Dracula Netflix Series 2020 Ep. 1

Dracula on Netflix, Episode 1

Netflix vs. Stoker 
By: Katie Bryson

The series Dracula on Netflix follows the story line that was created by Bram Stoker, but it does have many add ons that puts a different perspective on the story. First, the Netflix series began the plot of the story with Jonathan Harker in a nun sanctuary where he looks very sick and/or unstable. It is portrayed to make it seem like Jonathan has gone out of his mind. The story continues with the nuns asking Jonathan about the journal entries he had written while he was "at Count's Castle." The nuns proceed to ask Jonathan if he had any encounters with Dracula, sexual or not. The Netflix series proceeds to Jonathan having flashbacks of when he was staying at Castle Dracula.

Older Dracula (beginning of episode)

In the Netflix series, it portrays the story as if what Jonathan went through was in the past. Compared to the book, it is primarily the writings from Jonathan Harker's journal, and occasionally others. Although the show portrays the encounters with Dracula as if they were in the past, Jonathan is reading through his journals and the show is mostly the flashbacks from those times. It was also uncommon that the looks of Dracula had changed in the Netflix series. When Jonathan first met Dracula when he entered the castle, Dracula had long white hair and was older looking because of wrinkly skin. About 5-10 minutes into the first episode, on the second day of Jonathan being at Castle Dracula, Dracula all of a sudden looks younger with short brown hair and hardly any wrinkles at all. At the timing that Dracula began to look younger, his English accent began to sound shockingly natural. The difference between the way that the story is portrayed in both the Netflix series and the book that was written by Bram Stoker seems to be very large, meaning that the stories seem almost very different. Although there are many similarities in both the series on Netflix and the book, it seems to be that there are more differences than similarities, at least in the first few scenes of Episode 1.

Dracula being sexualized

In the book written by Bram Stoker, there was slight question that Dracula and Jonathan shared a sexual connection, but it was never said directly that it was true. We had many discussions in class about the gender and sexuality side of Bram Stoker's version of Dracula, but never mentioned that there was a sexual encounter between Jonathan and Dracula because the story did not imply it. In the first 20 minutes of the first episode on Netflix, once the nuns had asked Jonathan if he had dreamt about Dracula but it switches over to a flashback. The flashback showed that Jonathan was dreaming about his fiancé, Mina. Near the end of Jonathan's dream, Mina eventually turns into Dracula and Jonathan wakes up in a scare. This specific scene was never written about in the book. It is portrayed more in the story that Dracula is more sexual than he is in the book.