Vampires are and have been known to be contradictory individuals in many of the works they are portrayed in. In John Polidori's "The Vampyre" this theme of a contradictory nature is apparent. This theme is brought to light due to the character Lord Ruventh. In the first part of this novel we are introduced to Lord Ruventh through the eyes of Aubrey. He is described as a pale fair gentleman with a strong gaze and allure that allowed him to be desired by woman. Come to find out he is the vampire presents the contradiction that he is actually a blood thirsty monster yet he is so desirable by woman as a fair mysterious gentleman because they do not know the truth until it is too late. Lord Ruventh represents a mysterious figure with “…dead grey
In the story, The Vampyre by Polidori women are marginalized and seen as powerless whereas in the story, Carmilla by Le Fanu its heavily female centric with both of the main characters being female. The vampire, Carmilla, in Carmilla presents some complexities when considering traditional gender roles whereas the vampire, Lord Ruthven, in The Vampyre by Polidori heavily carries a masculine gender role. For instance, Lord Ruthven carries this masculine gender role by asserting his power and privilege status which imposes that all women want to be with him and all the men want to be his friend. A depiction of Lord Ruthven’s masculinity is seen in his pursuit and sole sexual intentions towards the Italian girl. In comparison, Carmilla does not
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.
All fiction requires a reader to buy in to the world and characters that have been created, but sometimes stories can either be too unbelievable for the reader to relate to or they lean too much towards reality to be classified as fantasy. Karen Russell constructed a novel of exemplary short stories under the title Vampires In The Lemon Grove. Her stories are said to “vibrate with originality and life” with “imaginative reach and moral weight of works of much greater length.” The praise received for this collection of short stories is much deserved, and being her second novel after her award winning Swamplandia!, the author from Miami, Florida, has a bright future in short stories.
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
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.
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 illustrated fears about sexual women in contrast to the woman who respected and abided by society’s sexual norms. Joseph Sheridan LeFanu’s “Carmilla” represented not only the fear of feminine sexuality, but also the fear of sexuality between women. John William Polidori’s “The Vampyre” showed society’s fear of sexuality in terms of the seductive man who could “ruin” a young girl.These texts are representative of vampire stories in the Victorian Era, and will be the focus here.
In Bram Stoker's Dracula, the most blatant and powerful symbol is blood. He takes the blood that means so much to the believers of this legend and has it represent more than even they could imagine. Blood is the main object associated with vampires and vampirism. From a mythical standpoint, it is the basis of life for the vampires as they feed off of the blood of young, vibrant souls. From a more scientific standpoint blood is what would drip out of the corpse's mouth when family members would dig up their dead kin to check for the dreaded disease. Stoker takes the significance of this symbol and puts his own unique twist to the meaning of blood. He combines the traditional folklore of vampirism and the immense sexual undertones of the Victorian era to create a simply horrific tale which completely confuses the emotions of his readers. Stoker knew bloods importance in vampire history and used the overwhelming symbolism to convey his own personal lust and sexual obsessions. The scenes where Lucy is receiving transfusions; first from Holmwood, then from Seward, and the unforgettable vampire baptism between Dracula and Mina all have these very erotic, sexual feelings associated with them. What makes these so powerful is the combination of violence and sex. As a reader, you know that what Dracula is doing are horrific and wrong, but because they are so sexually described and associated you think you should enjoy them, but you can't. This is the confusion which stoker implements into his readers minds, especially ones of the Victorian era. This is why stoker used blood as the most important symbol in the novel; to create an intense horror that was not just in the words of the book, but in the minds of the reader.
... Dejan. “Vampiric Seduction and Vicissitudes of Masculine Identity in Bram Stoker’s Dracula.” Victorian Literature and Culture 37 (2009): 411-25. Cambridge Journals. Web. 18 April 2013.
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. The change in context has been exemplified through the surrogacy of religious values into morals and the substitute of magic and superstition into reality’s charisma and charm. Therefore theses examples show how the qualities of the vampire manifest fear and how this shapes the manner in which society responds to it.
“A collection of fictional stories … of cultural myths and songs” this is the definition of folklore, and from these stories we get a multitude of myths and speculation of what happens to us when we die. They range from just disappearing into nothingness to becoming a higher being or going into a higher plain of existence. There are ideas however, of a life on this earth after we die for those who have committed crimes or have not been buried properly, we become the other, the supernatural or ultimately the undead. The most common of the undead is the vampire. One of the most known vampires from literature is Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1897) who is portrayed as a blood thirty, emotionless monster, which is the idea most often portrayed in folklore.
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 “Otherness” Dracula possess reinforces our own norms and beliefs through his transgression that separates him from society and the polarity to Western norms and ideals makes him an effective device for extorting revulsion and horror. Stoker’s novel employs Gothic tradition, providing “the principle embodiments and evocations of cultural anxieties” from which the very Gothic mood and horror is produced, establishing the baseline used to distinguish the modern vampires, as part of vampire mythology within the Gothic (Botting Aftergothic
...t his victims want to be engulfed by him, they desire his bite, and willingly have their blood sucked. Renfield is the extreme case of a man who wants to be a vampire even before he comes into contact with one. It seems that Dracula speaks to some need in the people to merge with the "other". Perhaps this is because the "other" is the uncanny, the familiar in a different form, that it speaks to the people. That discussion, however, is beyond the scope of this paper. In this novel, people seem to be astonishingly ready to open their veins and give their blood to another. Dracula, by his very appearance in England, promotes the mixing of blood, that is a reflection of the blood-mixing that he carries out. Blood carries the characteristics of nationality, gender, age etc. Thus Dracula embodies a principle of cultural contact and mixture, and not one of separation.
In the beginning of Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Count Dracula buys properties in London, England to seduce Mina and impose mayhem in the exterior land. On the other hand, in Dark Shadows, Barnabas Collins is set free and returns to Collinwood, where his family are in of his protection. Therefore, to determine who the superior vampire is, one must make a comparison of Barnabas Collins and Count Dracula, and base it on their abilities, history, and motives.
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...