The Transformation Of Dracula Essay

Transformation of Dracula
Dracula is a timeless novel written by Bram Stoker and to this day remains a thrilling read about good vs evil in the form of Van Helsing and his companions pitted against the supernatural forces of Count Dracula, the vampire from Transylvania. Not only was this novel about good vs. evil but upon inspection found to have many themes and views relevant to the time it was written. This caused it to be a huge success of its time and in 1922 the German director Murnau seeing the success of the story put it under transformation and named it Nosferatu. This silent film was very similar to Dracula except it was more relevant to the times it was written in. Public opinion about certain aspects of society had changed and
even though both forms of media were set in the same timeframe some themes had been eliminated or turned on their heads.
Now both these media were made in different styles with Dracula made in the gothic style. This is apparent with the Supernatural aspect of Dracula and his Vampiric kin. Stoker’s descriptions of Dracula are always set as comparisons to animals so even when in human form Dracula is not quite human but rather something far more unnatural. In Nosferatu the style is the one of the time being German expressionism with themes prevalent throughout the film, the most obvious being the use of shadows to signify darkness and evil as well as the unknown. This is best captured with the powerful image of count orlok walking up the stairs to attack Nina with his eerie shadow adding to the sense of darkness and mystery.
Dracula had many themes but like Nosferatu was an expression of the times in which they were conceived in, so many themes in Dracula did not make the transition.
Gender Hierarchy was viewed as an important cog of Victorian culture and that held true throughout the book with the submissive, helpless females needing the help of the apparent stronger sex, males. The only exception to this is Mina but even then she is only able to by having “a man’s brain”. Christian salvation and imagery was not part of the transformation process into nosferatu as being an important theme in Dracula is non-existent in Nosferatu. A great scene to help show this is the killing of Lucy where after being killed for a second time Lucy is restored to “unequalled sweetness and purity”. Use of holy symbols only reinforces this theme with the crucifix and holy wafers making appearances. The theme of superstition vs. science is also at the forefront with the logical, rational dr Seward unable to explain the bitings with all of his reasoning and it is only through superstition from a man of higher faith who is unable to uncover the mystery. Also when it comes to the hunting and killing of Dracula science is not enough to defeat the beast and faith is needed to kill the monster. The big thing of the unknown ,strange east invading progressive civilised England was also not only an issue in the book but an issue at the time with high immigration rates making some conservative Englishmen very
nervous.
Nosferatu due to the time it was made after the 1st world war therefore had more themes applying to post war Germany and some themes from Dracula where completely rubbed out with the gender hierarchy almost reversed as the men look like bumbling idiots while the duty of killing the monster fell to Nina. Also the theme of Christian salvation and superstition vs. science are hardly in the film with only Thomas Hutter and his blatant disregard of clues from a book of vampires accompanied by Orlok being deterred by the rosary the only mention of these two themes. Religion vs. Science wasn’t as big of as issue as at the time of nosferatu. This was different for Dracula as Charles Darwin’s origin of species had just been published; challenging the faith of many Christians perhaps leading conservative Bram Stoker to show that religion is still important. In the 1920’s this wasn’t as big of an issue and therefore was not a theme in the film. WW1 was the bloodiest war in human history at that point and the Spanish influenza had just ripped its way through Europe. This is reflected in the way Count Orlok brings death to Thomas Hutter’s city with the scene of the coffins being taken down the street. You will notice that Count Orlocks teeth are different to Dracula’s. Orlok has the teeth of a rat rather than the stereotypical enlarged canines. Also his arrival is matched by some rats who are also bringers of plague. So count Orlok could be a symbol for the rat as he brings what is reported in the film as plague.
All in all I believe Transformation to be a useful tool as it can expose people who enjoyed the original to something different and in Draculas case show a great contrast between different times and different people.