Vlad The Impaler Vs Dracula

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When creating Dracula, Bram Stoker spent years researching vampires and different historical figures who could be seen as vampire-like. Due to this many historians believe that the character Count Dracula was inspired by two real-life historical figures. The two figures are King Vlad III of Wallachia and Countess Elizabeth Bathory of Hungary. Similar to Count Dracula, both Vlad III and Elizabeth Bathory were well educated, affluent, and evil-natured. However, there are some aspects of Count Dracula that are unrelated to either Vlad III or Elizabeth Bathory. The largest difference between these two historical figures and Count Dracula was the misconception that Vlad III consumed blood and that Elizabeth Bathory bathed in blood. In Bram Stoker's…show more content…
Vlad III was the prince of Wallachia and was born during the year of 1431 and died during a battle in December 1476. The similarities between Count Dracula and Vlad III are their noble heritage, ruthlessness, and both were literate. In Dracula, Count Dracula was presented as being ruthless towards his victims, this was very similar to Vlad III who was said to have killed over 100,000 men, women, and children who were guilty of committing a crime or being an enemy soldier. Vlad III was a very intelligent leader, this was proven in different accounts of Vlad III well-planned strategies he used in his war against the Ottoman Empire. These strategies ranged from sending his own soldiers who were infected with the bubonic plague into enemy camps, too impaling all of the captured enemy soldiers around his castle as a threat to the next wave of enemy soldiers (). Vlad III was the son of king Vlad II Dracul and was the heir to the Wallachian throne. When Vlad III was 11 years old his, he and his younger brother were kidnapped by the Ottoman Empire who then attempted to force them to convert their beliefs. Vlad III refused to convert while his younger Radu converted, making him a traitor. This was mentioned in Dracula on page 30 when Count Dracula begins to talk about his family’s bloodline. “This was a Dracula indeed. Who was it that his own unworthy brother, when he had fallen, sold his people…show more content…
Elizabeth Bathory was a high-ranking countess who ruled like an iron fist over different villages in Hungary, Slovakia, and Transylvania from 1575-1610 (Cavendish). Elizabeth Bathory was born into a noble family on August 7, 1560 Elizabeth ruled over different villages from Austria, Romania, and Transylvania. Though there are a few similarities between Elizabeth Bathory and Count Dracula, the similarities that can be found are uncanny. Elizabeth Bathory was believed to have killed over 500 young girls who came to work at her castle, it was rumored that she would bathe in the blood of her victims to make her look younger, she was highly educated for a woman at the time, she was ruthless towards her servants with punishments, and she had almost complete control over the peasants in the village due to her high ranking position. Interestingly enough, after people discovered these murders she had committed, she was never put on trial, instead she was locked away in her castle till the day she died, which was on August 21, 1614. Like Dracula, Elizabeth was well educated and she was taught to read and write in several different languages, including the language of the peasants. In Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula, Dracula was presented as controlling and powerful. This can be compared to Elizabeth Bathory’s social class as a countess, with her high-ranking
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