The Bite of Popular Culture
Written by: Payton Thompson
English One
December Fifteenth, 2011
Vampires have been the enthralling focus of mankind for centuries. There are few countries in the world that does not mention the Vampire in folklore, fewer still who have negated to bestow upon their Vampire with super-human traits. Most specifically, these traits are characteristics desired by the common man. As stated on the website simply-Supernatural, these traits, such Super speed and strength, eternal youth and vigor, flight, immunity to disease, and the ability to change their form at will; are desired by nearly every human.
Simply put, the average person imagines Vampirism is a type of one-up-man-ship, the idea that the average man can surpass the skills of any other human. Vampires are a step above the best that man could be. Vampires are the perfection that humanity has spent their history trying to achieve.
Vampires first became popular with the initial Publication of Bram Stoker’s Dracula. The book that began as a nightmare in the mind of the drunkard sparked off one of the largest cult followings in history up to that point. After all, in London at the time, the social scene was restrictive at best. As written in A Vampire in the Mirror: The sexuality of Dracula, Vampires were all about letting out the inner monster, taking what one wanted merely because one wanted it. The character Dracula was powerful and well-polished in addition to sexual and sleek. The culture had a collision with his or her own temptation, thus, Dracula was successful.
Another idea for the popularity of the Vampire is his “otherness” (Vampire in the Mirror). While Vampires are rumored to maintain human traits, as mentioned on the website supernatural.com, they maintain a sense of otherness, which holds a sense of fascination (as well as repulsion) for man (Vampire in the Mirror). Humankind’s willingness to judge foreign beings adds to the mystery of the Vampire himself.
Vampires are also believed to be unclean or “tainted”, which is an alluring ideal to the average person (Vampire in the Mirror).
Understanding evil has been a pursuit of man for centuries, and getting to know an immortal creature with a vicious past is nothing less than fascinating for humankind.
To prove this, one most only examine the story of Dracula—in particular, Stoker’s continual references to color (Vampire in the mirror). Like in most stories, there is a definitive contrast between the vampire and the human characters. In Dracula, the Vampire is marked by his “whiteness” to remind the reader of his (Dracula’s) near-death characteristics (Vampire in the mirror). For example, Mina is described as pale far more often after the main Vampire in the story comes to her room and bites her. Another example of the importance of color are the scars on two character’s foreheads (Mina’s from a failed inoculation and Dracula’s from a blow by Jonathan Harker early in the novel), which arguably represent the traumatic difference between the human and Vampire cliques and psyches.
Even the traditional gender roles are not entirely unchanged by the Vampire myth. For example, in Dracula, one notices that the main antagonist targets only the women to corrupt; even the details when Dracula attacks Mina suggest anything from Fellatio to Lactation (Vampire in the Mirror). Nothing, it seemed, was safe from the Vampire’s power.
Indeed, the idea of the Vampire has not changed much since then. Everything from Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles to Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series is flying off the shelves. Why? Is it still the idea of the abilities, the forbidden romance between the living and the dead, or is it something else entirely? Is it the lack of overt sexuality, or the promise of eternity? Is it the toxic idea that man can deny passing judgment on different types of beings and their culture? Is it that men want to be different?
Regardless of the reason, entire groups of people, such as the authors of the website supernatural.com, are devoted to the “truth” of the vampire myth.
It could be argued that the younger generations of men have devoted themselves to inaccessible traits, such as the ones mentioned above. By binding themselves to the taboo, they themselves become a “forbidden” thing, and thus are able to feel empathy for the Vampire. Like the people at vampirewebsite.net, entire groups of people have devoted themselves to “proving” the existence of the Vampire; countless websites warning against their “bite” are just a click away. The danger of the Vampire, then, is commonly understood; so why do we link danger to sexuality?
The answer lies in the character of the Vampire. Because man is so fascinated Vampirism, they are fooled by the romanticism of being bitten; transforming the horror of someone breaking into their homes and biting their skin with sharp teeth until it bleeds into an alluring and sexual idea (Vampire in the Mirror).
For centuries, the romanticized myth of the Vampire has enthralled mankind, and will, by these facts, continue to do so in the future.
Bibliography
Periodical source:
Vampire in the Mirror: The Sexuality of Dracula originally published in 1988, written by John Allen Stevenson and published by PMLA.
Text Source:
Dracula originally published in 1897, written by Bram Stoker.
Web Source(s):
vampirewebsite.net available by search, author not stated.
Simplysupernatural.com, written by the SBI, copyrighted, published/created in 2008.
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