Vampires

984 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Dracula and female sexuality

Vampires Vampires have fell under a certain stereotype ever since the early nineteenth Century, and even up until today. Movies, novels and people in general have depicted vampires as bloodsucking demons who turn into bats, and I am sure everyone is familiar with any vampires need to seduce women almost daily. Vampires are said to be " an alien nocturnal species," as Nina Auerbach's book-"Our vampires, ourselves" states; but all vampires are not the coffin lying, shadow loitering monsters that the media perceives them to be. First of all, vampires are neither inhuman nor nonhuman, " they are simply more alive than they should be." What does this statement infer? Does this perception imply that vampires are actually ghosts? No, vampires have simply adapted or evolved through time, yet the bulk of American citizens still see vampires as they were back in the 1800's due to the fictional mutation of our media. One of the only correct stereotypical inferences towards vampires is that they have had a strong history of having mortals as companions, and not just females, even though females play a big part in describing vampires. Vampires have had a history of constantly longing for women to fulfill their fantasies, and this particular distinction is one of the ones that is true, along with the ever famous "I vant to suck your blood," Vampire Report "Among all the creatures and monsters in literature and folklore, the vampire seems to be the most mysterious." What Is A Vampire? The vampire has many definitions describing it. Webster's defines it as: "A corpse that becomes reanimated and leaves its grave at night to suck the blood of sleeping persons." A Vampire is just that, a walking corpse. The traits of the Va... ... middle of paper ... ...ood of animals and young females that were slain for her in masses. She had the idea that this blood would keep her young and beautiful. She was incredibly vain and was soon caught and walled up in a prison. She died there a few years later. Bibliography Bibliography Barber, Paul · Vampires, burial and death: Folklore and reality · Yale University · July 1990 McKaig, Angie · Vampire Facts - Vampires: A Medical Explanation · http://www.pathwaytodarkness.com/facts/medical_explanation.htm · (24 Feb. 1999) Pedigo, David · Mythological Vampires · http://www.vampyrs.com/ · (15 Feb. 1999) Rice, Anne · The Vampire Lestat · Ballantine Books, Inc · June 1986 Sasha · A Theory on Real Vampirism · http://members.tripod.com/~nephtys/gateway.htm · (26 Jan. 1999) Summers, Montague · The Vampire · Dorset Press · 1991 "Vampire" · World Book Encyclopedia · 1996 World Book, Inc.

Show More
Related

  • Sexuality And The Vampire Analysis

    139 Words  | 1 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Dracula In Stoker's Dracula

    1456 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Inverted Gender Roles: Dracula by Bram Stoker

    1455 Words  | 3 Pages

    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. .

    Read More

  • Vlad III Dracula And Dracul Vlad The Impaler

    1802 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Compare And Contrast Two Vampires

    920 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • The Vampire And Their Victims

    1122 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Mosters Misunderstood: How Fear Creates the Moster Archetype in Myhology

    2119 Words  | 5 Pages

    One of the most interesting and misunderstood cultures is that of the Eastern Europeans and, most notably, the myths of the vampires. Vampire myth has its greatest hold among the West Slavs and the South Slavs (Willis 2006). The vampire was created for different reasons, but the main two were to “curse” those who were evil and to explain the natural decomposition of the body. Those who are worst affected were also the most misunderstood: werewolves, sorcerers, witches, sinners, and the godless. In certain places, like Bulgaria, murderers, robbers, prostitutes and others who were socially undesirable (ibid). Vampires were thought to roam the earth at night, biting victims and sucking out their souls, eventually leading the individual to wither and die. They were also connected to many untimely deaths of family mothers, with one belief that vampires could even kill family members by chewing on their burial garments (Barber...

    Read More

  • Social Control through Works of Fiction

    1379 Words  | 3 Pages

    Vampire stories have universal themes that provide the backbone for every dark tale. The unholy essence that any vampire story provides sets the stage for the message that the Church is the way of life and will save you from creatures of evil. From in class readings, we can see all the major religious themes of the classic vampire story. The common religious theme is the abscess of light is the absence of holiness and is the path to eternal damnation. Darkness is the prime universal fear of humanity mostly because we, as a species, are not nocturnal creatures; therefore, we have developed a fear of the predator filled darkness of night. Using figurative descriptions of darkness as the enemy, the Church preaches the way of the light. The Church associates the side of good and evil with lightness and darkness appealing to the duality of man whether it is black and white, Ying and Yang or Good and Evil. The Church put a twist on this appeal when it started to manufacture works of fiction associated with creatures not of this world who oppose the message of the light, such as the Vampire. Vampire behaviors and tendencies counter-act the Church’s messages in every vampire story with themes of darkness, sensitivity to light, unholy lifestyles and an abundance of anti-Church related subjects. Vampire tales are a response to a changing societal view on religion practices and validity; the roots of vampire stories are strong indications of the Church’s attempt to tighten its firm grip of social control tied with universal human fears.

    Read More

  • Comparison Between Dracula by Bram Stroker and Twilight by Stephen Meyeres

    969 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Intertextual Exchange in Carmilla, Dracula and the Historian

    1362 Words  | 3 Pages

    Williams, Ann, ed. Three Vampire Tales: Complete Texts with Introduction. Boston: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning, 2003. Print.

    Read More

  • Vampire Lore In Dracula

    1871 Words  | 4 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • A Comparison Of Bram Stoker's Dracula And Dracula

    1013 Words  | 3 Pages

    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;

    Read More

  • The Allure of Vampires and Immortality

    1033 Words  | 3 Pages

    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:

    Read More

  • The Twilight Saga: Redefining the Vampire

    853 Words  | 2 Pages

    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 ...

    Read More

  • Critical Rhetorical Analysis: “Why Vampires Never Die”

    723 Words  | 2 Pages

    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...

    Read More

More about Vampires

Open Document