The vampire is one of the oldest mythological creatures in the world. It has been around for thousands of years and is found in nearly every culture. There are many different kinds, the red-eyed corpses from China, the Greek Lamia- a woman with the lower body of a winged serpent, the Penanggalang in Malaysia- a woman with a detachable head, etc. The most commonly known, however, is the Romanian vampire, it is used often in pop culture, from movies, to television, to literature. The myth of the Romanian vampire became popular after the publication of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, After which it evolved to symbolise many things such as sexuality, eternal damnation, eternal love, and the human longing for immortality.
The Romanian vampire is known to be a supernatural creature of the undead. Thier most recognized trait is their unique diet: blood. There are many different beliefs in what kind of blood vampires drink. Some might argue that vampires can drink any blood they wish, be it human or animal. Others believe that a vampire can only drink from a living human, or even only a human virgin. No matter what type of blood they drank, they always bore fangs for which to pierce their victims with Some other recognizable traits of the vampire are their “supernatural powers”. They are often described to have heightened senses, inhuman strength, and hypnotic mind control. In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the Count is shown climbing along the castle wall in a lizard-like fashion:
But my very feelings changed to repulsion and terror when I saw the whole man slowly emerge from the window and begin to crawl down the castle wall over the dreadful abyss, face down with his cloak spreading out around him like great wings. At first I could not believe m...
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... supernatural state. "I am not mortal, father, but immortal and damned, like angels put in hell by God. I am a vampire,” (Rice). Louis’s views are that simply by being immortal he is in sin.
Out of all of the different myths and legends, the Romanian vampire is the most commonly known and the most displayed in pop culture. They are shrouded in mystery. They are blood-consuming creatures that are believed to have originally been created to be blamed for misfortune.
Works Cited
Melton, J. Gordon. The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead. Detroit: Visible Ink, 1999. Print.
Radford, Benjamin. "Vampires: The Real History." LiveScience. TechMedia Network, 29 Oct. 2012. Web. 18 May 2014.
Rice, Anne. Interview with the Vampire: A Novel. New York: Knopf, 1976. Print.
Stoker, Bram, and Tudor Humphries. Dracula. New York: DK Pub., 1997. Print.
Florescu, Radu, and McNally, R. T., Dracula: A Biography of Vlad the Impaler, 1431-1476 (1973)
J. Gordon Melton, in the excerpt “Sexuality and the Vampire” published in his The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead (1998), explains that vampires have a sexual appearance that started from their origin in Dracula. Melton supports his statement by analyzing the monsters' transition to sexual beings through the stories of Dracula’s desires, multiple countries’ erotic tales revolving around vampire-like beings, the manifestation of sensual themes in literary, stage, and screen works, and their current evolution of the once terrified immortals to loved heroes. The purpose of this essay was to outline the seductiveness of the written immortal creatures in order to explain the fanged-mammals’ appeal beyond their terrifying monster abilities.
In a world with ghosts, monsters, demons, and ghouls, there is one being that resonates in everyone’s mind. The idea of these creatures can be found in almost every culture on the planet in one form or another. They prey on the weak and they feast on the blood of their victims. They are compared to a fox for being quick and cunning, but also rather seductive in their nature. With their unholy existence one can only describe them as almost demonic. So what is this horrid creature? Well it is none other than the vampire, a creature as old as time itself. Throughout history there have been many different variations of the vampire, each with their own unique abilities. But one cannot help but mention
Stevenson, John Allen. A Vampire in the Mirror: The Sexuality of Dracula. 2nd ed. Vol. 103. N.p.: Modern Language Association, 1988. JSTOR. Web. 6 Jan. 2014. .
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.
Vampires have been viewed with fear and fascination for centuries. Of all the vampires in literature, Bram Stoker’s Count Dracula is probably the most prominent vampire. Recently, there has been an upsurge of public interest in socially acceptable vampires, like the Cullens in the Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer. This essay will contrast Stoker’s Dracula with Carlisle Cullen, one of the newer vampires from the Twilight series. They will be examined in terms of their origins and how they dealt with immortality.
...al control and conformity. With the following quote, vampires can be viewed as the history the Church has written, “They Who Write History Control History and thus Control the World.”
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...
Count Dracula has been the frontrunner for the modern day vampire lore and legends since being printed back in 1897, pop culture took the vampire traits from Bram Stoker’s Dracula and twisted them. In modern portrayals of vampire lore, each author chooses an original aspect from Stoker but then creates a little bit of their own lore in the process. Count Dracula appears to be a walking corpse from the pale and gaunt visual aesthetics to the coolness of his undead skin (Stoker). In some cultures, the vampire is able to transform from the body of a human being to that of a fellow creature of the night, a bat. In the novel Dracula more than one town was easily visualized through the detailed descriptions throughout the novel, thus
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.
Kikuchi, Hideyuki, Yoshitaka Amano, and Kevin Leahy. Vampire hunter D. Milwaukie, OR: DH Press ;, 2006. Print.
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).
Simply searching through articles, databases, and other resources, vampires are depicted as malicious and monstrous creatures. First off, the vampire is famous for its dark and mysterious image affiliated with fear and death. In many ways, “the vampire can be seen through its most basic characterization as the bringer of death”(Stevens par. 3) and evokes a “marginal world of darkness, secrecy, vulnerability, excess, and horror” (Stevens par. 6). Obviously, the vampire has adopted a dark, fearful, and mysterious image. Next, vampires are famous for their unique characteristics. Dictionary.com defines the vampire as “a preternatural being, commonly believed to be a reanimated corpse, that is said to suck the blood of sleeping persons at night”(dictionary.com). Vampires are also known for their distinct weakness suck as “various tailsmans and herbs”(Funk and Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia) but the only way to kill a vampire is “only by cremation or if a stake is driven through their hearts”(Funk and Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia). Another distinct and commonly known characteristic of the vampire is their fear of the light as it could potentially kill them. Emotionally, the vampires are almost viewed as sex symbols as they “indulge in their desires ...
Both del Toro and Hogan affirm that beings such as vampires will never die, but not because of their immortality, but how they illustrate one’s desires. The authors of “Why Vampires Never Die” exploit numerous rhetorical components to convey this notion to the reader. So do vampires flare and then fade forever? No they do not. For as their impurity grants its nightly endowment, vampires alter humanities abominable finite identities and bind it to the treasure of infinity, and therefore impart within people their inner desire. As long as they express societies lust, they will forever be immortal.