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Count Dracula

Dracula character
Count Dracula as portrayed by Bla Lugosi in 1931's
Dracula
Created by Bram Stoker
Portrayed
by
Bela Lugosi (Dracula, 1931)
Lon Chaney, Jr. ("Son of Dracula")
Christopher Lee (Dracula, 1958)
Louis Jourdan (Count Dracula, 1977)
Frank Langella (Dracula, 1979)
Duncan Regehr (The Monster Squad)
George Hamilton (actor) (Love at First
Bite, 1979)
Gary Oldman (Dracula, 1992)
Leslie Nielsen (Dracula, 1995)
Gerard Butler (Dracula, 2000)
Richard Roxburgh (Van Helsing)
Langley Kirkwood (Dracula 3000)
Thomas Kretschmann (Dracula 3D)
Jonathan Rhys Meyers (Dracula TV
series)
Adam Sandler (Hotel Transylvania,
2012)
Luke Evans (Dracula Untold)
Information
Species Vampire
Gender Male
Count Dracula
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
(Redirected from Count dracula)
Count Dracula is the title character and primary antagonist
of Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic horror novel Dracula. He is
considered thus to be both the prototypical and the
archetypical vampire in subsequent works of fiction. Some
aspects of the character are believed to have been inspired
by the 15th-century Romanian general and Wallachian Prince
Vlad III the Impaler, who was also known as Dracula. Other
character aspects have been added or altered in subsequent
popular media fictional works. The character has
subsequently appeared frequently in popular culture, from
films to animated media to breakfast cereals.
Contents
1 Stoker's creation
1.1 Characteristics
1.2 Powers and weaknesses
2 Character development subsequent to the novel
3 Modern and postmodern analyses of the character
4 See also
5 Notes
6 References
7 External links
Stoker's creation
Bram Stoker's novel takes the form of an epistolary tale, in
which Count Dracula's characteristics, powers, abilities and
weaknesses are narrated by multiple narrators, from different
perspectives.
[1]
The most informative of these narrators are
Jonathan Harker, John Seward, and Mina Harker.
Count Dracula is a centuries-old vampire, sorcerer, and
Transylvanian nobleman, who claims to be a Szkely
descended from Attila the Hun. He inhabits a decaying castle
in the Carpathian Mountains near the Borgo Pass. Unlike the
vampires of Eastern European folklore, which are portrayed
as repulsive, corpse-like creatures, Dracula exudes a veneer
of aristocratic charm. In his conversations with Jonathan
Spouse(s) Brides of Dracula
Nationality Szkely
Max Schreck as Count
Orlok, the first confirmed
cinematic representation
of Dracula.
Harker, he reveals himself as deeply proud of his boyar
heritage and nostalgic for the past times, which he admits
have become only a memory of heroism, honor and valor in
modern times.
Details of his early life are obscure, but it seems that Dracula studied the black arts at the academy of Scholomance
in the Carpathian Mountains, overlooking the town of Sibiu (also known as Hermannstadt) and became proficient in
alchemy and magic.
[2]
Taking up arms, as befitting his rank and status as a voivode, he led troops against the Turks
across the Danube. According to Van Helsing: "He must indeed have been that Voivode Dracula who won his
name against the Turk, over the great river on the very frontier of Turkey-land. 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 the most cunning, as well as the
bravest of the sons of the land beyond the forest."
[3]
Dead and buried in a great tomb in the chapel of his castle,
Dracula returns from death as a vampire and lives for several centuries in his castle with three beautiful female
vampires beside him.
[4]
They seem to bear a possible family resemblance
[5]
though whether they be his lovers,
sisters, daughters, or vampires made by him is not made clear in the narrative.
As the novel begins in the late 19th century, Dracula acts on a long contemplated
plan for world domination, and infiltrates London to begin his reign of terror. He
summons Jonathan Harker, a newly qualified English solicitor, to provide legal
support for a real estate transaction overseen by Harker's employer. Dracula at first
charms Harker with his cordiality and historical knowledge, and even rescues him
from the clutches of the three female vampires in the castle. In truth, however,
Dracula wishes to keep Harker alive long enough to complete the legal transaction
and to learn as much as possible about England.
Dracula leaves his castle and boards a Russian ship, the Demeter, taking along with
him boxes of Transylvanian soil, which he needs in order to regain his strength.
During the voyage to Whitby, a coastal town in northern England, he sustains himself
on the ship's crew members. Only one body is later found, that of the captain, who is
found tied up to the ship's helm. The captain's log is recovered and tells of strange
events that had taken place during the ship's journey. Dracula leaves the ship in the
form of a dog.
Soon the Count is menacing Harker's fiance, Wilhelmina "Mina" Murray, and her
friend, Lucy Westenra. There is also a notable link between Dracula and Renfield, a
patient in an insane asylum compelled to consume insects, spiders, birds, and other creaturesin ascending order
of sizein order to absorb their "life force". Renfield acts as a kind of sensor, reacting to Dracula's proximity and
supplying clues accordingly. Dracula begins to visit Lucy's bed chamber on a nightly basis, draining her of blood
while simultaneously infecting her with the curse of vampirism. Not knowing the cause for Lucy's deterioration, her
companions call upon the Dutch doctor Abraham Van Helsing, the former mentor of one of Lucy's suitors. Van
Helsing soon deduces her condition's supernatural origins, but does not speak out. Despite an attempt at keeping
the vampire at bay with garlic, Dracula entices Lucy out of her chamber late at night and transforms her into one of
the undead.
Van Helsing and Lucy's former suitors John Seward, Arthur Holmwood and Quincey Morris enter her crypt and
kill her. Later, Harker joins them and they enter Dracula's residences at Carfax and Piccadilly, destroying his boxes
of earth, depriving the Count of his ability to rest. Dracula leaves England to return to his homeland, but not before
biting Mina.
The final section of the novel details the heroes racing Dracula back to Transylvania, and in a climactic battle with
Dracula's gypsy bodyguards, finally destroying him. Despite the popular image of Dracula having a stake driven
through his heart to kill him, Mina's narrative describes his throat being cut through by Jonathan Harker's kukri and
his heart pierced by Morris' Bowie knife (Mina Harker's Journal, 6 November, Dracula Chapter 27). His body
then turns into dust, but not before Mina Harker sees an expression of peace on Dracula's face.
Characteristics
Although early in the novel Dracula dons a mask of cordiality, he often flies into fits of rage when his plans are
interfered with. When the three vampire women who live in his castle attempt to seduce Jonathan Harker, Dracula
physically assaults one and ferociously berates them for their insubordination. He then relents and talks to them
more kindly, telling them that he does indeed love each of them.
Dracula is very passionate about his warrior heritage, emotionally proclaiming his pride to Harker on how the
Szkely people are infused with the blood of heroes. He does express an interest in the history of the British
Empire, speaking admiringly of its people. He has a somewhat primal and predatory worldview; he pities ordinary
humans for their revulsion to their darker impulses.
Though usually portrayed as having a strong Eastern European accent, the original novel only specifies that his
spoken English is excellent, though strangely toned.
His appearance varies in age. He is described early in the novel as thin, with a long white mustache, pointed ears
and sharp teeth. It is also noted later in the novel (Chapter 11 subsection "The Escaped Wolf") by a zookeeper that
sees him that he has a hooked nose and a pointed beard with a streak of white in it. He is dressed all in black and
has hair on his palms. Jonathan Harker described him as an old man; "cruel looking" and giving an effect of
"extraordinary pallor".
[6]
When angered the Count showed his true bestial nature, his blue eyes flaming red.
I saw... Count Dracula... with red light of triumph in his eyes, and with a smile that Judas in hell
might be proud of.
Jonathan Harker's Journal, Dracula, Chapter 4
As the novel progresses, Dracula is described as taking on a more and more youthful appearance.
Powers and weaknesses
Count Dracula is portrayed in the novel using many different supernatural abilities. He has superhuman strength
which, according to Van Helsing, is equivalent to that of 20 strong men. Being undead, he is immune to
conventional means of attack. Like all undead, he is immortal, though he can be killed by the traditional vampire
methods (wooden stakes, iron and/or steel weapons, wild rose, holy water, etc.)
[citation needed]
The only definite
way to kill him is by decapitating him preceded by impalement through the heart. The Count does not have to seek
victims regularly, and has the ability to remain inactive for centuries. The Count can defy gravity to a certain extent
and possesses superhuman agility; being able to climb upside down vertical surfaces in a reptilian manner. He has
powerful hypnotic and telepathic abilities, and is also able to command nocturnal animals such as bats and rats.
Dracula can also manipulate the weather, usually creating mists to hide his presence, but also storms such as in his
voyage in the Demeter. He can travel onto "unhallowed" ground such as the graves of suicides and those of his
victims. He can shapeshift at will, his featured forms in the novel being that of a bat, a wolf, a large dog and fog. He
is able to pass through tiny cracks or crevices while retaining his human form, described by Van Helsing as the
ability to become "so small". He also has the ability to vanish and reappear somewhere else. He requires no other
sustenance but fresh blood, which has the effect of rejuvenating him.
[7]
According to Van Helsing:
The Nosferatu do not die like the bees when they sting once. He is only stronger, and being stronger,
have yet more power to work evil.
Mina Harker's journal, Dracula, Chapter 18
One of Dracula's most mysterious powers is the ability to transfer his vampiric condition by biting others, who
become the vampires after death. According to Van Helsing:
They cannot die, but must go on age after age adding new victims and multiplying the evils of the
world. For all that die from the preying of the Un-dead become themselves Un-dead,and prey on their
kind. And so the circle goes on ever widening, like as the ripples from a stone thrown in the water.
Friend Arthur, if you had met that kiss which you know of before poor Lucy die, or again,last night
when you open your arms to her, you would in time, when you had died, have become nosferatu, as
they call it in Eastern europe, and would for all time make more of those Un-Deads that so have filled
us with horror.
He slowly transforms Lucy into a vampire and, following her destruction, sets his sights on Mina. To punish Mina he
forces her to drink his blood; this act gives him telepathic link to her thoughts.
The sun that rose on our sorrow this morning guards us in its course. Until it sets to-night, that monster
must retain whatever form he now has. He is confined within the limitations of his earthly envelope. He
cannot melt into thin air nor disappear through cracks or chinks or crannies. If he go through a
doorway, he must open the door like a mortal.
Johnathan Harker's journal, Dracula, Chapter 22
Dracula's powers are not unlimited, however. He is much less powerful in daylight and is only able to shift his form
at dawn, noon, and dusk (he can shift freely at night). The sun is not fatal to him, though, as sunlight does not burn
and destroy him upon contact.
He is repulsed by garlic, crucifixes, and sacramental bread, and he can only cross running water at low or high tide.
He is also unable to enter a place unless invited to do so; once invited, however, he can approach and leave the
premises at will.
While universally feared by the local people of Transylvania and even beyond, he somehow commands the loyalty
of gypsies and a band of Slovaks who transport his boxes on their way to London and to serve as an armed
convoy bringing his coffin back to the Castle. The Slovaks and gypsies appear to know his true nature, for they
laugh at Jonathan Harker, who tries to communicate his plight, and betray Harker's attempt to send a letter through
them by giving it to the Count.
Statue of Bla Lugosi as Count
Dracula, at the Hollywood Wax
Museum
Count Dracula is depicted as the "King Vampire", and can control other vampires who were his own victims but
also, as per the story "Dracula's Guest", those in farther away lands such as Styria who may or may not have been
Dracula's victims. His death can release the curse on any living victim of eventual transformation into vampire. But
Van Helsing reveals that were he to successfully escape, his continued existence would ensure that even if he did
not victimize Mina Harker further, she would transform into a vampire upon her eventual natural death.
He also requires Transylvanian soil to be nearby to him in order to successfully rest; otherwise, he will not be able
to recover his strength. Dracula's powers and weaknesses vary greatly in the many adaptations. Previous and
subsequent vampires from different legends have had similar vampire characteristics.
Character development subsequent to the novel
Main article: Dracula in popular culture
Dracula is arguably one of the most famous characters in popular culture.
He has been portrayed by more actors in more visual media adaptations
of the novel than any other horror character.
[8]
Actors who have played
him include Max Schreck, Bla Lugosi, John Carradine, Christopher
Lee, Francis Lederer, Denholm Elliott, Jack Palance, Louis Jourdan,
Frank Langella, Klaus Kinski, Gary Oldman, Leslie Nielsen, George
Hamilton, Keith-Lee Castle, Gerard Butler, Richard Roxburgh, Marc
Warren, Rutger Hauer, Stephen Billington, Thomas Kretschmann and
Dominic Purcell. Lon Chaney Jr. played either Dracula or his progeny in
the Universal film, "Son of Dracula." Of all the foregoing, it is generally
conceded that actor Bela Lugosi's stage and 1931 movie portrayal of
Dracula has, in appearance, speech, public personality, mannerisms and
dress, overshadowed Stoker's original conception of these character
aspects.
The character is closely associated with the western cultural archetype of
the vampire, and remains a popular Halloween costume.
Count Dracula appears in Mad Monster Party? voiced by Allen Swift. This version is shown to be wearing a
monocle. Count Dracula is among the monsters that Baron Boris von Frankenstein invites to the Isle of Evil in order
to show off the secret of total destruction and announce his retirement from the Worldwide Organization of
Monsters.
In Sesame Street there is a character called Count von Count who was based on Bela Lugosi's interpretation of
Count Dracula.
Count Dracula appears in Mad Mad Mad Monsters (a "prequel of sorts" to Mad Monster Party?) voiced again
by Allen Swift. He and his son are invited by Baron Henry von Frankenstein to attend the wedding of
Frankenstein's Monster and it's mate at the Transylvania Astoria Hotel.
An entire game series was based on Dracula, called "Castlevania" where you play to fight and kill Dracula in his
castle.
Portrait of Vlad III Dracula.
In 2003, Count Dracula, as portrayed by Lugosi in the 1931 film, was named as the 33rd greatest movie villain by
the American Film Institute.
Dracula appears as the lead character of Dracula the Un-dead, a novel by Stoker's great-grand nephew Dacre
presented as a sequel to the original. Set twenty-five years after the original novel, Dracula has gone to Paris as an
actor with the name Vladimir Basarab. He appears to be an anti-hero as he tries to protect his and Mina's son
Quincey Harker against another vampire Elizabeth Bathory. At the end of the novel he was able to kill Bathory but
was wounded by her and falls down a cliff with Mina, presumably dying. Sometime later Quincey went on a ship to
America, hoping for a better life. Unknown to him, boxes labeled as property of Vladimir Basarab are also loaded
on board. The ocean liner is later revealed to be the RMS Titanic.
Count Dracula appears in the 2012 CGI animated comedy film Hotel Transylvania voiced by Adam Sandler.
Here, he has a daughter named Mavis (voiced by Selena Gomez) and a deceased wife named Martha (voiced by
Jackie Sandler). Count Dracula is good friends with Frankenstein (voiced by Kevin James) and his wife Eunice
(voiced by Fran Drescher), Wayne and Wanda Werewolf (voiced by Steve Buscemi and Molly Shannon), Murray
the Mummy (voiced by Cee Lo Green) and Griffin the Invisible Man (voiced by David Spade). To keep his
daughter and the world's monsters safe from humans following Martha's death at the hands of an angry mob,
Dracula has a hotel built called Hotel Transylvania as a haven which is surrounded by a graveyard and a spooky
forest as a way to keep humans out. Once the construction is finished, Count Dracula gets all of the world's most
famous monsters to go check into Hotel Transylvania, a safe haven for all of the famous monsters to get away from
humankind. When a human named Jonathan (voiced by Andy Samberg) stumbles onto Hotel Transylvania, Dracula
works to attempt to get him away from the hotel, keep him disguised as a way to keep the monsters from finding
out, and keeping him from being made into a delicacy by Chef Quasimodo (voiced by Jon Lovitz). By the end of
the movie, Dracula ends up accepting that Mavis is in love with Jonathan while seeing that not all humans are bad
like the ones that he had previously encountered in the past.
Modern and postmodern analyses of the character
Already in 1958, Cecil Kirtly proposed that Count Dracula shared his
personal past with the historical Transylvanian-born Voivode Vlad III
Dracula of Wallachia, also known as Vlad the Impaler or Vlad epe.
Following the publication of In Search of Dracula by Radu Florescu
and Raymond McNally in 1972, this supposed connection attracted
much popular attention.
Historically, the name "Dracula" is the given name of Vlad epe' family,
a name derived from a secret fraternal order of knights called the Order
of the Dragon, founded by Sigismund of Luxembourg (king of Hungary,
Croatia and Bohemia, and Holy Roman Emperor) to uphold Christianity
and defend the Empire against the Ottoman Turks. Vlad II Dracul, father
of Vlad III, was admitted to the order around 1431 because of his
bravery in fighting the Turks and was dubbed Dracul (Dragon) thus his
son became Dracula (son of the dragon). From 1431 onward, Vlad II
wore the emblem of the order and later, as ruler of Wallachia, his coinage
bore the dragon symbol.
[9]
Stoker came across the name Dracula in his reading on Romanian history, and chose this to replace the name
(Count Wampyr) that he had originally intended to use for his villain. However, some Dracula scholars, led by
Elizabeth Miller, have questioned the depth of this connection as early as 1998. They argue that Stoker in fact knew
little of the historic Vlad III except for the name "Dracula". While having a conversation with Jonathan Harker in
Chapter 3, Dracula refers to his own background, and these speeches show elements which Stoker directly copied
from Wilkinson's book. Stoker mentions the Voivode of the Dracula race who fought against the Turks after the
defeat of Cossova, and was later betrayed by his brother, historical facts which unequivocally point to Vlad III,
described as "Vovode Dracula" by Wilkinson:
Who was it but one of my own race who as Voivode crossed the Danube and beat the Turk on his
own ground? This was a Dracula indeed! Woe was it that his own unworthy brother, when he had
fallen, sold his people to the Turk and brought the shame of slavery on them! Was it not this Dracula,
indeed, who inspired that other of his race who in a later age again and again brought his forces over
the great river into Turkey-land; who, when he was beaten back, came again, and again, though he
had to come alone from the bloody field where his troops were being slaughtered, since he knew that
he alone could ultimately triumph! (Chapter 3, pp 19)
The Count's intended identity is later commented by Professor Van Helsing, referring to a letter from his friend
Arminius:
He must, indeed, have been that Voivode Dracula who won his name against the Turk, over the great
river on the very frontier of Turkey-land. (Chapter 18, pp 145)
This indeed encourages the reader to identify the Count with the Voivode Dracula first mentioned by him in Chapter
3, the one betrayed by his brother: Vlad III Dracula, betrayed by his brother Radu the Handsome, who had chosen
the side of the Turks. But as noted by the Dutch author Hans Corneel de Roos, in Chapter 25, Van Helsing and
Mina drop this rudimentary connection to Vlad III and instead describe the Count's personal past as that of "that
other of his race" who lived "in a later age". By smoothly exchanging Vlad III for a nameless double, Stoker
avoided that his main character could be unambiguously linked to a historical person traceable in any history book.
Similarly, the novelist did not want to disclose the precise site of the Count's residence, Castle Dracula. As
confirmed by Stoker's own handwritten research notes, the novelist had a specific location for the Castle in mind
while writing the narrative: an empty mountain top in the Transylvanian Kelemen Alps near the former border with
Moldavia.
[10]
Efforts to promote the Poenari Castle (ca. 200 km away from the novel's place of action near the
Borgo Pass) as the "real Castle Dracula" have no basis in Stokers writing; Stoker did not know this building.
Regarding the Bran Castle near Braov, Stoker possibly saw an illustration of Castle Bran (Trzburg) in Charles
Boner's book on Transylvania.
[11]
Although Stoker may have been inspired by its romantic appearance, neither
Boner, nor Mazuchelli nor Crosse (who also mention Terzburg or Trzburg) associate it with Vlad III; for the site
of his fictitious Castle Dracula, Stoker preferred an empty mountain top.
Furthermore, Stoker's detailed notes reveal that the novelist was very well aware of the ethnic and geo-political
differences between the "Roumanians" or "Wallachs"/"Wallachians", descendants of the Dacians on the one hand,
and the Szkelys or Szeklers, allies of the Magyars or Hungarians on the other hand, whose interests were opposed
to that of the Wallachians. In the novel's original typewritten manuscript, the Count speaks of throwing off the
"Austrian yoke", which corresponds to the Szekler political point of view. This expression is crossed out, however,
and replaced by "Hungarian yoke" (as appearing in the printed version), which matches the historical perspective of
the Wallachians. This has been interpreted by some to mean that Stoker opted for the Wallachian, not the Szekler
interpretation, thus lending more consistency to the Romanian identity of his Count: although not identical with Vlad
III, the Vampire is portrayed as one of the "Dracula race".
[12]
It has been suggested by some that Stoker was influenced by the legend of Countess Elizabeth Bthory, who was
born in the Kingdom of Hungary and accused of the murder of 80 young women.
[13]
See also
Dracula
Dracula in popular culture
Tables of vampire traits
Count Orlok
Carmilla
Varney the Vampire
Vlad III the Impaler
Elizabeth Bthory
Mina Harker
List of fictional vampires
Alucard (Hellsing)
Notes
1. ^ Carol N. Senf "Dracula: The Unseen Face in the Mirror" in the Norton Critical Edition of Dracula (1997) by
Bram Stoker, edited by Nina Auerbach and David J. Skal: 421-31
2. ^ Dracula Chapter 18 and Chapter 23
3. ^ Mina Harker's Journal, 30 September, Dracula, Chapter 18
4. ^ Dracula Chapter 27
5. ^ Dracula Chapter 3
6. ^ Dracula, Chapter 2
7. ^ Dracula, Chapter 18
8. ^ Guinness World Records Experience (http://www.guinnessattractions.com/worldrecords.aspx)
9. ^ Vlad III (http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/631524/Vlad-III) Encyclopedia Britannica
10. ^ Hans Corneel de Roos, The Dracula Maps, in: The Ultimate Dracula, Moonlake Editions, Munich, 2012.
11. ^ Charles Boner, Transylvania: Its Product and Its People. London: Longmans, 1865. Referred to by Marius
Crian, The Models for Castle Dracula in Stokers Sources on Transylvania, Journal of Dracula Studies Nr 10
(2008)
12. ^ Hans Corneel de Roos, Stoker's Vampire Trap: Vlad the Impaler and his Nameles Double, Linkoeping University
Electronic Press, Linkping Electronic Articles in Computer and Information Science, ISSN 1401-9841, Vol. 15
(2012): no. 2. 2012, p. 7.
13. ^ bathory.org/miller02.html (http://bathory.org/miller02.html)
References
Clive Leatherdale (1985) Dracula: the Novel and the Legend. Desert Island Books.
Bram Stoker (1897) Dracula. Norton Critical Edition (1997) edited by Nina Auerbach and David J. Skal.
Senf, Carol. Dracula: Between Tradition and Modernism (Twayne, 1998).
Senf, Carol A. Bram Stoker. University of Wales Press, 2010.
External links
Count Dracula (http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0002561/) at the Internet Movie Database
Bram Stoker Online (http://www.bramstoker.org/novels/05dracula.html) Full text, PDF and audio versions
of Dracula.
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