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Vampires in folklore vs in literature
The speech of The history of vampires in literature
Thesis on vampire folklore
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The legend of the vampire has emerged countless times within human imagination over the past few centuries. The first available representation of the mythical creature in prose fiction can be found in John Polidori’s “The Vampyre” (1810). It was not until eight decades later that Bram Stoker popularized the existence of this figure with the publication of “Dracula” in 1897. The folklore of the vampire has come a long way since and can be found in today’s popular media more frequently than ever before. However, with due course of time, the representation of the creature has taken alternate routes and today’s vampires are noticeable different – socially and physically – from their predecessors. One effective path to trace this transformation is to compare arguably modern day’s most famous representation of the vampire, Stephanie Meyer’s “Twilight” with “Dracula”, the foundation from which a large number of modern works draw inspiration. Examining this comparison closely, one finds that a new socially acceptable, sexually abstinent and desirable creature is fast replacing the fearsome and sexually voracious monster, as depicted in early tales of the vampire.
The vampire had been depicted as the epitome of offensive and seductive behavior in their early representations. It has suffered an enduring image of something inhuman and monstrous that feeds and thrives at the expense of others. As David Punter and Glennis Byron have asserted, “Confounding all categories, the vampire is the ultimate embodiment of transgression” (The Gothic 268). The transgressive behavior of the vampire was first observed with Stoker’s Dracula. Although this figure is attractive to us in many ways, with his intelligence and immortality, the Count is primaril...
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...ire reflects our monstrous appetites."
Journal of Jungian Scholarly Studies. N.p., 2010. Web. 11 Apr. 2014. .
Orlomoski, Caitlyn. "From Monsters to Victims: Vampires and Their Cultural Evolution from the Nineteenth to the Twenty-First Century." N.p., 7 May 2011. Web. 13 Apr. 2014. .
Peters, Sarah L. "Repulsive to Romantic: The Evolution of Bram Stoker’s Dracula." Henderson State University. N.p., Mar. 2002. Web. 14 Apr. 2014.
Spencer, Kathleen L. “Purity and Danger: Dracula, The Urban Gothic, and the Late Victorian Degeneracy Crisis.” English Literary History 59.1 (1992): 197-226
The late nineteenth century Irish novelist, Bram Stoker is most famous for creating Dracula, one of the most popular and well-known vampire stories ever written. Dracula is a gothic, “horror novel about a vampire named Count Dracula who is looking to move from his native country of Transylvania to England” (Shmoop Editorial Team). Unbeknownst of Dracula’s plans, Jonathan Harker, a young English lawyer, traveled to Castle Dracula to help the count with his plans and talk to him about all his options. At first Jonathan was surprised by the Count’s knowledge, politeness, and overall hospitality. However, the longer Jonathan remained in the castle the more uneasy and suspicious he became as he began to realize just how strange and different Dracula was. As the story unfolded, Jonathan realized he is not just a guest, but a prisoner as well. The horror in the novel not only focuses on the “vampiric nature” (Soyokaze), but also on the fear and threat of female sexual expression and aggression in such a conservative Victorian society.
In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Dracula is representative of the superhuman ideal that man is striving to achieve. Dracula is a strong willed, powerful, brilliant masculine figure, and through these characteristics, he appeals to the contemporary reader. By the late 20th and early 21st century, vampires have been transformed into creatures that offer endless happiness and immortality on earth. Such a transformation can be seen in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 production of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Instead of viewing the Faustian dream of endless self-gratification and fulfillment as potentially evil, popular culture depicts these satanic creatures as morally justified, and actually good.
Stoker, Bram. Dracula: Complete, Authoritative Text with Biographical, Historical, and Cultural Contexts, Critical History, and Essays from Contemporary Critical Perspectives. Bedford St. Martins, 2002. Print.
Throughout decades of cheesy horror movies, the image of vampires have been misconstrued as sparkly, angsty teenage boys or handsome men that lure in girls for the fresh blood of a virgin. Many of these stereotypical vampires are influenced by the story of Dracula, held in the Victorian era. During this period, sexuality is repressed by society, as sexual behaviors from women are viewed as unacceptable. Yet, many of the stories published about vampires diverge from the message that Bram Stoker was trying to make. In the Gothic horror novel Dracula, Bram Stoker uses the traumatic experience of Jonathan Harker at Count Dracula’s castle and the invasion of vampires in Great Britain to create a social commentary on the sexual repression occurring
Bram Stroker's Dracula(1897) setting and characters depicts of late nineteen century Britain had failing Victorian social systems. The story also tells of class system, values, technological advancement, and intellectual understanding of British people. This new change in end of nineteen century have impacted Dracula's writing. Studying this can enrich our understanding of historical implication of the book by observing locations, Characters, and important symbolism within it.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula is a story of horror, suspense, and repulsion. The main antagonist, Count Dracula, is depicted as an evil, repulsive creature that ends and perverts life to keep himself alive and youthful. To most onlookers that may be the case, but most people fail to see one crucial element to this character. Dracula is a character that, though it may be long gone, was once human, and thus has many human emotions and motives still within him. Let us delve into these emotions of a historically based monster.
Stoker uses phenomenal imagery to produce a late nineteenth century setting, located somewhere within eastern Europe. Transylvania, the infamous home to Dracula himself, is described in great detail in Harker’s journal. There, Stoker purposely and meticulously outlines Dracula’s castle and the surrounding town. Stoker manages to do this with a very gothic tone, immediately lowering the societal status of women. In conjunction with Dracula’s gothic tone comes the understanding of male and female traditional roles of the era. The reader sees that there is no hesitation differentiating between the two, as Stoker “ cast[s] men as rational, strong, protective and decisive…[and] women as emotional (irrational), weak, nurturing and submissive.” (Tyson, 82).
Through an examination of Bram Stoker’s novel Dracula and Jonathan Demme’s film Silence of the Lambs, there is an analysis into how the qualities of the vampire manifest fear and how this shapes the manner in which society responds to it. This is achieved through a feminist reading of the overt sexuality that accompanies the vampire coupled with a psychoanalytical reading of psychological acuity. Dracula and Silence of the lambs both evidently belong to the gothic horror genre because of their association with the disruption and transgression of both social and psychic limits within their societies. Dracula can be read as a novel of reverse colonisation, describing the civilised world-facing invasion by the vampire’s primitive force; late Victorian society sees it’s own imperial practise emulated back in monstrous form. Contemporary society overindulging in its use of the vampire has established it as extraneous, creating a reduced effect of revulsion and fear towards the vampire and thus a devalued consequence in the response of society. Silence of the lambs can be seen as an updated narrative of reverse consumerism as Hannibal’s “compulsion to feed on humans” is a reflection of the monstrously exaggerated civilization of the 20th century. Therefore these examples show how the qualities of the vampire manifest fear and how this shapes the manner in which society responds to it.
Since the 19th Century, Bram Stoker’s Dracula has entertained its readers taking them to heights of excitement in the climax
In Twilight, Edward Cullen presents the question; “ But what if I’m not the hero? What if I’m the bad guy?” The role of vampires is very controversial. Back in the day they were evil, soulless monsters and people genuinely feared them. However, in the present day it seems that we have grown to love them and even hope to one day be them. There are a plethora of vampire stories and many of them have become immense hits. With so many vampire stories, it is not uncommon that readers are able to identify a vast amount of similarities. Although similar in aspects, there are still many differences between the classic and modern day vampires. Two highly popular stories, in which we can easily identify similarities and differences, are Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight.
Kresley Cole, Stephanie Meyer, J. R. Ward, Cassandra Clare, Lisa Jane Smith, Spirit Bliss, Claudia Gray, L.J. McDonald, Anne Bishop, Juliet Marillier. Only a few names of those authors, who constitute in a genre, which is one of the biggest phenomena of this decade, especially among young women. Romantic fantasy has become particularly popular with the Twilight books, which were released in 2005. Since then, the vampire-and other supernatural creature-themed fantasy romance novels have been extremely popular all over the world. According to statistics brought out by Romance Writers of America, in 2009, the paranormal subgenre made up 17.16% of the popular romance genre, which in itself 54% of all books sold by the publishing industry.(Bailie) Vampires have come a long way from the 19th century until nowadays. Not so long ago they were a sort of evil, but nowadays they are rather teenager’s fantasy heroes. How could such a big change happen? How do these books affect young people’s minds? Are they dangerous for teenagers’ ideas about life? I try to solve the mystery and find answers to the vampire craze in teen literature in this essay.
The vampire is an embodiment of society's deepest fears. Throughout literary history, the vampire has always been characterised as a vile figure of pure evil. However the depiction of the vampire is affected by the social, historical and political context of the time. As said context shifts, so does the collective fear of society and the portrayal of the vampire follows suit. Dracula, I Am Legend and Twilight are three extremely popular books of vampire fiction created during vastly different points in history. In Dracula, the titular character, is depicted as an anti-christ figure as Bram Stoker, the author, warns people about the dangers of straying away from traditional Christian ideals. I Am Legend, a post-apocalyptic novel, emphasises
Throughout history, we have seen vampires come in every form and shape, which commonly comes through the medium of film or television. The traditional vampire is often ingrained into many Americans heads as a dark and bat-like figure with a lust for blood supplied through his innocent victims and large fangs, yet we constantly see movies that differ from this stereotype. The 1980 movie “The Shining” directed by Stanley Kubrick exemplifies a very modern and mutated image of the vampire in the form of psychosis while the 1931 movie “Dracula” displays the vampire in a more traditional sense, however, both films show the apparent influence of Slavic roots.
Countess Elizabeth Bathory of Transylvania was tried in 1611 for the murders of over 650 young women, whose’ blood she would drink and bathe in because she believed that it maintained her youth. She in one of the most infamous examples of a vampirist, or “real life vampire”; these people have mental disorders that cause them to have a vampire-like craving for blood. The idea of vampires has been around for centuries. Over the years pop culture’s representation of them has greatly changed what we think of as a vampire. The modern representation of vampires is barely recognizable as their original forms.The vampire has gone from a grotesque, silent creature of the night to a man with slicked back hair and a Transylvanian accent to a moody boy who sparkles in the sunlight.
The author’s op-ed piece was published in 2009, the very peak of the vampire contagion, where one could find these creatures wherever they looked. This pandemonium that arose from vampires is what drove del Toro and Hogan to pen “Why Vampires Never Die.” Furthermore, the purpose behind this essay is to give an abridged description of the past of vampires for the people who had become fanatics of the creatures. Also, this essay showed how vampires have persisted in pop culture. They suggest that vampires have been remade by diverse cultures at different times, and this change echoes that society's angst and concerns. The novelist’s imply that Stroker’s Dracula may mirror an exaggerated human on a prim...