Count Dracula - Fiction's Greatest Vampire

And why he rocks

There are few characters that have quite managed to stir men’s fascination or women’s loins, quite like Count Dracula. The fiction version of Vlad the Impaler, hero of Wallachia, and saviour of Christendom. Dracula is a fascinating character to say the least, with some idealizing him, others regarding him with fairly justifiable horror while still others are filled with longing at the thought of him.

He is a fictional juggernaut and to an extent the greatest Horror Villain ever written or at least the most popular and well-known. Everyone in the world has heard of him. Everyone reacts differently depending on their culture and sex.

He is a fascinating character to say the least, who first appears as an old man almost enfeebled before his time, more noted for his fangs and his dark gaze than for any sensuality.

It is interesting reading the first interactions between him and Jonathan Harker, who is at first curious and bewildered upon first entry into Dracula’s Castle. It is there that he makes the acquaintance of the mighty Count who tells him in beautiful, flurrying words and longing, wistful tones of the great glories that his nation once achieved.

It is those words, those tones, those moments when the Count is most romantic. Why is he most romantic in those moments? Precisely because though he longs for the bloodshed of yesteryear, he however glories in the victories, triumphs and history of his long lineage and nation.

Speaking personally this part, this scene where he describes Wallachia always stood out most to me and almost beckoned to me. As someone with a lifelong passion for France, for her culture, history and her language, I must admit to often thinking that many of the new generation or those unlearned in France’s glorious history could not possibly fully understand, just how much pride and joy we French take in her triumphs and victories. This is not to say I am disparaging the young, only that for those of us who are of French descent no matter our place of birth, we are heir or heiress to France and thus to a long heritage that stretches back to Clovis and Mérovée themselves.

That sort of passion, of joy is hard to describe. One could describe it as nationalism, I suppose, though I don’t think one should describe Dracula that way.

As a Vampire, an undead he is at his core a creature raised from the dead in mockery of the living. In this way, he is the perfect tool of evil and no matter if he was good or vile in life, he is now firmly fixed into place as a monster who preys upon the living.

And all that he does is also when one thinks on it, done in mockery of the living, this is why he humiliates Jonathan during his stay, imprisons him and seeks to reduce him to madness. The truth is that Dracula is not simply demonic in nature, but like all demons he is a sadist. In this regard, he is not alone with the likes of his three brides no less monstrous and cruel.

It is because they are the same that he understands why they hunger after Jonathan, and why they lust for his blood. If they were to devour him they might gain strength enough to overpower him, which must not seem too far off a possibility, likely he keeps them semi-imprisoned and only feeding off babies and children to keep them in line.

In this way he shows his mastery over them, as they have no other choice but to obey him, what is more is that the Brides are fiercely hierarchical as they defer to one of their numbers.

Not that this should persuade us of any great courage on the part of Dracula, as he’s very courageous when faced with weakened men or madmen, but very timid when faced with fighting men. This is shown when he flees from a confrontation later in the book from a maddened Jonathan, who having spent half the book either suffering a brain-fever or otherwise struggling to cope with what he was made to endure in Dracula’s Castle.

It happens that when he first sees Dracula he seems to wither as a man, but then when the hunt begins he throws himself into the hunt for the coffins, but when faced by the Vampire himself, Jonathan is not in the least fearful. His friends apprehensive to get in too close to Vlad, hesitate while Harker throws himself against him with a seeming madness.

Being the Lover Archetype in his fullness, where Dracula is the Shadow-Lover Archetype (the hedonist to be precise) he doesn’t stand a chance it seems from a thematic point of view. It is interesting that Dracula should take fright before someone by the estimations of a great many ought to win any such clash.

But truth is he doesn’t stand a chance, and isn’t willing to risk a fight because he’s cowardly, it is one thing to fight Renfield whom lacks the resolve being mad, or even the likes of Mina who is a woman.

It is interesting that he went after Mina when all evidence points to a lack of attraction, as he obviously saw her at the start of the book, but preferred the cosmopolitan Lucy and decided to go for her and to ‘convert’ her so to speak and violate her. She was the unwise one, the somewhat less traditional one while Mina is everything that an invading foreigner would not like; chaste, faithful to her man (who is English like her), and is hardly keen to welcome a foreign invader into her home or to go out and see him out of curiosity.

Mina has a natural suspicion of outsiders, and is wiser and smarter than Lucy, and in the context of the novel she is the heart in a way of England, so that Dracula is making a very pointed statement by targeting her.

This action of his is one that only goads the Englishmen all the more against him, and as there’s no government to stop them and claim Dracula’s a victim of some sort (a notion that he might scorn), they give chase after Dracula throughout the whole of Europe until they reach the Slavic lands in the east and there they invade his keep, slay his brides and then him in a fierce battle.

It is fascinating that Dracula meets his end near the gates to his home, and it is interesting that he dies in his bed so to speak, just as Lucy did. Where Lucy had time to scratch off a note that is heart-rending to read, Dracula does not have time to beg, when he is at last laid to rest.

It is fascinating that at the start of the story the posh Englishmen are soft and fearful of ‘barbarism’ but by story’s end they are so uncivilized as to frighten the Vampire himself so that they’ve outshone him at his own ‘arts’ as a barbarian. Shrugging off civility as one might a jacket.

What is one to make of the titular character? He is vain, prone to womanizing obviously and also sadistic. There’s frankly little likable about him as a person and yet he has intrigued people, in particular modern women for generations. Sure he has been portrayed as a sex icon, with directors keen to pounce on this aspect for marketing reasons.

The trouble is that this is subverting the character, as he’s not supposed to be ‘sexy’ he’s the ultimate ‘foreigner’ in a way. Obviously the movies are shot from a liberal point of view and being used as a primer of sorts for preparing women to favour the foreign at the expense of their own people. What is more is that where Mina reacts with horror at Dracula, in the movies she always is shown to be the most eager, and sloppily excited to be violated by him.

Movies are naturally prone to showing a poor image of this literary character, and are used to liberalize people. That said are they bad? I’m not sure. The Hammer movies are quite fun, especially Brides of Dracula which shows the most faithful image of Dracula in Baron Meinster, who is brutal, cruel, childish and whom is rejected by Marianne who favours Van Helsing.

As to the Dracula shown in the later movies, he’s pure ‘hollywood’ in a way, though the movies are pretty exciting watches. There’s no problem with watching such things I think, no sense in shaming people, though one should be aware that most of them are obviously intended to romanticize Dracula.

Romanticizing him seems a foolish thing to do, and a dangerous thing from a societal-cultural perspective. One could suppose that just as women might have the choice of being either a Lucy or a Mina, so too do men have a choice; they can be either a Dracula or a Jonathan Harker.

They can be weak and cowardly, and predatorial and target women, or like Harker, courageous, honourable and focused and face their foes head on.

I must admit though as one might have picked up on, I find Dracula likable, attractive if in my own way, and a fascinating figure one of the most interesting from literature. There is no vampire like him, no undead ever portrayed like him in cinema or literature. But just as I quite like him, I also really like the heroes that go after him and defy and face him down in Transylvania.

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