Dracula, on his real name Vlad Tepes was the Prince of Wallachia, the south region of Romania; also known as Vlad The Impaler. He ruled between 1431 and 1476 and was the son of Vlad Dracul. He was born in Transilvania, he spent his childhood at the Ottoman Empire as a guarantee that his grandfather, the celebrated Voivode Mircea The Elder, won’t start a war against it.

He was married to a nobil girl from Transilvania, Cnaejna Bathory, then with Moldavian Jusztina Szilagyi and then with the Wallach Ilona Nelipic, cousin of Matei Corvin, the Hungarian governor. He had 5 children, 4 boys and a girl.

Under his lead, Wallachia maintained a temporary independence from the Ottoman Empire.

Vlad Tepes remained mostly known for his intelligence and for his cruelty.

His favourite punishment was impalement. There are many stories regarding his honesty and the cruel punishment for those that were cheating in every way, lying or doing something that was not moral. He usually ordered that the condemned to be boiled alive, skinned, beheaded, blinded, strangled, hanged, burned, roast, chopped, beaten in nails, buried alive, etcetera. Sometimes he ordered that the victim’s noses ears, genital organs and tongue to be cut.

Vlad Tepes Castle called “Bran”

He was known for his ambition to impose honesty and order. Almost every small delict from lie to robbery to murder could be punished with impalement. The stories tell that, in order to test people honestity he placed in the middle of a market a cup made of gold. The legend says that that cup was never stolen during his reign. He also wanted the people to work hard for the country welfare so he considered the sick persons, the beggers and the homeless thiefs. So one day he gained all of them at a party. After they eated and drinked he asked them if they want to be rich and the answer was “yes”. After that he closed all the doors and burned the place. Nobody survived.

Another story says that he stole 50 gold coins from one of his lords and after that he asked him how much was in his stolen bag but the lord said 100, the punishment was impalement. Another time, the Ottoman Empire emissaries came to his palace with a message but, as their religion ask they didn’t take off their turbans. Tepes was mad and ordered his soldiers to put nails in the emissaries heads so they will never take them off.

He was dreaded by the Ottoman empire because of his cruelty so they tried to take him off the throne. In 1459 Vlad Tepes refused to pay tribute so the Ottoman Empire, ruled by Mohammed the IInd and sent an army in 1462 to kill him. But during the night between 16 and 17 august, Tepes and some of his man, dressed like Ottoman soldiers slipped in their tents and killed some leaders. The psychological effect was huge, the soldiers starting to kill each other suspecting there were many intruders. The slaughter continued until morning. The battle is related in all the stories of the time.

He was killed in December 1476 then he was decapitated and his body impaled and sent to Mahommed. His grave is at Comana monastery, built by him.

A fragment from the Romanian movie “Vlad Tepes” –  1979

 Bram Stoker’s book “Dracula” is a fiction that takes place in Transilvania and England of the XIX century .He read some books from the XVth century that present Vlad Tepes as a monster, a vampire that drinks human blood and a cruel king. The book “History of Moldavia and Wallachia” written by Johann Christian Engel describes Tepes as a cruel and bloody tyrant so he probably gave Stocker the idea to take Vlad Tepes as a character for his book, “Dracula”.

Some think Stoker was a friend with a Hungarian teacher from Budapest, Arminius Vambery, that gave him information about Tepes. Stoker used all the stories about Vlad combined with the fact that the merchants from Transilvania called Tepes “The Devil” to denigrate him. Tepes was also a member of The Dragon Order and his nickname “Dracula” lead to Stokers the association with vampirism. The official way of dressing of the Dragon Order was also inspirational: a black pelerine and a red coat that they were wearing only on Friday to commemorate the Passions of the Christ. Stoker also had the idea to associate a south American animal: the blood drinking bat called Vampire (Desmodus rotundus).

The Romanian literature sees Vlad Tepes as a hero and he was recently included in “100 Greatest Romanians”. He appears in many stories and many poems describing him as a fearless warrior and a honest man that brought glory to his country and kept the enemy far from its borders. According to German stories the number of victims was at least 80.000.

Here is a list of movies about Dracula and Vlad The Impaler:

Dracula (1931)Tod Browning

Dracula (1992)Francis Ford Coppola

The Brides of Dracula (1960)Terence Fisher

Dracula: Pages from a Virgin’s Diary (2002)Guy Maddin

Dracula: Prince of Darkness (1966)Terence Fisher

.Underworld (2003)Len Wiseman

Horror of Dracula (1958)Terence Fisher

Underworld Evolution (2006)Len Wiseman

Dracula II: Ascension (2003)Patrick Lussier

Dracula Has Risen from the Grave (1968)Freddie Francis

.Mark of the Vampire (1935)Tod Browning

Dracula’s Daughter (1936)Lambert Hillyer

.Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995)Mel Brooks

Dracula 2000 (2000)Patrick Lussier

Dracula A.D. 1972 (1972)Alan Gibson

Bud Abbott Lou Costello Meet Frankenstein (1948)Charles Barton

Blood of Dracula (1957)Herbert L. Strock

Blade: Trinity (2004)David S. Goyer

Blood for Dracula (1974)Paul Morrissey

Van Helsing (2004)Stephen Sommers

Scars of Dracula (1970)Roy Ward Baker

The Satanic Rites of Dracula (1974)Alan Gibson

House of Dracula (1945)Erle C. Kenton

Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970)Peter Sasdy

Son of Dracula (1943)Robert Siodmak

The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (1974)Roy Ward Baker

House of Frankenstein (1944)Erle C. Kenton

The death penalty for criminals and political opponents was used in almost all societies. Other than crime the death penalty was also used to get rid of political dissent. These days, countries that use the death penalty use it only for major crimes such as murder, spying, treason, or drug trafficking. It is also used for military justice. In some countries sexual crimes, such as rape, adultery, etc also lead to the death penalty. Religious crimes such as apostasy, can also lead to execution.

History

The use of the death penalty dates back to the beginning of recorded history. The death penalty was a part of the justice system. However, in those days crimes were rare in the small communities. Crimes such as murder were almost always crimes of passion. People would hesitate to murder another person. For this reason, execution and even banishment were rare. Compensation and shunning were enough as a punishment. However, outsiders were treated more harshly. Even there small crimes were severely punished. The punishments varied from beatings and enslavements to executions.

For most of history, capital punishments were often cruel and inhumane. These punishments included boiling to death, whipping, slicing, impalement, crushing, disembowelment, the cross, stoning, burning, sawing, decapitation, neck lacing etc. Trends began in the 18th century to move to more humane death penalties. France developed the guillotine, which would simply cut the head off. Hanging was developed, where the criminal would have as thick rope tied around the neck and would be dropped a longer distance.

In 1976, capital punishment was removed from the Criminal Code of Canada as a punishment. After many years of debate and controversy, the parliament decided that capital punishment was not an appropriate punishment. The reasons for this were the possibility of wrongful convictions, accusations that the state was taking the lives of people, and there was also uncertainty as to whether the death penalty was effective. The Parliament replaced the death penalty for murder with a life sentence in jail, with no possibility of parole after 25 years, in case of first-degree murder, and between 10-25 years for second-degree murder.

The only method of execution in Canada, before 1976, was hanging. In 1859, offences punishable by death in Canada included: murder, rape, treason, administering poison or wounding with intent to commit murder, abusing a girl under ten, buggery with man or beast, burglary with assault, arson, casting away a ship, and giving a false signal endangering a ship. This was changed to three by 1859: murder, rape, and treason.

Pros and Cons

There are many pros and cons for capital punishment. The pros of capital punishment seem to be reasonable. The cost of keeping a person in prison for life is more expensive than executing the same person. Another pro is that since the criminals that receive capital punishment are violent then it would be better for the society if those criminals were executed, that way it would not impose any danger to the police as well. Another pro is that many people believe that the punishment of a crime should equal the crime, also known as “eye for an eye”. Therefore the person that kills should also be killed.

The cons of capital punishment are just as reasonable as the pros. A prison’s job is to rehabilitate a criminal so they can be released back to society. This means that capital punishment has no place in a prison. Another good point is that if somebody murders somebody else and the murderer’s punishment is the death penalty, than what is the difference between the murderer and the law. The murderer killed somebody and so did the law. In other words 2 wrongs do not make a right. Some cultures prefer suffering to immediate death.

Solutions

One solution is the “eye for an eye” theory, where the criminal’s punishment is the same as the crime that they committed. This solution seems reasonable because the criminal is experiencing the same pain that he/she has given others. Another solution is that a criminal who commits a capital offence shall be given life imprisonment as an alternative to capital punishment. The last solution is that they are sentenced to death.

Preferred Solutions

The solution that I believe is right is to have life imprisonment as an alternative to capital punishment. I believe that no crime deserves death as a punishment, even if the crime is murder. In fact, I believe that life imprisonment is a much more severe punishment than capital punishment. This is because if somebody is given life imprisonment than they are suffering every day of their life in prison, they will be begging for death.