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This Villain was Headlined on May, 2016. | ||
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| “ | Listen to them. Children of the night. What music they make. | „ |
| ~ Count Dracula, referring to wolves. |
Count Dracula is the titular main antagonist of the 1897 horror novel Dracula by the late Bram Stoker.
He is a centuries-old vampire, sorcerer, and Transylvanian nobleman, and the ruler of his namesake palace Castle Dracula. During the events of the novel, he attempts to expand his territory into England and transform Mina Harker into a vampire, only to be thwarted and killed by the latter, Jonathan Harker, Quincey Morris, Lord Arthur Godalming, John Seward and his archenemy Abraham Van Helsing.
Since his introduction, Count Dracula has become universally recognized as one of the most famous fictional characters, as well as one of the icons of horror fiction, being the archetype of all vampires. He has gone on to inspire countless different adaptations, with many straying far from his original depiction in the novel.
Appearance[]
Bram Stoker was thought to have based his character upon the historical figure Vlad Tepes, ruler of Wallachia in the 15th century, also known as Vlad Dracul and "Vlad the Impaler". Some believe that Stoker may have possibly also based Dracula partially off of "The Abhartach," a vampiric creature from Irish folklore. Unlike the vampires of Eastern European folklore - which are portrayed as repulsive, corpse-like creatures - Dracula is handsome and charismatic, exuding a veneer of aristocratic charm which masks his unfathomable evil. He is widely regarded as a metaphor for vice, depravity and illicit sex.
Count Dracula's appearance is described thus:
| “ | [Dracula's] face was a strong - a very strong - aquiline, with high bridge of the thin nose and peculiarly arched nostrils; with lofty domed forehead, and hair growing scantily round the temples, but profusely elsewhere. His eyebrows were very massive, almost meeting over the nose, and with bushy hair that seemed to curl in its own profusion. The mouth, so far as I could see it under the heavy mustache, was fixed and rather cruel looking, with peculiarly sharp white teeth; these protruded over the lips, whose remarkable ruddiness's showed astonishing vitality in a man of his years. For the rest, his ears were pale and at the tops extremely pointed; the chin was broad and strong, and the cheeks firm though thin. The general effect was one of extraordinary pallor. | „ |
| ~ Jonathan Harker's Journal, Dracula, Chapter 2. |
The more blood he feeds upon, the younger he becomes, reverting to a tall, noble-looking man looking around in his thirties, with black hair and much better looking, although still uncanny. Also, his eyes turn red when angered.
Personality[]
Dracula is noted for having been exceptionally brave, noble and admirable when alive, but he is now horribly cruel and sadistic, only viewing people as preys to feed upon and servants to use and trample. He is very refined and sophisticated, being able to seamlessly pass for a gentleman, unfailingly polite and considerate, but only when needed. Otherwise he is stern, harsh and irascible.
He is very proud and haughty, fully expecting to be shown the respect due to a man of his condition even posing as a gentleman, and regards nobility lording over commoners as the natural order. He deems the heroes' opposition futile, enjoys their torment and reacts with scathing spite when thwarted. However, he is cautious and becomes increasingly wary of them, following their progress.
He is highly intelligent and well-read, with centuries of experience and "no branch of knowledge of his time that he did not essay". He planned his plot with utmost care, studying English society to blend in, devising counters to all possible troubles. It is stated several times that another vampire trying to do the same would fail. He is a captivating orator with strong charisma, who can quickly adapt to new cultures and situations, and proves particularly cunning during his skirmishes with the heroes. He knows how to cover his tracks, create false leads to misguide his foes or escape them, and always learns from mistakes.
However, immortality somehow stunned his development, hence Van Helsing referring to his intelligence as "child-like". Indeed he will first rely on external help, before figuring that he can do better on his own and how, and he needs to experience a situation to fully grasp it.
Many adaptations make the Count a more fleshed-out, three-dimensional character. Some make him an anti-hero who laments his curse and longs for respite, and some even give him a romance with Mina. In spite of the enormous popularity of such portrayal, it must be stressed that the original Mina utterly loathes the Count. Although she does wish to save the soul of the great man he once was, she wants to see the monster he is now destroyed as much as the other heroes and proves vital in his defeat. Furthermore, she breaks down in despair when infected with vampirism, and is revolted by the prospect of becoming one of his vampire brides.
Powers, Abilities and Weaknesses[]
Dracula is described as an expert scholar with immense knowledge in many scientific fields, including alchemy. After becoming a vampire, he became a master of sorcery and necromancy. While his powers were later regarded as standard abilities for a vampire, the novel notes that he is exceptionally powerful and gifted, even for a vampire. As such, what abilities are his and his alone, and what are common abilities for a vampire remain unclear. Some of his powers like the ability to turn into elemental dust in the moonlight would not appear in most adaptations.
Dracula is as strong, fast and spry as twenty strong men. He can see in complete darkness and crawl across walls like a lizard. He can alter his aspect and features at will, though he needs to drink blood to rejuvenate and regain his youthful aspect. He is also able to change his size to an unknown extent. Dracula can shape-shift into almost any kind of feral beast and lower critter, like wolves, dogs, bats, rats and the like. He is also able to turn into mist and elemental dust in the moonlight, (the latter transformation being shared by his wives).
He is also able to control the weather to conjure storms, mist, wind and rain at will and to mesmerize people through eye contact or his mere presence. All feral beasts and critters around will obey his every command, though his hold over them has some limitations; when he summoned thousands of rats to swarm and attack the heroes, Holmwood freed the rats from his influence by having his trio of terriers killing some and terrify the rest in the process. Finally, he can control corpses and shares a psychic link with the vampires he sired. He can command them and gain access to their mind, but the process can be reversed.
Dracula, like all vampires in the novel, can be repelled by a religious symbol like a cross or by garlic. Sunlight does not harm him but he is notably weaker and unable to use his powers during the day. Should the sun rise after he shape-shifted, he would not be able to change form for the whole day. As such, the heroes are able to hold their own in battle against him during daytime, while they admit that they would stand no chance by night.
He also needs to be invited to enter in an inhabited area, but as long as he has this invitation he can appear there out of nowhere. He can also enter through cracks and interstices as small as a hair. However, he would be trapped in his vault should a wild flower be placed upon it, he cannot cross a barrier made of holy wafers, and he cannot cross running waters like rivers unless the tide is at its highest or at slack levels. Finally, he must rest on the soil of his place of "rebirth" on a regular basis to sustain his powers. Such characteristic he shares with other vampires.
Vampires can be destroyed by being incinerated, immersed in running water, shot with a sanctified bullet, having their heart pierced, or getting beheaded. While the most common method to pierce their heart is by using a wooden stake, iron blades can also be used, in reference to the myths where iron harms supernatural beings. However, the adaptations tend to neglect this notion.
Biography[]
Background[]
Count Dracula claims to be a Székely descended from Attila the Hun. He inhabits a decaying castle in the Carpathian Mountains near the Borgo Pass. In his youth, he studied the black arts at the secret academy of Scholomance overlooking the town of Sibiu (also known as Hermannstadt) – said by some to be taught by the devil himself – and became highly proficient in alchemy and magic (Dracula Chapter 18 and Chapter 23). Later he took up a military profession, combating the Turks across the Danube.
| “ | He must indeed have been that Voivode Dracula who won his name against the Turks, over the great river on the very frontier of Turkey-land. If it be so, then was he no common man: for in that time, and for centuries after, he was spoken of as the cleverest and the most cunning, as well as the bravest of the sons of the 'land beyond the forest'. | „ |
| ~ Mina Harker's Journal, 30 September, Dracula, Chapter 18. |
Using the black arts, Dracula returned from death as a vampire and lived for centuries in his castle with his three vampire brides, describing portraits of himself as that of his ancestors to guests. He is immensely wealthy, hiding his treasure in buried sites marked by will-o-the-wisps only a few nights on the year. He always carries wads of banknotes and gold coins, being able to buy many luxurious estates like an afterthought, and hire or bribe anyone he likes.
Dracula[]
| “ | My revenge is just begun! I spread it over centuries, and time is on my side. Your girls that you all love are mine already; and through them you and others shall yet be mine – my creatures, to do my bidding and to be my jackals when I want to feed. | „ |
| ~ Dracula, furious at the heroes who thwarted him. |
In the nineteenth century, Dracula enacts a long-contemplated plan to leave his scarcely populated land where everyone knows and fear him, in favor of a populated and striving country in which no one believes in vampires. It is stated that he wants to expand his hunting grounds and breed a coven of vampires, and some speculate that he plans to take over the world.
Dracula chooses to infiltrate London to begin his reign of terror. He purchases the Purfleet Domain and summons Jonathan Harker, a newly qualified English solicitor, to provide legal support for a real estate transaction.
Dracula trying to resist drinking from Jonathan Harker's shaving cut.
Dracula at first charms Jonathan with his cordiality and historical knowledge, and even rescues him from the clutches of his bloodthirsty brides, claiming that he can love Jonathan like he has loved before. While Jonathan thinks the truth to be that Dracula only wishes to keep him alive till his use runs out, it is suggested that his true plans are to make Jonathan a vampire too.
Jonathan notices that something is amiss when he cuts himself while shaving due to the lack of mirrors in the castle, as the Count gets enthralled by the smell of blood and and comes really close to draining his blood, instead scolding him once touching the cross around his neck. He later witnesses Dracula crawling along the castle walls and resting in his vault, and realises upon attempting to explore the castle, that all the doors are locked, and that he is prisoner.
He later asks Dracula's roma servants to take his letters to the post office, but they laugh off his pleas and give the letters to Dracula. He also witnesses a woman who demands her child, abducted by Dracula for his brides, but the Count calls forth wolves to tear her apart. He leaves the traumatized Jonathan trapped in his castle at his brides' mercy, but he climbs down the walls before they rise and reaches a convent, where the nuns nurse him back to health.
Dracula crawling.
Dracula then boards a Russian ship, the Demeter, bringing along 50 crates of Transylvanian soil. During the voyage to Whitby, a coastal town in northern England, he sustains himself on the ship's crew members and throws them at sea. Only the body of the captain is later found, tied up to the ship's helm. The captain's log is recovered and tells of strange events that took place during the journey. Dracula leaves the ship in the form of a very large black dog.
Soon the Count is targeting the vivacious Lucy Westenra, friend to Wilhelmina "Mina" Murray, Jonathan's fiancée, whom he noticed as she was sleepwalking. Also, his influence starts affecting R.M. Renfield, a patient at the local insane asylum delusionally acting as a sort of vampire, compelled to consume small animals to absorb their "life-force".
Renfield can detect Dracula's proximity and supply clues accordingly. Dracula quickly makes Renfield his slave and starts visiting Lucy's bedroom on a nightly basis, draining her blood. Unable to heal her, Dr. John Steward, her unfortunate suitor and the director of the Asylum where Renfield is kept, calls for his former mentor the Dutch doctor Abraham Van Helsing. Van Helsing deduces that she suffers from vampirism, but cannot tell it without proof.
Despite an attempt at keeping the vampire at bay with garlic, Dracula watches Lucy under the shape of a bat and later transforms into a wolf in an attempt to break into Lucy's house, violently scaring Lucy's mother who dies of heart failure. He later returns and entices Lucy out of her chamber late at night, draining her blood and killing her.
Dracula mesmerizes Lucy.
It appears that Lucy is now a vampire herself, and is preying upon children, who call her the "Bloody Maiden". Van Helsing leads Dr. Steward, the Texan Quincey Morris (another of Lucy's unfortunate suitors) and Lucy's fiancé Lord Arthur Godalming into Lucy's crypt, to reveal the truth and relieve her from undeath. They later join forces with Jonathan and Mina, who just returned to England and are now married, and swear to destroy the Count.
They gather their information and start using it to track down Dracula. They quickly learn that the Count had his fifty crates of Transylvanian soil brought to his property of Carfax Abbey in Purfleet, isolated enough to avoid suspicion. When the heroes storm it for recognition, they only find twenty-nine crates there. The Count unleashes a horde of rats against them, but they keep the critters at bay with attack dogs. It now becomes clear that Dracula has hired many solicitors to purchase three more houses in London, and dispersed the rest of his crates there.
Dracula targets Mina for revenge, intimidation and spying through her on the heroes. He compels Renfield to let him enter the Asylum where she is kept safe and starts feeding on her. He destroys Stewart's study and all they wrote about him to keep them away, but fortunately they kept copies in a safe.
Dracula later kills Renfield, who tried to protect Mina out of gratitude for her kindness, hypnotises and neutralises Jonathan, threatening to kill him should Mina resist, before infecting her with vampirism. The heroes drive him away with holy symbols, but with Mina infected they are now running against time.
The heroes resolve to track down Dracula before he can buy more houses, which would make him almost impossible to find. After a long investigation, they discover all of his properties and take profit of the day to destroy all his crates by putting holy wafers in the earth.
They destroy the crates in Carfax Abbey, and later the ones at his remaining hideouts, but it appears that Dracula has taken one away. Mina later warns them by telegraph that Dracula has discovered what they did in Carfax and is now checking all his residences. The heroes regroup in Dracula's last residence and wait for him to try and destroy him while they can.
As soon as Dracula comes in, Jonathan attacks him with his large kukri knife but he manages to flee, cursing them. Dracula later fetches his only remaining box and rents a boat to return to Transylvania, in order to lay low for a few decades and plan a second, best organized invasion of England.
While the heroes worry that Dracula would bury his remaining crate and hide away until Mina becomes a vampire, Mina urges Van Helsing to hypnotise her, taking profit of her connection with the Count to discover that he has boarded a ship. Lord Godalming learns the ship's name and the group travels to Transylvania by land to precede and ambush him. However, Dracula influenced the weather to make the trip unnaturally fast and faked the ship's destination to launch them on a false track. They rush after him, but are too late. They try to chase after him, but he has killed the man he hired for his travel towards his castle to cover his track, and severed his psychic link with Mina.
Mina deduces that Dracula is travelling by boat on the river hidden in his crate, and cannot reveal himself out of fear of being thrown to the river and destroyed by the sailors. The men chase after the vampire, while Mina and Van Helsing precede them to the castle. At night, Van Helsing puts Mina inside a circle of holy wafers to protect her from both Dracula's influence and her growing vampirism. The following night, they ward off Dracula's brides. In the morning, Van Helsing ventures in the castle using a map drawn by Jonathan, and destroys the brides, before ruining Dracula's last resting place and using holy wafers to prevent him from entering his castle ever again.
Dracula's demise.
Later, the men catch up with the Count's roma bodyguards, while Mina and Van Helsing ambush them from behind. After a short but violent skirmish during which Quincey gets mortally wounded, Jonathan and Quincey break Dracula's crate open. Just before night falls, which would enable Dracula to rise and slaughter his foes, Quincey pierces his heart with his huge bowie knife while Jonathan beheads him with his kukri. (Mina Harker's Journal, 6 November, Dracula Chapter 27) Quincey passes away with a smile, happy to see Mina freed from the curse.
The fact that Dracula was not "properly" staked has led some fans to doubt whether he has really been destroyed, and to even believe that he shall rise again. However, Dracula is described crumbling to dust with an expression of blissful relief, exactly like other slain vampires, and Mina is freed from every physical and mental stigma of vampirism, proving without doubt that the Count was truly dead and gone.
Notable Victims[]
Counterparts in Other Media[]
Films[]
- Main article: Count Orlok (1922)
- Main article: Count Dracula (Universal Monsters)
- Main article: Count Dracula (House Duology)
- Main article: Count Dracula (Hammer)
- Main article: Count Dracula (1970)
- Main article: Count Dracula (Nosferatu, the Vampyre)
- Main article: Dracula (Monster Squad)
- Main article: Count Dracula (1992)
- Main article: Count Dracula (Wes Craven)
- Main article: Count Dracula (Van Helsing)
- Main article: Dracula (Renfield)
- Main article: Dracula (The Last Voyage of the Demeter)
- Main article: Walter Deville
- Main article: Count Orlok (2023)
- Main article: Count Orlok (2024)
Television[]
- Main article: Dracula (2020)
- Main article: Dracula (Buffyverse)
- Main article: Dracula (Penny Dreadful)
- Main article: Dracula (Van Helsing/Syfy)
- Main article: Dracula (Netflix's Castlevania)
Comics[]
- Main article: Dracula (DC)
- Main article: Dracula (Marvel)
- Main article: Dracula (Castlevania: The Belmont Legacy)
Anime/Manga[]
- Main article: Alucard (Hellsing)
Literature[]
- Main article: Count Dracula (Dracul)
Video Games[]
- Main article: Dracula (Castlevania)
- Main article: Dracula (Lords of Shadow)
Gallery[]
External Links[]
- Count Dracula on the Pure Evil Wiki
- Count Dracula on the Dracula Wiki
- Count Dracula on Wikipedia
[]
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