How Did Dracula Influence The World

The Influence of Dracula Around the World

Without the novel Dracula, teens all around the world most likely would not have the opportunity to choose between team Jacob and team Edward. This book influenced some of the most iconic series in pop culture including Twilight. Symbols and characteristics found within most vampire stories can be traced back to this novel, Dracula. Some popular vampire characteristics are that they are immortal, survive on the blood of others, have the strength of twenty men, have no reflection in a mirror, can turn their victims into vampires, and are able to shape shift. The book Dracula by Bram Stoker established the genre of the vampire story and it has influenced even modern day vampire stories such as Twilight

and The Vampire Diaries.
Many characteristics found in vampires from Dracula can be seen in modern works such as Twilight by Stephenie Meyers.

In the novel Dracula, Jonathan Harker writes in his journal about his experiences in Transylvania while staying with Count Dracula. Jonathan is talking with Dracula and discovers one of his traits that confirm he is a vampire. “I turned to the glass again to see how I had been mistaken…there was no reflection of him in the mirror! The whole room behind me was displayed, but there was no sign of a man in it, except myself” (Stoker 27). This quote displays that Dracula has no reflection which is a prominent trait in vampire stories today. Overall, Twilight and Dracula have similar themes and traits regarding vampires throughout the books.

Although vampires in Twilight and Dracula share similar traits, they are also very different. In this quote, Johnathan Harker describes Count Dracula’s characteristics. “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” (Stoker 23). In Twilight vampires also have prominent sharp, white teeth. In Twilight, they describe vampires the same way as

well.
In Twilight, vampires can be good or evil, and in Dracula all vampires are essentially evil. Over the years, the vampire genre has changed how vampires are seen in pop culture. In this quote the well-known author and scholar Maria Antonia Lima states, “Consequently, the contemporary vampire has ceased to be associated with the pure evil represented by Count Dracula, or with his metaphysical dimension as an anti-Christ, and has become the expression of the human condition” (Lima 266). This confirms that vampires were seen as evil in Dracula and that they are depicted differently today. All actions that The Count carries out in the novel are malicious. In this quote, Dr. Seward describes the scene when Dracula sucks Mina’s blood. “…the Count turned his face, and the hellish look that I had heard described seemed to leap into it. His eyes flamed red with devilish passion. The great nostrils of the white aquiline nose opened wide and quivered at the edge, and the white sharp teeth, behind the full lips of the blood dripping mouth, clamped together like those of a wild beast” (Stoker 305). This quote from the book shows that Dracula has no humanity and does not care about Mina’s life. When Dracula tries to turn people into monsters he does not have any remorse, and it conveys the evil throughout the story. The ethical vampires in Twilight coexist with humans and try to live in peace. Good as well as evil vampires exist in Twilight and only the evil are portrayed in Dracula.
The television series, The Vampire Diaries, includes some features of vampires that are the same as in Dracula. Van Helsing finds that you need a stake in order to kill a vampire. Vampires in both Dracula and The Vampire Diaries can be killed with a stake. Both works include blood sucking vampires who have super strength as well. In this quote, the influential editor and lecturer Rebecca Williams describes the characteristics of vampires in the Vampire Diaries. “Vampires have super speed and strength, and sharper senses. These include numerous mental powers, including the power to influence humans, telepathic communication with each other, and the ability to read humans’ minds” (Williams 4). This exemplifies characteristics in a vampire story that are found in the television series. Although Count Dracula cannot read humans’ minds, he has super speed, super strength, sharp senses, immortality, can turn victims into vampires, and has hypnotic power over his victims. In this quote Rebecca Williams, lecturer in communication, cultural, and media studies at the University of South Wales, describes traits of vampires within the television series. “…Damon is more likely to either kill to feed or to compel (hypnotize) victims to allow him to drink their blood without killing them” (Williams 3). The quote proves that these fictional vampires both drink blood and use hypnotic power over people. Both sources use the same methods in order to destroy vampires and survive off of the blood of humans.
In The Vampire Diaries the traits of a vampire are similar to those found in Dracula. Both types of vampires suck blood from humans. In this quote, Dr. Seward describes the scene when Dracula sucks Mina’s blood. “With his left hand he held both Mrs. Harker’s hands…forcing her face down on his bosom. Her white nightdress was smeared with blood, and a thin stream trickled down the man’s bare breast which was shown by his torn-open dress” (Stoker 304). This quote shows that Count Dracula sucks blood from humans to survive. In The Vampire Diaries, most of the vampires drink blood from humans to survive as well. The sunlight can be a problem for vampires in both stories. The sunlight weakens Count Dracula’s supernatural powers Vampires in The Vampire Diaries struggle in the sun and will burn to ash. In this quote Rebecca Williams, lecturer in communication, cultural, and media studies at the University of South Wales, explains this characteristic in relation to The Vampire Diaries. “Mystic Falls is the 'real world' where vampires burn in the sun, rather than glittering, a trait….Such intertextuality relates to the show's status as teen television and the mechanisms of inter-genre distinction regarding other vampire stories” (Williams 5). Instead of glittering like vampires in Twilight, these vampires burn in the sun. In each story, sunlight is proven to be problematic and this trait is carried on throughout the vampire genre. Another striking similarity carried down from Bram Stoker’s work is that the vampires have to be invited in, in order to enter a building. Therefore connections throughout vampire genres are traced back to Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula.
In The Vampire Diaries, vampires are depicted as charming and alluring whereas in Dracula they are portrayed as unpleasant, hellish, demons. In this quote, Jonathan Harker is describing Dracula. “I saw…Count Dracula…with red light of triumph in his eyes, and with a smile that Judas in hell might be proud of” (Stoker 51). The biblical reference comparing Dracula to Judas in this quote is further proof that he is characterized by evil. Furthermore, in The Vampire Diaries they can choose to have their humanity or not. Stefan, a main character in the series, drinks animal blood instead of human blood, which indicates that his humanity is still intact. In this quote the distinguished editor and lecturer Rebecca Williams states, “In the first two seasons of the Vampire Diaries, Stefan hunts deer and other animals…” (Williams 3). This quote verifies that different types of vampires, such as animal blood drinking ones, are found within The Vampire Diaries. Vampires in the television series have a choice to be good or evil and in Dracula they do not.
Similar themes can be found throughout many different vampire stories such as Twilight and The Vampire Diaries because Bram Stoker’s Dracula set the common characteristics often found in pop culture today. Twilight is similar to Dracula but also different because there can be good and evil vampires. The Vampire Diaries also has similar characteristics and vampires can choose to be good or evil. Overall, many similarities and differences can be found within today’s pop culture and the original Dracula story.