| By Gale Staff |
Halloween may be over, but why not stick to the spookier lesson plans a little longer? After all, November 8 marks the birthday of legendary author Bram Stoker. Best known for his novel Dracula, Stoker has had an immeasurable influence on popular culture and remains a literary legend.
Using Gale In Context, your high school classes can discover the life of the man behind the infamous vampire. Your students can explore the novel, reflecting on its still-relevant themes and interesting tie-ins to real-life events and eerie historical figures. Regardless of the direction you take, these databases—including Gale In Context: Literature, Gale In Context: Biography, and Gale In Context: High School—house thousands of curriculum-aligned topic pages and peer-reviewed articles invaluable to your lesson planning.
Explore Stoker’s Early Life
Stoker’s early life is a darker tale in itself. Born in Ireland in 1847, Abraham “Bram” Stoker was a sickly child. Bedridden for most of his early years, his mother would keep him company and tell him tales from supernatural Irish legends.
Many thought he wouldn’t survive childhood. The cause of his illness was unknown, his condition undiagnosed, and he was likely subjected to antiquated treatments, such as bloodletting. His early brush with mortality and personal experience with blood loss would undoubtedly inform the macabre and vampiric nature of his later writing.
Stoker’s keen interest in the world beyond his window influenced his early career as a writer for The Daily Telegraph. He found success as a theater reviewer, though his passion for stories soon led him to craft his own works of fiction. He naturally leaned toward the horror genre; his early critics described his writing as melodramatic while lauding his descriptive skill.
In 1890, Stoker began drafting Dracula, his best-known work. For his masterpiece, Stoker extensively researched and blended true history and paranormal mythologies, resulting in an even more eerie effect. While most historians would suggest that the inspiration for Dracula lies in the story of Vlad the Impaler, the novel has inarguable links to Stoker’s fascination with Irish legends, most notably the dreadful Celtic chieftain, Abhartach.
By reflecting on an author’s potential literary inspirations, readers achieve a deeper understanding of a novel’s themes and the motivations of its characters. With Gale In Context: Biography, students can identify other associations between Stoker’s life and his enduring gothic novel, thinking critically about how his early experiences fueled his literary success.
Learn About the Real Dracula
Stoker was a relentless researcher, and there are countless examples throughout the novel of real-life events informing fiction. Gale In Context: High School features a Dracula topic page that includes content on the novel’s intersection with historical figures and places. For example, people can still visit Romania’s Bran Castle, which, despite no record of Stoker ever visiting, claims to be the inspiration for his vampire’s abode.
It’s impossible to discuss Bram Stoker without addressing Vlad Tepes, better known as Vlad the Impaler, a genuine Romanian prince known for his brutality who likely informed Stoker’s Dracula. Vlad Tepes was a cunning and ruthless Romanian prince who ruled during the fifteenth century. Tepes is better known as Vlad the Impaler because of his preferred torture method of impaling his enemies on spikes. While the legends of him drinking blood from his victims or turning into a bat are untrue, he was undeniably a frightening figure. Research even suggests Tepes may have suffered from a health condition that made him cry tears of blood.
Besides the frightening and embellished lore, clear evidence suggests a link between Stoker’s vampire and the Romanian prince. Vlad Tepes went by the title Vlad Dracula. His father belonged to the Order of the Dragon, a class of knights, and the surname “Dracula” means “son of a dragon.” While there is some debate about how much Vlad Tepes inspired Stoker’s Dracula (some say he merely stumbled on the name in a reference book), it’s certainly an intriguing discussion for class.
These real-life connections interwoven throughout the novel add depth to Stoker’s Dracula. The compelling storytelling transformed the Gothic genre and has enthralled readers for more than a century.
Research Dracula’s Ongoing Legacy
First published in 1897, Dracula has been continuously in print for more than a century. With Gale In Context: Literature, users can explore an extensively spooky topic page dedicated to the famous novel and its indelible influence on pop culture.
Vampire mythology has fascinated humans for ages. Dracula was by no means the first iteration of the vampire figure, but the novel’s widespread readership helped Stoker’s depiction become the most famous. Because of Dracula, vampiric themes still dominate Western literature and television—consider the prolific success of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Trueblood, and Twilight.
If time allows, have students read Dracula to help inform your Bram Stoker lesson plan. Otherwise, Gale In Context: Literature has a helpful overview and a full-text audio recording. You might also consider pulling excerpts from the full text housed in Gale. Using Gale databases, you can even research vampire lore from around the world. As a class, consider what makes vampires so compelling.
Dracula explores good versus evil, mortality, female sexuality, imperialism, and the perils of modernity—themes that remain relevant today. However, Stoker didn’t simply write an acclaimed horror novel; he created a compelling, well-researched piece that insists on its own validity. He narrates through his characters’ journal entries and includes anecdotal “proof” such as ship logs, newspaper cuttings, and telegrams. By guiding readers to consider the book’s authenticity, Stoker strives to create a genuine uncertainty that vampires could live among us.
Dracula is a complex piece that intertwines horror and fantasy and still resonates with readers. Stoker’s writing combines historical facts with supernatural mythologies from Ireland and Eastern Europe, expertly straddling the line between truth and fiction. With Gale In Context, your students can explore the story’s themes and real-world connections to Stoker’s life and the period in which he was writing.
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