Murnau's depiction of Dracula as a monster is not very far removed from the
description given by Jonathan Harker in Stoker's novel.
 
"Within, stood a tall old man, clean shaven save for a long white
moustache, and clad in blavk from head to foot, without a single speck of
colour about him anywhere."  Dracula p.16
 
"His face was a strong - a very strong - aquiline, with high bridge of the
thin nose and peculiarily 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 yeeth; 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 I had boticed the backs of his hands as they lay on his knees
in the firelight, and they had seemed rather white and fine; but seeing
them now close to me, I could not but notice that they were rather coarse -
broad, with squat fingers.  Strange to say, there were hairs in the centre
of the palm.  The nails were long and fine, and cut to a sharp point."
Dracula pp.18-19
 
Not the description of my dream man, that's for sure.
Dracula communicated telepathically with his victims, in the novel he is
not a suave seducer, but an evil undead creature.
 
This is a prime example of how people are so influenced by the images they
see.  Most people are familiar with the Hollywood version of Dracula, but
not acquainted with Stoker's original work.
 
Suzanne Scherrer
[log in to unmask]
 
Dracula by Bram Stoker published 1897  quotes taken from the 1981 Bantam
Classics Edition.
 
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