Dracula: History, Myth,

and Popular Culture

Transformations
History: Vlad III Dracula 1431-1476
Literature: Bram Stoker’s, Dracula 1897
Theatre: Dracula 1924 & 1927
Film: Nosferatu–Shadow of the Vampire 1922-2000
History: Vlad III Dracula 1431-1476
Born: 1431 in Sighisoara, Transylvania
Dracula: “Son of the Dragon/Devil”
Second child of Vlad II Dracul, voivode of Walachia
Walachia: principality between the Danube and the
Transylvanian Alps in southern Romania
Voivode (prince and military leader) for 3 separate
periods: 1448, 1456-1462, and 1476
To Romanians: Vlad Tepes (Vlad the Impaler)
To Turks: Kaziglu Bey (the Impaler Prince)
Impalement: preferred method of execution
Unified Walachia - resisted Ottoman advances
Killed 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
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

1882: First book, Under the Sunset

1890: First novel, The Snake’s Pass

1897: Dracula published

April 20, 1912: Dies in London
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
 Epistolary novel
 Significant plot changes
 2nd to the Bible in sales
 Inspired or influenced over 700 films
 Never been out of print
 Translated into every major language in the world

Only one page in a vast output of political

pornography directed against us by our
enemies; an attack on the very idea of
being a Romanian.
-Adrian Panescu, 1985
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
Vlad 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
1897
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 & 1927
1924: 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 & 1958
Dracula (1931): D. Tod Browning
First authorized film adaptation
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
Film: Other Interpretations
 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
1979-2000
 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

 1992: Bram Stoker’s Dracula

D. Francis Ford Coppola, Count: Gary Oldman  2000: Shadow of the Vampire
D. E. Elias Merhige, Count: Willem Dafoe
 Closest to novel (characters & journal entries)
 Supernatural romance
 The making of Murnau’s Nosferatu
 Vlad III Dracula and Count Dracula
Film: Other Interpretations 1979-2000
Characters
 Jonathan
Harker: a lawyer
from London.
 Sent to
Transylvania to
help Count
Dracula buy a
house in London.
Characters
 Count Dracula:
Transylvanian estate owner
 Vampire
 Character inspired by the
history of Vlad III The
Impaler (1448), known for
his brutality in battle
 His father was a member of
the order of the Dragon or
Dracul (an order of Knights
sworn to fight the enemies
of Christianity)
 Dracula means son of the
Dragon.
Characters
 Mina (Murray) Harker
 Jonathan’s fiancé and
then wife
 Friends with Lucy
Westenra, who was
killed by Count Dracula
after his arrival in
London
 Became a victim of
Count Dracula
 Helped Jonathan find
Count Dracula and kill
him
Characters
 Abraham van
Helsing: Dutch
doctor and vampire
hunter
 Comes to London to
help hunt down
Count Dracula
 Follows Dracula to
Transylvania and
helps kill him
Plot Summary

 Jonathan Harker is sent to Transylvania to meet with

Count Dracula in his castle.
 Dracula wants to buy an estate in London.
 Harker brings him the papers to sign.
 Soon, Harker finds himself held captive in the castle
and sees weird and spooky things.
Plot Summary
 Jonathan
manages to
escape from the
castle.
 Mina Murray, his
fiancé comes to
Budapest, where
he spends some
time recovering.
Plot Summary
 Count Dracula arranges for his coffin and several boxes of
Transylvanian soil to be picked up and put on a sailing boat
to England.
 The boat sails from July 6 to August 4, where it crashes on
the shores of Whitby, England. All the crew are missing and
presumed dead. The captain is found dead, tied to the
steering wheel of the boat.
 All they find is the captain’s log, which tells a gruesome tale.
Plot Summary
 Count Dracula arrives in
London and begins preying
on victims.
 He finds a close friend of
Mina, named Lucy, and
begins drinking her blood.
 Lucy’s fiancé is worried by
Lucy’s “sickness” and calls
his friend, Doctor van
Helsing, to come and help.
 Jonathan and Mina return
from Budapest to find Lucy
very sick.
 Dracula turns Lucy into a
vampire and van Helsing
destroys her.
Plot Summary
 Count Dracula begins
preying on Mina to take
revenge on Jonathan.
 This helps Jonathan
and his friends find
Dracula.
 They destroy all his
hang outs in London so
he has no choice but to
return to Transylvania.
Plot Summary
 Jonathan, van Helsing,
Mina and some other
friends arrive in
Transylvania before
Dracula’s coffin.
 They are able to
destroy him.
 Jonathan and Mina
return to England and
live happily ever after.