History of the Concept and Image of Vampires

Dracula by Bram Stoker is a horror story about a hero’s quest to rid the world of vampires from the Victorian era. Readers are horrified by his graphic descriptions and horrifying struggles. However, Dracula is much more than just a vampire fantasy; in this novel, Bram Stoker explores the unconscious sexual desires repressed during the Victorian era and the controversy surrounding sexuality.

The novel, Dracula was not chosen in vain as this particular work of Stoker’s boldly tackles the subject of immigration and its dangers. The main plot of the story is that a powerful vampire from Transylvania, Count Dracula, enters England to conquer it. Essentially everyone is oblivious to Dracula’s invasion except for our six heroes who are all that stand in his way. These heroes successfully save England, and humanity as a whole, by driving Dracula, the foreigner, out and eventually brutally murdering him. Through the tale of Dracula, Stoker and his stance on immigration become extremely clear: uncontrollable immigration must be stopped. As stated by Stephen Arata, this fear of the “primitive force”

The myth of the vampire existed in a multitude of civilizations and cultures under various names such is strigoi (for the Romanian territory), Apotamkin, etc. But no matter the name, vampires will always refer to gothic creatures that drain the blood of humans, thus being monstrous.

Vampire is "a bloodsucking ghost that come back from dead person believed to come from the place where a body is buried and wander about by night sucking the blood of people asleep and causing their death." Before vampires were seen as evil monsters and creatures humans must fear. However, now, vampires have become an "famous popular culture and fascination among teens around the world"  This art has increased vampire large groups of fans this way resulting to the creation of many fan clubs and social organizations, whether online or not.

Vampires have been around for centuries, they represent the fear of many things such as sexuality, race, gender, etc. and above all, they stand for the fear of diseases. Vampires have once been the symbol of horror due to their terrific depictions and were described as a threat to the humanity. Throughout time, the image of vampire has changed dramatically from a monstrous, inhumanely creature that doesn’t belong to human society to such an attractive and adaptive figure that expresses more of the human side than the evil. They developed human feelings, senses, and live within our society. Modern vampire movies are often more romantic and “sympathetic” comparing to the past. Vampires have abandoned their horror and evolved to a more

which has the upper body of a woman and the lower body of a winged

Bram stoker has used the technique of visual imagery to describe Dracula’s appearance because he was dark and suspicious The vampire looks this way because in 1897, during the Victorian era many english men and woman feared foreigners and all evil. Therefore, vampires are represented to be evil creatures from the devil, foreigners, dark and mysterious and look like a old

The vampires many people image today are very different to those imagined in olden times. According to Michael Molina from the “Vampire: Folklore, Fantasy and Fact” video, many ancient societies had myths of vampire-like monsters. For example the Mesopotamians had myths about a creature called Lamashtu that drank blood, had a lion’s head and a donkey’s body. The Ancient Greeks also had myths about a creature that were described as “blood thirsty birds” called Striges. These ancient creatures differed greatly from different societies, but they shared one common characteristic: they all fed off of living organism (Molina). As the years went by, many of

The generalization for vampires has been displayed in films and literature for hundreds of years. The stereotypical versions of vampires are that they have long fangs, sleep in coffins during the day, and suck the blood out of humans. Both novels contradict those stereotypes in different ways. To understand the diversity of the vampires described in both novels, one must examine the characteristics that the vampires display and the meaning and purpose behind them. David D. Gilmore’s book “Monsters” analyzes monsters and other mythical creatures. Gilmore describes why humanity invented the idea of

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

People! Hey, people! People! Listen up, because this will blow your freakin’ minds. Modern fantasy fiction? Totally based on a retro role-playing tabletop game. For real. I know, I know, I had trouble containing my amazement at this epic discovery I just made today. I’m probably like the first person ever to make this connection. In all seriousness though, modern fantasy would not be what it is without the influence of classic tabletop roleplaying games like the Dungeons & Dragons and World of Darkness series. I spent countless hours as teen and college student tossing D20s and D6s, my mind drowned in The Forgotten Realms and the adventures of Drizzt Dro’Urden and Wulfgar son of Beorngar. To this day, I still see the influence of D20 games

Vampires are a common mythical being that has been known about for hundreds of years. The folklore started when corpses could often be seen with built-up bodily fluids leaking from their mouths. The broken down blood cells contributed to the red color, making it appear as though the corpse had recently been feeding. This is contrary to how vampires are portrayed in modern media, in fact most vampires nowadays are portrayed as sexual beings who serve the purpose to cause people to lust for them. There are still texts and other forms of media that show the vampire as a dark monster, but in most novels or movies, you’ll see a vampire as a sexual desire.

The Vampire in Dracula threatens the very existence of Victorian England. Stoker constructs the vampire as an embodiment of threat by surpassing his Gothic novelist predecessors to bring the threat of the Gothic home to Victorian England (Arata 119). This in turn crosses the boundary between what is foreign and what is national; and dually East and West. Dracula is open to many

When ancient societies did not understand some unusual phenomena, they attributed it to some mythological creature. They did not know for instance that the reason behind the appearance of fangs is the Porphyria disease. Only scientists did. They did not know for instance that the reason behind lightning is a massive electrostatic discharge between the electrically charged regions within clouds .Only scientists did. Thus, it is this inclination to provide explanations for themselves that led ancient societies to invent a mythological creature like the vampire. It is this same inclination that led ancient societies to attribute lightning to an angry God. Asking a scientific question like “Are Vampires real ? “ represents the real wooden stake that penetrates the heart of this supernatural myth. In truth, vampires have no real existence. Yet, despite the absence of concrete scientific explanations for the vampire myth, the subject continues to fascinate many people generation after generation. For instance, nineteenth century artists and thinkers who do not believe in its existence find the subject very intriguing and see numerous metaphoric possibilities in a mythic creature from the past. Nineteenth century thinkers and artists are using the popularity of the vampire myth to raise awareness of very real and potential anxieties. In nineteenth century Gothic novels, particularly, the vampire figure has been exploited and transformed from myth into a metaphor to

Vampires are creatures of the undead and night. These Monsters represent our fears and desires. They play a big role in societies today and back then. Even though