Bram Stoker’s chilling gothic tale of the Transylvanian vampire, Dracula, is packed full of moral corruption and unscrupulous sexual deviance, and continues to thrill audiences in the contemporary age. With the prevalence of this vampiric figure as a cultural phenomenon, it is important to look back at its origins, and see how its author was inspired by Romanian history and landscapes.
The literary world of Dracula is based in Transylvania, Romania. Delving into research about the region’s rich cultural history and folklore, Stoker was inspired by the tales of horror he found – particularly that of Vlad the Impaler. This infamous Romanian historical figure of the 15th century ruled as a military governor of Wallachia and was born in Transylvania – then autonomous, but now part of Romania. In his defence against the Ottoman empire, Vlad performed psychological warfare by enacting a sadistic form of slaughter. A horrific example of this was the scene in Târgoviște, during the Ottoman invasion of Wallachia in 1462, where he left 20,000 impaled Turkish bodies. These gruesome tales depict him as a human manifestation of evil, and make it clear that Stoker modelled his barbaric antagonist after such a man.
While Dracula’s character is inspired by Vlad the Impaler, he also claims origins in the Hungarian Szekely group. Dracula asserts that the Szekelys are descended from Attila, a leader of the nomadic Turkish-speaking tribal groups, the Huns. While this line of heritage has been contested, Stoker’s choice to make reference to it is a fascinating one. The history of hot-tempered Attila the Hun is rife with tales of extreme violence. Rampaging through parts of the southern Balkans and modern-day France, he led raids and pillaging of lands, while at the pinnacle of Hunnic power. Stoker likely drew inspiration from this brutal ruler, who has become a near-mythical figure in the history of the Huns, in the crafting of his vampire.
Writing from a Western Anglo-Irish perspective, Bram Stoker is looking at Romania through a blurred lens. His utilisation of the gothic genre to represent Eastern Europe creates an image of the region as a dangerous, exotic land, distinctly separate from the West. This depiction exposes the xenophobic fear of ‘the Other’, that underpinned British society at the fin de siècle. During the Victorian era, there was an influx of Jews fleeing to the West, to escape pogroms. This heightened anxieties around the encroaching threat of invasion from Eastern Europe, and led to the passing of the 1905 Aliens Act, introducing immigration controls. Meanwhile, Stoker sets much of his novel in Whitby, England, following the corruption of the urban landscape by the disease of vampirism, which has arrived from Transylvania. This can therefore be described as an invasion novel, playing into the fears exhibited by recent legislation. Also, in Dracula, we follow the ‘good vs evil’ narrative, a typical gothic convention. Vampire-slayer Van Helsing, proponent of Western medicine and development, triumphs over the Transylvanian vampire. This creates a diametric opposition between the apparent prosperity of the Western lifestyle and the transgression of Eastern Europe, further highlighting prejudiced attitudes.
Stoker draws from not only Romania’s dark history, but also its spectacular scenery. We follow Jonathan Harker as he roams through the ‘”lofty steeps of the Carpathians”. With its “swelling hills”, lavish vegetation, and kaleidoscope of rich colours, this is a landscape teeming with natural wonders. Stoker describes this awe-inspiring scene while at the same time subverting it with terror. The beautiful, vibrant landscape is marred by “dark rolling clouds” and sharpened by “jagged rock”. The “oppressive thunder” and the “agonized waling” of wolves combine to create an eerie atmosphere of trepidation. Here, Stoker evokes the gothic motif of the Sublime, a term coined by Edmund Burke, which is used to convey the duality of nature. There is both a pleasure and pain that the sublime produces, as we are both in awe of nature’s supremacy, while simultaneously frightened and unsettled by it. Stoker paints a picture of the likes of J M W Turner, in his description of this sublime event.
Upon arriving at Count Dracula’s “vast ruined castle”, allegedly based on the medieval stronghold, Bran Castle, Jonathan Harker is met with entrapment and a sinister atmosphere. Stoker entangles the descriptions of this impressive fortress, just off the Borgo Pass, with details about its decay, such as its “broken battlements”. This uncanny idea of taking something recognisable and slightly corrupting it to evoke terror is a staple technique of the gothic genre.
Ultimately, the purpose of the gothic novel is to terrify, as its readers looked to gothic fiction as an outlet for their deepest fears and desires. The climate in which Stoker was writing was one of heightened anxieties, due to great change at the turn of the century. This paved the way for the gothic revival, to which Stoker expertly contributed. He took inspiration from Romanian history, and used the Transylvanian countryside as a backdrop, to mirror the inherent fears of the fin de siècle. In this tale of transgression, he offered an insight into the beauty and rich cultural history of Romania, while adding layers of corruption to it, marking this text as an embodiment of the gothic genre.
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