Article Outline
Count Dracula, central character of the horror novel Dracula, by Bram Stoker. This spine-tingling tale about the mysterious Count Dracula, king of the vampires, was published in 1897. It has been made into a motion picture many times.
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Stoker’s Story of a Vampire
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Vampires are creatures of legend and folklore. Like all vampires, Count Dracula is able to come to life each night by sucking the blood of living people. When Dracula leaves his castle in Transylvania to go to England, he creates a reign of terror in the Stoker novel. After first attacking the beautiful Lucy Westenra, who later becomes a vampire, Dracula seeks out her friend Mina Harker. As Dracula pursues his victims he is, in turn, pursued by Jonathan Harker, a lawyer married to Mina. Harker is convinced by Dutch scientist Abraham Van Helsing that the only way to stop Dracula is to find the coffin that conceals him during the day and drive a stake through his heart. Harker discovers the coffin and Dracula is destroyed.
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The Original Prince Dracula
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The novel by Stoker was inspired by the fearsome reputation of Vlad Dracula, prince of Walachia (now part of Romania). Vlad was born about 1431 in Transylvania, the son of Vlad Dracul, who was then in exile. Dracul means “dragon” or “devil” in Romanian, and dracula was known by his enemies as “son of the devil.” They were fierce rulers. Vlad Dracul was murdered in 1447, and his son ruled by terror. By the time Vlad Dracula was overthrown in 1462, he had killed tens of thousands of his people, primarily by impaling them on stakes, a gruesome way to die. Vlad became known as Vlad the Impaler.
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Motion-Picture Draculas
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The first motion-picture version of Dracula was Nosferatu, a silent film released in 1922 by German director F. W. Murnau. Although Murnau changed the names and settings, he kept the plot of the Stoker book. Another German director, Werner Herzog, remade the Murnau film as Nosferatu the Vampyre in 1979. The most famous film version of Dracula was made in 1931, by director Tod Browning, and starred Hungarian-born actor Bela Lugosi. Unlike the brooding vampire of Murnau’s film, Lugosi’s Count Dracula was charming and aristocratic. His piercing gaze and mysterious accent made him perfect for horror films. English actor Christopher Lee also achieved horror stardom through his performance as Count Dracula in the 1958 Dracula directed by Terence Fisher. Bram Stoker’s Dracula, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, came out in 1992.
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