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The Symbolism Of Evil In Dracula By Bram Stoker

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“It was Stoker, who with the stroke of his pen, forever linked the real clad with traditional beliefs in malefic spirits that return from the dead to plague the living. Stoker welded these elements into the bloodthirsty Count Dracula the immortal symbol of evil.” Bram Stoker was a writer who used Vlad Tepes’s image to create the famous vampire of his book, “Dracula.” Vlad was the perfect candidate due to his unusual methods. Dracula, similar to Vlad, was created to be cruel and bloodthirsty feared by all. When thinking of Vlad or Dracula, for many, the term “son of the devil” will come to mind. Stoker also made sure to incorporate Vlad's ruthless killing habits into Dracula's character. To make things more realistic stoker wrote “Dracula” …show more content…

Stoker was the beginning of this tale when, “In March 1890, stoker jotted down a few notes on a scrap of paper: dead man made alive- waxen color- dead dark eyes- what fire in them- not human- hellfire.” The way Dracula is described with dead dark eyes burning will hellfire and all inhuman characteristics is one observation on how people connect the two. Vlad Tepes was always thought of with demonic qualities such as these. In fact, “with such a reputation, the Ottomans thought Vlad as satan, a supernatural being and his nickname of the devil and Impaler escaladed the fear of him.” the fact that the ottomans, a powerful country at this time, were taken aback by Vlad and also believed him to be inhuman heightened everyone else's perspective. Dracula's character was made to scare people and, “...is striking enough as a taxonomic anomaly but his resonance goes deeper. He is contagious and highly dangerous, and evokes ancient evolved terrors and conflicts.” one can see from this snip of text that Dracula is dangerous, and induces fear in people, just as Vlad …show more content…

Vlad may have been royalty in his country but that never stopped him from eliminating anyone in his path, in fact his nickname “ Tepes” was derived from, “... impaling enemies on tall wooden stakes during his reign of terror from 1456-1460. Vlad created forrest of the impaled.” one would think upon seeing hundreds of people impaled on wooden stakes, that one would be horrified and traumatized, and that is exactly what happened to the Turks and the Ottomans. They were stricken with fear and this was a great advantage to Vlad and Romania. In present day,”the romanian military historian Mircea Dogaru argues that Vlad was the first walachian to adopt psychological warfare. He crushed the morale of the Turks through his method of torture: burning oil, mutilation, decapitation. In one campaign alone he killed 24,000 and built a pyramid of decapitated heads.” from this you can tell that vlad really did know how to scare someone straight. After this stunt the turks and ottomans alike were much more cautious and aware of vlads capabilities. Not only were whole other countries intimidated by vlad, his own people were on their knees. Though vlad was cruel, he was fair to his people and when they came complaining about the corrupt commissioners, “... He slipped pebbles into their food, and as soon as they began to choke, he slashed

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