When people think about Dracula, they don't think about how shitty it is for him, looking down or up at the world today.
Consider this: your father, named Vlad II, has been inducted into the Order of the Dragon for his various heroic, very Christian campaigns against the Ottomans. This has led him to take on Dracul as his family name. Dracul currently means 'devil' in Romanian, but back then it corresponded more with Dragon. As his son, you're named after him, Vlad again, and simply known as Dracula i.e. son of the Dragon. This restricts you. It restricts your identity. You want to step out of your father's shadow, like your other (legitimate) siblings: Mircea II, Radu the Beautiful, and Vlad the Monk. Unfortunately, you lack a distinct name like Mircea. You apparently do not qualify for an epithet involving beauty, or any other of your inherent qualities. And you've just inherited the throne from your father, so you can't even use an occupation like Monk to set you apart.
What do you do?
You mull things over as you absent-mindedly assign various Ottomans -or one of the many other aggressors surrounding your part of Romania (Wallachia, you call it)- to be impaled on a stake. You quite like having people impaled. It calms you. Feels natural.
You hit on an idea!
Confucius said that if you have do something you love, it'll never feel like work. You probably haven't heard of Confucius, but it occurs to you that in impaling people, you have something that you love to do. Why not be well known for doing what you love? People already talk about your proclivity for impaling. Why not turn it up to eleven? If it works, you have your own identity. If it doesn't, you you got to impale thousands of people anyway! It's win-win for everyone involved.
Thus, you set doggedly upon your path, and your determination bears fruit! You will now be remembered as Vlad Tepes, The Impaler. You have cast off your former name wherein you dwelled, confined. You die in comparative mental peace, knowing that you have made your own name and reputation as a man who killed thousands, and that is how you will be remembered.
Until more than 400 years later, some Irishman writes a book about bloodsucking creatures and garlic that's a horror story that plays on societal fears of foreigners and their seduction of British women, replete with revolting children as all literature of the time must have, and exciting horse and boat chase scenes, and quotes like "Phonetic spelling had again misled me." and plasters YOUR name as the title of the damn thing, with you as the bloodsucking undead monster.
You don't mind this quite so much. You don't mind the slander that you made a deal with the devil and dealt in black magic. You don't mind the implication that you live off the lifeblood of others, and kidnap babies for your many wives to consume. You actually quite like the bits involving you seducing several women, and having the strength of many men.
But what you simply cannot ABIDE, is that now you will be forever remembered as Dracula.
After you went through ALL THAT TROUBLE to get rid of the name, to get a new name for yourself.
On behalf of the world, I would like to apologise to you, Vlad Tepes. You shall always be The Impaler in our hearts, if not through them.
(PPPS: As a final apology to poky little Vlad, even on the website of Wallachian rulers, by his name, there is a little note saying that he is NOT Transylvanian, that Transylvania is North of the Carpathians. He is Wallachian, for god's sake! Damnit Bram Stoker you Irish bastard. You do research into middle European mythology and oral tradition, but you can't get the main character's damn country right?)
Consider this: your father, named Vlad II, has been inducted into the Order of the Dragon for his various heroic, very Christian campaigns against the Ottomans. This has led him to take on Dracul as his family name. Dracul currently means 'devil' in Romanian, but back then it corresponded more with Dragon. As his son, you're named after him, Vlad again, and simply known as Dracula i.e. son of the Dragon. This restricts you. It restricts your identity. You want to step out of your father's shadow, like your other (legitimate) siblings: Mircea II, Radu the Beautiful, and Vlad the Monk. Unfortunately, you lack a distinct name like Mircea. You apparently do not qualify for an epithet involving beauty, or any other of your inherent qualities. And you've just inherited the throne from your father, so you can't even use an occupation like Monk to set you apart.
What do you do?
You mull things over as you absent-mindedly assign various Ottomans -or one of the many other aggressors surrounding your part of Romania (Wallachia, you call it)- to be impaled on a stake. You quite like having people impaled. It calms you. Feels natural.
You hit on an idea!
Confucius said that if you have do something you love, it'll never feel like work. You probably haven't heard of Confucius, but it occurs to you that in impaling people, you have something that you love to do. Why not be well known for doing what you love? People already talk about your proclivity for impaling. Why not turn it up to eleven? If it works, you have your own identity. If it doesn't, you you got to impale thousands of people anyway! It's win-win for everyone involved.
Thus, you set doggedly upon your path, and your determination bears fruit! You will now be remembered as Vlad Tepes, The Impaler. You have cast off your former name wherein you dwelled, confined. You die in comparative mental peace, knowing that you have made your own name and reputation as a man who killed thousands, and that is how you will be remembered.
Until more than 400 years later, some Irishman writes a book about bloodsucking creatures and garlic that's a horror story that plays on societal fears of foreigners and their seduction of British women, replete with revolting children as all literature of the time must have, and exciting horse and boat chase scenes, and quotes like "Phonetic spelling had again misled me." and plasters YOUR name as the title of the damn thing, with you as the bloodsucking undead monster.
You don't mind this quite so much. You don't mind the slander that you made a deal with the devil and dealt in black magic. You don't mind the implication that you live off the lifeblood of others, and kidnap babies for your many wives to consume. You actually quite like the bits involving you seducing several women, and having the strength of many men.
But what you simply cannot ABIDE, is that now you will be forever remembered as Dracula.
After you went through ALL THAT TROUBLE to get rid of the name, to get a new name for yourself.
On behalf of the world, I would like to apologise to you, Vlad Tepes. You shall always be The Impaler in our hearts, if not through them.
(PPPS: As a final apology to poky little Vlad, even on the website of Wallachian rulers, by his name, there is a little note saying that he is NOT Transylvanian, that Transylvania is North of the Carpathians. He is Wallachian, for god's sake! Damnit Bram Stoker you Irish bastard. You do research into middle European mythology and oral tradition, but you can't get the main character's damn country right?)
