The Evolution Of Vampire Literature

Have you ever thought to yourself, what has influenced vampire literature today? Well, neither have I, but it wouldn’t hurt to touch on the subject. Dracula introduces the idea of lust and death within vampirism. Also, there are many connections that I make throughout this essay between Dracula and I am Legend, proving that Dracula was an influence on the book. The opposition of Dracula has had great influences on vampire literature.We see that these two pieces of literature are so much similar than one would think. Both authors even use similar words to describe the similar things, which I hadn’t even noticed until I made further inspection. .The book Dracula, written by

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

There are four essentials of a Vampire story. The first one is an older person who is corrupt and usually a male. The second aspect is a young person who is usually a virginal female. Third, the young individual has her youth, energy, and innocence taken away from her, while the older individual continuous to have a prosperous life. Lastly, the young individual dies or destructs.

The vampire is the popular character in folklore from early civilization to modern life. The vampire appears in people mind with the passion of immortality, fear, love and mystery. People are attracted with vampire because the superstition of the vampire has done for centuries. Are they real? What are they? Where they come from? There are a few of thousand questions about the beliefs of vampire during many centuries. People don’t stop their curiosity with vampire- the legend that emulates the world cultures and religions. One of the most important reason that made vampire still popular until today is the great transformation. During the time, with the creative of human, vampire reforms to fit with modern age. According to the “Jung and the Jungians on Myth”, Steven Walke implies myth is a metaphor and come from the collective of human psyche. People use vampire as the tools to explain human thinking. Therefore, the charging in the thinking of people in different period of time will effect to the symbol of vampire. The research will explain the transformation of vampire by diving to three main topics: the vampire in the historical and religion thinking; the charging of vampire in literature and movie; the symbol of vampire in modern people thinking. Although three main topics seem separately, these connect and develop other idea like cause and effect. Depend on the information of history, the image of vampire in novel become reality. From the idea of vampire in novel, modern

Who would’ve guessed that the modern tale of vampirism is nothing more than an exaggerated representation of many of the people in our current society? One of the best metaphors for drug addiction is the blood lust of a vampire. Consistently throughout literature and television, vampires are portrayed as impulse-reacting monsters that lack self control. “Each of the vampire’s victims are momentary meals and the vampires are drawn to them through the needs of their subconscious” (Ramsland 5). Vampires directly represent drug addicts because the two are both drawn to something that they will eventually feel guilty for, but neither of them can turn down the opportunity to indulge. What is addiction? According to Pawel Jedras, author of “The Role of Anticipation in Drug Addiction and Reward,” “addiction [is] the craving [or need] for something that is not actually needed or necessary for survival” (Jedras). “Vampires in the Lemon Grove” by Karen Russell is a story consisting of vampires and the idea of addiction. The story’s main characters are two married vampires named Clyde and Magreb. Clyde is a recovering blood addict and Magreb is his supportive wife. The story focuses on Clyde and the problems that his addiction causes in his life. “Vampires in the Lemon Grove” by Karen Russell, represents a person’s struggle with drug addiction, seclusion from others, and the pushing away of loved ones because Clyde does all of these

Ever since my middle school friend introduced me to Twilight, I have been obsessed with vampires. With my obsession came a need to share my interest with other people. After my friends got sick of listening to my constant chatter about vampires, I turned to my mom to talk about my interest. When I told my mom about modern day vampires, she laughed and told me that the creatures I was talking about were not vampires. She said that vampires are bloodthirsty evil beings that are not handsome and certainly not sparkly. Through my conversation with my mother, I found out that the views of vampires have changed greatly throughout generations. I found that cultural and societal changes that occur throughout history has changed our image and perspectives of vampires.

According to one view, Dracula, in many ways, can be seen as a “metaphor for human evil.” A vampire’s devil-like characteristics creates a profile representing all the evil that can manifest in human beings. For instance, one common characteristic between vampires and evil humans is Ego-Centrism, when one’s ego acts like a “tyrant”. This kinds of person is self-centered and takes little interest in the desires or needs of others. Dracula illustrates a form of ego-centrism in that his ego is so high that he believes that there’s no spirt or higher authority that he needs to answer to other than himself. He believes that he’s perfect and judges the rest of the world according to his own standards. Another common characteristic between vampires and evil beings is their continuous hunger for power and need to be able to control others so that they can do them as they please. If vampires are an extension of humans, some people may ask how can vampires justify their actions and be able live with themselves after all the bad things they’ve done. The simple answer is they don’t. Vampires, as many evil humans are, tend to be in denial, lying to themselves about who they really are. They know that they would not be able to handle the guilt associated with their sins, such as murder and sucking the blood of others. Therefore, vampires disguise themselves to make themselves appear normal, in

Feminism was a rising social shift in the late nineteenth century. Women's sexuality was seen as impure and insensitive to the society. Because of this, the feminist’s objective was to modify the conviction of the perfect Victorian while being able to express oneself sexually without shame. In other words, many women had sexual desires, but could not express them because of the society’s standard of women. To support this, Lois Drawmer wrote in his article, “Vampires: Myth and Metaphors of Enduring Evil”, “development of the women's movement received a backlash in the resurgence of reactionary ideology of “deviant” female sexuality” (Drawmer 1). Feminism was frowned upon because of the social and sexual standards of the era. Therefore,

Although they are not the oldest tales of vampire, much of what is popular in the modern vampire tale stems out of European vampire stories. Almost every aspect of the idea of the vampire is derived from the legends that originate from ancient Greece, Romania, the Romani people, and even live on in multiple places such as Serbia and England.

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 title character and antagonist of Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula is an easily recognizable character in the Western canon. Without ever reading the book or watching any of the countless movie adaptations, people will craft vampire characters with feelings and behaviors nearly identical to those of Dracula. However, Dracula’s success is not because it was the first novel of its kind. Vampiric literature had been around for at least a century, and two works, Varney the Vampire and Carmilla, were popular at the time of Dracula’s publication. Why has Dracula become the stereotypical vampire figure when there are other well-rounded characters of the type? The answer

Professor Jeffrey Weinstock a professor in an English department in the Central Michigan University wrote the article “Vampires, Vampires, Everywhere!” Weinstock talks about how vampires are everywhere from cereal boxes to horror movies, and he explains certain principles that most vampire stories go by. The fist principle explains that all of the vampire stories are all about sex. He assumes that it is due to establish and reinforce proper sexual roles. A good example that he gives us is Lugosi’s Dracula in 1931. The second principle that he mentions is that the vampire is more appealing to the audience than those who pursue it. He argues that vampires seek self-satisfaction and eternal life, therefore explaining why it seems appealing to

Vampires have been around as long as the start of the first civilizations. One of the early civilizations to depict vampires were Persians. Edgar Comden wrote a book named The Esoteric Codex: Corporeal Undead in which he explained the ancient beliefs about vampires. As he explained in his book, Persians carved pictures of blood sucking creatures on their pottery shards as an indication of vampires. (110) Ancient Babylon is also one of the early civilizations with the beliefs similar to vampires. Lilith was believed to be a demon who sucked blood out of babies and their mothers. Later, Sumerians described Lilith as “an infertile "beautiful maiden" and was believed to be a harlot and vampire who, after having chosen a lover, would never

The always clever and cunning Sherlock Holmes manages to crack another case in Arthur Conan Doyle’s short story named The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire. The short story is part of twelve Sherlock Holmes stories, which were collected between the years 1921-1927 and published under the name The Case Book of Sherlock Holmes. The intricate short stories were first published in January 1924 by The Strand Magazine in London, and they proved to be immensely popular amongst their readers. In total, Arthur Conan Doyle wrote fifty-six short stories with Sherlock Holmes starring as his leading detective. For one thing, the 130th anniversary of Arthur Conan Doyle’s creation of famous sleuth Sherlock Holmes, the absolute