Dracula
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Count Dracula,
as portrayed in Bram Stoker's novel of
1897, is without a doubt the most influential vampyre of all-time. This novel and
the many subsequent incarnations of the Count (particularly in the 1931 film adaptation of
the novel staring Bela Lugosi) fully established the image of the vampyre as he appears in
popular culture today. Even though there had been a variety of vampyres prior to the
Count, none caught the public imagination as did this Count from Transylvania.
Dracula combined all the elements of power, sexuality, and sensuality that lifted the
vampyre head and shoulders above other literary monsters and helped give vampyres the rich
subject matter of modern horror fantasy.
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| In the
novel Dracula, the title character is described as sinister and dressed in black
with protruding fangs. He changes little throughout the novel except to grow younger
as he feeds off his victims in London. Bram Stoker's Dracula is not a
likeable character -- he is evil personified and survives by attacking people. Then, without meaning to,
Bela Lugosi
revolutionized the character and turned him into a sex symbol. Lugosi received
thousands of fan letters from females who responded to his sensual screen portrayal of
Dracula in 1931. When Frank Langella revived the part in 1979, he played to the
romantic appeal of the well-dressed aristocratic vampyre even more than Lugosi had. |
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Lugosi and
Langella paved the way for Gary Oldman in Francis Ford Coppola's Bram Stoker's Dracula
(1992), the full-blown sexual predator who attempted to seduce Winona Ryder's Mina Murray
more than he tried to attack her. As they sipped absinthe in a cafe, she sucked
erotically on a sugar cube, obviously enjoying the attention of the handsome young Prince.
He emphasized that she was safe in his presence, and as he sang the praises of his
long lost love, he moved in for the kill. Such a scene, unthinkable to Stoker, was
readily accepted by a movie audience already conditioned to accept Dracula as a highly
sexual being. |
| Bram
Stoker's Dracula.
The complete novel is available at the Online Literature site. To view the work,
simply click on Dracula's name and you will be transported to the novel. To view other
works by Bram
Stoker, click on his name. |
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