First of all, let us analyse the name of Dracula itself . The name of the fictionnal character is close to that of the historical character. It is derived from “dragon” (dracul in Romanian), Vlad Tepes’ family having been named Drăculea by historians. Actually, Vlad Tepes’ father was nicknamed Vlad II Dracul (Vlad II the dragon) because he was part of the order of the dragon. Moreover, Dracul means “dragon” but also “devil” in Romanian. This ambiguity was kept by Bram Stoker in his novel, to stress the count’s devilish qualities.

I Dracula/Draculas : Iconography for a vampire.
A.A cultural icon
1. When one is asked to describe count Dracula, the answer is often the same : he is represented as a middle aged aristocrat, tall and slim, a pale face and black hair. He is wearing a dark suit and a large black and red cape. Actually, this representation evolved with time. The original Bram Stoker’s Dracula did not look like this at all ! He was an old man (who got younger as the novel went), pretty ugly and repulsive with his tall and thin body, his thick eyebrows, very little hair, a thick moustache, short fingers, hairy hands and bad breath. (I quote Jonathan Harker’s description of the count in the novel : “His face was a strong, a very strong, aquiline, with high bridge of the thin nose and peculiarly arched nostrils, with lofty domed 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 seemed 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 astonishing 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 firm though thin. The general effect was one of extraordinary pallor. Hitherto