An initial reaction to the character Dracula can be drawn from, in many cases, the media. Many accounts of the story are turned into films, videos, clips, etc. My initial encounter with the commonly know Dracula would have to be from my teenage reading list, the Twilight series. Of course, before the books, I knew a few characteristics about the character from others around me. I knew people wanted to dress like him for Halloween. I knew he was bloodthirsty. I knew he was a monster of sorts. But, it wasn’t until I read Stephanie Meyer’s novels that I made my own impressions about vampires.
Stereotypically, one can say that vampires are fair-skinned and have deep, red lips. They hunt animals instead of eating already prepared food. They stay away from the light. Upon being bitten, you would turn into a vampire as well. In Twilight, Edward is depicted as the traits above except with more human actions and desires. Rather in Stoker’s novel, the description of Dracula presents him as a monster of evil. Yes, the physicality is there, but he doesn’t interact with others the way Edward does. Dracula, according to the townspeople, is an ungodly creature. The Cullens are in hiding and are thus not viewed by others in any unwelcoming manner. My past thoughts about Dracula and vampires in general are being altered as I read Stoker’s true depiction of evil.
I thought that the comparison between the Cullens from the Twilight Series and Dracula was really interesting, especially the part where you mentioned the prior having more human emotions and desires. In my post, I talked about having exposure to emotional vampires as well from sources like Interview with a Vampire and expected Dracula to be more humanistic as a result as well. I found this parallel interesting. It seems like in modern times people have been adapting the vampire to be something we can all more easily relate to, as opposed to Stoker’s classical monster.
I also agree with how your pre-conceptions changed about vampires after reading. Stoker does a very good job of creating a sense of horror and repulsion when talking about Dracula. He has hairy hands, bad breath, etc… and especially with modern vampires they tend to have sparkly skin, red lips, and what some could even consider sex appeal. I think the transformation of the vampire by society is a really interesting topic.
I had not realized before the differences between Dracula and his successors. To the peasants and gypsies surrounding Dracula’s lands he is either someone to be feared or served, with no in between. As a truly evil persona it is funny to see him leave warnings for Harker and then wash his hands of the responsibility as if to say, “Well if I bite you, it’s your fault. I warned you not to sleep outside your room!”
Interesting how the vampire has become noble, yes? I wonder if Stephanie Meyers’ religious beliefs (she’s LDS) have anything to do with this.