Saving Dracula: How to Explain the Classic Vampire Story's Enduring Popularity

in #writing7 years ago (edited)

Why Has Dracula Endured to Spawn so Many Vampires?

Since I just got inspired to write about Frankenstein on Steemit yesterday, it seems appropriate to write about that other classic horror story that continues to spark our imagination and propel us to lock the doors and leave a light on at night.

If you're interested in Frankenstein, you can find that post here: Remember Frankenstein was the Doctor and Not the Monster.

Frankenstein Vs. Dracula


Source: Wikipedia

The two stories were actually penned generations apart, and they're very different. We might actually have some sympathy for Frankenstein's creature, and if there are moral lessons in Frankenstein, they're more about human pride and lack of accountability. If people would have reacted differently, it's easy to argue that the Frankenstein monster could have been redeemed. The monster in Frankenstein was vile, but he didn't create himself and loathed himself. In the end, he did awful things. Still, his motives were understandable and human.

In Dracula, Bram Stoker never gives us a chance to view the monster as a complex being who could generate a shred of sympathy. Instead, he simply scares the crap out of us and appears entirely evil, corruptive, and frighteningly seductive. Sure, he offers eternal life, mystical powers, and freedom from our fears, but he does it in such an awful way. Hold onto that thought.

How Did Dracula Inspire Generations?

Always lock your castle doors....

The book's Dracula vampire is presented as purely bad. He is not like Anne Rice's sometimes sympathetic monsters. We enjoy the book because we get the same charge out of him as we do any purely bad and powerful villain. Plus, we don't have to waste an ounce of energy feeling sorry for him. He was the original "50 Shades of Grey" guy without the grey.

NOTE: You can read Dracula for free at Project Guttenberg, and I enjoyed revisiting this classic story recently: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/345

Secondly, Bram Stoker may not have been the best writer of all time or even of his own generation. Lots of people argue that Oscar Wilde, HG Wells, and scores of other contemporaries were better with words. Those authors wrote incredible books, but they have not spawned an entire modern mythology the way Stoker did.

Stoker did organize his novel in an interesting way with a shifting, first-person perspective. You read the story through narratives, diaries, and other first-person exposition that give you an urgent sense of actually being there in that time and place.

Would We Pay the Price for Dracula's Gifts?

Beyond sympathizing with Dracula's prey and enjoying a bit of a rush, I think the story endures because of our concerns about the creature we mostly try to bury inside ourselves. Again, what does the monster offer but eternal life and freedom? The price is high. In order to get these gifts, we also have to become irredeemable creatures.

Maybe the really scary thing about the story is that we wonder if we'd be tempted to pay it. As with Frankenstein, the monster is US.

What Do You Think About Classic Horror Tales?

Do you love the classic stories, or have you ever bothered to read them? You might be surprised to find that a lot of the creatures in popular movies and fiction were all bred from these centuries-old stories. Their authors and first audiences may have lived in different times, but maybe all times are the same in certain ways. We're such short-lived creatures, it's hard to say for sure.

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When I was a kid, my older brother took me to see the classic Bella Logosi version. I was so scared, I cried. My brother didn't want to leave, so I had to wait in the lobby for the movie to end. Since then, I've read the book and did enjoy it on several levels.

Yeah, it's a freaking, scary story!

Do you think Frankenstein's monster would have made the deal if given the chance?

That's a good question. At first, the Frankenstein creature tried to improve himself and fit in. He only got angry after he found that impossible. All he wanted from Dr. Frankenstein was a bride, so he could have a companion. And.... when he first got angry, the monster really directed his rage at the doctor and not everybody. So maybe at the end, he would have.

Perhaps he would have used the gift to turn his creator into a monster, making him the new creator. Also I noticed that your website (frugalpig.com) is a name I would have picked, akin to FlaccidFervor. It's nice to find someone who speaks my language.

Thanks for stopping by. Nice to meet you. :)

I think the reason for dracula being still the most known vampire in the world is because of the existance of such a huge pop-culture around it. There are childrens-songs for example or you dress up like dracula on halloween.
But I must also admit, that the beginning of the story is very captivating. The part where the protagonist first stumbles upon dracula and gradually finds out, that there is something not right about this man. Later it is a little bit boring though because we all know the popular motives around vampires: garlic, spiles, daggers, holy water, sunlight and so on and the characters take their time getting to know them.

Ah, that's an interesting take on those things. See, my perspective was that all those things came from this book originally and not the other way around. I can see how modern readers would say, "Hey, go get a cross and garlic already!"

:D:D I think, your thoughts are also right. This is one of the first, if not THE first novel about a vampire. But the knowledge about garlic and co, the one's in my age have it from the narrations (in pop-culture for example). But the origin of that knowledge could be the Dracula Novel anyway. Just that nowadays, if you read the book for the first time, you might yawn because you already know what is going on

Thanks for contributing. It's actually not the very first fiction book about vampires, but it was the one that really stuck. Also, Stoker pulled his ideas from folklore, but he made them common knowledge. Again, many reviewers say he wasn't the very best writer, but he presented the story in a clever way. I just like to figure out why some books catch on, and he had a lot of the right ingredients, but I guess nothing is every totally new. I appreciate your ideas!

I read Dracula when I was in high school. I was young and was very into reading, but my English literature book was not only a simplified version of the original novel, but I was also bored to death at the lack of reading materials. Dracula was the first classic I read. It was definitely scary, and the vampire was irredeemable. The things he did to the protagonists were just horrid. Frankenstein's monster was a sad tale, who if given a chance, might had led the story to at least a good ending. Dracula was just eviiiil. He had it coming.

I love most classic horror tales, but my favorite has always been Dracula. People might be hating on villains that are evil for the sake of evil, but Dracula is just a fantastic kind of villain.

Yes, I agree with you. I went back and reread Dracula recently, and I was surprised how many modern vampires and other monsters took their characteristics from him. Of course, Anne Rice made her creatures more complex, so readers could identify with them more. It's too bad Bram Stoker isn't around to give the monster's point of view, but I guess that will remain a mystery for other writers to fill in.

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