ShmoopTube
Where Monty Python meets your 10th grade teacher.
Search Thousands of Shmoop Videos
Dracula Part 2: Vlad the Impaler 5351 Views
Share It!
Description:
Vlad the Impaler was an appropriately named guy, until he went on tropical vacations. Then, he went by Vlad the Imtanner. For some facts that are actually true, check out this video.
Transcript
- 00:01
We speak student!
- 00:07
Dracula
- 00:09
Vlad the Impaler
- 00:11
a la Shmoop
- 00:13
So as I was researching
Full Transcript
- 00:16
the background for Dracula,
- 00:19
I came across a lot of references
- 00:22
to Vlad the Impaler.
- 00:24
And, from my reading, Vlad the Impaler
- 00:27
would find victims for various reasons,
- 00:30
and it was unclear as to why he would impale people.
- 00:33
[ evil laugh ]
- 00:34
But what he would do is stick
- 00:36
a post in the ground with a pointy tip,
- 00:39
and a few guys would swing the poor person being impaled.
- 00:42
It would go through their chest
- 00:44
and not kill them.
- 00:45
[ pained groan ]
- 00:46
That was, I guess, a sport
- 00:48
- or something that he did just to... - A spectacle.
- 00:51
Lawn decorations in 15-whatever.
- 00:54
[ moan ]
- 00:57
Was Vlad the Impaler the inspiration for Dracula?
- 01:00
Oh, yeah. So part --
- 01:02
I mean, the novel goes into --
- 01:04
When the novel goes into a little bit of
- 01:05
the extensive biography
- 01:08
of Count Dracula, since he's hundreds of years old...
- 01:11
[ aww ]
- 01:12
Part of it is that he's
- 01:14
not just a nobleman,
- 01:15
but he comes from this very aristocratic clan.
- 01:19
That was part of the repulsion of the invasions of the Ottoman Empire,
- 01:23
so in modern day Turkey.
- 01:24
So the person --
- 01:26
The vampire, I should say, Count Dracula,
- 01:29
always had this sort of basis.
- 01:30
And his clan was noted for
- 01:33
being a very militaristic, warring clan.
- 01:36
Vlad the Impaler, I think,
- 01:39
is one of the sort of
- 01:41
the stories in the firmament
- 01:44
from where Dracula takes off.
- 01:47
Got it. Makes sense.
- 01:49
[ whoop ]
- 01:51
Was Vlad the Impaler the inspiration for Dracula?
- 01:58
[ evil laugh ]
Up Next
They say that honesty is the best policy, but Jack lies about his identity and still gets the girl. Does that mean we should all lie to get what we...
Related Videos
Ever wish you could remember everything that you ever studied? How about everything that everyone has ever studied? Yeah, pretty sure our brains ju...
Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man is an American classic. Hope you're not expecting any exciting shower scenes though. It's not that kind of book.
Do not go gentle into that good night. In fact, if it's past your curfew, don't go at all into that good night. You just stay in your good bed and...
