# Dracula and Wolves? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 20, 2001, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dracula-and-wolves/51052 "2001-01-20T20:34:08Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AngelD112](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@AngelD112](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AngelD112)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2001, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dracula-and-wolves/51052/1 "2001-01-20T20:34:08Z")
I don’t know if this has already been asked. I searched for it and I wasn’t able to come up with anything. In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the movie version of it, there are many scenes of wolves, and references to wolves. I was wondering if anyone knew of the connection between Dracula, and Wolves. Also, there is a scene in which Winona’s Ryder’s character, and the other girl kiss in the rain. I was wondering if you knew the symbolism of that, or if there is any. Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![andygirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@andygirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andygirl)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2001, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dracula-and-wolves/51052/2 "2001-01-20T20:38:10Z")
Well, according to popular Dracula mythos, Dracula could change himself into a wolf as well as a bat. As for the kissing in the rain? That’s probably one of those pandering to the masses sorts of things. 😉 I haven’t seen the movie, so I don’t know if they use the three sisters. Anyone? ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2001, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dracula-and-wolves/51052/3 "2001-01-20T20:40:56Z")
The kissing? I always thought it was to attract male viewers. 🙂 really, the funniest most screwed up movie in the world. In the book there’s a lot of wolf connection. And yes, they use the three vampire-whores. You should have seen the look on Keanu’s face, andygirl. Priceless, I say. ---
**Author:** ![AngelD112](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@AngelD112](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AngelD112)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2001, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dracula-and-wolves/51052/4 "2001-01-20T21:45:01Z")
Thank you. Some people told me that there was some symbolism in the kissing. I didn’t know. I kinda thought it was just the director using his power to act out some classic male fantasy. Most people don’t like the movie, but I think its good. I like it. Thanks, again. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2001, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dracula-and-wolves/51052/5 "2001-01-21T01:11:30Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Zoggie \* > \*\*You should have seen the look on Keanu’s face, andygirl. Priceless, I say. \*\* You mean Keanu Reeves managed to come up with a facial expression for that scene rather than his usual “Whoa” look? ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2001, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dracula-and-wolves/51052/6 "2001-01-21T01:30:09Z")
There has always been at least as much association between vampires and wolves as with bats. Vampire mythology grew out of the culture of medieval Eurpe, where the wolf was the most feared animal and a symbol of evil. Vampires and werewolves are only slight variations on the same theme. The idea is that an evil, demonic person posesses the qualities of a dangerous animal. Evil is a “regession” to a more animal-like state, and this is understood instinctively and thus manifests itself in the culture. It’s intersting to note the sexual aspects of the vampire legend. The bite on the neck from Dracula is meant to substitute for the sex act, which was inappropriate for pop-culture portralyals. It’s possible that there is a connection between sexually transmitted diseases and being “infected” with vampirism. Certainly illicit sex is seen as both corruptive of women and as putting them in the power of evil men. Menstration associates sex with blood, and sex is likened to being eaten or having your blood drunk, i.e. the “sexual predator”. ---
**Author:** ![sqweels](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f19dbf/32.png) [@sqweels](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sqweels)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2001, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dracula-and-wolves/51052/7 "2001-01-21T01:32:24Z")
I forgot to mention that a sexually alluring woman is often called a “vamp”. ---
**Author:** ![Badge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4bbf92/32.png) [@Badge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Badge)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2001, 6:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dracula-and-wolves/51052/8 "2001-01-21T06:58:52Z")
There are many references in the original novel to Dracula’s connection to wolves. The ship that brought him to England, the Demeter, ran aground and the only thing alive onboard was a large dog or wolf. Later Dr. Van Helsing talks about Dracula’s strength, and says, “Besides, he can summon his wolf and I know not what” ---
**Author:** ![system](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/original/2X/e/e489c3b7d8fce19c4b355dd4fc3f88cc39c34b87.png) [@system](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/system)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2001, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dracula-and-wolves/51052/9 "2001-01-21T16:11:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Lamia \* > \*\*You mean Keanu Reeves managed to come up with a facial expression for that scene rather than his usual “Whoa” look? > \*\* Well…no. ---
**Author:** ![Mockingbird](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c68b51/32.png) [@Mockingbird](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mockingbird)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2001, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dracula-and-wolves/51052/10 "2001-01-21T19:39:32Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by sqweels \* > \*\*I forgot to mention that a sexually alluring woman is often called a “vamp”. \*\* Which is because of the 1920’s actress Theda Bara. She is considered the female actress who made the concept of the ‘vamp’ popular. [http://us.imdb.com/Name?Bara,+Theda](http://us.imdb.com/Name?Bara,+Theda) ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2001, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dracula-and-wolves/51052/11 "2001-01-21T19:53:44Z")
In the novel, Dracula was able to turn himself into a bat, a wolf, a rat, and a thin mist. (This last one came in handy when he was visiting Renfield at the loony bin.) He also exhibited control over wolves (Harker asks to leave the castle, and Drac flings open the door to show a pack of snarling wolves just outside) and rats (on board the Demeter). In Chapter 18 (Mina Harker’s Journal), Van Helsing says (among many, many other things) “This vampire which is amongst us is of himself so strong in person as twenty men; he is of cunning more than mortal…he have still the aids of necromancy, the divination by the dead, and all the dead that he can come nigh to are for him at command…he can, within limitations, appear at will when, and where, and in any of the forms that are to him; he can, within his range, direct the elements: the storm, the fog, the thunder; he can command all the meaner things: the rat, and the owl, and the bat – the moth, the fox, and the wolf; he can grow and become small; and he can at times vanish and come unknown.” Phew! The X-Men ain’t even IN it. ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2001, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dracula-and-wolves/51052/12 "2001-01-21T22:17:25Z")
**Hastur’s** link didn’t quite get done correctly. It should be [Theda](http://us.imdb.com/Name?Bara,+Theda) While Theda Bara in her 1915 movie _A Fool There Was_ was the biggest thing popularizing the notion of _vamp_ to mean what we think of it today, the word was used in that same manner earlier, as witnessed by its inclusion in the 1911 _Roget’s Thesaurus_. To illustrate Bara’s influence–There was a song titled _Since Sarah Saw Theda Bara_ written in 1916. She must have been a hottie! ---
**Author:** ![AngelD112](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e7dd6/32.png) [@AngelD112](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AngelD112)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2001, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dracula-and-wolves/51052/13 "2001-01-22T01:24:47Z")
Thanks, all of you, for the help. I understand a bit better now. Thanks again