What are the features of Dracula?

Answer 1

There has been a longtime debate over whether the character Dracula may truly be defined as man, myth or monster. Features of Dracula are varied and diverse. The character Jonathan Harker describes:

"His face was a strong - a very strong - aquiline, with high bridge of the thin nose and peculiarly arched nostrils; with lofty domes forehead, and hair growing scantily round the temples, but profusely elsewhere. His eyebrows were very massive, almost meeting over the nose, and with bushy hair that seems to curl in its own profusion. The mouth, so far as I could see it under the heavy moustache, was fixed and rather cruel-looking, with peculiarly sharp white teeth; these protruded over the lips, whose remarkable ruddiness showed remarkable vitality in a man of his years. For the rest, his ears were pale and at the tops extremely pointed; the chin was broad and strong, and the cheeks though thin, The general effect was one of extraordinary pallor."

As can be seen the character Dracula projects an image of a being not truly human, and not truly alive or dead, young or old, strong or weak. In terms of supernatural elements to the character of Dracula he has no reflection, a thirst for human blood, fears blue flame, cannot touch holy objects such as a cross, holy wafers or holy water. Dracula may morph into three other forms than human - bat, wolf and mist. Dracula may only walk the Earth after sunset and before sunrise (The hours when humans are weakest, and the dark creatures of the night rule). Further, Dracula may only enter a place upon invitation. His bite leads to the conversion of human beings to vampires.

In terms of animalistic qualities, Dracula also has prodigious strength and endurance. For a man that appears to be elderly, he is remarkably fit and shows no sign of exhaustion when hunting for human prey, or performing the regular act of climbing through a high castle window and scaling a wall to its base. His strength is legendary, beyond that of any normal human, metaphorically suggesting that humans are prey to Dracula, humans are at his mercy, and their blood (lifeforce) can easily be taken from them.

Dracula also has control over bats and wolves, able to command both upon a call and manipulate them to perform his will. In all, Dracula is a complex character with a variety of animalistic, supernatural and otherwordly tendencies.

Answer 2

Dracula is a novel written by Bram Stoker in 1897. It features Count Dracula, a vampire from Transylvania, who preys on victims to sustain himself. The novel combines elements of gothic Horror, folklore, and Victorian culture, and it popularized many vampire tropes that are still present in vampire fiction today.