Abraham Van Helsing
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Professor Abraham Van Helsing is a fictional character in Bram Stoker's 1897 novel, Dracula.
Van Helsing is a Dutch doctor with a wide range of interests and accomplishments, partly attested by the string of letters that follows his name: "M.D., D.Ph., D.Litt., etc., etc." The character is best known as a vampire hunter.
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[edit] Name
- Further information: Dutch name
The name "Van Helsing" is a clear play on "Hell". The typically Dutch prefix "van", (which in Dutch usually is not capitalized) gives the name a Dutch appearance. Nevertheless, the surname "Van Helsing" does not exist within the Dutch language area. However, similar names such as "Hell", "Van der Hell", "Van Hell", "Helsen" and "Helsinger" do.
The name "Abraham" is a reference to the character's creator, Bram Stoker ("Bram" being short for "Abraham").[citation needed]
[edit] Dracula
In the novel, Van Helsing is called in by his former student, Dr. Seward, to assist with the mysterious illness of Lucy Westenra. Van Helsing's friendship with Seward is based in part upon an unknown prior event in which Van Helsing suffered a grievous wound and Seward saved his life by sucking out the gangrene. It is Van Helsing who first realises that Lucy is the victim of a vampire and he guides Dr. Seward and his friends in their efforts to save Lucy.
In the novel, from the annotations of Leonard Wolf, it is mentioned that Van Helsing had a son who died. Van Helsing says that his son, had he lived, would have had a similar appearance to another character, Arthur Holmwood. Consequently, Van Helsing developed a particular fondness of Holmwood. Van Helsing's wife went insane after their son's death, but as a devout Catholic, he refuses to divorce her.
Van Helsing is one of the few characters in the novel who is fully physically described in one place. In chapter 14, Mina describes him as:
- "a man of medium weight, strongly built, with his shoulders set back over a broad, deep chest and a neck well balanced on the trunk as the head is on the neck. The poise of the head strikes me at once as indicative of thought and power. The head is noble, well-sized, broad, and large behind the ears. The face, clean-shaven, shows a hard, square chin, a large resolute, mobile mouth, a good-sized nose, rather straight, but with quick, sensitive nostrils, that seem to broaden as the big bushy brows come down and the mouth tightens. The forehead is broad and fine, rising at first almost straight and then sloping back above two bumps or ridges wide apart, such a forehead that the reddish hair cannot possibly tumble over it, but falls naturally back and to the sides. Big, dark blue eyes are set widely apart, and are quick and tender or stern with the man's moods."
Van Helsing's personality is described by John Seward, his former student, thus:
- He is a seemingly arbitrary man, this is because he knows what he is talking about better than any one else. He is a philosopher and a metaphysician, and one of the most advanced scientists of his day, and he has, I believe, an absolutely open mind. This, with an iron nerve, a temper of the ice-brook, and indomitable resolution, self-command, and toleration exalted from virtues to blessings, and the kindliest and truest heart that beats, these form his equipment for the noble work that he is doing for mankind, work both in theory and practice, for his views are as wide as his all-embracing sympathy. [Dracula, ch.9]
In addition to this, Van Helsing has a well-developed, albeit ironic sense of humor. When Arthur Holmwood/Godalming mournfully proclaims that the transfusion of his blood into the dying Lucy made her truly his bride, Van Helsing laughs (though not in Arthur Holmwood/Godalming's hearing) and tells Jack Seward that if such is the case, both Van Helsing and Lucy are guilty of adultery. Arthur was not alone in donating blood; Seward, his friend Quincey Morris, and Van Helsing himself have done it as well.
Adaptations of the novel have tended to play up Van Helsing's role as the vampire expert, sometimes to the extent that it is depicted as his major occupation. In the novel, however, Dr. Seward is unaware of this side of his old friend, and requests Van Helsing's assistance simply because Lucy's affliction has him baffled and Van Helsing "knows as much about obscure diseases as any one in the world."
Count Dracula, having acquired ownership of England’s Carfax Abbey through solicitor Jonathan Harker, moved to the abbey and began menacing England. His victims included Lucy Westernra, who lived in Whitby. The aristocratic girl had suitors such as Jack Seward, Arthur Holmwood, and Quincy Morris, and had a friend in Mina Murray, Jonathan Harker’s fiancée. Jack Seward, who worked as a doctor in an insanity asylum - where one of patients, the incurably zoophagous Renfield, secretly served Dracula - contacted Van Helsing about Lucy Westernra’s peculiar loss of blood. Van Helsing, recognizing the mark of the vampire, tried to save Lucy, but she died, returning as a vampire. Eventually, Van Helsing and Arthur destroyed the vampiric Lucy.
Van Helsing and his band of vampire hunters pursued Dracula back to Transylvania. There, they chased him down and cornered him. Armed with knives, Jonathan Harker and Quincy Morris decapitated Dracula and impaled his heart. Dracula's body then crumbled to dust.
Later, Van Helsing took an elder's role in regard to the young Quincey Harker, who was the son of Jonathan and Mina.
[edit] Appearances in movies
Notable actors to have played Van Helsing in various screen versions include:
- Edward Van Sloan in Universal Studios' Dracula series
- Peter Cushing in Hammer Films' Dracula series
- Laurence Olivier in the 1979 Dracula
- Anthony Hopkins in Bram Stoker's Dracula (1992)
- Jack Gwillim in The Monster Squad (1987)
- Mel Brooks in the parody Dracula: Dead and Loving It (1995)
- Christopher Plummer in Dracula 2000.
Also, Cushing's character in the Hammer movies was named J. Van Helsing, as seen in Brides of Dracula. The continuity of these movies had Dracula resurrecting in the 1970s, only to meet J. Van Helsing's grandson, Lorimer Van Helsing, a "different" vampire hunter also played by Cushing. It is unclear in The Legend of the Seven Golden Vampires if Cushing is playing Van Helsing or a descendant.
[edit] Van Helsing (2004)
Hugh Jackman played Gabriel Van Helsing, the eponymous hero of Van Helsing (2004). While this Gabriel Van Helsing may have fought Dracula (who is called Vladislaus Dracula for the same reason), the time period is actually set about ten years before the events in the book. In this movie, Van Helsing is portrayed as a monster hunter for a secret society composed of all religions, working in the shadows to keep the world safe from supernatural evil. Several characters in the movie also suggest that Van Helsing is several centuries old, his last memories are fighting with the Romans, although, conveniently, he lost his memory shortly before the events of the movie. It is also implied that this version of Van Helsing is actually the Archangel Gabriel.
Director Stephen Sommers has said that he views the character as Abraham Van Helsing's "younger brother".[1]
[edit] Media involving descendants of Van Helsing
In addition, there have been numerous works of the descendants of Van Helsing carrying on the family tradition. Examples include the comic book series, The Tomb of Dracula which featured Rachel Van Helsing, granddaughter of Abraham, as a major member of the principal hunters. There is also the manga and anime, Hellsing, in which modern day descendant Integra Hellsing leads a British government strike force (including a vampire named Alucard who is eventually revealed to be the Count himself) against supernatural menaces (mainly those of the evil Nazi terrorist organization Millennium). Dracula 3000 features Captain Abraham Van Helsing (played by Casper Van Dien), a descendent of the original Van Helsing, as the captain of a spacefaring salvage ship. In the Disney movie, Mom's Got A Date With A Vampire, Malachi Van Helsing is hunting the vampire Dimitri, who is preying on the mother of the main characters. The previously mentioned Larimer Van Helsing also falls into this category. Most recently, a humorous British TV series, Young Dracula, featured Mr "Eric" Van Helsing- presumably the descendant of his more famous predecessor, though with none of his competence- trying to exterminate a family of vampires living in rural Wales.
[edit] Appearances in comics/manga
Abraham Van Helsing was also portrayed in the Tomb of Dracula Marvel series, which was based on the characters of Bram Stoker's novel, but the chronology slightly differs from Bram Stoker's.
His first appearance is in Dracula Lives #3, in which a first encounter between a younger Van Helsing and Dracula is set up. A few days after marrying a woman named Elizabeth, lawyers informed Van Helsing that he had inherited land from a distant relative in Wallachia. Traveling to Romania, Van Helsing had a long conference with some lawyers in Bistritz. Elizabeth went ahead to the manor to set it up for the night.
One lawyer whom Van Helsing talked to had a collection of Hun and Magyar artifacts, and Van Helsing lost track of the time studying them. When he arrived at the manor, he found his wife missing, but did discover several corpses, with "XXX" burned underneath bite marks on their necks. Armed with a gun from his brother Boris, who lived in the U.S., Van Helsing left, frantic.
Returning to Bistritz, a frenzied Van Helsing discovered the existence of the Children of Judas, a vampire coven that served Dracula. He also discovered the location of the Grand Sabbath of the vampires. (Van Helsing assumed that the Children of Judas were human, and merely occultists rather than vampires.) He went there, and found Elizabeth bound on an altar with thirteen Children of Judas and Dracula present.
Armed, Van Helsing opened fire with normal bullets - only to see them have no effect. A group of priests and soldiers saved him, but they could not save Elizabeth. Van Helsing refused to allow Elizabeth’s corpse to be beheaded or staked. Reluctantly, they allowed Van Helsing to bury Elizabeth in the manorial vault - but informed him of what to do in three days. Standing watch in the vault, Van Helsing saw her return as a vampire. He destroyed her, and swore revenge against Dracula, setting the stage for his role in Stoker's novel.
In the twentieth century, Dracula, having undergone many deaths and returns over the years since his struggles with Van Helsing, traveled back in time to the 19th century via an enchanted mirror, attempting to prevent his destruction at the hands of Van Helsing. Instead of arriving before the staking, however, he arrived after, but still tried to kill Van Helsing. However, Van Helsing had left the area of the Borgo Pass and Castle Dracula.
Dracula killed a young woman, and villagers stormed Castle Dracula. Dracula repulsed them, and then discovered that Frank Drake, one of his descendants, and Rachel Van Helsing, Abraham's great-granddaughter, had followed him from the 20th century. Determined to destroy Abraham Van Helsing, Dracula had a subordinate vampire named Lenore battle Drake and Rachel as he sought to find Abraham Van Helsing.
Dracula discovered Abraham Van Helsing’s lodgings elsewhere in Romania. Stunned and confused as he had just driven the stake through (the native temporal counterpart of) Dracula’s heart a short time ago, Van Helsing was unprepared to face the 20th century Dracula. However, Rachel Van Helsing saved her great-grandfather, forcing Dracula to flee. Dracula escaped back into the timestream, with Frank Drake, Rachel Van Helsing, and their ally Taj Nital in pursuit.
Abraham Van Helsing then trained Mina and Jonathan Harker’s son, Quincy, in vampire lore, but in 1899, thinking that by staking Dracula he had destroyed him for good, he received a rude surprise when Dracula returned years later and killed him.
Abraham Van Helsing also did make a cameo appearance twice in the Japanese manga Hellsing. The first time he appeared in one of Alucard´s dreams, Van Helsing made many allusions to Dracula when referring to Alucard e.g. "So what are you going to do now, King of the Undead (that is one of the titles Van Helsing uses when describing Dracula)?" At the end of this dream, Alucard seems to cry blood. The second time Van Helsing appeared as a silhouette after Alucard transforms into the "Count," this last one is the most direct reference to the novel in the manga, since this time besides Van Helsing, Alucard mentions Quincy Morris, Arthur Holmwood and Dr. Seward, although, mysteriously, not Jonathan Harker.
In the Marvel Comics miniseries X-Men: Apocalypse/Dracula, Van Helsing joins forces with the immortal mutant Apocalypse and his worshippers, Clan Akkaba, in order to destroy Dracula, their common enemy.
[edit] Character source
There are several possible sources for the character of Van Helsing as described by Bram Stoker. German historian Max Muller is one possible suggestion, as an early draft of Dracula features a version of Van Helsing called Max Windshoeffel. Another is Theodore Roosevelt's uncle, Robert Roosevelt, who was a popular author, of Dutch descent, a scientist, and broadly matched Stoker's description in image and character. He was also a member of Stoker's group of friends, which included Oscar Wilde and Walt Whitman. Arminius Vambery, a Hungarian professor who helped Stoker with his research into vampirism, is another likely source for at least part of the character.
A possible fictional source is a similar vampire-hunting paranormal expert, Dr. Hesselius, who appears in J. Sheridan Le Fanu's seminal 1872 vampire story Carmilla, as well as other supernatural tales by the same author.
