Vlad, the Impaler

Portrait of Vlad Tepes III

Here is the transcript of the speech I gave on Information about a Person for my class project. My topic was Vlad, the Impaler. Hope you like it.

First of all, let me know if there is any single soul in this class who does not have the slightest idea about Dracula? Well, let me refresh, Dracula is the most iconic and pioneering character in the Horror genre who gave rise and popularity to a whole new Vampire sub-genre.

Now, do we know who the author of this famous character is? Right, Bram Stoker. However, today we are neither going to talk about the fictional Dracula nor its amazing author, Mr. Stoker. Today we are going to talk about what, more specifically who, was the inspiration behind Bram Stoker’s most famous anti-hero of all time: Vlad the Impaler.

Hello again, everyone, it’s Afifa Farzana and for the informative speech today, I have chosen the notorious historical figure, Vlad Tepes or Vlad the Impaler, who, according to Historian Vambery, was the main inspiration behind Bram Stoker’s Dracula. We will try to analyze what heinous deed this man did which prompted Stoker to write about such a horrific character. Yes, believe it or not, this guy, who looks like an Anorexic Charlie Chaplin, is the main reason the infamous Dracula took birth. And the reason we don’t see him in history books is because he’s way too gory to be in them.

Let me start by giving a brief history of Vlad. Trust me, it will be short and relevant. Vlad Tepes, or Vlad the third was born to Vlad the second aka Vlad Dracul. That’s a lot of Vlad in one sentence. Anyways, we can see that the whole name Dracula was not really very original of Stoker. In fact, the meaning of Dracula in ancient Romanian actually meant Dragon, not vampire or something evil. Vlad Tepes become the prince of Wallachia and by that time his father has already settled in Transylvania. So, you see, Stoker did not choose Transylvania randomly. It was a meaningful destination.

During Dracul’s reign, the Ottomans invaded Transylvania under the command of Sultan Murad the Second. Now Vlad’s father did not support the invasion of Transylvania. But the sultan commanded them to show their loyalty. However, when Vlad Dracul reached the sultan’s abode, he along with his two sons – Tepes and Radu – were captured and imprisoned. Dracul was released shortly afterwards but his sons were kept as hostages so that he is forced to pledge his loyalty to the sultan. 

As you can guess, Vlad the third was not so pleased. In fact this is just the beginning of hatred he had towards the Ottomans. Sounds like a lot of info-dumping, right? I know I don’t like these confusing historical facts as well but so far what I have said is crucial to understand about the horrifying legacies that surround our Vlad the Impaler.

Pictorial depiction of impaling

As the name suggests, Vlad had a weird obsession of impaling his enemies. Impaling, you ask? Let me demonstrate. This is an object and this is a stake. BAM! Impaled. Only in Vlad’s case, the objects were more living and more human. Yes, Vlad impaled his very alive captured enemies to fend them off from his territory. But here’s the plot twist, Vlad has always been a low-key psychopath. During his imprisonment in Murad’s castle, he used kill the rats off, cut them into pieces and stick them to wood because he was “quote: unable to forget his wickedness.” 

Now if you have read Dracula by Stoker, you can relate this a particular character who was a mental patient. He used to drink rat’s blood, teared of wings of flies – basically he imposed cruelty to living things surrounding him. Reading it in a book was fun, but to actually learn that someone did it in real life is quite disturbing. But then again, sometimes truth is more bizarre than fiction.

Another tactic he used to protect his land was that he used to impale people on long wooden stakes and spread them out across the field – the entrance to Transylvania, so that the gruesome sight terrifies his enemy and they flee. There are many other countless deed he did which I don’t want to go into details. All these information is collected from Wikipedia and if anyone’s interested, feel free to check it out. 

But it all comes down to one question. Why am I telling you all these? Well, I will be marked on it. But that’s not the main cause. I want to remind you guys that inspirations are everywhere. Stoker chose a historical villain and turned it into something so unique that it shook the entire world. You can do it, too. It does not have to be something horrible like Vlad. There are a thousand pieces around you waiting for you to conform them and make it into your own. Try it and let’s give the world something to look forward to, thank you.

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