•11:03 PM
Bram Stoker was an Irish writer whose best-known work is Dracula. However, what it's very curious and not so well-known is that his inspiration for this novel didn't come from Romania (Stoker never visited the area), but from different parts of Great Britain.
The only inspiration he got from Romania was the name of the vampire, Dracula. This character is inspired in the Romanian emperor Vlad III. Like his father, he was a member of the Order of the Dragon whose purpose was to protect the area from the Ottoman Turks so that Christianity prevailed. The name Dracula means Son of Dracul, so he decided to use this name instead of Count Wampyre because the latter was too obvious.
Many British places were also an inspiration for him, e.g. Slains Castle, a Scottish castle known as the castle of the dead or the strange mausoleum in Hendon cemetery (London) where Lucy, the character that falls in love with Dracula, is buried. The name Dracula could have something to do with the Irish words droch-fhola (pronounced drok'ola), meaning bad blood.
The only inspiration he got from Romania was the name of the vampire, Dracula. This character is inspired in the Romanian emperor Vlad III. Like his father, he was a member of the Order of the Dragon whose purpose was to protect the area from the Ottoman Turks so that Christianity prevailed. The name Dracula means Son of Dracul, so he decided to use this name instead of Count Wampyre because the latter was too obvious.
Vlad III
Many British places were also an inspiration for him, e.g. Slains Castle, a Scottish castle known as the castle of the dead or the strange mausoleum in Hendon cemetery (London) where Lucy, the character that falls in love with Dracula, is buried. The name Dracula could have something to do with the Irish words droch-fhola (pronounced drok'ola), meaning bad blood.
Hendon cemetery's mausoleum.
Coming back to his native Ireland, the area in Dublin where the National museum of archaeology of Ireland and the National Library are located have some influence in the novel. Actually, by the end of the 19th century, a cemetery lied in that area and at that time, Ireland was ravaged by a huge famine period. There was overpopulation and not enough food for everybody, so the Irish population was absolutely dying. Some people couldn't even stand up and were thus lying on the ground in the cemetery, without being able to move. In order to check if these people were alive, they were staked. We might now think that this was brutal because this way, living people were killed. Yet, taking into account the famine period I referred to before, killing these people that were about to die was the most sensible option, since otherwise, they would have been buried alive.
Place of the old cemetery
Source:
http://www.philipcoppens.com/dracula.html
Sandemans trip
http://www.philipcoppens.com/dracula.html
Sandemans trip
0 comentarios: