Regular readers will note I haven’t posted in a while – my apologies. It’s been busy! For my return, a classic tale…
“This vampire which is amongst us is of himself so strong in person as twenty men, he is of cunning more than mortal, for his cunning be the growth of ages…he is brute, and more than brute…”
Far from the meanderings of Twilight today, the original Dracula is tightly written in an epistolary format, as a series of letters, diary entries, and ships’ log entries. It fits into a wider invasion literature that includes the War of the Worlds, H.G. Wells’ classic on aliens invading the earth. Here, Dracula invades England, seeking to expand his scope by leaving his castle in Eastern Europe. The novel opens, therefore, with a visit from his English lawyer to his castle, seeking to confirm some details of a real estate purchase he is making in the UK.
Dracula, of course, refers to the descendants of Duke Vlad II of Wallachia, and means either the dragon or the devil. The best known is probably Vlad III, also known as ‘The Impaler,’ a charming man known for, um, impaling forests of victims. A far cry from the modern depictions of a suave and urbane upper class gentleman.
Perhaps the most interesting character not to make it to modern vampire stories (though he appears in many versions of Dracula) is Renfield. An inmate at a lunatic asylum, he attempts to consume life in order to gain power like Dracula, possibly at Dracula’s suggestion. To maximize the life force he ingests, he raises flies which he feeds to spiders, and the spiders to birds – when denied a cat, he eats the birds himself. He is diagnosed, therefore, as zoophagous: ‘life-eating.’
More generally, it’s interesting what details entered the modern public consciousness of vampires, and what didn’t. In the text, for example, beyond the standard aversion to sunlight, stakes, and garlic, Dracula can command anything with a weak mind, from small animals to the insane; he can control the elements, including fog and storms; he can grow and shrink at will, even vanishing; and if a branch of wild rose is placed on his coffin, he cannot leave it. A far cry from having sparkling skin, a la twilight. From invasion literature to attractive older gentleman that would fit in 50 Shades of Grey, Dracula has evolved to suit the times, reflecting what appeals to each society. Today, in a world uncomfortable with mental instability and no longer worried about invasion, Dracula has evolved from European invader, through an implacable Cold War foe, to sexually charged teenagers who are not what they seem.