Brides of Dracula
The Brides of Dracula are characters in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula. They are three seductive female vampire "sisters" who reside with Count Dracula in his castle in Transylvania, where they entrance men with their beauty and charm, and then proceed to feed upon them. Dracula provides them with victims to devour, mainly implied to be infants.
Like Dracula, they are the living dead, repulsed by sunlight, garlic and religious objects. In chapter three of the novel, two are described as having dark hair and eyes, and the other as being fair, with blonde hair and blue eyes.
Novel
Sometime near the beginning of the novel, after Jonathan Harker arrives in Dracula's castle, he warns Harker that if he leaves his room to never sleep in any room in the castle other than his own bedroom, but does not tell him why, clearly aware that the sisters will kill him. Late one night Jonathan explores the castle and ventures to see which rooms are open to him. He finds many of the doors in the castle are locked but one room in particular he forced open, noticing that the door wasn't locked but the hinges were fallen. He enters into the furthest right wing of the castle with views from the windows overlooking the countryside and rooms with comfortable furniture. He sits at a table writing in his journal and as he felt sleepy, he remembered Dracula's warning but felt satisfied disobeying it and lays in a great couch in the corner of the room. As he believes he is sleeping he sees three women standing in the moonlight which was shining throughout the room but not casting any shadows upon the floor. More than delighted that fresh prey has entered their domain, they proceed to seduce him. Harker feels a burning desire for their lips to kiss his. As one of them begins to kiss his neck, he feels her sharp teeth barely scrape against his flesh. At that precise moment Dracula is seen grabbing her neck and hurling her away from him. Driving them back and chastising them for trying to feed on Harker when he wasn't done with him, he promises to give Harker to them after his business deal is concluded and gives them a "wiggling bag" to appease them. Harker soon fears for his life after this encounter, at one point thinking he sees them dancing in the sky outside his bedroom when he nearly nods off, which strengthens his resolve to escape. Dracula makes good on his word and leaves Harker to the sisters when he heads for England. Though Harker manages to escape the castle shortly after, he is badly traumatized by the encounter and is diagnosed with brain fever. Though they lose their victim, the brides continue to haunt the castle and terrorize the nearby village.The sisters are seen again near the end of the novel as the protagonists pursue Count Dracula to Transylvania. The sisters suddenly appear at a camp consisting of Van Helsing and Mina Harker. Sensing that Mina is cursed with vampirism, they beckon her to join them, referring to her as their "sister" and promising not to harm her. However, Van Helsing had previously crushed a Sacred wafer and scattered it in a circle around the campsite. Due to this protective barrier both Mina and the sisters are unable to cross its border. Although the Vampires kept away from the camp they remained in the darkness until sunrise upon which they fled back to the castle. At the coming of daylight, Van Helsing finds that their horses are dead. After Van Helsing binds Mina in another ring of sacramental bread, he subsequently goes to Dracula's castle alone to destroy the vampires and sterilize Dracula's tomb, keeping him from ever being able to enter it again. After locating the vampires' graves, he finds them asleep 'open eyed'. He attempts to kill the first but almost fails as his eyes befall her beauty. Caught in an enchantment, he becomes entranced and lost in a state of uncertainty. Becoming overwhelmed with emotions, he feels compelled to protect her instead and even contemplates love for her. He suddenly hears a 'Soul Wail' from Mina which breaks the enchantment allowing him to finish his work. First using a blacksmith hammer, he strikes a stake into her, then proceeds to operate on her, detaching the head from the body then filling the mouth with garlic. He repeats this process with the other two as well, taking him an entire day to complete. Dracula's reaction to their deaths is not known.
Characters
In the novel the three vampire women are not individually named. Collectively, they are known as the "sisters", and are at one point described as the "weird sisters".Although the three vampire women in Dracula are generally referred to as the "Brides of Dracula" in popular culture and media, they are never referred to as such in the novel. Whether they are married to Dracula or not is never mentioned in the novel, nor are they described as having any other relation to him.The origin and identity of the Sisters, as well as the true nature of their relationship with Count Dracula, is never revealed. One of the three may have been identified in the short story "Dracula's Guest", as the vampire named Countess Dolengen of Gratz. Jonathan Harker, the protagonist of the story, encounters her at her tomb in Munich. Just as she is about to bite him, Dracula intervenes and destroys her. Then, in the form of a great wolf, he keeps Harker warm from the cold and yelps for nearby soldiers to come to their location. In the novel, Harker writes about one of the female vampires in the moment he is with them, stating, "I seemed somehow to know her face, and to know it in connection with some dreamy fear, but I could not recollect at the moment how or where."
The two dark-haired vampire women are described as facially resembling the Count, in that the three have aquiline noses. It has been suggested from this that it may have been Stoker's intent that these two are Dracula's daughters, extending the sexuality metaphor of vampirism to incest. When the brides first discover Harker, the blonde vampire is encouraged to feed on him first, with one of the others stating, "Yours is the right to begin," signifying that she has some status over the others. This could imply that the blonde vampire is Dracula's wife or consort, and the mother of the two dark-haired women, if they are indeed his daughters. When Van Helsing discovers the sisters' tombs, the blonde's is far more opulent than the others', as if for a loved one or one of high status. Harker describes the women as "ladies by their dress and manner", indicating that the vampires are of high lineage, further suggesting the idea that they are Dracula's family. The blonde vampire is shown to act in a mildly rebellious manner toward Dracula, when he scolds her for attempting to feed on Harker; Dracula's reaction upon discovering the sisters with Harker is both that of a jealous husband and an angry father. The vampire women claim that Dracula does not love them, nor has he ever loved them, but Dracula insists he does love them, and shows he cares for them by providing them with victims to feed upon. However, it is not explained why he left them behind in Transylvania rather than taking them to London with him.
Even though it is never specified, it is possible that the term "sister" wasn't meant in the literal sense and is, instead, more comparable to the relationship of the women and not as they are to Dracula. They are also depicted in the novel calling Mina Harker their sister after she is forced to drink Dracula's blood, afflicting her with vampirism. Mina and her best friend Lucy Westenra also call each other sisters in the novel despite not having any blood relation. The vampire women may be his wives throughout his lifetime, descendants of his whom he turned into vampires, or simply nonspecific women he killed and turned into vampires to create more of his kind.
As vampires, the sisters are powerful in their own right; their beauty and seductive charm belie lethal, predatory interiors. Their beauty and flirtatious manner appears to be their greatest power when it comes to bewitching their victims into a trance-like state. Harker and Van Helsing are both attracted to, and yet repulsed by them. They can seemingly appear out of nowhere and are inhumanly strong, as shown when they kill Van Helsing's horses. They also have the power of flight, as seen when they fly in the air with their dresses trailing behind them.
The vampires serve as foreshadowing for the threat of vampirism in the story which, as seen with Lucy later on, includes Dracula's power of corruption over his victims once he has drained their blood and made them into vampires.
Screen adaptations
Commonly all three brides appear in film adaptations of the novel, though some film adaptations depict them as a blonde, a brunette, and a redhead. They are typically depicted as enchantingly beautiful young women, coquettish and seductive in manner, often appearing like succubi in the night, dressed in flowing silk nightgowns, and behaving in a wild and sexually aggressive manner.- The three brides made silent appearances in the 1931 film Dracula and the Spanish language version of Drácula. In the English-language film, they are played by Geraldine Dvorak, Cornelia Thaw, and Dorothy Tree.
- In both Drakula İstanbul'da and Horror of Dracula only a single bride appears. In 1958, the film bride is played by Valerie Gaunt, who tricks and attacks Jonathan Harker and later is staked by him.
- The three brides make silent appearances in the 1968 television adaptation Dracula. Although they have no dialogue, the Brides are considerably feral in their behavior, snarling, screeching, and clawing at their victim. They are also depicted as being somewhat disheveled instead of beautiful, with ragged clothing and filthy, matted hair. Notably, one of the brides is a black woman which appears to be unique amongst Dracula adaptions.
- The three brides appear and have lines in the 1970 film Count Dracula.
- The three brides appear and have lines in the Czechoslovakian TV film Hrabe Drakula. The brides in this version wear elaborate gowns befitting their status as noblewomen and have personal titles: Madame, Marquise, and Countess, respectively. They are portrayed by Olga Jirouskova, Marie Joanovicova, and Vera Kresadlova.
- The three brides are present but silent in the 1973 television adaptation Bram Stoker's Dracula. They are played by Sarah Douglas, Virginia Wetherell, and Barbara Lindley. In this version, they kill Jonathan Harker and turn him into a vampire.
- All three appear and have lines in the 1977 BBC production entitled Count Dracula. They are played by Susie Hickford, Sue Vanner, and Belinda Meuldijk.
- In Francis Ford Coppola's 1992 film Bram Stoker's Dracula, the brides were played by Monica Bellucci, Michaela Bercu, and Florina Kendrick. Bellucci, Bercu, and Kendrick's dialogue was entirely in Romanian, and Kendrick reportedly helped her co-stars to speak her native tongue correctly. In this adaptation the vampire portrayed by Kendrick is clearly modelled on Medusa the Gorgon, and has living snakes coiled through her hair; another appears to be based upon an Arabian princess due to her attire. It is the brunette vampire that is the leader, rather than the blonde. All three brides have speaking lines - the one played by Bellucci is the bride who calls Jonathan into their chamber, the bride played by Bercu is the one, who tells Dracula he never loved himself and the bride played by Kendrick taunts Van Helsing.
- In the 1995 spoof ', only two brides appear. They are depicted as heavily sexualized when they first arrive in the room where Renfield is staying as they attempt to seduce him. Dracula saves him from the brides and sends them away before convincing the simple-minded Renfield he had simply had a strange dream. The brides are neither named nor have any spoken dialogue in this film.
- Three brides appear in the 2002 Italian TV mini-series Dracula. As in the 1992 version, they speak in their native tongue and play up their supernatural nature by being able to fly and phase through objects.
- While the Brides usually remain nameless, they are called Verona, Aleera and Marishka' in the 2004 film Van Helsing, respectively portrayed by Silvia Colloca, Elena Anaya, and Josie Maran. Verona is the oldest of the brides and Dracula's consort, whereas Aleera and Marishka are his concubines. Aleera, the youngest of the trio, is portrayed as the most vicious. Their roles are greatly expanded into those of secondary antagonists, motivated by a need to find a way for their offspring to live, as vampire children are born dead. They are also given the ability to transform into harpy-like creatures and fly.
- At the beginning of the 2012 film Dracula 3D, Dracula attacks a young woman named Tania after she secretly meets a lover, making her a vampire and his minion. He later passes her off as his niece to Harker, whom she tries to seduce. Tania is eventually dispatched by Van Helsing.
- In 2020 Dracula TV series'', Lujza Richter plays one of the vampire brides, named Elena. In this version Dracula keeps all his brides locked up in big boxes, conducting experiments on them and not permitting them to move freely around the castle. He also seems to refer to anyone that he turns into a full vampire as a "bride".
TV series
On stage
- They appear in Dracula, the Musical by Frank Wildhorn and have their own song "Forever Young".
- In the Czech musical Dracula, the brides are called "nymphs". They are the victims of Dracula, slightly resentful but still devoted to him. They are jealous and mischievous, and enjoy troubles and gossiping. They serve as a comical relief, but at the same time they represent Dracula's dark, vampiric side.
- They also appear in the French Canadian musical Dracula - Entre l'amour et la mort.
- They appear in the Northern Ballet's Dracula by David Nixon and are portrayed by Rachael Gillespie, Minju Kang, and Sarah Chun in 2019 production of the ballet, which was recorded and showed in UK cinemas on Halloween and then broadcast on BBC4 in 2020.
Characters based on the original Brides
- In the 1960 Hammer film The Brides of Dracula, the Baron Meinster is a vampire who attacks an unnamed local village girl and the heroine Marianne's friend Gina, turning them into vampires and his "brides". Although he actually proposes to Marianne, his plan to turn her is thwarted by Professor Van Helsing, who kills the Baron while the two vampire brides seemingly escape. Despite the film's title, Dracula never appears in it.
- In Count Yorga, Vampire, which is a modern-day re-telling of Dracula, Yorga likewise has his own set of Brides, first starting out with two: a red-haired Bride and a blonde, then later adding the protagonist's brunette friend, Erica to the ranks. The sequel, The Return of Count Yorga increases the number of Brides to a least a dozen, with the protagonist's sister, Ellen and a friend, Mitzi, joining them.
- The Brides of Dracula concept was also present in the 1987 horror comedy The Monster Squad, in which Dracula abducts three young women and turns them into his vampire brides.
- In Dracula 2000, the brides are turned at different times throughout the movie. Jennifer Esposito, Jeri Ryan and Colleen Ann Fitzpatrick portray the brides, Solina, Valerie and Lucy respectively.
- The brides also appear in the television series Buffy The Vampire Slayer in the season 5 premier "Buffy vs. Dracula". They are referred to as "The Three Sisters" and are credited as "Vampire Girls". They are portrayed by Marita Schaub, Lesli Jean Matta, and Jennifer Slimko.
- In Hotel Transylvania, Dracula's wife Martha is an homage to the Brides of Dracula.
In literature
- In The Dracula Tape they are seen not long after Harker comes into the castle with Dracula warning them to leave him be. In this story, the brides are disrespectful to Dracula and try to undermine him where they can. Dracula later reveals that he has tired of them and does not even remember why he turned them in the first place. It is implied that unlike Dracula, the women let the power go to their heads once they became vampires and he had more or less planned to abandon them in the castle. But while Dracula was trying to make friends with Harker, their visit as depicted in the novel only make the situation and misunderstanding worse. In this adaptation they are named Melisse, the tall, dark-haired bride. Wanda, the second dark-haired one and described as full-breasted as well as mentioned to be Melisse's younger sister. And Anna, the blonde bride who is noted to be the senior of the three and the one who is most outspoken and rebellious against Dracula. Later in the story when Dracula returns back to the castle, he finds that the three have terrorized the village Dracula was friends with and promptly confronts them. Anna attempts an assassination by controlling a partially turned farmhand to attack him, but Dracula easily thwarts the attempt, reprimands them and sends them away. When they're killed by Van Helsing, Dracula does mention that, while he was glad that their deaths prevented jealously with Mina, that he didn't wish that fate on them as well.
- In the alternate history novel Anno Dracula, Dracula becomes dominant in Britain and eventually weds Queen Victoria, becoming Prince consort and Lord Protector. Despite being married to Victoria he keeps his retinue of Brides. It is mentioned that one of the Brides is Barbara of Celje.
In the beginning of the second sequel, Dracula Cha Cha Cha, a list of Dracula's official Brides is given. They are: Elisabeta of Transylvania, 1448–1462; Ilona Szilagy, 1466–1476; Marguerite Chopin of Courtempierre, 1709–1711; Queen Victoria, 1886–1888; and Sari Gábor, 1948–1949. The plot surrounds Dracula's engagement to Princess Asa Vajda.
- Chelsea Quinn Yarbro has written a trilogy called Sisters of the Night, with each book featuring the story of one of the Brides: The Angry Angel featuring Kelene, The Soul of an Angel featuring Fenice Zucchar and The Angel of Death featuring Zhameni.
- In The Diaries of the Family Dracul by Jeanne Kalogridis, the Brides are imagined as Zsuzsanna Tsepesh, a descendant of Vlad Dracul ; Dunya, a Transylvanian servant of Vlad's mortal descendants, and Elisabeth Bathory, the notorious Hungarian noblewoman who murdered hundreds of her servants and bathed in their blood.
- In Fangland, author John Marks re-imagines the Brides of Dracula as Greek brothers.
- In Dracula's Diary by Michael Geare and Michael Corby, the Brides are named Trandafira, Vlastimila and Pavola.
- In The Satanic Brides of Dracula by Lucas Thorn, the Brides are named Vasilja, Senka and Hailwic.
- In the Daughters of Shadow and Blood trilogy by J. Matthew Saunders, the Brides are named Yasamin Ashrafi, Elena and Elizabeth James.
- In the Vampire Bride Dark Rebirth series by Rhiannon Frater, the original three Brides are named Cneajna, Elina and Ariana. The protagonist Glynis Wright becomes Dracula's fourth bride.
- In the Being Mrs. Dracula series by Faith Marlow, the three Brides are named Valeria, Ilona and Fleur.
- In The Brides by Raven c.s. McCracken, the Brides are named Katrina, Anna and Silvia.
- In The Fourth Bride by Carole Gill, the three Brides are named Verona, Aleera and Marishka. The main character Dia becomes Dracula's fourth bride.
- In Dracula's Brides: A Paranormal Romance Anthology, the three Brides are named Crina, Emilia and Isabella.
- In The Deathless Girls by Kiran Millwood Hargrave, the two dark-haired brides are sisters Kisaiya and Lillai. The blonde bride is an unnamed countess.
- In the Marvel Universe, the three Brides in the original novel are identified as Nikolett Bodo, Bettina Kaposvar and Emese Kisfaludi. They have been Brides since at least 1691 as revealed in the story Suffer Not a Witch in the Dracula Lives series. In the two-part story called The Pit of Death, set in 1809, the protagonist Lupescu is thrown into the titular pit while invading Dracula's castle. He is attacked by seven of Dracula's Brides, among them his blind wife, Velanna Lupescu. He manages to stake all seven and arranges their bodies into the shape of a cross so that Dracula would be unable to approach them to remove the stakes.
- A number of Brides are seen in the Marvel Comics series The Tomb of Dracula, ranging from victims long since turned from ancient times to recent ones of modern day. In the story The Return to...Transylvania!, Dracula seeks out his Bride Marissa Constanda to turn him into a vampire, after he had previously become human. She refuses, telling Dracula that she now serves a new master. In the story Into the Tomb, Blade encountered two Brides named Beatrix Nanai and Catherine Kiskvnalas while looking for his mother Tara Cross, who had also been turned into a Bride. All three were killed by Blade.
- The Brides are seen in the DC Comics mini series, Victorian Undead II: Sherlock Holmes vs Dracula led by Lucy Westerna in trying to ambush the heroes when they come to investigate a possible hiding spot of Dracula's. Curiously despite the Brides being centuries older, Dracula gave Lucy command over them, likely because of her resistance to religious symbols due to being turned in a modern era.
- In the mini-series Grimm Fairy Tales present Helsing, three of the Brides track down the protagonist and try to kill her. She kills two of them before the third retreats. Near the end of the story, when the heroes track Dracula to his mansion during a party, we see he has amassed a large group of women as his Brides though orders them to let the protagonist pass so she may confront him. They show up briefly in first issue of the sequel mini-series "Helsing vs Dracula".
- In Dracula: Ruler of the Night, which re-tells the story, the Brides are eventually summoned to London once Dracula has landed in the city and has the Brides infiltrate the Westerna household as maids after Helsing is summoned to cure Lucy to spy on their actions. It is from them that Dracula is able to enter the household and continue feeding on Lucy. When Lucy's mother is sent a telegraph about her deteriorating condition. Dracula sends the Brides to intercept her carriage and kidnap her. The mother, along with Lucy, later are turned into two new vampire Brides. Dracula grains a third bride in Milly Van Helsing, Helsing's wife, who he learns about from Lucy, absconds her from the mental institution holding her and restoring her sanity via the vampirism, albeit under his commands. And later Mrs. Petri, a socialite friend of the Westerna whom Lucy's mother leads Dracula to usurp her manor after Carfax Abby is destroyed Thus making a total of seven Brides in this story—three from the olden times and four from the current era.
- In the original English language manga, Dracula Everlasting, Dracula decides to start creating Brides again in the third volume to give him an edge against the protagonists. He starts with three: Vanessa, a classmate of the boy he was possessing and initially has a crush on who rejected him, the mother of the protagonist who studied wiccan magic when she human who he kills to stop her from stopping him, and a hooker brought to him by the Reinfields to feed on. Dracula had especially hope to use the mother's powers against her daughter. After he loses her, he creates six more Brides in preparation for the final battle, one of whom was a reporter seen in an earlier volume covering the mysterious murders whom Dracula turns when she does a report outside his manor.
- In the Alucard novel by Matthew Scott, Dracula has three vampire brides: Illyana, Camilla and Silvia. Each is described respectfully as blonde, raven-haired and a redhead and are highly sexual vampires and enjoy inflicting chaos and bloodshed whenever the opportunity presents itself. There is also a fourth bride mentioned in the novel, Jana, but who is ultimately killed by her and Dracula's son Alucard shortly after her resurrection as a vampire.
- In the novel The Third Bride by Todd Davis, the Dracula story is told from the perspective of the youngest bride, Serephine de Bachaumont, a minor French noble who flees France during the Revolution. She encounters the Count in Romania 80 years before the events in Dracula. The two other brides are Parysatis and Maryushka. Serephine enlists the aid of Jonathan Harker while attempting to overthrow Dracula. The novel tells the story of the Brides' interaction with each other and Dracula finally culminating in the vampire hunters race to Varna and Van Helsing's assault on Castle Dracula.
- In the anthology Brides of Dracula: The Legend of Dracula Book Two, Dracula's many brides include Lady Katya, Elizabeth Bathory, Mircalla Karnstein, Lady Lenore and Ulrica Dolingen and others.