Thesis For Nosferatu

The most obvious comparison between the novel Dracula and the film Nosferatu is its use of Jewish propaganda. The appearance and portrayal of Dracula includes a hooked nose, pointed ears and bushy eyebrows. This appropriation of Dracula reveals the fear of jews at the time and the disease and destruction that was feared that they carried. Most notably, the film’s title Nosferatu reveals its post-war isolation through the use of the German word for vampire. This shows that the film was created to appeal primarily to its German audience The dramatic use of contrast lighting and shadows, to the extent of painting shadows on backdrops, is evident and heavily used. This technique can be seen where Dracula is represented as a shadow (33:12). Throughout the film, Nosferatu reveals its context using a variety of

In literature there are many different genres, one of the older and more established genre is the horror genre. This genre has been known for beyond centuries. Since humanity has existed we have always had an urge to be scared. It has always been exciting to get a so called “adrenaline shock”. In today’s society there are a lot more options to get the adrenalin pumping such as skydiving or bungee-jumping etc. Before all this technology came in hand people told horror stories to each other. One of the most mentioned horror stories is probably Dracula. The original story is written by Bram Stoker and has been adapted for the screen as an American romantic horror film directed and produced by Francis Ford Coppola. On the following pages, I have analyzed the horror film “Dracula”.

Have you ever thought to yourself, what has influenced vampire literature today? Well, neither have I, but it wouldn’t hurt to touch on the subject. Dracula introduces the idea of lust and death within vampirism. Also, there are many connections that I make throughout this essay between Dracula and I am Legend, proving that Dracula was an influence on the book. The opposition of Dracula has had great influences on vampire literature.We see that these two pieces of literature are so much similar than one would think. Both authors even use similar words to describe the similar things, which I hadn’t even noticed until I made further inspection. .The book Dracula, written by

The story of Nosferatu is a tale of xenophobia that used heavy expressionism to display its stances. Without all of the expressionist elements for it, it would just be a bunch of people fearing migrant citizens as they don’t want their culture to be taken over by them. The added expressionism in the makeup, cinematography, acting, and set design added a more fearful and anxious tone to the film. The people of yesterday and today fear everything that Orlok stood for such as madness, disease, and lust as they still believe foreigners will bring all of those things to their home countries. The imagery in the film warned us about the power of Nosferatu and that he was something not to be tampered with. All of these techniques formed Murnau’s masterpiece film and it set the standard for the horror films of yesterday and today.

In the 19th century, this basis of scary and thriller books started to emerge. This essay will be about who Dracula enticed women, how his detainer was unsettling and demonic. How the era in which the novel was written plays a part in the ideas of Dracula and how behaves; with such things as women, food, and Harker. The Victorian era definitely influenced the writing of the time through reflections of exploitation of women and a certain darkness in ones self, also explains of mystery and suspense.

The world of copyright was just as convoluted in the 1920’s as it is in our world today. The film studio Prana Film, which produced the 1922 German Expressionist film Nosferatu, was sued for copyright infringement by the estate of Bram Stoker, the author of the 1897 Gothic Horror novel Dracula, and ended up filing for bankruptcy after only distributing one film. While this may seem like an immense failure for the studio behind the silent film, it ended up influencing almost a century of vampires, in novels, television, and other films, and made the name ‘Nosferatu’ synonymous with the equally influential novel that it was based upon. On the surface, Nosferatu is a blatant copy of Dracula, from it’s plot, to the characters (besides the change in names), to the portrayal of vampires in general; in reality, many aspects of both bodies of work differ immensely from one another, providing both Stoker and director F. W. Murnau pieces that have influenced generations of vampire media. The structure, characterization and overall tone of Nosferatu is developed differently than Dracula in order to differentiate itself from it’s source material and provide an alternate adaptation of an iconic tale.

Honors Theses. Paper 821.Meehan, Paul. The Vampire in Science Fiction Film and Literature, edited by Paul Meehan McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2014. ProQuest Ebook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com.ezproxy.lib.apsu.edu/lib/austinpeay- ebooks/detail.action

This is the main aim of this investigation - to identify and discuss the factors which influenced the constantly changing literary and cultural depiction of vampires. What turned the symbol of threat and horror into a mysterious outsider?

In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Dracula is representative of the superhuman ideal that man is striving to achieve. Dracula is a strong willed, powerful, brilliant masculine figure, and through these characteristics, he appeals to the contemporary reader. By the late 20th and early 21st century, vampires have been transformed into creatures that offer endless happiness and immortality on earth. Such a transformation can be seen in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 production of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Instead of viewing the Faustian dream of endless self-gratification and fulfillment as potentially evil, popular culture depicts these satanic creatures as morally justified, and actually good.

The mischaracterization of Dracula and the propagation of the archetype and stereotype of vampires can mainly be blamed on the media. While this is not the grossest mischaracterization that we will see in this paper, it is certainly an early starting point for the making of monsters out of the misunderstood and unknown.

Classic texts are valued as their representation of cultural and social concerns are constructed in a way that continues to resonate with audiences despite their personal context. Cultural values are regarded by larger society as they reflect the social and political attitudes of the time. “Frankenstein” by Mary Shelley, is a gothic science fiction novel written in 1818, which explores the dark side of the human psyche, a highly valued cultural value, formed from the romanticism era. Shelley explores the role of man as creator as she forewarns of the impact of scientific advancement. These issues are re-examined in the twenty- first century film, “Edward Scissorhands”. ‘Edward Scissorhands’ is an appropriation of Shelley’s ‘Frankenstein’, directed by Tim Burton in the 1990. ‘Edward Scissorhands’ also explores the dark side of human psyche. Burton examines on what makes us human, as well as the perspective of living in society, being regarded as a ‘monster’. “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” is a 1975 gender bender, sci-fi, comedy, horror musical film, directed by Richard O’Brien. O’Brien pursue in encouraging to expand our society’s social standards, a cultural value from the sexual revolution throughout the eras of the 1960’s to 1980’s. Shelley’s “Frankenstein” has been adapted by Burton’s “Edward Scissorhands” as well as O’Brien’s “The Rocky Horror Picture Show”. These films have adapted to “Frankenstein” as it explores the cultural value of the dark side of human psyche

Values are malleable as they adapt to context, unlike conventions which remain constant through all frameworks. Bram Stoker’s Dracula upholds conventions which have persisted through centuries of time and diverse modes of communication. Identical conventions are distinct in all Vampiric and Gothic texts, such as Stephen Sommers’ film Van Helsing, and Cyber-Ducks Dracula: The Interactive Comic. Although the three mentioned texts preserve invariable conventions, they uphold values that have accommodated for different audiences. The latter two appropriations of Dracula are composed for a modern audience, and therefore portray different values to Bram Stoker’s original text. The most apparent change is acknowledged through Dracula highlighting

A noticeable difference in the way movies have changed over the years is evident when comparing and contrasting two films of different eras which belong to the same genre and contain the same subject matter. Two vampire movies, Dracula and Bram Stoker's Dracula, present an interesting example of this type of study.

From the mythical beings that lurk in the shadows of human culture, perhaps the vampire is one of those that most arouses in us mixed feelings as fear and charm, attraction and repulsion, pity and hatred. And this ambiguity is ontological to its fantastic condition: he is an undead; a being that doesn’t find a place in the afterlife and returns to the world of the living. The vampire was - and still is - inexhaustible source of inspiration for the arts, especially literature, theater and cinema. Nosferatu (Murnau 1922) was a plagiarism of the work of Stoker. Both works speak of a young man’s trip to the east and the coming of an evil being to the west (England and Germany), resulting in natural and disturbing events.

“By the early 1930s, horror entered into its classic phase in Hollywood - the true Dracula and Frankenstein Eras.” (Horror Films) The original Dracula was released in 1931. Dracula was a five hundred year old vampire was that was very frightening to early audiences. This undead villain entranced and charmed his victims with his veracity.”(Horror Films) The 1930’s also brought the first production