Dracula's Vampirism

Vampire is "a bloodsucking ghost that come back from dead person believed to come from the place where a body is buried and wander about by night sucking the blood of people asleep and causing their death." Before vampires were seen as evil monsters and creatures humans must fear. However, now, vampires have become an "famous popular culture and fascination among teens around the world"  This art has increased vampire large groups of fans this way resulting to the creation of many fan clubs and social organizations, whether online or not.

Vampires have been around for centuries, they represent the fear of many things such as sexuality, race, gender, etc. and above all, they stand for the fear of diseases. Vampires have once been the symbol of horror due to their terrific depictions and were described as a threat to the humanity. Throughout time, the image of vampire has changed dramatically from a monstrous, inhumanely creature that doesn’t belong to human society to such an attractive and adaptive figure that expresses more of the human side than the evil. They developed human feelings, senses, and live within our society. Modern vampire movies are often more romantic and “sympathetic” comparing to the past. Vampires have abandoned their horror and evolved to a more

The people of the Philippines believe in a creature called the mandurugo, a vampiric creature that takes form of a beautiful girl by day, but grows wings and a hollow, thread like tongue used to suck the blood of the sleeping at night. The Cape region in Africa has the folklore of the impundulu, which has the ability to transform into a large taloned bird that can control thunder and lightning. Vampires are seen in stories and folklore throughout civilizations and generations. Even though people knew of vampires, Bram Stoker’s novel made people fear them by terrifying his reader’s with his persona Dracula. The Count has been known to be a very complex character with many odd quirks and traits. Nowadays these have been changed or kept by

Batman beats the Joker. Spiderman banishes the Green Goblin. For centuries story tellers have used the basic idea of good beats bad to guide their tales. Stories of blood sucking, human possessions and other tales have been passed down generations and vary between cultures. Among the creators of the famous protagonists is, Bram Stoker, the creator of Dracula. This fictional character was soon to be famous, and modified for years to come into movie characters or even into cereal commercials. But the original will never be forgotten; a story of a group of friends all with the same mission, to destroy Dracula. The Count has scared many people, from critics to mere children, but if one reads betweens the line, Stoker’s true message can be

Who would’ve guessed that the modern tale of vampirism is nothing more than an exaggerated representation of many of the people in our current society? One of the best metaphors for drug addiction is the blood lust of a vampire. Consistently throughout literature and television, vampires are portrayed as impulse-reacting monsters that lack self control. “Each of the vampire’s victims are momentary meals and the vampires are drawn to them through the needs of their subconscious” (Ramsland 5). Vampires directly represent drug addicts because the two are both drawn to something that they will eventually feel guilty for, but neither of them can turn down the opportunity to indulge. What is addiction? According to Pawel Jedras, author of “The Role of Anticipation in Drug Addiction and Reward,” “addiction [is] the craving [or need] for something that is not actually needed or necessary for survival” (Jedras). “Vampires in the Lemon Grove” by Karen Russell is a story consisting of vampires and the idea of addiction. The story’s main characters are two married vampires named Clyde and Magreb. Clyde is a recovering blood addict and Magreb is his supportive wife. The story focuses on Clyde and the problems that his addiction causes in his life. “Vampires in the Lemon Grove” by Karen Russell, represents a person’s struggle with drug addiction, seclusion from others, and the pushing away of loved ones because Clyde does all of these

We can also see how the Victorian Society also helps create the story, how it is wrote and how it influences Dracula so much. Vampirism is just a polite way Stoker has made to secretly talk about sex since anything that brought a blush to your cheeks was forbidden during the Victorian era. For example, when Lucy first gets bitten while sleepwalking “There was undoubtedly something, long and black, bending over the half-reclining white figure” (Dracula 98). Lucy gets bitten by Dracula and she is already talking with three other men, ends up marrying one, this is in no way the ideal Victorian woman. Not only is she not an ideal Victorian woman, but to add on to the list of why she is not “The vampiric tradition of blood-sucking is symbolic of the exchange of bodily fluids during sex. For Stoker, writing in the sexually repressed Victorian age, vampirism is a convenient metaphor for sex and the closest he could get to writing about sex in a 'respectable' novel” (NovelGuide). As we all know she has many exchanges of bodily fluids, not only the blood-sucking of Dracula, but in fact blood transfusions from all three men as they vowed to never speak of it since Arthur believes that the transfusion made him and Lucy truly married “None of us said a word of the other operations, and none of us ever shall” (Dracula 188). Even though the audiences knows that the blood transfusion made by the men was meant as a kind gesture to save Lucy’s life as opposed to Dracula’s blood being the

Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” is a story about a Vampire named Count Dracula and his journey to satisfy his lust for blood. The story is told through a series of individuals’ journal entries and a letters sent back and forth between characters. Bram Stoker shows the roll in which a certain gender plays in the Victorian era through the works of Dracula. This discussion not only consists of the roll a certain gender takes, but will be discussing how a certain gender fits into the culture of that time period as well as how males and females interact among each other. The Victorian era was extremely conservative when it came to the female, however there are signs of the changing into the New Woman inside of Dracula. Essentially the woman was to be assistance to a man and stay pure inside of their ways.

Lucy is fully aware that she is desired by many men and she lets that get into her head, essentially she is feeding off the attention. This vulnerability and openness is why Lucy Westenra is Count Dracula’s first and easiest target. The first time the Count starts to get into Lucy’s head is after her and Mina see the wrecked boat upon shore, containing the containers of dirt. These were Dracula’s sleeping quarters. This fact was not known by the women at the time, but soon after this event is when Lucy starts to sleep walk. This sleep walking is not a coincidence but is psychologically connected to her sinful desires of lustfulness. Count Dracula only has the power the attack willing victims, which could only mean Lucy knew in her subconscious what she was doing by going out to the cemetery at nights. This spell Dracula puts on Lucy is the same spell he put on the three women who now life in Dracula Castle with him. These women were just as innocent and virtuous as Lucy was and are now sex crazed and evil just as the Count is. This “spell” was a way to undermine women so that Dracula would feel powerful and controlling over them.

Bela Lugosi is arguably the most classic example of an actor taking on a vampire role. However, during 1931 when the universal studio was casting the 1931’s Dracula, Lugosi could only barely speak English, and therefore almost lost his chance at playing the iconic part (“Dracula (1931 English-Language Film”). Nonetheless his accents and costumes, which has become the classic look of the vampire, he himself was so typecast in his role that he was actually buried after his death in his Dracula costume. Certainly, it is Lugosi’s performance that makes Tod Browning’s film such an influential Hollywood picture. Overall, I will give it a 3 star out of 5, compared with the older version film of Dracula, because of the dialogues and sounds, the plot is much easier for the audiences to understand, without any editing or background music the horror of the film is not inferior to

Death is a literary device that could represent the rebirth of a character, It could also represent new beginnings the plot of the story. The theme of death manifests itself in Dracula repeatedly. The story Dracula uses the death of a character, in some ways, as a mode of transportation. There is some irony involved in the storyline and death. Dracula is a vampire, dead yet undead, who brings about terror through acts of murder.

In everyday life, as in literature, there will always be an opposing force to evil. In the novel “Dracula,” by Bram Stoker, Professor Van Helsing acts as Dracula’s main antagonist. An antagonist is the character who acts against the main character, which increases the conflict of the story and intensifies the plot. Through the use of theme, characterization and specific events, the author shows readers how Dr. Van Helsing effectively fits the role of Dracula’s most threatening adversary.

Kostova utilizes the setting in The Historian to reinforce the legitimacy of the legend of Dracula. The reader is taken on a journey throughout time and space all over Europe, which is made all the more realistic by Kostova’s use of imagery and sensation.

With the creation of Stoker’s vampire, his book enters into Gothic literature. Dracula however was not the first of the Gothic genre, but was a standout feature in it. Gothic literature focuses on mystery and horror and a lot of time supernatural elements. Nevertheless, Gothic literature was big in Stoker’s life according to Nicole Lobdell’s article, “Stoker & the Victorian Gothic Stage”, Stoker loved Gothic plays, sensation melodramas, and vampire melodramas. Lobdell states “He interprets the causes and effects of melodramatic performances and translates those elements into his fiction” (Lobdell 273). In Dracula, a key component of its story is its supernatural elements which are a key element of Gothic literature giving forth the whole story being about vampires. Horror aspects of Dracula can be seen in moments where vampires lose their humanity. In addition to horror and mystery aspects, Gothic literature is also about the setting. The settings in Dracula give a sense of suspense and mystery making them Gothic settings. Settings in Dracula are shown in Galens’ novel, “Dracula”: Novels for Students when he states, “the various settings—including Dracula's imposing castle, the ghostly landscape of Transylvania, and the graveyard and Lucy's tomb in London—are all settings that are found in Gothic fiction” (Galens 32). Aside from Bram Stoker’s Dracula being a Gothic novel it is also classified into different subjects of literature.

acts as a seducer and corrupter of virtuous women, whose transgression of moral conventions inspires horror within the righteous Aubrey. Especially the act of biting as a form of penetration of the victim links vampirim closely and so obviously to sexuality, than showing it on screen was still considered a great risk in the early Dracula movies of the mid-nineteenth century (Beresford). Finally, Coppola's movie Bram Stoker's Dracula (1993) went one step further, showing explicit sexual interaction between Dracula and his victims, rendering the sexual metaphoric quality of vampirism superfluous. This does not mean vampirism lost its ability to portray sexuality, but in Twilight they are not equivalent. On the one hand, Bella is attracted to Edward first and foremost due to his vampiric qualities, and as

Not many people would think that they can be compared to Count Dracula. Considered to be one of the most well-known monsters of all time, Count Dracula sucks the blood of his victims, which would ultimately lead to their death. While this seems like a very unique example, it can be applied to nearly every person, specifically in the college stetting. This phenomenon that can be linked to this monster is called the “vampire effect.” First used in the book ______, this term refers to the what happens in social groups due to different personality types that were caused by a difference in economic background. Set in a college dormitory, chapter 4 of the book discusses how there is a difference in the social lives of students who are quiet versus students who are more outgoing. Students who were shy were generally ignored and did not seem to partake in many social activities. While Armstrong and Hamilton suggest that the “Vampire Effect” arises due to the social students knowingly ignoring and rejecting the shyer students, that is not the case. The cycle through which the effect takes place starts with self-comparison due to economic status, envy, and self-blame, and results in anxiety and self-isolation. Although this is done unintentionally, consciously known factors such debt and class also play a role in the process.