolical vampire. The first four chapters are told through the eyes of Jonathan Harker, a young english solicitor, who is at castle Dracula to finalize a legal transaction with the Count. Throughout Jonathan’s journals, Stoker introduces the powers of the vampire one-by-one.