Analysis of the character 'Dracula'

The character ‘Dracula’ is one of the most famous in the genre of horror, this is because it was one of the first horror characters to be created and used in a novel, its main purpose being to scare people. It was an 1897 Gothic horror novel by an Irish author called Bram Stoker. There have been many adaptations of Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’ right up to modern day, but how he came up with the idea of Dracula’s character was believed to be due to influences from Transylvanian born Vlad III Dracula of Wallachia, who was nicknamed ‘Vlad the Impaler’ for having killed 40,000 to 100,000 European civilians by impaling them.

The creation of ‘Dracula’ led to the release of ‘Nosferatu’ in 1922, which was an unauthorised adaptation of Bram Stoker’s ‘Dracula’. The makers of ‘Nosferatu’ tried to get away with having no rights to the novel by changing some of the names and other details such as ‘Count Dracula’ to ‘Count Orlok’.

‘Dracula’ has been assigned to a variety of different literary genres including vampire literature, horror fiction, the gothic novel and invasion literature. The novel covers some themes such as the role of women in Victorian culture, sexual conventions, immigration, colonialism and post colonialism. Although Stoker didn’t invent the vampire, he defined its modern form and the novel has influenced many theatrical, film and TV interpretations.

‘Count Dracula’ has continued to be popular over the years, where many films have used the vampire character as a villain and others have named him in their titles including ‘Dracula’s Daughter’, ‘The Bride of Dracula’ and ‘Zoltan, Hound of Dracula’. In 2009 it was estimated that 217 films featured ‘Dracula’ as a major role.

In modern day, ‘Dracula’ has been used to influence books such as ‘The Twilight Saga’ and T.V. shows including ‘True Blood’. These adaptations are different in terms of the context and plot; however, ‘Dracula’ was a main influence for many of the characters used.