Dracula
Historically, the name "Dracul" is derived from a secret fraternal order of knights called the Order of the Dragon, founded by Sigismund of Luxembourg (king of Hungary, Croatia and Bohemia, and Holy Roman Emperor) to uphold Christianity and defend the Empire against the Ottoman Turks. Vlad II Dracul, father of Vlad III the Impaler, was admitted to the order around 1431 because of his bravery in fighting the Turks. From 1431 onward, Vlad II wore the emblem of the order and later, as ruler of Wallachia, his coinage bore the dragon symbol. The name Dracula means "Son of Dracul".
During his main reign (1456–1462), "Vlad the Impaler" is said to have killed from 20,000 to 40,000 European civilians (political rivals, criminals, and anyone else he considered "useless to humanity"), mainly by using his favourite method of impaling them on a sharp pole. The main sources dealing with these events are records by Saxon settlers in neighbouring Transylvania, who had frequent clashes with Vlad III. Vlad III is revered as a folk hero by Romanians for driving off the invading Turks. His impaled victims are said to have included as many as 100,000 Ottoman Muslims.
Bram Stoker came across the name Dracula in his reading on Romanian history, and chose this to replace the name (Count Wampyr) that he had originally intended to use for his villain. After all, although Dracula is a work of fiction, it does contain some historical references.
The story of Dracula has been the basis for countless films and plays. The character of Count Dracula has remained popular over the years, and many films have used the character as a villain, while others have named him in their titles. An estimated 160 films (as of 2004) feature Dracula in a major role, a number second only to Sherlock Holmes. The number of films that include a reference to Dracula may reach as high as 649, according to the Internet Movie Database.
Frankenstein
Frankenstein; or, the Modern Prometheus, generally known as Frankenstein, is a novel written by Mary Shelley. During the rainy summer of 1816, the world was locked in a long cold volcanic winter caused by the eruption of Mount Tambora in 1815. Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, aged 18, and her lover (and later husband) Percy Bysshe Shelley, visited Lord Byron at the Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva in Switzerland. The weather was consistently too cold and dreary that summer to enjoy the outdoor holiday activities they had planned, so the group retired indoors until dawn.
Amongst other subjects, the conversation turned to galvanism and the feasibility of returning a corpse or assembled body parts to life, and to the experiments of the 18th-century natural philosopher and poet Erasmus Darwin, who was said to have animated dead matter. Sitting around a log fire at Byron's villa, the company also amused themselves by reading German ghost stories, prompting Byron to suggest they each write their own supernatural tale. Shortly afterwards, in a waking dream, Mary Godwin conceived the idea for Frankenstein.
Nowadays many so-called adaptations of Frankenstein are rather exploitations of Mary Shelley's novel. In his Frankenstein Scrapbook Stephen Jones lists hundreds of films featuring mad scientists, artificially created monsters and references to Frankenstein, both novel and film. About 80 films carry the name "Frankenstein" in their title, although many of them have little in common with Mary Shelley's novel and only use the popular name "Frankenstein" to draw people into cinemas.
Interesting Facts about both Bram Stoker and Mary Shelley
In Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, it contains no supernatural apparitions such as ghosts, witches, devils, demons or sorcerers. All diabolical agency has been replaced by human, natural and scientific powers. Other typical Gothic elements, e.g. ruined castles, graveyards and charnel houses, appear only briefly or in the distance. And unlike most Gothic novels like Bram Stoker's Dracula, Frankenstein is set in the 18th rather than in the 15th century. Shelley also abandoned the simple good-evil scheme of the Gothic novel. Neither Frankenstein nor the Monster are one hundred percent good or evil. Instead they are both highly ambivalent characters. Frankenstein is rather a kind of novel German literary critics call "Entwicklungsroman", a form of the novel showing the development of an individual's character.
Moreover, unlike Dracula, Frankenstein has undergone several changes and mutations over the decades. In most Dracula films the vampire is basically the same and the image of Count Dracula conceived in the novel has not been altered. Mary Shelley's creation, on the other hand, has always prompted new interpretations. Literary purists might state that Frankenstein has never been too lucky since most film adaptations were not faithful to the book. Others might say that Frankenstein - much more than Dracula - has inspired artists to create something new out of old parts, just as Victor Frankenstein created the monster by piecing together old body parts.
Other Famous Movie Monsters
Other famous movie monsters are Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Erik in The Phantom of the Opera, Kharis in The Mummy, Dr. Jack Griffin in The Invisible Man, Dr. Wilfred Glendon in Werewolf of London and Lawrence Talbot in The Wolf Man.
True / False Sentences
1. Dracula (1992 film) was produced and directed by Francis Ford Coppola, based on the novel Dracula by Bram Stoker. True or false?
2. In Dracula (1992 film), it stars Christopher Lee as Count Dracula. True or false?
3. Abraham Bram Stoker, who was born on November 8, 1847, was an Irish novelist and short story writer, best known today for his 1897 horror novel Dracula. True or false?
4. Mary Shelley started writing Frankenstein when she was 18 and finished when she was 91. True or false?
5. While Victor Frankenstein first appeared on screen in a 1910 film produced by Thomas Edison, the character was renamed Henry Frankenstein in Universal Pictures' 1931 film adaptation and was played by British actor Colin Clive opposite Boris Karloff as the Creature. True or false?
6. Mary Shelley, who was born Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin in Somers Town, London, in 1797, was the second child of the feminist philosopher, educator, and writer Mary Wollstonecraft, and the first child of the philospher, novelist, and journalist William Godwin. True or false?