Fledgling is the story of an apparently young, amnesiac girl, whose alarming unhuman needs and abilities lead her to a startling conclusion. She is in fact a genetically modified, 53 year old vampire. Forced to discover what she can about her stolen former life, at the same time learn who wanted and still wants to destroy her and those she cares for. This is a very interesting parable that tests the limits of otherness and questions what it means to be truly human. The book is laced with emotionally and erotically boosted encounters. A person who would enjoy reading about vampires, the urge to keep reading comes within the first few chapters; in this story early as chapter three. The novel is a new vampire paradigm that casts a steady eye on racism, sexism, poverty, and ignorance. Relationships in this story, as loving and loyal as they are yet, are very different. There is no moral questioning at all, but this total acceptance of paedophilia is not only seen in those having sex with children, also by every single other character. Even though being black brought Shori some str...
“How could it feel so good when it should be disgusting and painful?” (Butler 75) These words spoken by Theodora, an elderly white woman, about her symbiotic and sometimes sexual relationship with Shori, a black “elfin little girl” (Butler 75), express the societal fear that Octavia Butler exposes in her characterization of Shori as a monster. Shori is a monster because her very existence is a testament to the blurring of historically concrete lines. She is androgynous, vampire and human, black and white, a child with adult strength and urges. Shori’s relationship with her human symbionts and other Ina usually defies normal standards of behavior and acceptance by using pleasure instead of pain as a mechanism of control and abandoning traditional ideas about gender, sexuality, and crossbreeding.
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.
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. .
In society, the significance of social status and role is observable with both genders. This includes the acceptable behaviors and responsibilities for both men and women within one’s culture. It is a constant struggle to follow these established guidelines in order to preserve a good reputation and not possess a low social status. In Bram Stoker’s novel, Dracula, the different characters each represent a different stand in the transformation from “True Woman” to the “New Woman” that surfaced in the late nineteenth century. This new idea made women more independent, with their lives no longer revolving around their husbands, and most importantly created a big change in social expectations. The characters Lucy, Mina, and the three brides of Dracula play a part in revealing Stoker’s belief that social status is changed for the worse with this change in women’s roles.
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
In the famous novel and movie series, Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, an average teenage girl, Bella Swan, is forced to move from Arizona (where she lived with her mother) to Washington to start an almost new life with her father. She attends a small-town high school with mostly average people, besides one family, the Cullens. As Bella and Edward Cullen get closer, she uncovers a deep secret about him and his family. Their relationship faces many hard challenges and conflicts as the story develops. Both the novel and movie share very similar storylines, however, differ in many ways. From themes to author’s craft, or to relationships, these important parts of the story highlight the significant differences and similarities of Twilight.
Fiction of each era reflects the insecurities, concerns, and ideals of its generation, and through this genre, authors are able to construct entire universes of their own fantasy. These universes might contain characters that push boundaries for what is socially acceptable, but the authors need not be held accountable for their actions. The same holds true for works of the 19th century, where authors question traditional Victorian notions of the boundaries of acceptable gendered behavior and sexual roles. Specifically, Bram Stoker’s Dracula pushes social conceptions of customary gendered conduct through the vampires’ and Dracula’s actions and characterization as mutable. Qualities, such as intelligence, sexuality, and parenthood as portrayed
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.
In DRACULA, the general content is about the fighting between Dracula and humans, since Dracula tries to transform all the female characters into vampires. The language of the book is not very sexual, but the word “Voluptuousness” did shows up a lot in the book. The female characters, Mina, Lucy and the three sisters, they have different personalities, different attitude to love, and different virginity. When Dracula tried to transform them into vampires, they experience different processes and have different endings.
...tionship has completely evolved and the narrator somewhat comes into her own a natural and inevitable process.
In the year 1897, Bram Stoker releases the crown jewel of the 20th century: his vampire epic Dracula. Ever since Dracula, Transylvania, and castles have been associative of vampirism, the world has become “bloody”. There are slight deviations to the novel, but the majority of them are fairly partial to the novel. Worldly views show Dracula as an old man with a new face. The inception of Bram Stoker’s Dracula has been the melting pot of the recreations and incarnations of the world’s deadliest, bloodsucking vampire, Count Dracula.
Excerpts from three books, written by three magnificent novelists, show how sexuality, race, physical appearance, etc. play a major role in writing that are often times overlooked or downplayed, but are put in the the novel to show a bigger picture of what people define as a monster. In Judith Halberstam excerpt “Parasites and Perverts: An Introduction to Gothic Monstrosity” Halberstam argues that “ Nineteenth century literary tradition is a Gothic tradition and that this has everything to do with the changing technology of subjectivity that Foucault describes” (Halberstam,1991,p.125). In the excerpt from “Gothic Realities: The Impact of Horror Fiction on Modern Culture” L. Anderson Cooper expresses the formula of how “MONSTER=HOMOSEXUAL”(Cooper,2010,p.141). He tells how the homosexual is expected to be reversed with the popular heterosexual. In the final excerpt of “Civilized Vampires versus Savage Werewolves: Race and Ethnicity in the Twilight series” Natalie Wilson show readers about the white privilege. White (vampires) is associated with “ civility, beauty, and intellect...
Carmilla, the title character and the vampire of the work, is especially important to the definition of vampirism in literature, not only because she threatens to take young women from their religious societies, but also because her victims are all women. A vampire’s victim is often synonymous with his or her lover. Both sex and homosexuality are considered taboo in Western society, because it presents both of these topics, the work is especially deviant from the time in which it was written. Le Fanu in particular was inspired by the near obsession the British Empire had with morality in the 17th century. While sex and sexuality was not necessarily suppressed during the time, and most of society was beginning to come to terms with their own agreement the topic was still banned from polite conversation. Homosexual acts, like those depicted in Carmilla were still considered extremely taboo, and often times illegal, as homosexuality was a crime punishable by death up to ten years before the work was written. Carmilla, like most of the other works in the time it was written is the product of strictly religious society and represents the amoral. Carmilla however was exceptional in the fact that the vampire is female, rather than a male vampire that has remained present throughout most vampire-centered work since their creation. Women were
Now, the young girl is expressing feelings that are more womanlike, and she is beginning her initiation of a young child into an adult, or more specifically, a woman.
Bram Stoker and Sheridan Le Fanu’s texts, Dracula (1898) and “Carmilla” (1872), use gothic tropes in similar ways to captivate readers with horror and terror. This essay will illustrate how, in comparison, both texts include gothic tropes: the New Woman, sexuality and setting, in order to provoke emotions and reactions from the readers. To achieve this, this essay will focus on the women that challenge traditional gender roles and stereotypes, and deconstruct each text in regards to the very strong undertones of homosexuality; specifically between Carmilla and Laura, and Dracula and Harker. By discussing the harshness and darkness of the environments described, including ruined castles and isolated landscapes; this essay will also explore the