Dracula, one of the famous and beloved icon of the century. Dracula has inspired a whole new breed of monster in our pop culture today. From Nosferatu, to Blacula, to Blade, to True Blood, to even that disgusting piece of rubbish called twilight. The the legend of vampire is truly embedded into our society.
But how is this so? To truly understand the legend of the vampire we must look back at what started this all. Bram Stroker's novel Dracula written in 1897 launched a new wave of inspiration in horror for generations to come.
The novel starts out with one of our main protagonists, Jonathan Harker as he is currently on route to Dracula's foreign castle in Transylvania. He is a qualified English solicitor. His purpose is to help the Count with legal support for real estate transactions. He is greeted by Dracula, whom seems to have the appearance of an old man. At first sight Dracula is a warm and gracious host but thing soon turn ugly as Jonathan Harker goes through a series of misfortunate events: from having a deadly encounter with Dracula's Brides, to Dracula suddenly becoming interested in his fiancee, Mina, to ultimately being trapped within the confides of Dracula's castle.
It is very understandable why Dracula seems to keep Harker alive in the beginning. Dracula wants to keep him alive long enough to get all his transactions settled and learn as much as he can about England before going off to reek havoc and steal away Jonathan Harker's bride to be. But after all the transactions and important stuff are all settled and Dracula's finally off to England, he just leaves Harker to his brides, but doesn't kill him. Why would he just leave Harker alive with the slight chance that he might escape or send word out about his condition (Which he eventually does, and ultimately leads to Dracula's defeat). The best solution for Dracula would be to just kill him for he has nothing to lose in the process of doing so.
Dracula arrives in England and is after Mina and her friend Lucy, whom he has bitten and is slowly turning into a vampire. He also visits Mina feeding off her multiple times. During this process we are introduced to another key protagonist, or the hero protagonist,Van Helsing, who is aware of the legend of the vampire and if chasing after Dracula to put a stop to his terror.
Van Helsing and of characters of the novel set out to defeat Dracula after killing the Lucy, after she was turned into a vampire. Van Helsing and the others set out for Transylvania, where Dracula has retreated to. They chase Dracula down to the Borgo Pass where they capture him and impaled in his heart and decapitate his head.
And everyone lived happily ever-after...except Quincey Morris, whom dies shortly after being injured in the battle.
