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Compare the characteristics of vampires within vampire folklore and specific vampire literature or drama
Thesis statement on vampires
Characteristics Of A Vampire
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Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan’s “Why Vampires Never Die” (2009) really touch a very valid point on how we view vampires and also their history, where they come from, how and where they were created. We also see how long vampires have been around, are they real or fake. In addition how we view vampires today compared to how they were viewed decades or centuries ago also how there in our everyday lives. I personally never believed the way we view vampires today as being real but I think they might be real when it comes to spirits. “Tonight you or someone you love will likely be visited by a vampire- on cable television or the big screen, or in the bookstore. Our own novel describes a modern-day epidemic that spreads across New York City”.
As Stated in Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan’s “Why Vampires Never Die” (P.378) .You will automatically agree with this statement because it’s very true. Everywhere we turn today we see vampire movies everywhere on the big screen for example “Twilight” which is a romantic vampire movie that has sold millions in the box office. Teenagers are fascinated by the characters and the whole story line. In Addition vampires are not just in movies their also on TV series such as “Buffy the Vampire Slayer.” Which is a famous series that shows the other side of vampires as monsters. Good or bad were fascinated with vampires there advertised everywhere. You see more vampire shows and movies now, more opera shows, books everywhere. These shows and movies are plastered on Bill Boards, Cups, bags anything that can have something plastered on it basically. The authors point is a very valid one that can be backed because it’s a factual statement that is proven true. Every time I’m watching a network I actually see at least one vampire series commercial. “A Few friends gathered at the Villa Diodati on Lake Geneva and decided to engage in a small competition to see who could come up with the most terrifying tale- and the two great monsters of the modern day age were born. One was created by Mary Godwin soon to become Shelley, who’s Dr. Frankenstein gave life to a desolate creature. The other monster was less created than fused. John William Polidori stitched together folklore, personal resentment and erotic anxieties in to The Vampyrea story that is the basis for vampires as they are understood today.” (P.378), (P379) That whole article really gives you an understanding of how the whole Vampire myth started and why I believe if vampires were real they definitely don’t look like what we see them as today; all in romantic movies playing heroes or biting people and turning them into vampires. All of this is part of the myth and story told by John William Polidori that has the world thinking vampires the way we see them today might be real. “Monsters will always provide the possibility of mystery in our mundane lives, hinting a larger spiritual world” (P.382) Vampires may not be real the way the myth has made them out to be. But spiritually I think there’s a greater evil force that has to do with vampires. Spirits are real in a sense because although we can’t touch it physically, we sometimes see them in nightmares we can even feel spirits sometimes. To conclude the two authors have really done a great job somewhat briefly explaining the history of vampires, and how their viewed in today’s world.
Vampires in the Lemon Grove! N.p., n.d. Web. The Web.
Bram Stoker’s Dracula has increased the number of vampires in media exponentially, partly because of one man: Vlad the Impaler. He, as well as other various sources, led to what is known as the vampire today.
While Bram Stoker’s Dracula has been described as the “quintessence of evil creatures we meet in our everyday lives” and “the Darkness” in the hearts of men (Herbert, 2004, pp. 62), Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight
Carmilla is an example of a woman who loves her food far too much. Carmilla is consumed entirely by her food, even sleeping in a coffin of blood: “The limbs were perfectly flexible, the flesh elastic; and the leaden coffin floated with blood, in which to a depth of seven inches, the body lay immersed” (Le Fanu 102). There exists a unique relationship between the vampire and their victims. Food becomes defined in terms of victimhood, distinctly separated from humanity’s general consumption of meat. The need for human victims makes hunting synonymous with courtship, as intense emotional connections are established between the vampiress and her food. As seen in the intense relationship developed between Laura and Carmilla, the vampire is “prone to be fascinated with an engrossing vehemence, resembling the passion of love, by particular persons” (105). For Carmilla, cruelty and love are inseparable (33). The taking of the victims’ blood for sustenance is a highly sexualized exchange of fluids from one body to another. The act of consumption is transformed into an illicit carnal exchange between the hunter and the hunted.
After analyzing The Scarlet Letter, Roger Chillingworth is the ideal vampiric figure, supporting Thomas Foster’s perspective about vampirism from his book, How to Read Literature Like a Professor. In fact, Roger Chillingworth, presents many instances of how vampires might act and appear in literature. Even though he is not a literal vampire, it does not
Suspenseful right? Every once in a while we may get frightened at the supernatural events that occur to us, but we never stop to think about how it impacts our society. In the article “Vampires Never Die” by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan they reveal their perspectives about why the supernatural is important in our society. The supernatural impacts our society by using the supernatural popularity to make profit, connecting the human desire to the unrealistic and using technology to keep individuals interested in the supernatural.
Vampirism is not an author’s imagination, or terminology, but for some category of people; it is a life dogma and path they willfully and viciously want to follow. According to Foster, vampirism is about selfishness, and denying other people’s rights to live in order to meet one’s own demands. The unusual vampirism, through the detailed description, complex syntax, and unusual diction, demonstrates the destructive consequences of violence on human beings leading the lives of the victims as well as their families to be shed into pieces.
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.
When the vampire came about the thought of the monsters themselves were terrifying, and to view one they were ghostly pale with dark sunken eyes, large nose similar to that of the stereotypical witch, pointed ears like an elf and dark hair usually dark brown if not black. The original folklore on vampires showed a terrifying creature that you would know if you would see it out and about during the night. Today’s films and novels want to present you with an attractive vampire, like dying and becoming an immortal being is something a human would want to do because they would become more attractive. But also in today’s depiction of the vampire they have no obvious tells that a person is a vampire until they get angry and the fangs elongate. The idea of the vampire has shifted so drastically over the course of time, from fear to an admiration of a creature that could kill you in seconds. In the popular culture of today, the vampire is something attractive that girls pine after and want to be since there are a multitude of romance novels printed today with the male leads being portrayed as a
From Transylvania to Hollywood, vampires have transformed from unfamiliar, mysterious personalities to one of the most dominant monsters in the horror genre today. Vampires are one of the oldest and most noted creatures in mythology, with many variations of them around the world. Although the most famous version is Bram Stoker’s Dracula, many variants have come before and after telling of the same legend with their own added ideas and modifications to relate to their cultures. Today, there is a multitude of literary and film works that convey and resurface peoples’ fear of vampires. As gothic works like Dracula, by Bram Stoker and Scooby-Doo! and the Legend of the Vampire directed by Scott Jeralds share certain traits reflective of the genre; These factors include setting, actions of each vampire, the initial reactions to news of them, and how their presence affects the people who live within the region the vampires inhabit.
Humanity has always been fascinated with the allure of immortality and although in the beginning vampires were not a symbol of this, as time passed and society changed so did the ideas and perceptions surrounding them. The most important thing to ask yourself at this point is 'What is immortality?' Unfortunately this isn't as easily answered as asked. The Merriam Webster Dictionary says immortality is 'the quality or state of being immortal; esp : unending existence' while The World Book Encyclopedia states it as 'the continued and eternal life of a human being after the death of the body.' A more humorous definition can be found in The Devil's Dictionary by Ambrose Bierce:
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.
it horrifies us and reinforces our sense of boundaries and normalcy” (Halberstam 13). Assuming that Bram Stoker’s Dracula sets the archetype of the vampire, it is clear that modern vampires have demonstrated a decrease in the Gothic horror despite similarities in the Gothic imagery and themes, and such a shift is attributed to a changing value of the limit within society and postmodernism. The Count is the benchmark of the vampire archetype as the monstrous Other that “announces itself as the place of corruption” (Anolik and Howard 1). Dracula is associated with disruption and transgression of accepted limits—a monstrosity of great evil that serves to guarantee the existence of good (Punter and Byron 231).
The vampire genre is one that is so widely exploited, that anything can be done with it. It can be made into a horror story made to induce nightmares, into a story that displays humans can be just as monstrous as the monster, or into a romance that proves that love conquers all. The mystery and sensuality that shrouds vampires allows for a vampire story to be anything and everything the writer or reader desires.
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...