Count Dracula

For other uses, see Dracula (disambiguation).

Count Dracula
Dracula character
Bela Lugosi as Count Dracula in the 1931 film Dracula
First appearanceDracula (1897)
Created byBram Stoker
Based onVlad III Dracula
Portrayed bySee below
In-universe information
Aliases
  • Vlad the Impaler
  • Dracula
  • Count De Ville[1]
  • Mr. De Ville[2]
Nickname
SpeciesVampire (also has been classified as an undead human, a dhampir, and a werewolf[6][7])
GenderMale
Title
SpousePossibly Brides of Dracula (unclear)

Count Dracula (/ˈdrækjʊlə, -jə-/) is the title character of Bram Stoker's 1897 gothic horror novel Dracula. He is considered the prototypical and archetypal vampire in subsequent works of fiction. Aspects of the character are believed by some to have been inspired by the 15th-century Wallachian prince Vlad the Impaler, who was also known as Vlad Dracula, and by Sir Henry Irving and Jacques Damala,[12][13] actors with aristocratic backgrounds that Stoker had met during his life.[14]

One of Dracula's most iconic powers is his ability to turn others into vampires by biting them and infecting them with the vampiric disease. Other characteristics have been added or altered in subsequent popular fictional works, including films, cartoons and breakfast cereals.

  1. ^ Stoker, Bram. "Chapter 20, Jonathan Harker's Journal, Letter, Mitchell, Sons & Candy to Lord Godalming, 1 October". Dracula (PDF). p. 391. The purchaser is a foreign nobleman, Count de Ville
  2. ^ Stoker, Bram. "Chapter 6: Jonathan Harker's Journal". Dracula (PDF). p. 500. He had received a letter from Mr. de Ville of London
  3. ^ Stoker, Bram. Dracula (PDF). pp. 10, 14, 499, 517.
  4. ^ Stoker, Bram. "Chapter 2, Jonathan Harker's Journal". Dracula (PDF). p. 9. 'Ordog'—Satan, 'Pokol'—hell, 'stregoica'—witch, 'vrolok' and 'vlkoslak'—both mean the same thing, one being Slovak and the other Servian for something that is either werewolf or vampire.
  5. ^ Stoker, Bram. "Chapter 23: Dr Seward's Diary". Dracula (PDF). p. 436. Look out for D. He has just now, 12:45, come from Carfax hurriedly and hastened towards the South.
  6. ^ Stoker, Bram. Dracula (PDF). pp. 9, 42.
  7. ^ Stoker, Bram. Dracula's Guest (PDF). p. 11. 'A wolf—and yet not a wolf!' another put in shudderingly. 'No use trying for him without the sacred bullet.'
  8. ^ Stoker, Bram. "Chapter 2: Jonathan Harker's Journal". Dracula (PDF). p. 35. We Transylvanian nobles love not to think that our bones may lie amongst the common dead.
  9. ^ Stoker, Bram. Dracula (PDF). pp. 43, 344.
  10. ^ Stoker, Bram. "Chapter 18, Dr. Seward's Diary". Dracula (PDF). p. 344.
  11. ^ Stoker, Bram. "Chapter 27: Dr. Van Helsing's Memorandum, 5 November". Dracula (PDF). p. 531. DRACULA This then was the Undead home of the King Vampire, to whom so many more were due.
  12. ^ Gottlieb, Robert (2013). Sarah: The Life of Sarah Bernhardt. Yale University Press. p. 133. ISBN 978-0-300-16879-2.
  13. ^ Stoker, Bram (1906). Personal Reminiscences of Henry Irving. Macmillan. p. 166.
  14. ^ Warren, Louis S. (2002). "Buffalo Bill Meets Dracula: William F. Cody, Bram Stoker, and the Frontiers of Racial Decay". The American Historical Review. 107 (4). Washington DC: American Historical Association: 1124–57. doi:10.1086/ahr/107.4.1124. ISSN 0002-8762 – via Oxford Journals Online.