Bram Stroker's Dracula: The Man Behind the Count

Bram Stoker’s Dracula is a story of horror, suspense, and repulsion. The main antagonist, Count Dracula, is depicted as an evil, repulsive creature that ends and perverts life to keep himself alive and youthful. To most onlookers that may be the case, but most people fail to see one crucial element to this character. Dracula is a character that, though it may be long gone, was once human, and thus has many human emotions and motives still within him. Let us delve into these emotions of a historically based monster.

Bram Stoker, our author, was born in Clontarf (an area near Dublin), Ireland in early November of 1847. He was accomplished in many fields, including athletics, but he was, and probably still is, seen as the most influential and prominent authors of the Victorian era. He was taught at Trinity College, winning honors in a good handful of subjects. He joined many fashionable circles due to him being the acting manager of Lyceum Theater, and his friendship with Henry Irving. He married Florence Bacombe, who had also been courted by the playwright Oscar Wilde, and they bore one child, Noel, in 1879. His writings had an interest in the occult, which most attribute to his childhood sickness and his interest in Irish folklore. He had published books since 1872, with his book Crystal Cup, but he didn’t gain his current popularity until he wrote Dracula. Stoker wrote Gothic and fantasy fiction until his death in 1912, from an illness that he had since six years prior. Stoker’s death is assumed to be syphilis, but it’s most likely a stroke which did the deed. His final story Dracula’s Guest, a removed chapter of Dracula, was published posthumously two years following his death.

To begin our analysis of the Count, w...

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... see, Bram Stoker’s Dracula has an antagonist who is quite monstrous. He destroys and twists life to preserve his own, lusts for power and war, and is willing to kill many innocents. It cannot be denied that this is a monster. However, can we deny that this was once a man? If we do this we cannot call any of us, no matter how noble, human. This was a just ruler, corrupted by immortality and lust for blood. Yes, Count Dracula is a monster, but he was once human.

Works Cited

Stoker, Bram. Dracula. New York: Doubleday & McClure Co., 1899. Print.

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