Dracula: History, Myth,
and Popular Culture
Transformations
History: Vlad III Dracula
Literature: Bram Stoker’s, Dracula
Theatre: Dracula
Film: Nosferatu–Shadow of the Vampire
1431-1476
1897
1924 & 1927
1922-2000
History: Vlad III Dracula
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
1431-1476
History: Vlad III Dracula
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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
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Never associated with vampires
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1431-1476
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
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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
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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
1897
Literature: the Count or the Voivode
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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
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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
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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
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1979: Nosferatu, Phantom der Nacht (The
Undead, Phantom of the Night)
D. Werner Herzog, Count: Klaus Kinski
1979-2000
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1995: Dracula, Dead and Loving It
D. Mel Brooks, Count: Leslie Nielsen
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Unpopular parody
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Set in Netherlands, not England
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First film to portray Dracula as tragic figure
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Dracula as “the plague" personified with no
romantic power over mortals
2000: Wes Craven Presents: Dracula 2000
D. Patrick Lussier, Count: Gerard Butler
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Set in America, modern day
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2000: Shadow of the Vampire
D. E. Elias Merhige, Count: Willem Dafoe
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The making of Murnau’s Nosferatu
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1992: Bram Stoker’s Dracula
D. Francis Ford Coppola, Count: Gary Oldman
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Closest to novel (characters & journal entries)
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Supernatural romance
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Vlad III Dracula and Count Dracula
Film: Other Interpretations
1979-2000
Dracula: History, Myth,
and Popular Culture