| rdfs:comment
| - The film remains fascinatingly attentive to Stoker’s novel, yet daringly embellishes the plot for a contemporary audience interested in the romanticizing elements of this timeless gothic tale. Largely, the characters fulfill the same function in the film as in the novel, but their personalities, motivations, and backgrounds are whipped into an amplified frenzy. The most marked departure the film takes from the original narrative is the introduction of a highly erotic romantic entanglement between Dracula and Mina, which deflects the novel’s original trajectory from its fixation with conquest and war to an intriguing focus on the redeeming power of love.
|
| abstract
| - The film remains fascinatingly attentive to Stoker’s novel, yet daringly embellishes the plot for a contemporary audience interested in the romanticizing elements of this timeless gothic tale. Largely, the characters fulfill the same function in the film as in the novel, but their personalities, motivations, and backgrounds are whipped into an amplified frenzy. The most marked departure the film takes from the original narrative is the introduction of a highly erotic romantic entanglement between Dracula and Mina, which deflects the novel’s original trajectory from its fixation with conquest and war to an intriguing focus on the redeeming power of love. The narrative is heavily invested in questioning the monstrosity of Dracula, especially when his villainous reputation is placed in relief with his romantic interest in Mina Harker. Dracula is first introduced as Vlad Dracula, Romanian knight and member of the Order of the Dragon, a multinational power bent on defending the Christian faith and defeating pagan invaders. In the year 1462, Dracula faces foreign invaders in a bloody battle; though he emerges victorious, his beloved wife Elisabeta believes him dead and commits suicide. Consumed with grief and embittered with the deity that ostensibly granted him victory in battle yet also deprived him of his love, Prince Dracula renounces God and is consequently cursed with vampirism for his sacrileges. Fast-forward four centuries later and the aged, yet still malignant Dracula employs the young lawyer Harker for aid in acquiring strategically selected real estate in England. Harker is sent to Dracula’s castle as replacement for the Count’s previously employed lawyer from the same firm, a Mr. R.M. Renfield whose mental health has spiraled into madness shortly after his employment with Dracula and landed him in the Carfax Lunatic Asylum. Harker is only faintly put off by his colleague’s mysterious mental deterioration and the worrisome behavior of the locals. After purchasing his land in England, Dracula voyages to London, leaving Harker to the mercy of his vampire brides, from whom Harker eventually escapes. Meanwhile, Harker’s virginal fiancé Mina Murray is spending time her coquettish friend, Lucy Westenra, whose sexual looseness leaves her vulnerable to Dracula’s predation and her ultimate admission into the world of the undead. Rejuvenated by his conquest of Lucy, Dracula is free to focus his attention on wooing Mina Murray, whom he had glimpsed in Harker’s photograph and become convinced of her identity as a reincarnation of his lost love, Elisabeta. Mina ultimately falls for her “prince” Dracula and this love interest becomes a driving force for the action in the film.
|
![[RDF Data]](/fct/images/sw-rdf-blue.png)