Vampire Existence

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.

Humans for centuries have been drawn to vampires. From sitting around the fire in the time before the industrial revolution, to sitting around the table and in modern times watching it on the big screen. The folk tales of the undead that hunt at night, sucking the blood of the innocent has haunted and intrigued the human psyche for as long folklore has been in existence. Being afraid of what is being told to them, yet being unable to pull away. The pull and push affect that these mystical monsters have on the human aura is undeniable. Modern day vampires have a cult like following. When the Twilight series came out, the people where divided between team Jacob and team Edward. Teenage girls would swoon over these monsters, dangerous yet alluring.

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 earliest known mention of vampires comes from Ancient Mesopotamia, where people feared and respected Lamashtu, Sky God Anu’s daughter and the most terrible of all female demons1. Dimme, as she was called in Sumerian, was frequently blamed for the dominant struggles experienced by the population, such as bringing nightmares, infesting rivers, killing foliage, miscarriages, diseases and even muscle cramps. Yet perhaps the most dreadful of all her evil deeds was murdering unsuspecting men and children to later devour on their flesh and blood, much like the literary vampires.

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

“The word vampire (or vampyre) entered the English language in 1732, according to The Oxford English Dictionary” (Skal 200). One can’t go living life without knowing about the vampire because they’re everywhere! Someone can

Vampire have been made out to be a lot of thing over the years of history. Vampires are evil mythological beings who roam the world at night searching for people whose blood they feed upon. They may be the best-known classic monsters of all. Most people associate vampires with Count Dracula, the legendary, blood-sucking subject of Bram Stoker’s epic novel, Dracula, which was published in 1897. But the history of vampires began long before Stoker was born. (History.com Staff A+E Networks, 2017). Many people also believed that vampire’s legends came from bats “vampire bats” but the legends and myths go much deeper and older.

The first record of vampires’ undead activity was in Sebia (Butler 77). The local inhabitants’ lives were uneasy, because they were confused about their identities and what they should follow (Butler 77). In this circumstance, vampire myth appeared to express the society’s anxiety by their irregularities, such as upsetting healthy sexuality and destroying normal patterns of reproduction (Butler 78). Places like back alleys and hidden recess provide opportunities for vampires to gain their powers and their exotic influence

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

Vampire legends and myths are thousands of years old and find homes in most cultures around the world. From the chiang-shih of China to the Lamia of Greek legend, a mix of a woman and winged Serpent (Richardson, 2007). These myths, however, have little in common with modern tellings of the vampire, which are based on European myths. The European vampire myths originated in places like China, Tibet and India and was taken back to the coast of Greece and into the Balkans, which include the Carpathian Mountains and Transylvania (Richardson, 2007).

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

Vampires seem to be a part of all cultures, from the Far-East to Western Europe, cultures have some monster that resembles what we all know as a vampire. This essay argues that vampirism is a reflection of the culture and highlights other aspects of the culture not directly reflected. Vampires reflect the culture in multiple ways, from what people believe, to how people classify each other into groups that highlight the differences between the individual classifying and the others being classified (Cohen 17). Cohen’s “Monster Culture (Seven Theses)” expands on several different aspects of monster culture, such as how they reflect society as well as how they show what a culture perceives as different or bad, often times revealing how things

The superstitious and mythical figure of the vampire has been seen throughout all era’s off history. It is a figure of mythology that is transcendent in an abundance of cultures and regions. The most significant aspect of the vampire is its ability to redefine itself throughout history and continued to stay relevant to society. The most modern and commonly known definition of vampires is a preternatural being know to be a corpse that resurrects from the dead and lives of the living, by draining humans of their blood, until a it is impaled by a wooden stick or burned. In ancient history we see the myth of the vampire appearing in burial traditions, showing vast similarities to the modern day definition of the vampire. We see this appear in various cultures and regions like the Tibetans, ancient Babylonia, Egypt, Greece, and Rome (Wotherspoon, 6-8).

When one hears the word vampire, one automatically thinks of the evil monster that sucks the blood and life out of people.

Yet, during the 20th century there were lots of crime and violence that happen. Which I think represent the vampires. Meaning, they were the ones who are killing innocent people that just want social power. Which made people fear that walking at night was very dangerous.