Vampires Manifest Fear, Which Shapes How Society Responds to Vampires

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. Dracula and Silence of the lambs both evidently belong to the gothic horror genre because of their association with the disruption and transgression of both social and psychic limits within their societies. Dracula can be read as a novel of reverse colonisation, describing the civilised world-facing invasion by the vampire’s primitive force; late Victorian society sees it’s own imperial practise emulated back in monstrous form. Contemporary society overindulging in its use of the vampire has established it as extraneous, creating a reduced effect of revulsion and fear towards the vampire and thus a devalued consequence in the response of society. Silence of the lambs can be seen as an updated narrative of reverse consumerism as Hannibal’s “compulsion to feed on humans” is a reflection of the monstrously exaggerated civilization of the 20th century. Therefore these examples show how the qualities of the vampire manifest fear and how this shapes the manner in which society responds to it.

Through a feminist reading of Bram stoker’s novel Dracula, there is examination into the alluring power of the vampire that accompanies their overt sexuality. This is a facet of the vampire, which creates a "greatly desired and equally strongly feared fantasy" (Glennis Byron, 1996) within the society of the Victorian era. Harker’s approaching by three v...

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...sumes nothing so ravenously as itself." Therefore these examples show how the qualities of the vampire manifest fear and how society responds to it.

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.