The Dracula Story: History Vs Fiction

In my last blog, I spoke about how fiction takes inspiration from mythology. In this blog, I will discuss how fiction takes inspiration from history. When someone says Vampire, the first thing that comes to your mind is a pale skinned human with fangs, a black tuxedo and a black or red cape. This image is archetypical Dracula. There were vampire stories before Dracula, but Dracula popularized and immortalized the vampire genre. Every later interpretation of vampires has characteristics heavily borrowed from Dracula. But what inspired Dracula?

Vlad III Dracula, the Impaler

The word Dracula comes from the name of a Romanian dynasty which was descendants of a ruler named Vlad II, who was referred to as ‘the Dracul’, meaning ‘the dragon’. Vlad III was Vlad II’s son and hence referred to as Vlad Dracula. It meant, Vlad, the son of the dragon. This ruler was remembered for his brutal impaling of his enemies and the newly born print media in German states ran propaganda that he used to drink the blood of his impaled enemies. Thus, the image stuck. Dracula, the blood drinker. Centuries later, Bram Stokers misunderstood the word Dracula as Devil while writing his novel, Dracula.

Vlad Dracula, the Impaler

A disease that might have inspired Vampire Myths of the times

There was a disease common in those days of eastern Europe called porphyria. This disease gave its patients a look of a “vampire”. The disease made patients sensitive to sunlight, caused facial disfigurement, receded gums making them look like fangs, dark red urine giving an impression of blood consumption, and pain if consumed garlic. Superstitious Christians termed them demonic and hunted them. All these characteristics might have been influenced the creation of the vampire story.

So, let us now compare the historical Dracula with its fictional counterpart.

The fictional Count Dracula

Comparison between Vlad Dracula, the Impaler and the Count Dracula, the Vampire

Count Dracula is a fictional undead 'Count' of Transylvania, while Vlad Dracula was a historical Prince of Wallachia. The former's story belongs to the 19th century, while the latter lived in the 15th century. While Count Dracula is a villain in popular culture, the historical Vlad Dracula is considered to be a national hero in Romania as he fought against the Ottoman Turks for its independence. 

 

So, while the real Dracula has never been to Castle Transylvania, the castle is used by the locals to fool tourists into believing that Dracula indeed lived there. This is how history influenced fiction is influencing historical sites.

 

BIBLIOGRAPHY

https://www.queensu.ca/gazette/stories/vampire-myths-originated-real-blood-disorder