The Vampire in Folklore vs the Vampire in Literature

Pale, bloodthirsty, and fangs are some words that trigger readers’ minds with one particular being: a vampire. These creatures have been around for centuries and it is evident how they are all portrayed with negativity, including in Bram Stoker’s novel: Dracula. Jonathan Harker, a lawyer who goes to Transylvania to meet with his new client, Count Dracula, to discuss the topic of purchasing a property in England. Over the course of his stay, he discovers that the host is actually a nosferatu (vampire in Latin). Jonathan nearly escapes and finds himself in Hospital of St. Joseph and Ste.

The first writer to introduce the vampire in literature was Lord Byron in the eighteenth century, but the most significant writer to develop the myth was Bram Stoker. He is the „father” of the vampire as he gave a complete description of the vampire in his most famous book” Dracula”. After the release of the book, the myth of the vampire became extremely popular amongst writers and as a consequence the books whose main

The authors state that the vampire combines lust and death. The passage Bram Stoker’s Dracula (pg. 196) combines both of these elements by the three beautiful vampire sisters being aggressive, insatiable and sensual, wanting to turn Jonathan Harker into one of them. Also, Harker being sexually stimulated by the attention of these three women. Our current cultural attitudes towards lust and death influences more recent vampire stories because men and women’s sexual behavior has been brought down and forbidden. If a male or female is sexually adventurous and their behavior is against social norms, they’re seen and considered dangerous. Also, vampires embody that desire and represent other attractive qualities that go beyond limits and

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

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

Representations of the vampire archetype have changed over time. This is because people have different context of vampires due to different eras. The Bram Stoker’s original vampire text “Dracula” is about two men going on a business trip to meet Dracula. He was very welcoming but after a day the two man saw Dracula for who he was really was a vampire. It reflects the context of 1897 by the humans saw the vampire as a demon from the devil. The humans saw the Vampire was a demon because they were evil. In 2008 Catherine Hardwick released “Twilight”. This film is about a family of vampire called the Cullen’s trying to live a normal human live. The Cullen's didn’t feed from humans blood they feeded of animal blood The kids go to a school in a small town called Forks, Washington. The similarities between the archetypes in both text are that the vampire in Twilight and Dracula feeded on blood, don’t go in the sun and wear clothes what are hide most of their body’s. However, the main difference are, In the Cullen's talk to human and live close to him, go to school to with them, whereas Dracula doesn't.

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

To answer this question, I decided to look at three of the most influential pieces of vampire literature from the 19th century, including: John Polidori’s The Vampyre, Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Firstly, I will examine and compare the portrayals of each antagonist in their text. I will then compare the literary and folkloric depictions of vampires to see how faithful the writers’ work is to the original lore, as well as identify the possible reasons behind any alterations made by the

The vampire is not by any means a new manifestation of the fears of a society. Their presence in human culture can be traced back for centuries in human folklore. The first Anglicized representations of the creature in literature date back to the English poetry of the early 1700s, and were then followed in the fiction genre by such works as John William Polidori’s The Vampyre, Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla, and of course, Bram Stoker’s Dracula. For the audiences of the 18th century, vampires embodied many of the following common fears shared between the people: of illness, both mental and epidemic, of an embraced sexuality, particularly that of women’s and homosexuals’, and of foreigners. As the archetypical vampire evolved throughout the

People have always and will always be affected by the infamous vampire. “Norine Dresser, a folklorist at UCLA also wrote a book at that time called American Vampires in which she documented vampire images in the media and described the effects on people who claimed to be vampires. She sent out a questionnaire, and out of 574 respondents, 27 percent admitted to a belief in vampires” (Ramsland 65). Certain individuals would file their teeth into a razor-sharp weapon, sleep in coffins, avoid the sun, and dress entirely in black. Some people would even form small groups to exchange blood in secret. Sadly enough, people would go too far to become their fictitious character. Known as “Lust Murders,” people would kill in order to get a sexual pleasure as a vampire would. In 1827, a moody 24 year old vine dresser named Leger killed a 12 year old girl in the woods. He admitted that he drank her blood, mutilated her genitals, tore out and ate a part of her heart, and then buried her remains. When he was questioned about his horrific event, he talked with no emotion or remorse. Two other “Lust Murders” comprise of a man cutting his arm for his wife to suck on before sex because it would arouse his wife so strongly. The second is “a man dissected his victims and got so caught up in the gore that he trembled with the desire to wallow in it and consume it” (Ramsland 105).

In the late nineteenth century vampires started to evolve into to what is the modern day vampire. Although they were still seen as “evil”, the vampires of the late twentieth century were no longer creepy creatures that would crawl out of their coffins to seduce women and feed from their blood. This was the start of a new period of

The vampire is an embodiment of society 's deepest fears. Throughout literary history, the vampire has always been characterised as a vile figure of pure evil. However the depiction of the vampire is affected by the social, historical and political context of the time. As context shifts, so does the collective fear of society, with the portrayal of the vampire following suit. Dracula, I Am Legend and Twilight, three extremely popular books of vampire fiction created during vastly different periods in history, are representative of this shift. In Dracula, the titular character is depicted as an anti-christ figure by the author, Bram Stoker, who attempts to warn people about the dangers of straying from traditional Christian ideals. I Am Legend, a nineteen-fifties post-apocalyptic novel, emphasises the dangers of a world ravaged by environmental destruction. The wasteland, that was once earth, becomes populated by animalistic, brutal vampires that have been created as a result of an environmental plague. Finally, Twilight is a teen-angst novel written by Stephenie Meyer in 2005 and adapted into a movie of the same name in 2008. In a day and age where more people have begun to adopt humanitarian views, society has put a strong emphasis on rehabilitation and redemption. Contrary to this ideology, Edward Cullen, the main vampire, has a deeply ingrained fear that he is beyond saving thus reflecting society 's fears that one can inherently be beyond redemption.

Different depictions of vampires are commonly exhibited in vampire folklore in past and present literature and film. The diversity of different variations of vampire legends are prominently seen in most literature, but the main ideas and attributes are generally the same. This is not that case when focusing on specific novels discussed in class. The novels I Am Legend by Richard Matheson and Fledgling by Octavia Butler are two contrasting works of vampire folklore. The novels are about different societies of vampires. They both emerged in different ways, the survive and feed in contrasting ways, and they both represent completely different forms of vampires. This essay will examine the characterizations of the contrasting the vampire species in both I Am Legend and Fledgling, as well as, investigating how these different species of vampires relate to human species.

While many real vampires exist in the Harry Potter universe, the truest example of a literary vampire lies in the antagonist, Lord Voldemort. In his book, Professor Foster describes a literary vampire as an older man who takes advantage of youth and loyalty by stealing the life (literally or figuratively) from innocent people or followers. In Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, Voldemort exhibits the traits of a vampire in two situations. In the Harry Potter universe, the unicorn is a creature of pure innocence. While serving detention in the Forbidden Forest, Harry sees Voldemort as he “reached the unicorn, lowered [his] head over the wound in the animal’s side, and began to drink its blood (Rowling 256). This is the most obvious portrayal

Punter and Byron reinforce this claim by stating that, “Dracula is associated with disruption and transgression of accepted limits and boundaries” (231). It is relevant to consider the aggressive behavior of Dracula towards his victims while he is on the prowl to fulfill his thirst for blood, especially with Lucy and Reinfield and the image of female vampires feeding on young children (Lucy). This bolsters the notion that the depiction of vampires in early portrays was violent. Also, as a sexually powerful creature, he preyed on men and women to fulfill his desires. The sexual representation of vampires is also evident from Ernest Jones’ early analysis of folktales, including the vampire. He proceeded to conclude that vampire’s and their counterparts, namely the Churel (India) and the Drud (vampires that prey exclusively on other vampires), do not confine themselves to sucking blood; rather “in the unconscious mind, blood is commonly associated with semen” (106). It would be inaccurate to associate these references to anything but the erotic nature of older folktales. Even in Dracula, the Count is portrayed as a seductive aristocrat who sucks on the blood of men and women, alike. The homosexual aspect of vampire tales is also apparent in “Carmilla” (Joseph le- Fanu 1872). As pointed out by Punter and Byron, Laura experiences intense erotic advances from the female vampire, to the extent of being puzzled