Dracula: History, Myth, and Literature

TransformationsHistory: Vlad III Dracula 1431-1476Literature: Bram Stoker’s Dracula 1897 Theatre: Dracula 1924 & 1927Film: Nosferatu–Shadow of the Vampire 1922-modern day

History: Vlad III Dracula 1431-1476Born: 1431 in Sighisoara, TransylvaniaDracula: “Son of the Dragon/Devil”Second child of Vlad II Dracul, voivode of WalachiaWalachia: principality between the Danube and the

Transylvanian Alps in southern RomaniaVoivode (prince and military leader) for 3 separate

periods: 1448, 1456-1462, and 1476To Romanians: Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler) To Turks: Kaziglu Bey (the Impaler Prince)Impalement: preferred method of executionUnified Walachia - resisted Ottoman advancesKilled while fighting Turks near Bucharest in 1476

History: Vlad III Dracula 1431-1476 During 2nd reign: murdered between 40,000

and 100,000 people by 1462 Mid-15th century: German, Russian, and

Turkish pamphlets establish notoriety The Frightening and Truly Extraordinary Story

of a Wicked Blood-drinking Tyrant Called Prince Dracula.

Nuremberg, 1488: "He had a large pot made and boards with holes fastened over it and had people's heads shoved through there and imprisoned them in this. And he had the pot filled with water and a big fire made under the pot and thus let the people cry out pitiably until they were boiled quite to death.”

An immortal heroic icon

Never associated with vampires

Literature: Bram Stoker 1847-1912

1882: First book, Under the Sunset

1890: First novel, The Snake’s Pass

1897: Dracula publishedApril 20, 1912: Dies in London

November 8th, 1847: Abraham “Bram” Stoker born in Clontarf, Ireland

Attended Trinity College in Dublin

8 years of civil service

1872: First story, The Crystal Cup

1878: Begins managing Henry Irving at London’s Lyceum Theatre

Literature: Bram Stoker’s Influences 1890-1896

Researched eastern European vampire folklore (especially Transylvanian myths) An Account of the Principalities of Walachia And Moldavia, An Extraordinary and Shocking History of a

Great Berserker Called Prince Dracula, and The Historie and Superstitions of Romantic Romania The Un-dead and Count Wampyr 1890: Met Hungarian professor, Arminius Vanbery Syphilis in Victorian England Never set foot in Romania

Literature: Bram Stoker’s Influences 1890-1896

Literature: Bram Stoker’s Dracula 1897 Known as an epistolary novel is a

novel written as a series of documents. The usual form is letters, although diary entries, newspaper clippings and other documents are sometimes used.

The word epistolary comes from the Latin word epistola, meaning a letter.

Authors use this device to add realism to their works.

Literature: Bram Stoker’s Dracula 1897

Significant plot changes 2nd only to the Bible in sales Inspired over 700 films Never been out of print Translated into every major

language in the world Depicts good vs. evil

Literature: Bram Stoker’s Dracula 1897

The novel is considered a work of gothic fiction, specifically Victorian gothic.

Gothic fiction is a type of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance.

Although gothic fiction was no longer a dominant literary genre during the Victorian era, most would say that the genre was entering its most creative period.

Some examples of Victorian gothic writers: Edgar Allan Poe Charlotte and Emily Brontë (Jane Eyre and Wuthering Heights) Mary Shelley (Frankenstein)

Gothic Literature: Bram Stoker’s Dracula

Gothic Elements Include: A deserted (or sparsely inhabited) castle or mansion in a state of ruins Labyrinths/mazes, dark corridors, and winding stairs filled with dusty

cobwebs Hidden tunnels/staircases, dungeons, underground passages, crypts Limited lighting such as moonlight (usually a full moon), candles,

flashlight, lantern The setting is usually threatening natural landscapes, like rugged

mountains, dark forests, or eerie moors, exhibiting stormy weather Dark secrets surrounding some tormented soul who is left in isolation Ominous omens and curses Magic, supernatural manifestations, or the suggestion of the

supernatural A damsel in distress The damsel’s rescuer; usually a lover Horrifying (or terrifying) events or the threat of such happenings

Tone in Bram Stoker’s Dracula

The novel displays an overall dark tone. The impact of Dracula’s actions create a bleak outlook on the future. This tone allows the triumph of the protagonists to be enhanced. The characters, who are respectable and overall good people, face this evil head on and triumph. The tone helps to set the odds against their success but they overcome it.

Imagery in Bram Stoker’s Dracula

Imagery is heavily used in an effort to enhance the tone.

The setting of Dracula’s castle and its appearance is described in detail. Stoker uses horror so that the reader will remain interested in the plot. He utilizes imagery when describing how Dracula would suck the blood out of his victim and how he attempted to change Mina Harker into a vampire.

Voice in Bram Stoker’s Dracula

Stoker utilizes a more personal voice. Rather than Stoker offering his own voice in the novel, the voice comes directly from the characters due to his writing style. The novel is composed of journal entries, letters, and newspaper clippings written by the protagonists. Through this, they offer their own opinions on the situation which may vary from highly optimistic to having a negative outlook on the probable outcome of the situation.

There isn’t one specific voice and this allows the reader to have a better understanding of what is taking place.

The novel is written so that the actions and thoughts of the protagonists are known in detail by the reader.

Importance of Irony in Bram Stoker’s Dracula

Irony is not very important to the overall plot in Dracula. Everything is described and actually is as it seems. The protagonists are good in every aspect and the vampires are evil in every aspect. This novel is basically the battle between

good and evil with good prevailing.

Literature: the Count or the Voivode 1897 2 major differences

Count: Castle in Transylvanian Alps Voivode: Castle in Walachia's foothills

Count: of Szekely blood, from the "northern country" Voivode: of an older Walachian stock

2 Major Similarities

Count Dracula describes his royal heritage: "Is it a wonder that we were a conquering race; that we were proud; that when the Magyar, the Lombard, the Avar, the Bulgar, or the Turk poured his thousands on our frontiers, we drove them back? [...] To us, for centuries, was trusted the guarding of the frontier of Turkeyland; aye, and more than that, endless duty of the frontier guard.“

Count Dracula alludes to an "ancestor" who "sold his people to the Turk and brought the shame of slavery on them!" Vlad III Dracula’s younger brother, Radu, surrendered Walachia to the Ottomans.

Literature: the Count or the Voivode 1897Vlad Tepes

He was not very tall, but very stocky and strong, with a cold and terrible appearance, a strong and aquiline nose, swollen nostrils, a thin reddish face in which very long eyelashes framed large wide-open green eyes; the bushy black eyebrows made them appear threatening. His face and chin were shaven, but for a moustache. The swollen temples increased the bulk of his head. A bull's neck connected [with] his head to his body from which black curly locks hung on his wide-shouldered person.

--Niccolò Modrussa

Count Dracula

His face was strong -- a very strong -- aquiline, with high bridge of the thin nose and peculiarly arched nostrils; with lofty domed forehead, and hair growing scantily round the temple, but profusely elsewhere. His eyebrows were very massive, almost meeting over the nose, and with bushy hair that seemed to curl in its own profusion. The mouth, so far as I could see it under the heavy moustache, was fixed and rather cruel looking, with peculiarly sharp white teeth; these protruded over the lips, whose remarkable ruddiness showed astonishing vitality in a man of his years.

--Bram Stoker

Theatre: Dracula 1924 & 19271924: Dracula, by Hamilton Deane, premiered in Derby, England – popular 3 year tour

3 acts set mostly in a drawing room in London

Count: Raymond Huntley (2000+ performances)

Count: from cadaverous to charming

American entrepreneur, Horace Liveright, bought rights to the Deane production

John Balderston: young journalist/playwright assigned by Liveright to 'Americanize' Deane’s script

Toned down theatrical dialogue – structure remained

Huntley turned down role – Bela Lugosi hired (speech)

1927: Dracula opens in Fulton Theatre in New York City Runs for 33 weeks, earning over $2 million

Film: Nosferatu 1922 Nosferatu, Eine Symphonie des Grayens (The

Undead, a Symphony of Horror) Directed by F.W. Murnau (1889-1931) German Expressionist cinema; silent Earliest surviving vampire film Max Schreck as Count Orlok – isolated,

pathetic, and withdrawn Murnau drew on popular Vampire lore and

Stoker's novel (without permission) Changed names and setting Florence Stoker and the British Incorporated

Society of Authors destroyed the original negatives and most of the prints

Wordy - journal entries, letters, etc. Straightforward, unromantic, gruesome, cynical Max Schreck myth

Film: Dracula & Horror of Dracula 1931 & 1958Dracula (1931): D. Tod Browning

Dracula: Bela Lugosi (speech)

Script draws heavily on stage play

Dracula a suave, continental lover - handsome and charismatic

Victorian-era English aristocrat

Omits explicit sexuality

Horror of Dracula (1958): D. Terence Fisher

Dracula: Christopher Lee

Significant changes to novel

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVPxAgy7lBA

Film: Dracula 1992

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GG-TwX5A49g

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola

Dracula was played by Gary Oldman

Dracula returns to England to try to find his lost love

Closest to the novel (characters and journal entries)

Supernatural Romance

Film: Other Interpretations 1979-2000 1979: Nosferatu, Phantom der Nacht

(The Undead, Phantom of the Night) D. Werner Herzog, Count: Klaus Kinski

Set in Netherlands, not England First film to portray Dracula as tragic

figure Dracula as “the plague" personified with

no romantic power over mortals

1995: Dracula, Dead and Loving It D. Mel Brooks, Count: Leslie Nielsen

Unpopular parody

2000: Wes Craven Presents: Dracula 2000 D. Patrick Lussier, Count: Gerard Butler

Set in America, modern day

2000: Shadow of the Vampire D. E. Elias Merhige, Count: Willem Dafoe The making of Murnau’s Nosferatu

Best Dracula Quotes (clips) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wpjQQE7rwr8

Film: Other Interpretations 1979-2000