...Today’s modern day vampire is considered one of the most notorious and iconic figures all over the world. With the steady stream of vampire novels, films, and television shows being produced, it is fair to say that the vampire has become the dark horse of literature, every enthusiasts dream. Yet this wasn’t always the case, because vampires were once considered the stuff of nightmares. Every culture has stories of these once terrifying ‘bloodsucking demons’ that, according to literary historian Brian Frost, “may go back to prehistoric times”. However, many of the myths surrounding such creatures emerged mainly during the 18th century particularly arising in Eastern Europe in areas such as Serbia, Roma, and Slovakia. The major paradigm shift from the early 19th century to the early 21st century is a complete change in attitude and definition of a vampire from a terrifying creature of the night to a romantic and beautiful almost-human, resulting from a change in religious and societal beliefs. These myths sparked a mass hysteria throughout most the 18th century, with frequent reported sightings of alleged vampires. Most famous of which was the case of Serbian peasant Arnold Paole who is believed to be the first man accused of being a vampire (Marx). It was supposed he had killed 17 people from his village during the night, later returning to his coffin. Government officials who ordered his coffin to be opened believed at the time the body (which looked perfectly fine apart from...
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...1 ENGL 101 CPA-CRN The Evolution of Vampire Relationships. When we think about vampires we think about undead beings who suck blood out of living beings. In literature, these beings were depicted as less than human. Authors gave them an ugly face with big fang like incisors and animal type instincts. Within the last few decades however, authors have described vampires as more human. The vampire was given the body of a handsome/ beautiful human; in addition, they were given more human characteristics such as feelings, and emotions. However, the most important characteristic that has been ascribed to vampires is the ability to have relationships with people and other vampires. This characteristic has caused vampires to change from an inherently evil character into one that can make choices i.e based on emotion and not because of primal instinct. This has made vampire books and movies more appealing to the general population. One of the most successful vampire series is the Twilight series. The books and movies thrived because the story was different from other vampire stories. The series focused more on love rather than the killing of humans and other creatures. This causes readers to come up with a question like the following: Are vampires capable of loving someone like humans can? When the concept of vampires was first created, they were depicted as solitary creatures. The closest they came to having relationships was when they went to feed. They usually feed...
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...Dracula by Bram Stoker is most definitely one of the most well-known vampire books of all time. Stoker is known for introducing vampires to gothic horror, but 25 years prior, Carmilla was written. Not only does Carmilla predate Dracula, but the novella also contains a romantic interest between the two main characters, which both happen to be female. Even today, in the 21st centaury, same-sex relationships are not seen to be customary. To this day, over 200 years after the book was written, people still argue that the relationship between the two women is not a romantic one. Their romance is made apparent in; Carmilla and Laura’s strong initial and quickly intensifying relationship, Laura’s disgust for her feelings, and Carmilla’s defiance towards her mothers orders to protect Laura, which ultimately lead to Carmilla sacrificing her life. Laura and Carmilla’s relationship begins when they only first meet. The girls met twice, once when Laura was only a young girl, and again when the girls are 16. In both instances the girls have an immediate bond. When Laura was very young, she recalls a, “pretty face looking at [her] from the side of the bed” (Le Fanu 10). Even though a strange person startles Laura in her room she says the girl made her feel “a kind of pleased wonder,” and “delightfully soothed,” (10). This early encounter plays a strong roll in the growth of their relationship. The girls meet each other again, 12 years later, and recall seeing each other’s faces from what...
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...Vampires and zombies, two supernatural entities that have captured man’s imagination since the legends of these creatures were born. Everyone knows what a vampire is and what a zombie is (at least what they have heard of seen) but are they real? Surprisingly they are to some but no in the sense you would think. If you were to ask someone what a vampire is, you would probably get the standard answer, “Pointed fangs, thirst for blood, undead” etc. According to howstuffworks.com, These legends most likely originated in ancient Mesopotamia, with the Assyrian legend of the Lamatsu. The Lamastu was a demon goddess who would creep into a house at night and kill or kidnap babies and would also suck blood from young men, hence the vampire legend. There are many legends which contain an ancestor to the vampire legend. In Greek mythology, Lamia, a once mortal half woman half snake, would suck blood from infants. These are all examples of “early vampires”, the modern vampire was more directly influenced by the folklore of eastern Europe. One name for an eastern European vampire is Strigoi. These type creatures were also called Vampir, or Vampyr, hence the English word vampire. In the 17th and 18th centuries a wave of vampire hysteria rolled across Europe. During this time people reported seeing dead relatives walking around and attacking the living (howstuffworks). The best block in the evolution of the modern vampire is of course, Dracula, Bram Stoker’s character...
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...heard of and/or seen an interpretation of vampires and, the supposed king of all vampires, Count Dracula, whether it be in all the several different variations and interpretations that can be seen in movies (most recently the series of Blade movies starring Wesley Snipes) that have been released over the last few decades all the way to “The Count” on “Sesame Street” the long running children’s television show) or “Count Chocula” (on the cover of a children’s cereal box). When people hear either the word vampires or Dracula, most of the time people tend to think about the mythical blood sucking race of immortals called vampires and also some people that know a little more than the average person does about vampires may think about several of their stereotypical characteristics such as: they are from a place called Transylvania, they have sharp, pointy teeth to draw blood from the necks of humans, they can not come outside during the day, they sleep in coffins, turn into bats, and they are killed by pure silver, garlic, and several religious artifacts. However, people do not really think about all the connections between the vampires and all of the religious artifacts that are said to kill them. Religion plays a major role in the story of Dracula, because when one looks closely enough to what vampires and Dracula are all about one can see that vampires are basically the antichrist. Without religion the alternative ways of killing a vampire would make them seem almost as though they...
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...written by Darren Shan, and Thriller, a song by Michael Jackson, many horror gothic features and techniques are applied and are easily recognised to help anyone understand the horror genre more clearly. It is usual in horror texts for there to be a conflict between good and evil characters, dark and spooky settings, and a suspenseful build-up that causes tension for the audience and makes them wonder what might happen next. Van Helsing is about a troubled man who dedicates his life to rid the world of evil forces as he tries to hunt down the unanswered questions of his past. He finds himself on a quest in Transylvania to kill Dracula and prevent the continuation of his kind, along with Anna, a brave woman whose family has been killed by vampires for over 400 years. Dracula is a powerful and dangerous character who is immediately regarded as the antagonist from his first word, “success!” It is enhanced by a loud boom of thunder to create shock and an element of excitement for the audience and marks Dracula as a threatening and frightening character. Monstrosity is likewise displayed through Frankenstein’s character when we are introduced to him. We are given three close-up shots of his eyes, hand, and yelling mouth which makes the audience think that he is this gruesome creature when he is only just misunderstood. Many times in the film, we see gothic architecture such as Dracula’s castle and the Church of Notre Dame. In the scientist’s lab we see lights flickering and sparks...
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...The Origin of the Vampire Vampires, are they a mythical creature that was created by superstition and folklore or did they begin from someone’s fantastic imagination based on a real live person? Or maybe it was created to explain a cluster of misunderstood medical conditions that began before the medical world had advanced science and knowledge on the body and its psyche. It’s a word that inspires awe, fear, and romanticism all at once. Vampires are known in every culture and have been kept alive through stories that have been told throughout the generations. When someone utters the word “vampire” most people’s mind jump to Dracula from the great love story written by Bram Stoker. Dracula was created because Stoker was inspired by a real live man, the infamous, Vlad Tepes from Romania. That story is where love and vampires were intertwined and a kind of admiration was born. Only till recently they have become these seductive beautiful men and women in movies like ‘Twilight’ and ‘The Lost Boys’. So we are going to embark on the journey of where vampires began and explore the different aspects and origins of vampires. How these creatures were created was recorded in European folklore, Greek Mythology, found in medical conditions, and even taken from an excluded book of the bible. What is a vampire? Where did they come from? Well to get some answers we must first start at the beginning. First we must look at the word vampire. It is also spelled “vampir” or “vampyre”...
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...I'm going to talk about Vampire [ˈvæmˌpaɪə]. There are six part of this presentation, which are What's the vampire, The history of Vampires, The vampire's features and fears, Vampire's propagation [ˌprɔpəˈgeɪʃən], The reality of Vampires and Vampires on the movies. So, to begin with, let's look at what's the vampire. Vampires are mythological or folkloric[ˈfəukˌlɔ:rik] creatures who subsist[səbˈsɪst] by feeding on the life essence [ˈesns] of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person. In other words, vampires are the creatures that feed on with blood. The first vampire is named Cain[kein], he is one of tow sons of Adam [ˈædəm] and Eva [ˈi:və] ,but he killed his brother Abe [eib] and refused to amend [əˈmend]. So he was punished to become vampire by god. Cain created the second generation of vampires which have 13 laters as the third generation. The 13 members founders their own clans and held strong powers. thousands of years later, the vampires have increased to 15th-16th generation. Next, I'd like to look at the history of vampires. It can date back to the early nineteenth century when vampires were recorded in the folkloric tales. And then in 1891 year, The fascinating ˈ[fæsineitiŋ] and sophisticated [səˈfistikeitid] vampire of modern fiction was born with the publication of The Vampire by John Polidori. In 1897, Bram Stoker[ˈstəʊkə] wrote a novel named Dracula. It is remembered as the typical vampire novel and provided the basis...
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...Blood Suckers to Love Suckers Growing up as a kid, Vampires always used to scare me. Even on Halloween when parents would answer the front door I would run away. However, when I watching Twilight, I realized that this movie was more romantic than scary. I have seen other vampire movies such as, Dracula, Mom’s got a Date with a Vampire, and even Scooby-Doo and the Legend of the Vampire and those were scarier than twilight. Although I believe the United States of America is the greatest country, I personally believe that there is a case where there is softening in America. Last year, I took an elective class for my senior year that was called, Issues in Modern America. A couple of my friends and I decided instead of the weekly blog post we would do a weekly video podcast. One of our topics for the podcast was the weakening of America. At first, I didn’t think this was an issue, but then I looked at the way we as children grew up and how my parents grew up. There were two words that can easily separate my parents and I and how we got punished as a kid. For me it was getting grounded, not so bad. For my parents, it was the wooden spoon. “Swift flick of the wrist with a wooden spoon to the head if something wasn’t done right.” My dad would always tell me. Although getting beat with a wooden spoon and vampires could not be more opposite, I thought about the podcast me and my friends did and thought, “why are vampires now all about feelings and are not focusing on ‘I want to suck...
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...to Dictonary.com a vampire is, “A preternatural being, commonly believed to be a reanimated corpse, that is said to suck the blood of sleeping persons at night.” Dracula fits into that definition of a vampire almost perfectly because vampires are essentially dead people that came bad to live to drink other people’s blood and that is exactly what Dracula does in the story. Dracula makes people think that vampires have to be all the exact same way. It kind of set the way for modern day television and movies. Although Stoker didn’t create the concept of vampires, he expressed how they looked and acted more than how they were described before. In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the main character is not a stereotype but over time television and media has made it a stereotype in works such as The Vampire Diaries. The first thing people think about when they hear vampire is that they drink lots of human blood. Blood is what vampires need to get their energy to do everyday tasks and activities. In the eighteenth chapter of Dracula, Renfield explains to Mina that “The doctor here will bear me...
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...This became quite clear when he told Mina about his first wife’s death, as, he became sad-looking and clearly depressed. A little bit later, Dracula tries to make Mina a vampire, but it seems that something about her holds him back, and he does not bite her. Another scene that showed the emotional side of him was when he snuck into Mina’s room by becoming green mist and tried to make her vampire, but at first, he could not do it, saying, “I… love you too much to condemn you.” This shows that although he loves Mina and wants to be with her, he doesn’t want to curse her by giving her immortality. The director most likely did this so that the audience would have some pity on the poor creature (Dracula) for loving someone so much that he bears mercy on them. Another good reason for this is because in most movies in the 21st century, filmmakers tried to make monsters show that while they are evil, there is never complete evil in someone, regardless of who or what they...
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...Zombies and Vampires have been part of many legends, but now they are very popular with people and have many stories of their own. Many have seen horror movies, and television shows which we became scared of. The younger generation sees them as ‘awesome ’monsters. They capture our imagination and both are popular amongst adults and teenagers these days. Vampires suck human’s blood, unlike zombies that feed on human flesh. Sure both are incredible creatures that we like, but if a situation were to happen where you can become a vampire or a zombie, who would you be? Vampires and Zombies are creatures that harm humans and show many similarities and differences within them. Vampires are known to drink blood by biting on human’s necks. They have...
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...religion and science and how together the ability to perceive situations is broader. In the same scene, once seeing vampire Lucy, Seward was able to look past his love for Lucy and understand what was actually happening. The many themes are represented by the characters themselves. A very subtle but important statement was made about the impact of evil on women. To portray this minor theme Stoker utilized Lucy. The graveyard scene summarizes Lucy’s...
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...Kate Finch completed a study on the popular HBO series, True Blood. The research was an analysis of the Vampire Rights Amendment through public relations in pop culture and the theme of post feminism. The research is about the view post feminism view of public relations in pop culture using True Blood as a model. It shows the use of promotion, persuasion and public relations to draw in an audience. “Views interpretations are profoundly influenced by the social discourse in which they are interrelated.” (Brunsdon and Spigel,, 2007, pg. 260) It is important cause it gives the audience a deeper view of the feminism culture in popular culture, while allowing people to people it in the form of a television show that they would be able to spot and...
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...The novel Dracula, by Bram Stoker, is a complex novel. It is full of juxtaposition, symbolism and complex themes about life, the world around us, society, and our deepest internal struggles. Yet perhaps one of the greatest juxtapositions in Dracula is the juxtaposition between science and superstition, seen through the shortcomings of both, where the other succeeds, and the balance between them seen in the character of Professor Van Helsing. Throughout the novel there are many evident shortcomings of both science and superstition. For example When a young woman, named Lucy, is bitten by a vampire, named Dracula, which is where the book gets its title, she is cared for by a doctor, Dr. Seward, but despite his science and medical knowledge he...
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