Xlibris Publishing continues Heroes and Villains with its first villain, that most iconic of vampires, Dracula. The creation of Irish author Bram Stoker, Count Dracula is not the first vampire to play a part in literature, nor does he bear much in common with the typical Eastern European vampire of myth. But the Transylvanian lord of the night has become what is essentially the modern archetype of the vampire, powerful, mysterious, and dangerously seductive. Accept no substitutes.
What Xlibris hopes authors take from this entry of Heroes and Villains is the value of presence. Bram Stoker’s Dracula is written as a series of letters and journal entries by the various characters who meet, interact, and ultimately do battle with the great vampire. As a result Count Dracula is felt more as a presence, almost a force, that is progressively realized by the human characters as all the more dangerous and terrifying. One of the most effective ways for a writer to make their villain stand out is presence. Some of the most remembered villains owe their fame to presence, Darth Vader, Heath Ledger’s Joker, and of course, Count Dracula.
Who is Count Dracula?
Count Dracula is main antagonist of the 1897 gothic horror novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. Though not explicitly stated in the novel, it is inferred that Bram Stoker drew some inspiration from the real-life historical figure Vlad III the Impaler. Vlad the Impaler, also known as Vlad Dracula, was a Romanian general and the Prince of Wallachia in the 15th century famous and infamous for his brutal tactics and tortures against his enemies. Bram Stoker’s Dracula is a centuries old vampire and Transylvanian noble-man. In the novel he claims descent from Attila the Hun and other great warrior peoples. He rules his land from a decrepit castle and in its shadow the locals live in fear. In life he studied black magic and alchemy at Scholomance, a mythical school of dark magic, hidden away in the Carpathian Mountains, and supposedly taught by the Devil himself. As a warlord he led armies against the Ottoman Turks on the other side of the Danube River, and was remembered in history as the cleverest, most cunning, and bravest of Transylvanians. Upon his death Dracula was buried and entombed in a chapel beneath his castle. There the count rose from death as a vampire, living on as an undead for centuries alongside three hauntingly beautiful female vampires (brides, sisters, or lovers, no one knows).
As a vampire Dracula has eternal life, the strength of twenty men, and the power to shape-change into bats, wolves, canines, and mist. His gaze is hypnotic, and his will can dominate the minds of beasts and some humans. He can bring about sudden storms and squalls. But the most insidious of his powers is the ability to turn those he feeds upon into other vampires, powerful, vicious, and hungry for blood. Garlic and crucifixes repulse him, sunlight merely weakens him, and only a wooden stake to the heart and decapitation can slay him.
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By Ian Smith
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