Mythologies: The Stories We Imagine for Ourselves During a quiet night, a black shadow sneaks in the room under the door with a creepy cold wind. The shadow climbs up to the bed and sees if the child is falling asleep or not, otherwise, it will treat the child as a dessert. If anyone asks a child what is the scariest thing he has ever heard about, the child might say: “It is some stories my parents told me before I went to bed!” Perhaps everyone has this kind of experience. Yet, where do these stories come from? These stories come from people. Since human beings could talk, we told stories, we told legends, and then mythologies appeared, started from people’s heart. Everyone has fear, and then people told stories to explain our fear. Take “Bloody Mary” as an example. “Bloody Mary” is a game that people need to stand in front of a mirror with a candle in hands, and whisper “Bloody Mary” three times. After bloody Mary appears in the mirror, if she is happy she will tell people anything that they want …show more content…
“Dracula” is a gothic horror novel written by Irish author Bram Stoker. In the novel, Dracula is not only a smart, charming gentleman, but also a bloodthirsty merciless vampire. It is worth mentioning that the story of “Dracula” was inspired by a real person named Vlad Dracula, but this did not mean Vlad Dracula was a vampire. Vlad Dracula, prince of Wallachia, was very famous for his reputation for cruelty. As the 25 Most Evil People in History wrote that “He would like to cut off people’s noses, ears, hands, feet, limbs, and sexual organs. He often cut of peoples private parts (especially in the case of women) and would keep them. He liked to eat and drink around bodies of dead and naked people that had stakes through them” (25 Most Evil People in History). What Vlad Dracula has done send a chill to everyone’s heart. People were afraid of him, even nowadays we are still scared of what he has
Batman beats the Joker. Spiderman banishes the Green Goblin. For centuries story tellers have used the basic idea of good beats bad to guide their tales. Stories of blood sucking, human possessions and other tales have been passed down generations and vary between cultures. Among the creators of the famous protagonists is, Bram Stoker, the creator of Dracula. 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 betweens the line, 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.
Vlad would punish his enemies for not only war crimes but for crimes against God for not remaining pure such as cutting off the breasts of women for not remaining virgins. This was an extreme version of what the Victorian era was about, despite his drastic measures, Vlad and most of the society during this era had the same values. Stoker used the identity of Vlad Dracula to create this monster who lusts for women and men alike for their blood as a way to let out his own sexual frustration. As he was unable to let them out himself due to the type of society he was placed in, where he would be chastised and judged he did this in his own way to let out the inner battle he was facing within himself. From being a war hero in Romania to being a sadist, Vlad Dracula was a real person who became the model of what the Victorian era could use to scare people into remaining
The presence of racial stereotypes and commentary on the interaction of different races is a cornerstone of the Dracula narrative. In Stoker’s novel, Count Dracula is representative of the growing European culture of xenophobia and anti-Semitism which would rise to near hysteria in the coming decades. The concept of race was not limited to skin color or nationality in the nineteenth century, and was a means of categorizing people by “cultural as well as physical attributes” (Warren 127). Dracula is described as being covetous of ancient gold and jewels, childlike and simple in his malice, and more animalistic than human, traits frequently attributed to the Jewish people by Christian society (Newman). His material appearance is distinguished by extremely pale skin, dark features, a nose with a “high bridge…and peculiarly arched nostrils,” and “bushy hair that seemed to curl of its own profusion.” Stoker’s audience would have recognized...
After a few years his father and brother were assassinated by the Wallachian nobles, after that he began a long series of campaigns to regain his father seat, during which he committed the atrocities he was most famous for such as impaling his enemies through wooden stakes. The common misconception that Dracula is Vlad stemmed from Vlad’s name and his thirst for blood, even though some of his people had believed that he was some type of demon or vampire, but that was just not true. This false thinking has been around since the release of Bram Stoker’s book Dracula. Though there is another thing that both Dracula and Vlad share, it is that they are both monsters who thirst for blood, the former of which is the blood of the innocent while the latter is the blood of those he deemed sinners.
Dracula was concerned with female chastity and often cut women’s sexual organs or breast off, who had committed adultery. Some sources narrate stories of women impaled through the vagina on hot stakes. Despite these acts of cruelty, Dracula insisted Wallachians to be honest and hard working. Scholars believe Dracula’s actions may indeed be interpreted as efforts to strengthen and sustain the government while ensuring the security and productivity of his people. Bibliography: The Historical Dracula, Ray Porter, http://www.eskimo.com/~mwirkk/castle/vlad/vladhist.html, 16/10/04 Vlad Dracula: An intriguing figure in the fifteen century, Benjamin H. Leblanc, http://members.aol.com/johnfranc/drac05.htm, 20/11/04
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.
Vlad was long lost memory too few in history until the author Bram Stoker brought him to popularity with just his common known name, Dracula. His original name for the book was Count Wampyr but in the end he decided on Dracula which he found in a book he was reading at the time. Bram states there are no connections between Vlad and Dracula but there is a statement made by a character in Van Hassling that questions this, “Dracula must, indeed, have been that Voivode Dracula who won his name against the Turks… If it be so, then was he no common man; for in that time, and for centuries after, he was spoken of as the cleverest and most cunning, as well as the braves of the sons of ‘the land beyond forest.” Vlad is and will always be the “Historical Vampire”.(“”Elizabeth Bathory” “Vlad Tepes” “Dracula””)
Throughout decades of cheesy horror movies, the image of vampires have been misconstrued as sparkly, angsty teenage boys or handsome men that lure in girls for the fresh blood of a virgin. Many of these stereotypical vampires are influenced by the story of Dracula, held in the Victorian era. During this period, sexuality is repressed by society, as sexual behaviors from women are viewed as unacceptable. Yet, many of the stories published about vampires diverge from the message that Bram Stoker was trying to make. In the Gothic horror novel Dracula, Bram Stoker uses the traumatic experience of Jonathan Harker at Count Dracula’s castle and the invasion of vampires in Great Britain to create a social commentary on the sexual repression occurring
In Bram Stoker's Dracula, the most blatant and powerful symbol is blood. He takes the blood that means so much to the believers of this legend and has it represent more than even they could imagine. Blood is the main object associated with vampires and vampirism. From a mythical standpoint, it is the basis of life for the vampires as they feed off of the blood of young, vibrant souls. From a more scientific standpoint blood is what would drip out of the corpse's mouth when family members would dig up their dead kin to check for the dreaded disease. Stoker takes the significance of this symbol and puts his own unique twist to the meaning of blood. He combines the traditional folklore of vampirism and the immense sexual undertones of the Victorian era to create a simply horrific tale which completely confuses the emotions of his readers. Stoker knew bloods importance in vampire history and used the overwhelming symbolism to convey his own personal lust and sexual obsessions. The scenes where Lucy is receiving transfusions; first from Holmwood, then from Seward, and the unforgettable vampire baptism between Dracula and Mina all have these very erotic, sexual feelings associated with them. What makes these so powerful is the combination of violence and sex. As a reader, you know that what Dracula is doing are horrific and wrong, but because they are so sexually described and associated you think you should enjoy them, but you can't. This is the confusion which stoker implements into his readers minds, especially ones of the Victorian era. This is why stoker used blood as the most important symbol in the novel; to create an intense horror that was not just in the words of the book, but in the minds of the reader.
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)
Dracula can be heard in many newspapers, magazines, letters, etc. Everyone has his or her own view of the characters in the book. While according to Carol Senf, the novel is written in mainly ways of expressing both good and evil. As we read the book, we all find that all of the characters are scared of Dracula. Secondly, one of the main points Senf brings up is that all the characters in the book are scared of the blood sucking monster because of his open sexuality.
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.
The most famous vampire is Dracula, the main character in the book Dracula written by Bram Stoker in 1897. It is said that Stoker was inspired by the Transylvanian Prince VladIII, also known as Vlad Dracula, but other than the name there are not many similarities that prove he was Stoker’s role model. Before Stoker shocked the...
In the film adaptation of Dracula, the origins of the title character are explained to provide a motive for the love obsession between the title character and his lover. In the film, Dracula is said to be the notorious prince of Romania known as Vlad the Impaler. This idea stems from a theory that Bram Stoker actually patterned the character of Dracula after a real prince of Romania named Voivode. The movie shows that after a very bloody battle in 1463 against the Turks, Prince Vlad came back to his castle in Transylvania to find that his adored Elisabeta (played by Winona Ryder) had committed suicide. Dracula says, “I, Dracula, Voivode of Transylvania, will arise from my own death to avenge hers with all the powers of darkness!” He condemns God and makes a pact with the devil to become immortal by feeding on other ...
Throughout time, mankind has forged stories and legends to explain the unknown. As years went along the stories and tall tales were passed down to each generation. Each recount of the inherited stories are always told differently, how the story was told usually depended on the person and their particular region of habitance. Thus leading to hundreds of different versions of a single story told throughout the world, written and told by different people. Not only are these stories told as pure entertainment, they serve as wise life lessons and set examples for children when they were eventually introduced to society. These stories are so prominent in human history that even to this day the same stories that were told to children centuries ago