A Comparison Of Dracula And Bram Stoker's Dracula

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Bram Stoker’s Dracula can be compared to F.W Murnau’s, 1922 film Nosferatu, due to the similarities in characters, plot, and the myth of vampires. The novel is a horror story of Dracula’s attempt to find new blood and spread the undead curse. Throughout the novel Dracula is challenged by a group of men in order to defeat the curse, destroy the undead, and enjoy their lives with a new sense of freedom. However in Nosferatu, Count Orlock’s attempt to obtain woman’s blood leads to sacrifice and death. These stories follow such similar outlines, such as slightly changing the names of characters, that the movie was charged with copyright, and every copy was destroyed. Fortunately, some copies made it secretly into the U.S, where the movie was not …show more content…

The main characteristic that these two vampires share is their love for blood. They both need the sweet taste of blood to survive, and therefore they both don’t need to eat. But these two characters also have their differences, as shown is the movie, Count Orlock is extremely stiff compared to Dracula. In my opinion, also, after reading the book and watching the movie, Count Orlock seems to be more realistic but less gruesome than Dracula. Many scenes, in both the book and the movie, follow the same story lines, but change a few of the key details. In the beginning of the novel, Dracula is in charge of transporting Harker to his castle, and the same is shown with Hutter in Count Orlock. By connecting these parts in both the book and the movie, it is able to show the reader the extent that both Dracula and Count Orlock went through in order to get the blood they needed to survive. At the castle, a very pivotal scene emerges when Harker, in Dracula, cuts himself while shaving and Dracula reacts at the sight of blood. A key difference is that in Dracula, Dracula throws the razor out of Harkers bedroom window, but in Nosferatu, Count Orlock sucks the blood right off of Hutter’s hand. Finally, the last key difference between Dracula and Count Orlock is that they both die in different manners. Dracula was killed after Quincey Morris stabbed him in the heart, and Count Orlock died by being compelled into rays of sunlight. However, both crumbled into a pile of dust once they were finally defeated. By having Dracula and Count Orlock share many qualities, but changing key parts throughout the story, it can suggest that F.W Murnau wanted to keep Stoker’s idea of a vampire, while giving it his own

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