“Do you believe in destiny? That even the powers of time can be altered for a single purpose?” (Bram Stoker’s Dracula). This question has become the principle idea of numerous adaptations in connect to the myths of vampires across all forms of media. Time has allowed for the alteration of the vampire myth and a new understanding of humanity. As society has changed, so has the symbolism, themes, and concepts associated with Nosferatu. From ancient times, the belief of revenants, deceased individuals returning from the grave, has been ingrained in mythology. As cultures transformed, the myth was altered to introduce new concepts of social class, sexuality, and morality. No matter the variation, one objective has remained the same: the vampires …show more content…
lust for human blood and continued life. However, in May of 1897, the author Bram Stoker would forever change the myth by inserting sexual undercurrents into both the novel and his characters. Stoker use of words illustrated that the oral penetration, exchanging of fluids, and hypnotic powers of the vampire were sexual in nature. During a time, individual attitudes about sex illustrated a duality. Society was both enthralled and reserved about human nature. This attitude helped to create the vampirical character of Dracula and new legend was born. Bram Stoker fictional invention would continue its adaptation with the media of cinematography. This media would be used to capture ever-changing social ideas. In the early 90’s, director Francis Ford Coppola and screenwriter James Hart would idealize Bram Stoker’s Dracula as both hero and villain within the legend itself. Coppola utilized the ideas of elements presented in the original novel to present a vampire who the audience not only feared, but also connected with emotionally. The 1992 film version of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, directed by Francis Ford Coppola, uses humanization of the vampire through the romance and explicit sexuality create a new version of the vampirical myth. In Coppola’s film adaptation, the character of Dracula is humanized through both his tragic love story and his emotional nature.
Coppola accomplishes this by introducing an exposition that reveals the creation of the Count Dracula. However, in this account Dracula is not “born” sinful, but is created by the loss of his eternal love and her damnation by religion. In this prologue, which is a creation of Coppola, a human Dracula is shown leaving his bride, Elisabeta, to protect his country, land, and religious convictions. The warrior prince survives, but man’s deception leads to his bride’s death. Dracula returns to his castle inconsolable due to the mortality of the woman he “prized above all other things on earth” (Bram Stoker’s Dracula). Overcome by his anguish and the priest’s pronouncement that her soul is damned and can never gain entrance to heaven, Dracula abandons God. He thrust a sword into the Cross of Christ and cries, “I renounce God! I shall rise from my own death…to avenge her with all of the powers of darkness. The blood is the life…and it shall be mine” (Bram Stoker’s Dracula). Throughout the movie, Coppola illustrates that even though Dracula is evil, it is a result of the death of human love. Evil is not separated from emotion, but born from it. Dracula has sentenced himself to an eternal life of grief. The story then flashes forward 435 years into the
future to the year 1897. Dracula is depicted as an old man trying to survive in a modern age. This time lapse has not weakened his emotional state, but amplified it. Upon seeing the doppelganger’s picture of his beloved Elisabeta, Dracula cries. These few tears illustrate that his love has not faltered, but has remained intact within him. His decision to become immortal has allowed for his true love to be reborn. The pride in his personal choices and anger at God has given him another chance at the passion he found in human existence. Dracula begins his plans to reunite himself with the love he feels was stolen. He proclaims, “I can love too, and I shall love again” (Bram Stoker’s Dracula). Coppola has allowed Dracula’s choice to illustrate an integral part of the complexity of the human soul. The monster has become a creature that even evil cannot drive out the purity of love. As Prince Vlad, regains his youth he becomes obsessed with finding and recapturing something that he feels he has lost in his vampirism. Yet, he can never walk in the true light of life again. He is forever condemned to the shadows. He does not wish to walk eternity alone; however, he cannot condemn Mina, played by Winona Ryder, to walk in a world that he has created. As Vlad prepares to bite Mina he cannot. His human love is strong too sentence her to a world of darkness. Vlad looks at Mina and states, “I have crossed oceans of time to find you” (___). Coppola is illustrating that love does not die with one life, but lives on through time. Vlad becomes a conduit for human love, a perpetual express of humanity. Though a monster, he feels. Thus, Coppola distorts the connection between man and monster, as well as victim and villain. It is Mina, who chooses to condemn herself to evoke a love that was lost, but found within the boundless ends of time. As Dracula is hunted by men, he finds Mina and tells her the truth about his living death. As they embrace they show their true undying emotions: DRACULA: There is no life in this body. MINA: But you live! You live! What are you? I must know! You must tell me! DRACULA: I am nothing, lifeless, soulless, hated and feared. I am dead to all the world hear me! I am the monster the breathing men would kill. I am Dracula. MINA: No! You murdered Lucy! I love you. Oh, God forgive me, I do. I want to be what you are, see what you see, love what you love. DRACULA: Mina, to walk with me, you must die to your breathing life and be reborn to mine. MINA: You are my love and my life always. DRACULA: Then I give you life eternal, everlasting love, the power over the storm and the beasts of the earth. Walk with me to be my loving wife forever. MINA: I will. Yes, yes. DRACULA: Mina! Mina, drink and join me in eternal life (Bram Stoker’s Dracula). Mina has chosen to embrace the human side of Vlad and disregard the evil that he has within him. As Mina becomes part of the world of darkness, Coppola allows the character of Dracula to show both regret in her decision and conscience guilt over her choice of death. Pity for Dracula continues as the monster created by love, must die by the hands of it. As Dracula is stabbed, Mina fights to protect him. As they retreat into the church Harker states, “No let them go, our work is finished here. Hers has just begun” (Bram Stoker’s Dracula). Her work is forged from both love and pity. As he dies, Mina kisses him and she realizes that human love is the only thing that can release the darkness. The cycle has been completed. The human feeling that made Dracula a vampire and he carried in darkness, have made him a man again. Mina ends his life, not as a monster that deserved to die but as a man that has suffered. Coppola’s interpretation of Stoker’s novel depicts a monster that must be conquered, but who is also as a victim that must be pitied. The film represents a man lost in tragedy, vanity, love, and pain. A monster caught in an existence that should be shown compassion, but feared. Coppola’s Dracula is a contradiction through his own humanization. Coppola continues to adapt Bram Stoker’s fictional version of the vampire myth though blatant sexuality. Suggestions of sensuality can be seen in Stoker’s novel; however, Coppola’s film puts sex at the forefront of his version. In the novel, erotic desires can be interpreted, yet they are hidden within in Stoker’s writing. The most obvious sexual encounter, in the novel, is between Jonathan Harker and the three vampire women. In journal format Harker writes, There was something about them that made me uneasy, some longing and at the same time some deadly fear. I felt in my heart a wicked, burning desire that they would kiss me with those red lips… There was a deliberate voluptuousness which was both thrilling and repulsive … the lips … seemed to fasten about my throat … Then the skin of my throat began to tingle as one’s flesh does when the hand that is to tickle it approaches nearer—nearer. I could feel the soft, shivering touch of the lips on the supersensitive skin of my throat … I closed my eyes in languorous ecstasy, and waited—waited with a beating heart (Stoker 58). Stoker’s description of the lips is a reference to that of the pinkness or redness of the feminine genital. Stoker shows Harker disgusted by spellbound by his own desires of the female sex. Coppola’s adapts this lines into a sexual desire that can be seen through his version. However, Coppola allows for the women, in the film version, to become distinctive sexual creatures. The vampire women are dominating over Harker due to his desire. They use is urges to conquer him. The topless vampire women, rise from a silken covered bed and spread Harker’s leg. They are taking the stance of the initiator and not bystander. They caress him to prepare him for female control. Then, the sexual indulgences begin. Harker moans in ecstasy as the women overcome him through his needs. The women bite into his body taking his body fluid into their own. As Jonathan is overcome with desire, the vampire women bare their fangs in dominance over men. In a final bite, one female vampire bites into his penis. Sexual desire has become the power in which women can prevail of the men. Jonathan does not struggle, but gives into temptation. Dracula then stops Jonathan desires by stating, “How dare you touch him! He belongs to me! (Bram Stoker’s Dracula). Jonathan then shows fear. This fear stems from his inner desire to and alarm of male homosexual feelings. Coppola also uses human females to illustrate the hidden desire from society. Lucy states as she sexualizes Quincy Morris, “He's so young and fresh, like a wild stallion between my legs…I just know what men desire. Watch… Oh, Quincey, please let me touch it. It's so big!” (Bram Stoker’s Dracula). Quincy becomes caught in the sexual trance that Lucy has laid before him. She has the power over him. Furthermore, Coppola illustrates the sexual question of the female sex. First, in the viewing of Arabian Knights. Next, in the kiss between Mina and Lucy. These women have allowed for their sexual inquisitiveness to become physical. As Lucy sexuality is released her activities become more apparent. Dracula presence releases Lucy of sexual social barriers. She walks, in trance, to her own desires. Dracula takes Lucy in the garden. Even though some have regarded this as rape of the female, this is not so. Lucy has been given a chance to give in to sexual needs. She does not scream in agony, but moans in ecstasy. As she transforms into a vampire, she releases her sexual power. She has found supremacy within herself. Mina also finds a release of her sexuality, but only after she is married. Mina states, “It's as if a part of me is dead, too, except for the tiny hope that lives in me that I will again see my Prince. Is he here? Now that I am married, I begin to understand the nature of my feelings for my strange friend who is always in my thoughts” (Bram Stoker’s Dracula). Coppola is illustrating the difference between society’s definition of female sexual desire and the personal sexual desire. In the end, Mina give in to her own physical needs. Dracula gives her physical relieve. Mina states, “Then take me away from all this death!” (Bram Stoker’s Dracula). This death is both physical and social. Mina wants to have power over her own desires and not that of Harker or society. By intensifying the erotic characteristics of the vampire myth Coppola shows a connection with desire, agony, fear, and pleasure. He demonstrates that female sexuality has a supremacy that that is only hidden by society. Coppola’s version of the vampire has forever changed the mythology surrounding the revenant. The Nosferatu are now creatures that contain human characteristic, but are free from social constraints. Coppola’s film version has shown that the sexuality of the vampire not as liability, but has a strength. As time passes, this myth will transform as human nature is understood and not condemned for its passion. Coppola’s adaptation Bram Stoker’s Dracula has contributed to the understanding of humanity. It will forever, illustrate that time changes human philosophies.
At first glance, Joss Whedon's "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," the hour-long TV series which premiered in 1997 and is now in its third season, bears little resemblance to the book which started the vampire craze -- Bram Stoker's Dracula, published a century earlier. And yet, looks can be deceiving. Although the trendy -- and often skimpy -- clothing and bandied about pop-culture references of "Buffy" clearly mark the series as a product of a far different culture than that of the Victorian England of Dracula, the underlying tensions of the two texts are far similar than one might think. Beneath the surface differences in the treatment of their heroines, the two texts converge in similarly problematic anxieties about gender and sexuality.
This fictional character was soon to be famous, and modified for years to come into movie characters or even into cereal commercials. But the original will never be forgotten: a story of a group of friends all with the same mission, to destroy Dracula. The Count has scared many people, from critics to mere children, but if one reads between the lines, Stoker’s true message can be revealed. His personal experiences and the time period in which he lived, influenced him to write Dracula in which he communicated the universal truth that good always prevails over evil. Religion was a big part of people’s lives back in Stoker’s time.
The late nineteenth century Irish novelist, Bram Stoker is most famous for creating Dracula, one of the most popular and well-known vampire stories ever written. Dracula is a gothic, “horror novel about a vampire named Count Dracula who is looking to move from his native country of Transylvania to England” (Shmoop Editorial Team). Unbeknownst of Dracula’s plans, Jonathan Harker, a young English lawyer, traveled to Castle Dracula to help the count with his plans and talk to him about all his options. At first Jonathan was surprised by the Count’s knowledge, politeness, and overall hospitality. However, the longer Jonathan remained in the castle the more uneasy and suspicious he became as he began to realize just how strange and different Dracula was. As the story unfolded, Jonathan realized he is not just a guest, but a prisoner as well. The horror in the novel not only focuses on the “vampiric nature” (Soyokaze), but also on the fear and threat of female sexual expression and aggression in such a conservative Victorian society.
Stevenson, John Allen. A Vampire in the Mirror: The Sexuality of Dracula. 2nd ed. Vol. 103. N.p.: Modern Language Association, 1988. JSTOR. Web. 6 Jan. 2014. .
Vampires have been viewed with fear and fascination for centuries. Of all the vampires in literature, Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula is probably the most prominent vampire. Recently, there has been an upsurge of public interest in socially acceptable vampires, like the Cullens in the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer. This essay will contrast Stoker’s Dracula with Carlisle Cullen, one of the newer vampires from the Twilight series. They will be examined in terms of their origins and how they dealt with immortality.
Conclusively, while Bram Stokers novel Dracula is seen as a gothic and horror story, I argue that it is a novel that seeks to address female sexuality directly. Seen through numerous passages, Stoker confronts and battles the views between sexuality during the Victorian era though his genius of characterization of characters present within the novel. As it seems highly intentional to me, I respect the way in which he criticizes and critiques upon female sexuality by bringing into light new ideas regarding female desires. When contrasting his text upon today’s culture, the differences to how one perceived the vampire has changed significantly.
While studying the diabolical figures in the devil, the idea of presenting Dracula came to mind. Dracula represents the devil in many similar ways. Dracula remains as a character in many diabolical movies and films. For instance, Van Helsing provides a good interpret of how Dracula remains noticed in the past and in present day. Although Dracula’s character obtains different views in every movie and film, he plays an important role in Stephen Sommers Van Helsing movie. In the movie, he acts as many different things. Demonstrating both the kind and evil inside, Dracula portrays his character as a mystery. Different views of Dracula throughout the movie include harsh, strong, powerful, evil, the devil, and unstoppable. The studies of Dracula
Over the course of cinematic history, many filmmakers have attempted to recreate the chilling, unprecedented world of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Arguably very few have succeeded, for the majority of directors tend to avoid the pervasive sexuality inherent in the novel. It is a difficult task to achieve, considering the blatant imagery surrounding sex and vampirism, such as the reproduction following a vampiric encounter and the phallocentric nature of the violence committed both by and against these creatures: penetration is involved in their hunting, and one must impale them with a stake in order to destroy them. Readers are thereby forced to admit that Dracula is, in fact, a highly eroticized piece of literature, though whether or not Stoker himself was aware of this suggestiveness, we cannot be sure. The most successful effort at capturing that sexual energy on film has been Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 movie, Bram Stoker's Dracula. In fact, it has often been proposed that Coppola’s version is too carnally focused in comparison to the original work, which leads a viewer to wonder about the purpose in this overt sexualization. It can be concluded that adding copious amounts of eroticism to the film is directly related to Coppola’s strive to depict Count Dracula as more human rather than monster, and sexuality in his film serves as a balance so that the lines between good and evil are blurred. Evidence for this deduction is found in three scenes in particular: Jonathan’s seduction by Dracula’s vampiric wives, Lucy’s demonic transformation, and Mina and Van Helsing’s relationship during the climax of the story.
From Transylvania to Hollywood, vampires have transformed from unfamiliar, mysterious personalities to one of the most dominant monsters in the horror genre today. Vampires are one of the oldest and most noted creatures in mythology, with many variations of them around the world. Although the most famous version is Bram Stoker’s Dracula, many variants have come before and after telling of the same legend with their own added ideas and modifications to relate to their cultures. Today, there is a multitude of literary and film works that convey and resurface peoples’ fear of vampires. As gothic works like Dracula, by Bram Stoker and Scooby-Doo! and the Legend of the Vampire directed by Scott Jeralds share certain traits reflective of the genre; These factors include setting, actions of each vampire, the initial reactions to news of them, and how their presence affects the people who live within the region the vampires inhabit.
In Twilight, Edward Cullen presents the question; “ But what if I’m not the hero? What if I’m the bad guy?” The role of vampires is very controversial. Back in the day they were evil, soulless monsters and people genuinely feared them. However, in the present day it seems that we have grown to love them and even hope to one day be them. There are a plethora of vampire stories and many of them have become immense hits. With so many vampire stories, it is not uncommon that readers are able to identify a vast amount of similarities. Although similar in aspects, there are still many differences between the classic and modern day vampires. Two highly popular stories, in which we can easily identify similarities and differences, are Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight.
In the book, Dracula by Bram Stoker there are many characters that display qualities of good verse evil. The Count Dracula is a mysterious character who appears as an odd gentleman but the longer the story goes on Dracula shows his true self. Dracula started infiltrating the lives of anyone who crossed his path and he was not stopping his destruction of others’ lives. Many people were affect by Dracula’s actions but there were two people that Dracula caused an impact on during his rampage. Dracula is an evil, cunning, and selfish character who harms the life of a young man and ruins the future of an innocent woman.
it horrifies us and reinforces our sense of boundaries and normalcy” (Halberstam 13). Assuming that Bram Stoker’s Dracula sets the archetype of the vampire, it is clear that modern vampires have demonstrated a decrease in the Gothic horror despite similarities in the Gothic imagery and themes, and such a shift is attributed to a changing value of the limit within society and postmodernism. The Count is the benchmark of the vampire archetype as the monstrous Other that “announces itself as the place of corruption” (Anolik and Howard 1). Dracula is associated with disruption and transgression of accepted limits—a monstrosity of great evil that serves to guarantee the existence of good (Punter and Byron 231).
The novel Dracula by Bram Stoker has plentiful examples of key concepts we have examined in class including: Purity and impurity, magical thinking, strong emotions such as disgust and shame, , formalization, and myth. In this essay I will summarize events that take place within the novel when the protagonists deal with Dracula and then relate these events to the key concepts to demonstrate why the characters view him as dangerous, and therefore something to be avoided completely.
In Bram Stoker's "Dracula", Dracula is portrayed as a monster made evident by his gruesome actions. An analysis of Dracula shows that: shows his evil nature in his planning, brutally killing Lucy Westrenstra causing a violent response from Dr. Seward and others, and how his evil ways lead to his downfall. To characterize Dracula in one way, he is a ruthless, cunning monster who uses tricks, torture, and wits to manipulate people to his will. However when he trifled with some courageous people, he had no knowledge that it would be his undoing.
The author’s op-ed piece was published in 2009, the very peak of the vampire contagion, where one could find these creatures wherever they looked. This pandemonium that arose from vampires is what drove del Toro and Hogan to pen “Why Vampires Never Die.” Furthermore, the purpose behind this essay is to give an abridged description of the past of vampires for the people who had become fanatics of the creatures. Also, this essay showed how vampires have persisted in pop culture. They suggest that vampires have been remade by diverse cultures at different times, and this change echoes that society's angst and concerns. The novelist’s imply that Stroker’s Dracula may mirror an exaggerated human on a prim...