Dracula Movie And Book Comparison

Samuel Grundhoefer
Professor Thomas
2/20/2012
Dracula: A better read, or a better movie? Since the beginning of the moving picture, directors have been recreating books into movie. More often than not, the directors will change the original plot line of the book. In Bram Stoker’s Dracula the director changes the plot in a few different instances but for the most part, the director keeps the same plotline. Some similarities between the book and the movie are: the genre and setting, loss of personal power, and the gothic features. Francis Ford Coppola, director of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, changed a few minor parts of the plot from the book. Even though the movie and book differ slightly, they both are great works. One of the most obvious similarities between Dracula the book and Bram Stoker’s Dracula the movie, is the setting and genre. Both the book and the
movie take place in Transylvania sometime during the late 1700s. During the 1700s, most writings were considered to be written with the gothic style of writing. The gothic style of writing Another similarity that Dracula and Bram Stoker’s Dracula share is the genre they fall into. They both fall into the horror genre, but they use different techniques to achieve the spooky atmosphere. In the book, Bram Stoker does a tremendous job of using certain words help paint a mental picture of a given scene. “And then there was silence, deep, awful silence, which chilled me. With a beating heart, I tried the door, but I was locked in my prison, and could do nothing. I sat down and simply cried”(Stoker). Stoker also instills a sense of hopelessness into the readers mind when Harker is held prisoner in Dracula’s castle. “I start at my own shadow, and am full of all sorts of horrible imaginings. God knows that there is ground for my terrible fear in this accursed place!” (Stoker). These quotes are examples of how Stoker creates the setting. Even Coppola does a wonderful job of creating a dark, ominous setting. Coppola achieves this by using different things such as fog and graveyards. With all of these techniques used in the book and movie, Stoker and Coppola successfully create the dark setting and the horror genre. Another fairly obvious similarity that Dracula the book and the movie have in common is the loss of personal power.
Dracula is described as having the strength of twenty men, take the form of an animal, and even control the weather. In addition to these powers, Dracula can have someone under his curse and have them do his bidding. Throughout both plotlines, there are many instances were Dracula has people under his spell. In both the movie and the book, it’s fairly easy to tell who is under Dracula’s curse. When Dracula has someone under his spell, they are a complete different person. Along with acting different, people under Dracula’s curse physical appearance changes. ‘‘As he spoke he smiled, and the lamplight fell on a hard-looking mouth, with very red lips and sharp-looking teeth, as white as ivory” (Stoker). In the book Dracula, the vampire Dracula only has two total victims the reader knows about: Lucy Westerna and Mina Murray. However, in the movie the director shows us that Dracula also has three wives under his curse. This part is not in the book, but it emphasizes how powerful Dracula
is.

There is one more common theme between Dracula the book and Bram Stoker’s Dracula the movie, the fear of sexuality. This fear of sexuality is the fear of men being seduced by a woman that is under the spell of Dracula. For example, when Lucy Westenra falls under Dracula’s curse she is described as being a becoming a sexual monster. This idea of female sexuality was unheard of during that time period. With having a woman become a sexual monster the seduces men, this causes a threat to the men in the movie and book.