DRACULA- BRAM STOKER VS.

FRANCIS FORD COPPOLA

Bram Stokers Dracula is considered a great work of Gothic literature. It is a story about the fight against evil Dracula, who is a vampire and tries to turn everybody else into vampires. The fight between good and evil is very present in literature and many writers used it in their works, especially in Gothic literature. The image of Dracula as a vampire appeared with this work. There were several film adaptations of Dracula but Francis Ford Coppolas movie Bram Stokers Dracula is quite similar to the book. Coppola, of course, made his own version of the whole story but the main origin of the movie is the book, as we can see from the title. Coppola sets the scenes very good, almost as in the book. He tried to tell the story through letters, telegrams, etc. as Stoker did in his book and he succeeded, although he turned this into a love story and Bram Stoker emphasized fight against the evil. The book starts with Jonathan Harkers arrival in Transylvania. His visit to count Dracula scares everybody and everybody sees count Dracula as a devil, although Jonathan Harker is not aware of it. Immediately in the beginning it can be seen that there is something wrong there. He is given a rosary in order to be protected. The power of religion is greater than the power of hell and only faith can save him. The beginning of the movie is marked with Draculas life, at least part of it. It can be seen here that Coppola puts an emphasis on the love story of Dracula, Elizabeth and Mina (i.e. Wilhelmina Harker, Jonathans wife). Dracula fights against the Turks (which is probably related to a history fact that Vlad Dracul was the prisoner of Turks) and his fiance Elizabeth commits suicide. He renounces his faith and becomes eternally dead. The loss of beloved made him to renounce God. Instead of hope for eternal life in heaven he chose to be cursed on the Earth. Mortal love is more important to him than the divine love. He thrust his sword into the crucifix. Then we have the part with Jonathans arrival in Transylvania. Jonathan gets the rosary as a protection with the famous quote from Brgers Lenore: Denn die Toten reiten schnell. Jonathans abidance in the Counts castle is almost the same in the book and in the movie. His suffer in the castle, Draculas brides, etc. are presented in both versions. In the book Jonathan is not so sure whether he hears a baby cry when Dracula brings food for his brides and in the movie there is a scene when he gives a baby to his brides as a token of his love because he

too can love. In Stokers version there is a hidden sexual desire through the whole book but Coppola shows the sex scenes very openly (e.g. the attack of brides on Jonathan), he does not abide the rules of sexually repressed Victorians putting the passion in the first place. Stoker does not reveal these sexual desires through the diaries of characters and especially not through the telegrams. In the movie, seeing the picture of Jonathans fiance Mina, Dracula decides to go to London. During Jonathans abidance the reader is introduced to Wilhelmina or Mina, Jonathans fiance and, later, wife. Stokers Mina is much more aware of her engagement than Coppolas Mina. Coppolas Mina is a kind and beautiful creature in the beginning but when she meets the Count she forgets about Jonathan and goes out with another man. It seems that she did not enjoyed life for a long time and that she lived a life of a prisoner devoted to Jonathan although she loves Jonathan. She falls in love passionately. She is totally Anti-Victorian in the film. She does not obey Victorian rules. When Dracula tries to turn Mina into a vampire in the book, she enjoys his touches, where we can see a Victorian characteristic. Minas friend Lucy is the same in both versions, although different things happen to her in the book and in the movie. She likes to play with men as she plays with Quincy Morris, John Seward and Arthur Holmwood. She is a coquette. Her sexual desires are more expressed in the movie where she actually has sex with Dracula the first time he bites her and the last time before her death, although she is not aware of it. Her first meeting with Dracula is not on the coast as in the book but in Minas garden. Her meeting was caused in a way, by her sleepwalking in both versions and in both versions she is found by Mina, although in the film version Mina sees Dracula in the shape of animal. In the book Mina goes to the coast in her dream and Dracula bites her. She ends up as Draculas follower after her death. Coppola describes her character as Draculas follower just as Stoker does- she bites other people and in the movie brings a child in order to suck his blood but she is prevented by Dr. Van Helsing, Quincy, Arthur and John. There is not the first meeting of Dracula and Mina in the book. They do not meet each other at all, except when he wants to suck her blood and turn her to his partner in death. In the movie Coppola sets a fatal meeting of Mina and Dracula in London. She even goes out with him a couple of times, which is how they fall in love. Draculas love is obvious when he cannot turn her into the Undead because he loves her too much to curse her. They enjoy each other while Jonathan is suffering in the castle. Mina notices that she is similar to Draculas Elizabeth and she can see that Elizabeth committed suicide. She is connected to Elizabeth and

it might be that Dracula is in love with Mina because she looks like Elizabeth and she is the one that helps him to find the path to Elizabeth in the end of the movie. In the book and in the movie Jonathan escapes to the monastery where they send a letter to Mina informing her that he is there. In the movie Mina leaves Dracula so that she can go to Jonathan and fulfil her duty. She is abandoning true love for the sake of duty and engagement. In the movie Mina goes to the monastery and marries Jonathan as she does in the movie. There is a little bit of cheating between these two. Although Draculas brides are supernatural creatures, they seduce Jonathan and he enjoys that. They obviously fulfil his sexual illusions. In the movie Mina goes out with another man and falls in love with him and has an affair with Dracula and in the book she almost cheats Jonathan when Dracula touches her and wants her to be his bride. Renfield, Jonathans predecessor, is the same in the movie and in the book. He becomes Dr. Sewards patient after he gets mad in the Counts castle. Coppolas Renfield is well adapted and his characteristics are the same. Quincy, Jonathan, Mina, Dr. Van Helsing, Dr. Seward and Arthur decide to fight against the evil. The only difference in the movie is that Mina does not fight against Dracula because she loves him and she goes to his castle because he wants her to. They prepared everything, i.e. a casual weapon against vampires: rosaries, garlic, etc. When they look for Dracula in the houses he bought, they have a chance to kill him but he always manages to escape in the book. In the movie the only house they look in is the Carfax Abbey that he bought in the beginning of the novel. They find nothing of course because Dracula goes to Minas room and there is a scene of a sexual intercourse of these two and he wants to give her immortality by giving her his blood. He does not want to ruin her but she wants to be with him so he lets her to drink his blood till this group comes and he escapes. In both versions Mina has a Draculas mark on herself. In the book she has to kill Dracula in order not to become a vampire and in the movie she wants to be with him and that is why she goes to his castle. In the end of the book the group manages to kill Dracula. They found him in his castle, or more precisely, in his coffin. In the end of the movie he is wounded and Mina carries him to the abbey where he renounced his faith. Her love saves him from the hell, he is forgiven. She helps him to die and to go to eternity with his Elizabeth, who waited for him so long. In the whole book Count Dracula does not have his own section or diary. He is the one of whom we find out through the diaries of other characters, especially through Jonathan Harkers diary. Jonathan Harker is very subjective in the description of Dracula so he could

be an unreliable narrator. The reader cannot be sure if Dracula was as bad as shown in the book. In the movie Dracula appears as a man that falls in love and suffers for it. Despite all his evil he becomes another man by meeting Mina. He is saved by the Lords grace in the end but in the book he is just evil that has to be killed. In the movie he finds his salvation and Mina helps him. In the book he is killed by a stalk and in the movie he is killed by a sword. Coppola tried to show a modern Dracula and Minas hidden desires in the movie. Religion has an important role in both versions. All these characters fight against Dracula with rosaries, crucifixes, etc. because only faith can beat the evil. This probably written so that more people would convert to Catholicism and that is why they showed it as the only true faith that can fight the evil. Religion is the most important theme here and it is mentioned through the whole work, e.g. Jonathan is given a crucifix when he goes to the Counts residence, they put garlic and crosses around Lucy when Dracula sucks her blood, they pray after Lucys head is chopped off, etc. In the movie love helps Dracula to return to what is pure and good. He finds his peace in the chapel where he thrust the crucifix. God forgives him for all his love that he shows to Mina by not wanting to turn her into the vampire. Divine love conquers the evil, although there is a perversion of the body of Christ in both versions. It has to be because Dracula himself gives eternal life with his body and is capable to take the earthly life from anyone as he was God and curse him forever, i.e. turn him into the vampire. In both versions Dracula wants to go to civilization and spread his kind. We have the civilization of London and wilderness of Bukovina (Draculas town). All theses Gypsies are uneducated people and they serve blindly to Dracula, and of course, because they are afraid of him and they know what he can do to them. They are not trying to rebel against him. They cannot think as educated people. In London however, we have people that are educated and are trying to do something to destroy this evil vampire that is turning their lives to misery. They ask for help, information, they have Renfield that can tell them something about his master. Dracula is not accepted in this society because he is the Other, he does not belong here. The Others are evil, something is wrong with them according to this British society. He is not good enough because he is not British. Female sexuality is very much emphasized in both versions. In the book Mina is a perfect wife loving her husband very much but she also fails to refuse Dracula when he caresses her trying to turn her into his bride. Her repressed sexuality comes out and she can no longer hide it. If there had not been her friends to save her, she would have accepted Draculas immortality and eternal curse. In the movie Mina wants to enjoy life with the Count. She has never done that and now she has a chance to be free and do whatever she wants. She is

definitely not a sexually repressed Victorian in the movie. She is independent and society does not even talk about her. There is no reaction of society. In the book Lucy has a promiscuous disorder. She likes to coquette with men and she likes when they pay attention to her. However, she does not talk about her sexual desires and neither does Mina but it is obvious because of her behaviour. In the movie Lucy is quite opened and she even has sex with Dracula the first time he sucks her blood and the last time. She kisses Seward before her wedding and nobody even reacts, it is something normal, he is her friend. In my opinion, Coppola did a great job in the scenes from the book. He made them exactly as they were described in the book. Maybe Stoker would be disappointed with the love story because that was not what he wanted to show in his work. Coppola made just a few exceptions and he made a great movie. He used some facts from history about Vlad Tepes and that would be the beginning of the whole story. Special effects are very good. The Counts castle, Minas home and garden with a lot of sculptures are magnificent. Coppola used all themes that Bram Stoker used. He devotedly transferred Stokers ideas and added some of his own. The idea with the epistolary novel was done great in both versions. Actors are quite good. We find out about Stokers characters through their diaries but we do not know anything about the personality of the Count. I personally was disappointed with the ending of the book because I watched the movie before I read the book, but all in all Stokers Dracula is a great work, easy to read and understand, enjoyable and exciting and Coppola added more magic to it.