Dracula: A Brief History Of Vampires Vampires In Literature

Dracula This is just a brief information packet on some of the origins, myths, historical accounts, and fictionalized portrayals of vampires to help you in your production of Dracula. This is not everything there is to know, obviously, but if you have any questions about the material, want some places to look further, or want to discuss anything, please just let me know. – Richard Eisloeffel

A Brief History of Vampires Vampires in Literature Vampires themselves have been recorded in many cultures, but we get our modern day ideas of vampires from Eastern European folklore, specifically from the Balkans. In addition to their whereabouts, there are also a major variety of physical attributes towards vampires. Some point them out as “bloated rotting corpses”, to great beasts, to nearly human physical form. But the vampires we know today come from the interpretation of vampires by the Christian Church and vampire literature, namely that of John Polidori in his 1819 novella The Vampyre. This went on to inspire other works such as Varney the Vampire by James Malcom Rymer, which was distributed as a series of pamphlets known then as “penny dreadfuls”, and of course Dracula. For the purposes of our play, the Vampire in question would physically be based on the more human-like vampires. In reading the novel, you will find all you really need to know on what Dracula was like. He came after the same idea that Polidori portrayed in his novel, being a very gallant gentlemen, smooth, knowledgeable, and most of all charming. Dracula himself was inspired by the actor Henry Irving (pictured right), who was the head actor-manager at the theatre in which Bram Stoker worked for twenty years. Stoker claims that it was Irving’s mannerisms, charisma, and grand sweeping gestures that inspired the character, especially since one day Stoker hoped Irving would play Dracula in a staged version of the book.

Historical Origins Although vampire folklore comes from many different places throughout the world, there are very few historical accounts of actual vampires, this being that it usually came down to myth. The best known of these “historical vampires” was of course Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia, or better known by his patronymic name: Dracula. The reason for having the name Dracula was because of his father, Vlad II, who became a member of the Order of the Dragon, which was created to protect Christianity, especially in Eastern Europe, much like the Knights Templar and

the Crusades. Vlad III ruled predominantly from 1456 to 1462, and is best known for his raids of the Ottoman Empire. Vlad’s goals, much like his father’s, were to secure Wallachia and the surrounding nations from the Ottoman Empire’s expansion, which would have meant the acceptance of Islam over Christianity. What Vlad is best known for in his reign is his specific method of execution; impalement. As you can imagine, impalement is the torturous process of sticking a human onto a large wooden spike, usually through the middle of the body, and letting them slowly move down the spike due to their own weight. This method was used as both a means of torture and of execution. The torture came from the idea that people wouldn’t die simply from being stabbed by the spike, since the spike kept all of their entrails and blood inside, victims often died of things like infection, heart and panic attacks, or even birds and other animals eating them as they slowly moved down the poles. There are many different stories dealing with Vlad the Impaler (pictured left), many coming from Germany and Russia, but a lot have to do with the same idea. There are many accounts of invading nations attempting to attack Vlad and his capital city, but they all turned away when they were greeted with anywhere from hundreds to upwards of 20,000 impaled corpses. Another story tells of Vlad inviting a myriad of people to his castle for a ball. The ball was held in the great room of the castle, which had been recently rebuilt to have a removable floor in the main hall, and a forest of spikes underneath. Of which, at a certain time during the night, when most people were there, Vlad, from a safe distance on an overlooking balcony had signaled the movement of the floor and the guests, scrambling to the sides, fell through the floor onto the placed spikes (this however is just a legend). There is, however an existing German wood carving (pictured right) depicting Vlad the Impaler eating dinner in front of a large group of impaled victims while another man cuts up dead bodies. It’s actually from this wood carving, and stories like this, that people think not only was he a sadist, but a vampire as well. They believed that not only would he watch them as he ate, but held up his cup or goblet to the blood running down the spikes, and drink it. This is the thought behind Vlad the Impaler not only being considered a great and terrible warlord, but some of the myths behind real accounts of vampires. (*If you want to know the castle that inspired Dracula’s famous estate, look up the Bran Castle in Romania.*) Bram Stoker even claims that he took very much from the historical accounts of Vlad the Impaler. Before Stoker even knew who Vlad the Impaler was, Count Dracula was originally Count Wampyre, but in his extensive research, he found Vlad’s patronymic name: Dracula, meaning “the dragon”, or in some translations “the devil”. This is also why the name of the book

changed from its original “The Dead Un-dead” to simply “Dracula”. It also helped that the mixture of Romanian and Transylvanian folklore, geography, and historically ancient castles made it the perfect place for Count Dracula to take his residence.

Abilities As I’m sure most of you probably know the qualities and abilities of vampires, I thought It still might be good to give you a summative list of what vampires can and can’t do, especially according to the vampire depicted in Dracula, (this means that things like sparkling in the sunlight will not be on the list). Even if you know all of these things, I thought it might help for everyone to be on the same page. Also, because of the way Bram Stoker interpreted vampires, many of their abilities are based around religious beliefs.  

      

   

 

Although it is somewhat unclear in the book, Dracula was killed at one point in time, but was given life again (presumably by the Devil), and because it was through the devil, instead of being simply resurrected, he was made into a vampire. This is also unclear in the book, but it seems that vampires are made by simply the sucking of the blood. However it must be done little by little over an extended period of time, as was the case of Lucy, instead of all at once, which would simply drain the person of blood and kill them. It is also accepted that you can be turned by drinking the blood of a Vampire or having the blood of a Vampire put into your system. Obviously: Vampires need blood to survive. If you are bitten by a Vampire, as in either the case of Lucy or Mina, you have a psychic connection with said Vampire. Vampires cannot cross running water: hence why Dracula is transported in wooden boxes filled with earth. Vampires must rest/sleep on soil in which they were born/buried in; again, this is why the boxes were filled with soil from his home land. Vampires have the ability to change into bats, wolves, rats, and mist as well as the ability to summon them and control them telepathically. Vampires are creatures of the night, however, this doesn’t directly mean they are “allergic to sunlight”, but that they are simply nocturnal. This coincides with the idea that they are possessed by the devil. The cannot enter a space (home usually) unless being invited in, but once they are invited the first time, they can come and go as you please. (Also, since they have some telepathic abilities, they can also convince you to let them in against your will; as is seen with Renfield, Lucy, and Mina.) They appear human, but with paler skin and usually red eyes. They have above human strength and speed. They live for incredibly long periods of time without again, possibly forever. They are “allergic” to anything holy, i.e. a crucifix, holy water, sacred wafer/body of Christ, prayer beads, even chanting. This also means they cannot enter holy places, mainly churches, this is also the reason why the Vampire brides cannot breach the circle of sacred wafers that Van Helsing makes to protect himself and Mina. Van Helsing also mentions they are allergic to garlic and wolfsbane. Vampires are also like viruses; if you kill the host the others it has created will die.



You can kill a vampire by driving a stake through its heart, wooden or otherwise, decapitating it and, for good measure, stuffing its mouth with garlic.

If I’m missing any, feel free to share them.

Psychiatric Institutions in the 19th Century In the 1800’s, psychiatric institutions became very common among cities, especially throughout Europe, and from the beginning of the century to the end of the century, England’s registered lunatics grew from only a few thousand to around one hundred thousand. People who were placed into psychiatric institutions, or asylums, were often chosen by the community at large or by the criminal justice system, although they did serve for private clients as well, such as someone placing a family member in the institution for help, care, and protection. At this point in time, not much was known about psychiatric care and the depth of different mental disabilities, so patients could range anywhere from the mildly mentally handicapped to serial murderers. The students and doctors of psychiatry at large hadn’t even distinguished between “the insane” and “the criminally insane”, so although they might have been physically divided in the institutions depending on their hostility, they were still all presented with essentially the same kind of care. Having someone be defined as insane must have been done by a psychiatric doctor, who would evaluate them on their behavior and how different or opposed it was to the regular social norms. And of course, since there wasn’t actually much knowledge on the subject, there was quite a large group of individuals who simply displayed “odd” or “unusual” behaviors, but were not actually insane, that were admitted to psychiatric institutions. Treatment at the time was very minimal, extremely basic, and often times it was the same treatment, no matter what the mental status. The treatment, if you could really call it such, was usually just talking to the patients, trying to understand them more and slowly convincing them that what they were doing was wrong, unacceptable, or unusual for the societies standards. It wasn’t until the twentieth century that treatments like drugs, physical therapy, and even electroshock therapy were introduced. Often times patients were treated much like dogs in the way of how you train them; reward them when they’re good, do something good, or are responsive, and punish or reprimand them when they’re bad. This is shown in the book with the case of Renfield, in which when he does something good, Dr. Seward will treat him by letting him keep his flies, but if he’s bad the animals will be taken away, or in extreme cases, Renfield has to be placed in a straightjacket (or straight waist-coat as they call it) and put in solitary confinement for a certain amount of time. Renfield himself is a very interesting character in Dracula. If you read the book, then you understand that he likes to capture flies, then feed them spiders, then feed those to birds, then feed those to a cat in order to see the process of obtaining “life force”. His condition is eventually described by Dr. Seward as being a zoophagous maniac. Zoophagous meaning: feeds off of animals or animal matter, and maniac meaning: incredibly irritable, extreme and often violent mood swings, and uncooperative tendencies. Throughout the course of the book, it is also realized that Renfield is under the hypnotic spell of Dracula, who essentially promises him infinite amounts of food for his cooperation, duty, and worship. Dr. Seward even notices often times Renfield becomes incredibly intelligent and very conversational, something that he’s very

surprised at when Renfield first shows these behaviors, of course all being done under the spell of Dracula. Another thing in the book is the description of Renfield unusual bursts of sheer power and somewhat superhuman strength. (I mention this only because I know Eric would like to use this physical power in the show.) It would make sense to think that he can do this because Dracula is psychopathically controlling him, but Renfield isn’t the only one who does this. Dr. Seward even claims that often times insane patients show fits of extreme physical strength, and this is actually rooted in truth. The force that our muscles exert when we do any task (this is in a sane person) is not actually the full amount of force our muscles can exert. If you were to push someone as hard as you can, or punch someone as hard as you can, you wouldn’t be punching at your full physical force. The reason that we don’t, is because if you were to use this much force your muscles would tighten so sharply that, at its true full force, you could break your own bones, hence why you hear about people tearing their muscle or tendons. To prevent this, your body will unconsciously max out your exertion of force so you don’t hurt yourself. In people, or rather patients, who have weaker consciences, or broken consciences, they’re body doesn’t often have that control, so in fits of rage or extreme emotion, they’re body reacts at full force, resulting in what appears to other as abnormal strength. An excellent example of someone who’s mastered this through training instead of insanity is Bruce Lee and his famous “one inch punch” (on youtube) or talk to Brandon Kirchgasler.