I bid you welcome…

So…Dracula.

Everybody knows the name, even if they’ve never seen a Dracula movie or read the actual novel, they know of the Count and his…unique diet. But, you may ask, wasn’t he a real person? Didn’t Bram Stoker base him on a real life ruler? Is it true you’re just writing this to distract yourself from your lost wallet?

I will answer all these questions and more, for this, my friends is:

VLAD TEPES/VLAD III THE IMPALER/VLAD DRACULA

Thehistoric ruler who served as the basis for the infamous vampire was actually a Romanian King from the 15th century. His rule came during a turbulant time, when the Roman Catholic and Ottoman Empires were both feuding over his kingdom. Vlad remained neutral to both, deciding to do what was best for his people.

While his history is one of a cruel ruler to the outside world, in many areas in Romania there is still call for a ruler like Vlad again. He was a champion of the common man against the boyars and was absolutely insistent on honesty according to the oral traditions. Imagine, an honest politician who champions the common man as opposed to the bureaucracy…

…yeah, okay, I’d vote for that.

Even more intriguing is that upon excavation of his supposed burial site, no human remains were found.

BRAM STOKER

An Irish writer who did work in the theatre as well. He struck success when he wrote Dracula.

He actually married Oscar Wilde’s former suitor, and was good friends with Henry Irving who ran the Lyceum theatre at the time. Stoker was apparently somewhat in awe of Irving, and held the post of business manager at the Lyceum for 27 years.

Vampires in fiction were nothing new, but Stoker’s writing struck a cord with the audience at the time, especially because of several of the themes found running through the novel. The fear of invasion from outside forces and pollution of good British blood is one of the major ones (the victims Dracula makes into vampires are overwhelmingly female, a metaphor for British women marrying foreign men), along with the idea of the “dangers” of the sexual female (there is a great deal of sexual subtext in the character of Lucy. Once she becomes a vampire she does not give birth to children as was expected of a woman, but rather feeds on them almost exclusively).

Stoker died in 1912, but the legacy of his work lives on.

DRACULA IN FILMThe first Dracula film, Nosferatu, was actually produced while Florence Stoker was still alive. As executor of her husband’s will, Florence sued the studio that made the movie, resulting in many prints having names changed (Dracula became Count Orlock most famously).

The film was an example of German expressionism and changed many of the events and ideas of the novel. Clips of the film are still used quite commonly, most notably the count entering Mina’s room and his shadow following her up the stairs.

The next infamous Dracula film would be in the 1930’s starring Bela Lugosi.

Bela did not in fact speak English and learned his lines phonetically. This limited his exposure to American audiences outside of his Dracula role. But he seemed comfortable with that, he portrayed Dracula several times and was buried in his Dracula costume.

Later, the British Hammer Films company made several Dracula films starting in 1958. Christopher Lee portrayed the Count in most of them.

In 1979 another Dracula movie was made, starring Frank Langella. This Dracula COMPLETELY altered the events of the novel, even switching Lucy and Mina’s roles and rewriting many unrelated characters as relatives. This movie was the first of the Dracula’s to have a somewhat feminist edge to it, a 180 from the misogynist source material.

Most famously for this generation is probably 1992’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula, directed by Frances Ford Coppola. The movie claimed to be a “shot for shot recreation of Stoker’s novel.” While it does stay more true to the story than previous works, it does add in the plot line of Dracula being the actual historical Vlad Tepes, and Mina being the reincarnation of his lost wife. This movie also takes the Dracula-as-Jesus symbolism almost too far at times.

We won’t talk about Dracula 2000…we just won’t.

So, this has been a really too short overview of Dracula. But I warned you it would be brief. So, I urge you, go out and listen to them, the children of the night! What music they make!

Most of this information is taken from my Vampire: Blood and Empire class in college. That’s right, 3 credits for talking about vampires twice a week. College rules.