For this last section, let's take a look at Dracula and pop-culture. To this day, Vampires still have the ability to wow and thrill audiences. However, things have changed. The vampire characters that have been created have changed throughout history. "In those days, vampires were grotesque creatures. Often, they were pictured as bloated and purple-faced (from drinking blood); they had long talons and smelled terrible - a description probably based on the appearance of corpses whose tombs had been opened by worried villagers. These early undead did not necessarily draw blood. Often, they just did regular mischief - stole firewood, scared horses." (Acocella)
It is hard to believe that the above paragraph is where vampires actually got their start. However, as previously stated, things are constantly changing and everything is subjective. "Then they become vampires. This was not yet the suave, opera-cloaked fellow of our modern mythology. That figure emerged in the early nineteenth century, a child of the Romantic movement." (Acocella)
There have been so many unique adaptions to Stoker's original work. "From that point to the present, there have been more than a hundred and fifty Dracula movies. Roman Polanski, Andy Warhol, Werner Herzog, and Francis Ford Coppola all made films about the Count. There are subgenres of Dracula movies: comedy, pornography, blaxploitation, anime. There is also a "Deafula," for the hearing-impaired: the characters conduct their business in American Sign Language while the lines are spoken in voice-over. After film, television, of course, took on vampires. "Dark Shadows," in the nineteen-sixties, and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," in the nineties, were both big hits. Meanwhile, the undead have had a long life in fiction. Anne Rice's "The Vampire Chronicles" and Stephen King's " 'Salem's Lot" are the best-known recent examples, but one source estimates that the undead have been featured in a thousand novels." (Acocella) It is rather easy to see why the series and books about vampires are so popular these days. In Gothic literature it is like vampires are cultural icons. There we have it. The undead are not dead. They are very much alive; especially in today's culture and society. Vampires are just as popular today if not more popular than they were during Stoker's time.
Moving along, we come to look at and analyze Dracula as an 'other'. He is different. His differences are what makes him as a character so fascinating. He labeled as an outcast because he cannot communicate very well in the English language. Dracula himself had this feeling as an other and he asks help from Harker to teach him the proper language. Another thing that has many readers intrigued by Dracula are his very peculiar sexual tastes. "Dracula seduces Victorian woman into giving up her conservative thought in sex. Unconsciously, the woman breaks away from the male domination and pursues her own happiness in sex."(Xiao-hong) Let's face it, sex sells. "It is no exaggeration to say that the dread of sexual preversion resulted in the hate for other race like Dracula in the Victorian age."(Xiao-hong) Dracula is more appealing and desirable because he is the dark and mysterious character. It is often said that dark men are more sexually vigorous than fair men. This is something that has been grained in Western civilization.
In conclusion, due to the fact that sex sells, darkness and mystery ignite excitement and suspense, Dracula is just as popular today than ever before. It is Other himself, not a particular social group that Dracula represents. For the “good” characters in the Victorian age, the modes of otherness were infinite. However, they intend to construct a harmonious society: no Other power, no Other culture and no Other voice by all means. On the contrary, under their suppression, the Other comes to London with much bitter personal hatred, which is not helpful to attain the harmony of the whole society." (Xiao-hong) It is because Dracula is so different and unique that makes him so appealing as a character. He is what sold the story. In a sense, he stole the show.
Works Cited
Acocella, Joan. "In the Blood.(vampires in popular culture)." The New Yorker 2009: Academic OneFile. Web. 26 Nov. 2013.
Ying, Jiang, and Zhang Xiao-hong. "An Analysis On Dracula From Cultural Perspective."English Language & Literature Studies 2.4 (2012): 100. Publisher Provided Full Text Searching File. Web. 26 Nov. 2013.
It is hard to believe that the above paragraph is where vampires actually got their start. However, as previously stated, things are constantly changing and everything is subjective. "Then they become vampires. This was not yet the suave, opera-cloaked fellow of our modern mythology. That figure emerged in the early nineteenth century, a child of the Romantic movement." (Acocella)
There have been so many unique adaptions to Stoker's original work. "From that point to the present, there have been more than a hundred and fifty Dracula movies. Roman Polanski, Andy Warhol, Werner Herzog, and Francis Ford Coppola all made films about the Count. There are subgenres of Dracula movies: comedy, pornography, blaxploitation, anime. There is also a "Deafula," for the hearing-impaired: the characters conduct their business in American Sign Language while the lines are spoken in voice-over. After film, television, of course, took on vampires. "Dark Shadows," in the nineteen-sixties, and "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," in the nineties, were both big hits. Meanwhile, the undead have had a long life in fiction. Anne Rice's "The Vampire Chronicles" and Stephen King's " 'Salem's Lot" are the best-known recent examples, but one source estimates that the undead have been featured in a thousand novels." (Acocella) It is rather easy to see why the series and books about vampires are so popular these days. In Gothic literature it is like vampires are cultural icons. There we have it. The undead are not dead. They are very much alive; especially in today's culture and society. Vampires are just as popular today if not more popular than they were during Stoker's time.
Moving along, we come to look at and analyze Dracula as an 'other'. He is different. His differences are what makes him as a character so fascinating. He labeled as an outcast because he cannot communicate very well in the English language. Dracula himself had this feeling as an other and he asks help from Harker to teach him the proper language. Another thing that has many readers intrigued by Dracula are his very peculiar sexual tastes. "Dracula seduces Victorian woman into giving up her conservative thought in sex. Unconsciously, the woman breaks away from the male domination and pursues her own happiness in sex."(Xiao-hong) Let's face it, sex sells. "It is no exaggeration to say that the dread of sexual preversion resulted in the hate for other race like Dracula in the Victorian age."(Xiao-hong) Dracula is more appealing and desirable because he is the dark and mysterious character. It is often said that dark men are more sexually vigorous than fair men. This is something that has been grained in Western civilization.
In conclusion, due to the fact that sex sells, darkness and mystery ignite excitement and suspense, Dracula is just as popular today than ever before. It is Other himself, not a particular social group that Dracula represents. For the “good” characters in the Victorian age, the modes of otherness were infinite. However, they intend to construct a harmonious society: no Other power, no Other culture and no Other voice by all means. On the contrary, under their suppression, the Other comes to London with much bitter personal hatred, which is not helpful to attain the harmony of the whole society." (Xiao-hong) It is because Dracula is so different and unique that makes him so appealing as a character. He is what sold the story. In a sense, he stole the show.
Works Cited
Acocella, Joan. "In the Blood.(vampires in popular culture)." The New Yorker 2009: Academic OneFile. Web. 26 Nov. 2013.
Ying, Jiang, and Zhang Xiao-hong. "An Analysis On Dracula From Cultural Perspective."English Language & Literature Studies 2.4 (2012): 100. Publisher Provided Full Text Searching File. Web. 26 Nov. 2013.