As Frost emphasizes, "Although there is no reason to believe that Stoker regarded Dracula as anything other than a straightforward story of Good vs. Evil, most commentators today interpret it as a sexual rather than a theological allegory, even going so far as to call it one of the most erotic novels ever written" (55). The legends of vampires that prevailed well into the 19th century throughout Europe were enough to give anyone nightmares, and the author consistently maintained that this was in fact the source of his inspiration for Dracula. As Frost points out, "Stoker, himself, always maintained that the genesis of his novel was a vivid nightmare; but following recent disclosures about his private life the book has taken on a new significance, and is now generally regarded as an expression of the author's frustrated sensuality" (55).
Although the novel is slightly flawed in places from a purely literary perspective, Stoker's Dracula remains the quintessential vampire in literature and cinema alike. According to Holte (1997), Stoker's novel was influenced primarily by three traditions, Le Fanu's novella "Carmilla," Eastern European folklore concerning vampires and Vlad the Impaler. In this regard, Holte advises, "The prototype of the female vampire appeared in Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's 1871 novella, 'Carmilla,' a tale that inspired Bram Stoker's Dracula" (7). This author adds that, "Stoker drew on two other traditions, however, the Eastern European folklore about vampires and the actual history of Vlad Dracula, or Vlad Tepes, the fifteenth-century Wallachian prince otherwise known as Vlad the Impaler. The success of Dracula is a result of Stoker's combining elements from all three traditions" (8).
Furthermore, and notwithstanding the controversy concerning the precise origins of the novel, it is equally clear that Stoker's did his historical homework as well in researching Dracula in ways that contributed to its enduring popularity....
The girl is freed from her captor, but only at the cost of the life and soul of the young priest: the power of Christ merely served to anger the devil -- it did not subjugate him; such would have been too meaningful in the relativistic climate of the 70s. The 70's sexual and political revolutions were intertwined to such an extent that hardcore pornography and Feminist politics appeared on
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