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Literary analysis of Edgar Allan Poe's work
Literary analysis of Edgar Allan Poe's work
Literary analysis of Edgar Allan Poe's work
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Vampires appear in literature quite often they are, after all, quite the common monster. There have been rumors of vampires, although they didn’t use the name, since the greeks, and probably earlier. They’re said to have originated in Persia though. Vampires actually didn’t get their name until people discovered while digging up graves some corpses were had limbs chewed off, and sometimes fabric was missing from inside the coffin, and someone wrote an essay about it in 1733. They first appeared in a piece of literature in a poem called The Vampire, in 1748. Vampires are really cool monsters, and they have so many interesting qualities, for instance they can turn into bats, wolves, and fog/mist. They can also hypnotise people. Unfortunately
Just some of The vampire’s numerous powers are: He can turn humans into the Undead, he is virtually immortal, he has the ability to grow younger by drinking blood, he casts no shadow, he casts no reflection, he has the ability to crawl along walls, he has the ability to control animals, he can control the weather and he also has the power to transform his own shape. Here we can see these powers.
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.
What launched Dracula to become a world famous vampire? The famous villain was named after Vlad Dracul, the prince of Romania back in 1456. The name Dracula means the son of the dragon or the devil. Dracul was responsible for killing many people in his time by staking them through the heart. He is a bloodthirsty hero in romanian folklore. Dracula was created during the Victorian era where the industrial revolution rose and caused poor work conditions and disease. Most Victorian novels portray the terrible work lives of humans and show love in the end. Dracula was not the first vampire to be introduced in literature, but has become the most popular vampire in pop culture starting from one book. The novel Dracula by Bram Stoker establishes the
fiction exist on the matter of what makes up a vampire, but if they do exist,
In 1897 Irish creator distributed Dracula, setting up the advanced vampire novel. Before composing Dracula, Stoker met Armin Vambery who was a Hungarian essayist and voyager. Dracula likely rose up out of Vámbéry's dim stories of the Carpathian mountains (Time web). Stoker at that point put in quite a while looking into European old stories and fanciful stories of vampires. Dracula is an epistolary novel, composed as an accumulation of reasonable, yet totally anecdotal, journal sections, wires, letters, ship's logs, and news sections, all of which included a level of itemized authenticity to his story, an aptitude he created as a daily paper essayist.
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
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.
From personally watching Van Helsing, Dracula untold, The Underworld series, and other Vampire movies as well as reading twilight and Dracula, that there are many characteristics that a vampire posses. One of the traits of being a vampire is being Mysteriously attractive. The character must be physically attractive as well as, he or she must, have a disposition of mystery around them that their victims sense but can’t stay away because of their attractiveness. The Character also must be alluring and dangerous which is another reason why their victims can’t stay away.
Similar to Dracula, Twilight’s vampires have many of the same characteristics. The vampires in Dracula and Twilight both are very pale. People in both books often mention how pale the vampires are. Along with pale skin their skin is usually very tough. This meaning that it is very strong and does
... aren’t ready to known yet, or maybe they’ll turn out to just be people sensitive to the sunlight. Though the hypothesis remains, Bram Stoker and all the other writers about vampire got their ideas from something. That something could’ve been a lesser version of what is thought to be a Vampire.
Not only may Vampire shows be juicy, but something about Supernatural Creatures that people love draws them in to new and superior seasons each year when they get hooked on a certain show. Sometimes we humans want to be these supernatural creatures, even for a day, to experience
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:
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 ...
- Weaponry, All vampires have an affinity with weapons, they can pick up almost any weapon and use it effectively, young or new vampires are trained in weaponry and martial arts. Vampires usually become an expert in one or two weapons. Vampires are the best assassins but aren’t used very often because they aren’t easily found and the reluctance of the seeker because of the misconception that the vampire will kill them, and then ask about the job proposition, when it would actually happen the other way around, in most circumstances.
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.