Vlad the Impaler was also known as Vlad III Dracula. The name Dracula means “son of Dracul.” In the Romanian language today, dracul means “the devil”—drac is “devil,” ul is “the”—but it is derived from the Latin dracō, “dragon.” (Dragons have been historically associated with Satan, hence the evolution.)
Dracula poses the threat of literally contaminating local bloodlines with a foreign influence, and this threat reveals a deep-seated fear of outsiders gaining power and using it for evil means.
Born in Transylvania as the second son of the nobleman Vlad II Dracul, he took the name Dracula, meaning “son of Dracul,” when he was initiated into a secret order of Christian knights known as the Order of the Dragon. (In Romanian, Dracul means “dragon.”)
In Dracula, wild animals, such as bats and wolves, are used to symbolize insatiable appetites for evil. The bat seeps into the subconscious, while the more blatant wolf inspires instant terror, but both are destructive.
One of the major Dracula themes is good vs. evil. Dracula symbolizes the epitome of evil. Not only is he a monster himself, but he turns other people into monsters against their will.
Van Helsing describes him as '… strong in person as twenty men, he is of cunning more than mortal…he is brute, and more than brute, he is devil in callous, and the heart of him is not,…' Dracula's brutal strength, callous lack of care for others, and heartlessness are what make him so evil.
Of the plethora of fictional monsters, it is Dracula who most concisely presents to us a metaphor of hu- man evil distilled to its most insidiously perfect form. Dracula can help us understand the monsters we meet in every- day life disguised as everyday people.
Throughout, Dracula plays the role of temptation, perversion, and debauchery, furthering the message that evil corrupts, making those who participate in it “unclean” and separated from God. Only through complete abandonment of such evil, by embracing truth and reinstating religion, is godliness restored.
One of the images that Stoker uses in Dracula is the crucifix. The crucifix represents Jesus Christ's sacrifice for mankind because Christ was killed by crucifixion. The crucifix is an important image in Dracula because possession of a crucifix keeps away vampires.
After Dracula's box is finally loaded onto a wagon by Romani men, the hunters converge and attack it. After routing the Romani, Harker decapitates Dracula as Quincey stabs him in the heart. Dracula crumbles to dust, freeing Mina from her vampiric curse. Quincey is mortally wounded in the fight against the Romani.
Bram Stoker's Dracula, the iconic 1897 tale of a vampire from Transylvania, is often thought to be inspired by a formidable 15th-century governor from present-day Romania named Vlad the Impaler. Vlad the Impaler (or Dracula), Prince of Wallachia.
The name Dracula means “son of Dracul.” In the Romanian language today, dracul means “the devil”—drac is “devil,” ul is “the”—but it is derived from the Latin dracō, “dragon.” (Dragons have been historically associated with Satan, hence the evolution.)
Stoker's Dracula was instrumental in the creation of the vampire trope that has permeated Western popular culture in the forms of novel and film alike. Dracula was well received when it was published, but its success is even better measured by the number of adaptations it inspired.
For example, the character of Count Dracula represents the fears and anxieties of Victorian society, such as the fear of foreign influences, the fear of loss of morality, and the fear of the spread of disease.
Dracula's main plan was to move each of his 50 boxes of earth to his various properties in order to arrange multiple lairs throughout and around the perimeter of London.
Dracula represents the Victorian fear of societal progress using symbolism of a medical, religious, legal, and sexual nature, as well as explores early ideas of feminism and scientific thought, all of which are still applicable to the anxieties of our time.
Rats feature heavily in Bram Stoker's Dracula: `Rats, rats, rats! Hundreds, thousands, millions of them, and every one a life', as well as two pieces of his short fiction: 'The Judge's House' (1891) and 'The Burial of Rats' (1914). Stoker used rats as symbols of hauntings, the dispossessed and decaying nature.
Blood in Bram Stoker's Dracula symbolizes at least three different concepts: an essential life force for humans and vampires, the antithesis of the blood of Christ (a Christian religious symbol), and sexual desire, intercourse, and reproduction.
Count Dracula - Impaled by Van Helsing and his men with spears. His body was then kept in a coffin to be put and hidden in Van Helsing's secret vault. He was later resurrected when one of the thieves who broke into Van Helsing's secret vault were killed while stealing his coffin.
