Compare And Contrast Dracula And Modern Vampires

Everyone has heard of vampires, from the award winning novels and movies Twilight to TV shows such as The Vampire Diaries, Vampires have become a worldwide phenomenon. These books, movies and TV shows have come a long way from the “original vampire” Bram Stocker’s Dracula. Written in 1897, Dracula quickly gained popularity and later became a classic. While some may believe that Bram Stoker would be devastated by the portrayal of sparling vampires that restrain from human blood, both Dracula and modern vampires have their merits.

While in modern vampire portrayals vampires are seen as inhumanly attractive, this was not the case in earlier vampire lore. Count Dracula is described as a “tall old man, clean shaven save for a long white mustache, and clad in black from head to foot, without a single speck of color about him anywhere.”

(Dracula, pg.42). He is normal in appearance; not standing out from the crowd, but vampires in Twilight tend to be more conspicuous, “Every one of them was chalky pale… They all had very dark eyes despite the range in their hair…were all, devastatingly, inhumanly beautiful.” (Twilight, pgs. 18-19). Bram Stoker wants his character to look as humanly as possible to illustrate how even the most ordinary of people can be monsters, while in Twilight it is evident the difference between human and vampire.
Bram Stoker started the public fascination of the vampire legend and the ways in which we think they act, live, and can be defeated. He did all of this with his novel, Dracula, in 1807; taking almost an entire decade to write, Bram may have been the most influential author in this mythical legend. Almost two centuries later, Stephenie Meyer began the craze once again with a new twist and outlook on the vampire persona. In 2005, she introduced the world to the modern version of a vampire tale with Twilight and the endearing character Edward Cullen. Both authors have different backgrounds and influences. Stoker was from Dublin, Ireland and attended Trinity University with honors in science and then returned for his M.A. degree; but Meyer went to Brigham Young University for a bachelor’s degree in English. These authors brought to the fore-front the fictional but intense and “romantic” idea of the way in which vampires exist in society, in each of their times. Bram and Meyer go into detail the ways in which vampires survive and exist, the ways that they love, and the ways in which they are characterized and destroyed. Bram went to a basic perception and gave us the most perceived conception of these ideals; while Meyer gave us a new conception, erasing all the ideals that Bram had wrote about. In modern society, we have tweaked the tale of vampires to fit our needs of romantic gratification, the idea of being immortal, and the need for something, in a way, realistic to fit our fantasies.
In the aspect of romantic gratification, Dracula is not in the mood for romance. All he seemed to be in the mood for is his unquenchable thirst for blood. The slightest hint of a romantic side to Dracula is in his obsession with Lucy Westenra and his desire for her blood after first drinking it in England, while on the run. Dracula drank so much of her blood and craved it so that blood transfusions were necessary and eventually he killed her and turned her into a vampire; but then no longer wanted anything to do with her. Dracula gave the ideal that his obsession with a woman went only as far as she could provide for him, give him something that he needed in order to thrive. With Lucy, it was her blood and not the need for an epic love. Switching aspects, in Twilight, Edward Cullen is all about the romance with his obsession, Bella Swan. Edward’s obsession is so deep that he watched her sleep and refused to be with her in a sexual relationship until after they were married. Also, he only turned Bella into a vampire after she had given birth to their child and being a vampire would be the only way for her to continue to exist and he could not bear the thought of being without her. Edward showed that romance and love was possible for a vampire, that an epic love was possible. He wanted to be with her; never wanting to drink her blood even though it was the thing he desired most and was always trying to protect her for everything and everyone…even him at times. This romantic gratification that we have made it to be is that of an untouchable and “too good to be true” romance. We turned it into an obsession filled and driven by only the thirst and need for the blood of the woman, to the need and wanting of the woman’s presence forever.
The idea of forever seemed perfect, it is being able to never face death and to see the world and society as it evolves and changes. This idea comes from the way in which the vampire exists and lives. In Dracula, the Count must survive and live off of the blood of human beings. In the beginning, the Count shows his thirst for human blood when Jonathan Harker accidentally cuts himself shaving and the Count lunges at Harker’s throat in “demonic fury”. With this part of immortality also comes the ways in which they could be destroyed. In Dracula, the “service” to kill a vampire and save their soul is to drive a wooden stake through her heart, cut off her head, and stuff it with garlic. In Twilight, the way in which Edward and his family of vampires survive is by drinking the blood of animals; they have controlled their thirst so that they are not harmful to humans and can socialize with them. Their ability to survive off the blood of humans made them less of a target for destruction, though they could be destroyed. Sunlight is never a problem, neither is the threat of a wooden stake or garlic, they only threat to their immortality is being decapitated and torn apart, the pieces burned and destroyed. These parts of vampire’s characteristics are the downside, the worst of the worst; though they are not the only characteristics they obtain, there are some realistic and human-like ones.
Count Dracula leads the life of seclusion and mystery; he does not come out in daylight and he sleeps in a coffin. He allows himself to be almost invisible; the only thing that alerts those to his presence is his thirst. His characteristics are almost unnoticeable in the dark: the fear of sunlight, the non-reflection, his ability to shape shift into a bat, the hurtful effects of religious symbols, and his pale and drained complexion. If seen in the sunlight, these things would give him away as being abnormal; this is why the place in which he resides must be somewhere where he can skillfully and completely conceal himself. His residence is in Castle Dracula in Transylvania, then in England, and then back to Castle Dracula. Edward Cullen is almost the exact opposite of the Count Dracula. Edward lives a life of exuberance and somewhat mystery, he keeps to himself and his family, coming out in the daylight-during stormy and cloudy weather only and never sleeps. His exuberance comes from his love of fast cars and the way in which he dresses-barely wearing the same thing twice. His characteristics are faint, but dominant: the ways his eyes change color in correspondence with his hunger (black=hungry and topaz=satisfied), his pale skin that shimmers in the sunlight, his strength and speed, and the way his appearance is that of a “Greek God”, these things are the reason why him and his family move to the rainiest place in the continental united states, Forks, Washington.
Edward Cullen and Count Dracula give society two different glimpses into the lives of vampires.

The classic of Count Dracula verse the modern of Edward Cullen give us the basic, yet new way of thinking about the ways in which vampires exist and how they behave. Count Dracula is the older version of the two, he allows us as a society to see the comfortable and fearful ways in which he lives; he allows us to be able to distinguish him against the living and allowing us to fear him or be unaware to his even existence. Edward Cullen on the other hand is the newer and hipper version, he allows society to see him as the romantic and mysterious ways in which he lives; he allows us to be unaware that he is different from us, he is the everyday guy with the one exception that he is a vampire. Dracula and Edward give society the knowledge about vampires and allow for formations of different opinions and thoughts; though on fact remains: in modern society, we have tweaked the tale of vampires to fit our needs of romantic gratification, the idea of being immortal, and the need for something, in a way, realistic to fit our

fantasies.