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 DraculaFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from Count dracula)

Count Dracula is the title character and primary antagonistof Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic horror novel Dracula. He isconsidered thus to be both the prototypical and thearchetypical vampire in subsequent works of fiction. Someaspects of the character are believed to have been inspiredby the 15th-century Romanian general and Wallachian PrinceVlad III the Impaler, who was also known as Dracula. Othercharacter aspects have been added or altered in subsequentpopular media fictional works. The character hassubsequently appeared frequently in popular culture, fromfilms to animated media to breakfast cereals.

Contents

1 Stoker's creation1.1 Characteristics

1.2 Powers and weaknesses

2 Character development subsequent to the novel

3 Modern and postmodern analyses of the character

4 See also5 Notes

6 References

7 External links

Stoker's creation

Bram Stoker's novel takes the form of an epistolary tale, inwhich Count Dracula's characteristics, powers, abilities andweaknesses are narrated by multiple narrators, from different

perspectives.[1] The most informative of these narrators areJonathan Harker, John Seward, and Mina Harker.

Count Dracula is a centuries-old vampire, sorcerer, andTransylvanian nobleman, who claims to be a Szkelydescended from Attila the Hun. He inhabits a decaying castlein the Carpathian Mountains near the Borgo Pass. Unlike thevampires of Eastern European folklore, which are portrayedas repulsive, corpse-like creatures, Dracula exudes a veneerof 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 boyarheritage and nostalgic for the past times, which he admitshave become only a memory of heroism, honor and valor inmodern times.

Details of his early life are obscure, but it seems that Dracula studied the black arts at the academy of Scholomancein 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 Turksacross the Danube. According to Van Helsing: "He must indeed have been that Voivode Dracula who won hisname against the Turk, over the great river on the very frontier of Turkey-land. If it be so, then was he no commonman: 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 contemplatedplan for world domination, and infiltrates London to begin his reign of terror. Hesummons Jonathan Harker, a newly qualified English solicitor, to provide legalsupport for a real estate transaction overseen by Harker's employer. Dracula at firstcharms Harker with his cordiality and historical knowledge, and even rescues himfrom 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 transactionand to learn as much as possible about England.

Dracula leaves his castle and boards a Russian ship, the Demeter, taking along withhim 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 himselfon the ship's crew members. Only one body is later found, that of the captain, who isfound tied up to the ship's helm. The captain's log is recovered and tells of strangeevents that had taken place during the ship's journey. Dracula leaves the ship in theform of a dog.

Soon the Count is menacing Harker's fiance, Wilhelmina "Mina" Murray, and herfriend, Lucy Westenra. There is also a notable link between Dracula and Renfield, apatient in an insane asylum compelled to consume insects, spiders, birds, and other creaturesin ascending orderof sizein order to absorb their "life force". Renfield acts as a kind of sensor, reacting to Dracula's proximity andsupplying clues accordingly. Dracula begins to visit Lucy's bed chamber on a nightly basis, draining her of bloodwhile simultaneously infecting her with the curse of vampirism. Not knowing the cause for Lucy's deterioration, hercompanions call upon the Dutch doctor Abraham Van Helsing, the former mentor of one of Lucy's suitors. VanHelsing soon deduces her condition's supernatural origins, but does not speak out. Despite an attempt at keepingthe vampire at bay with garlic, Dracula entices Lucy out of her chamber late at night and transforms her into one ofthe undead.

Van Helsing and Lucy's former suitors John Seward, Arthur Holmwood and Quincey Morris enter her crypt andkill her. Later, Harker joins them and they enter Dracula's residences at Carfax and Piccadilly, destroying his boxesof earth, depriving the Count of his ability to rest. Dracula leaves England to return to his homeland, but not beforebiting Mina.

The final section of the novel details the heroes racing Dracula back to Transylvania, and in a climactic battle withDracula's gypsy bodyguards, finally destroying him. Despite the popular image of Dracula having a stake driventhrough his heart to kill him, Mina's narrative describes his throat being cut through by Jonathan Harker's kukri andhis heart pierced by Morris' Bowie knife (Mina Harker's Journal, 6 November, Dracula Chapter 27). His bodythen 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 areinterfered with. When the three vampire women who live in his castle attempt to seduce Jonathan Harker, Draculaphysically assaults one and ferociously berates them for their insubordination. He then relents and talks to themmore 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 theSzkely people are infused with the blood of heroes. He does express an interest in the history of the BritishEmpire, speaking admiringly of its people. He has a somewhat primal and predatory worldview; he pities ordinaryhumans for their revulsion to their darker impulses.

Though usually portrayed as having a strong Eastern European accent, the original novel only specifies that hisspoken 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 earsand sharp teeth. It is also noted later in the novel (Chapter 11 subsection "The Escaped Wolf") by a zookeeper thatsees him that he has a hooked nose and a pointed beard with a streak of white in it. He is dressed all in black andhas 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 hellmight 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 strengthwhich, according to Van Helsing, is equivalent to that of 20 strong men. Being undead, he is immune toconventional 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 definiteway to kill him is by decapitating him preceded by impalement through the heart. The Count does not have to seekvictims regularly, and has the ability to remain inactive for centuries. The Count can defy gravity to a certain extentand possesses superhuman agility; being able to climb upside down vertical surfaces in a reptilian manner. He haspowerful 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 hisvictims. He can shapeshift at will, his featured forms in the novel being that of a bat, a wolf, a large dog and fog. Heis able to pass through tiny cracks or crevices while retaining his human form, described by Van Helsing as theability 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, whobecome 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 theworld. For all that die from the preying of the Un-dead become themselves Un-dead,and prey on theirkind. 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 nightwhen you open your arms to her, you would in time, when you had died, have become nosferatu, asthey call it in Eastern europe, and would for all time make more of those Un-Deads that so have filledus with horror.

He slowly transforms Lucy into a vampire and, following her destruction, sets his sights on Mina. To punish Mina heforces 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 monstermust retain whatever form he now has. He is confined within the limitations of his earthly envelope. Hecannot melt into thin air nor disappear through cracks or chinks or crannies. If he go through adoorway, 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 format dawn, noon, and dusk (he can shift freely at night). The sun is not fatal to him, though, as sunlight does not burnand 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 thepremises at will.

While universally feared by the local people of Transylvania and even beyond, he somehow commands the loyaltyof gypsies and a band of Slovaks who transport his boxes on their way to London and to serve as an armedconvoy bringing his coffin back to the Castle. The Slovaks and gypsies appear to know his true nature, for theylaugh at Jonathan Harker, who tries to communicate his plight, and betray Harker's attempt to send a letter throughthem 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 butalso, as per the story "Dracula's Guest", those in farther away lands such as Styria who may or may not have beenDracula's victims. His death can release the curse on any living victim of eventual transformation into vampire. ButVan Helsing reveals that were he to successfully escape, his continued existence would ensure that even if he didnot 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 ableto recover his strength. Dracula's powers and weaknesses vary greatly in the many adaptations. Previous andsubsequent 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 playedhim include Max Schreck, Bla Lugosi, John Carradine, ChristopherLee, Francis Lederer, Denholm Elliott, Jack Palance, Louis Jourdan,Frank Langella, Klaus Kinski, Gary Oldman, Leslie Nielsen, GeorgeHamilton, Keith-Lee Castle, Gerard Butler, Richard Roxburgh, MarcWarren, Rutger Hauer, Stephen Billington, Thomas Kretschmann andDominic Purcell. Lon Chaney Jr. played either Dracula or his progeny inthe Universal film, "Son of Dracula." Of all the foregoing, it is generallyconceded that actor Bela Lugosi's stage and 1931 movie portrayal ofDracula has, in appearance, speech, public personality, mannerisms anddress, overshadowed Stoker's original conception of these characteraspects.

The character is closely associated with the western cultural archetype ofthe 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 amonocle. Count Dracula is among the monsters that Baron Boris von Frankenstein invites to the Isle of Evil in orderto show off the secret of total destruction and announce his retirement from the Worldwide Organization ofMonsters.

In Sesame Street there is a character called Count von Count who was based on Bela Lugosi's interpretation ofCount Dracula.

Count Dracula appears in Mad Mad Mad Monsters (a "prequel of sorts" to Mad Monster Party?) voiced againby Allen Swift. He and his son are invited by Baron Henry von Frankenstein to attend the wedding ofFrankenstein'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 hiscastle.

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 bythe American Film Institute.

Dracula appears as the lead character of Dracula the Un-dead, a novel by Stoker's great-grand nephew Dacrepresented as a sequel to the original. Set twenty-five years after the original novel, Dracula has gone to Paris as anactor with the name Vladimir Basarab. He appears to be an anti-hero as he tries to protect his and Mina's sonQuincey Harker against another vampire Elizabeth Bathory. At the end of the novel he was able to kill Bathory butwas wounded by her and falls down a cliff with Mina, presumably dying. Sometime later Quincey went on a ship toAmerica, hoping for a better life. Unknown to him, boxes labeled as property of Vladimir Basarab are also loadedon 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 byJackie 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), Murraythe Mummy (voiced by Cee Lo Green) and Griffin the Invisible Man (voiced by David Spade). To keep hisdaughter 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 spookyforest as a way to keep humans out. Once the construction is finished, Count Dracula gets all of the world's mostfamous monsters to go check into Hotel Transylvania, a safe haven for all of the famous monsters to get away fromhumankind. When a human named Jonathan (voiced by Andy Samberg) stumbles onto Hotel Transylvania, Draculaworks to attempt to get him away from the hotel, keep him disguised as a way to keep the monsters from findingout, and keeping him from being made into a delicacy by Chef Quasimodo (voiced by Jon Lovitz). By the end ofthe movie, Dracula ends up accepting that Mavis is in love with Jonathan while seeing that not all humans are badlike 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 hispersonal past with the historical Transylvanian-born Voivode Vlad IIIDracula of Wallachia, also known as Vlad the Impaler or Vlad epe.Following the publication of In Search of Dracula by Radu Florescuand Raymond McNally in 1972, this supposed connection attractedmuch 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 Orderof the Dragon, founded by Sigismund of Luxembourg (king of Hungary,Croatia and Bohemia, and Holy Roman Emperor) to uphold Christianityand defend the Empire against the Ottoman Turks. Vlad II Dracul, fatherof Vlad III, was admitted to the order around 1431 because of hisbravery in fighting the Turks and was dubbed Dracul (Dragon) thus hisson became Dracula (son of the dragon). From 1431 onward, Vlad IIwore 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 byElizabeth Miller, have questioned the depth of this connection as early as 1998. They argue that Stoker in fact knewlittle of the historic Vlad III except for the name "Dracula". While having a conversation with Jonathan Harker inChapter 3, Dracula refers to his own background, and these speeches show elements which Stoker directly copiedfrom Wilkinson's book. Stoker mentions the Voivode of the Dracula race who fought against the Turks after thedefeat 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 hisown ground? This was a Dracula indeed! Woe was it that his own unworthy brother, when he hadfallen, 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 overthe great river into Turkey-land; who, when he was beaten back, came again, and again, though hehad to come alone from the bloody field where his troops were being slaughtered, since he knew thathe 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 friendArminius:

He must, indeed, have been that Voivode Dracula who won his name against the Turk, over the greatriver 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 Chapter3, the one betrayed by his brother: Vlad III Dracula, betrayed by his brother Radu the Handsome, who had chosenthe side of the Turks. But as noted by the Dutch author Hans Corneel de Roos, in Chapter 25, Van Helsing andMina drop this rudimentary connection to Vlad III and instead describe the Count's personal past as that of "thatother of his race" who lived "in a later age". By smoothly exchanging Vlad III for a nameless double, Stokeravoided 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. Asconfirmed by Stoker's own handwritten research notes, the novelist had a specific location for the Castle in mindwhile 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 theBorgo 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, neitherBoner, nor Mazuchelli nor Crosse (who also mention Terzburg or Trzburg) associate it with Vlad III; for the siteof 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-politicaldifferences 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 opposedto 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 Szeklerinterpretation, 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 cultureTables of vampire traits

Count Orlok

Carmilla

Varney the Vampire

Vlad III the Impaler

Elizabeth Bthory

Mina Harker

List of fictional vampiresAlucard (Hellsing)

Notes

1. ^ Carol N. Senf "Dracula: The Unseen Face in the Mirror" in the Norton Critical Edition of Dracula (1997) byBram 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 MariusCrian, 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 UniversityElectronic 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 DatabaseBram Stoker Online (http://www.bramstoker.org/novels/05dracula.html) Full text, PDF and audio versions

of Dracula.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Count_Dracula&oldid=596755557"

Categories: Dracula Dracula characters Dracula in written fiction Fictional alchemists

Fictional counts and countesses Fictional hypnotists Fictional shapeshifters Fictional telepaths

Fictional vampires Fictional versions of real people Horror film characters Monsters Literary villains

Fictional Hungarian people Fictional characters introduced in 1897

Characters in British novels of the 19th century Video game bosses

This page was last modified on 23 February 2014 at 10:26.

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply.

By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.

Wikipedia is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.