Slavic vampire as a literary myth
• “Thalaba the Destroyer” by Robert Southey in 1801
• Functions as a secondary theme
Slavic vampire as a central literary theme
• “The Vampyre” short story by Dr. John Polidori in 1819
• Plot:
– Lord Ruthven was highly sought after but only responded to virtuous young women
– He was perceived as a romantic hero by Aubrey, an orphaned boy
– Aubrey eventually realizes Ruthven’s evil ways and learns about vampires while in Greece
– Ruthven is shot and killed, but before he dies he makes Aubrey promise that he won’t tell of his death or his evil ways for a year and a day
– Aubrey eventually becomes mentally ill from the tension that results from keeping Lord Ruthven’s secret, and this illness kills him after his own sister marries Ruthven and falls victim to him
• Publication had an immediate impact on the rest of Europe
Varney the Vampyre or The Feast of Blood
• Anonymous penny dreadful in 1840, 220 chapters
• Varney is unsuccessful in marrying so he is forced to attack innocent young girls for their blood; all but one girl survive
• He is not totally motivated by evil, and he frequently attempts to make amends
• Eventually commits suicide by jumping into the cauldron of Mt. Aetna in Italy
• Sir Francis Varney is the novels’ rogue and tragic hero
– Became a vampire by killing his, innocent wife, a youth, by committing suicide
– Outward appearance is generally hideous and repulsive
– Can die as a normal human but the first rays of the moon with reenliven him
In A Glass Darkly
• Collection of short stories published by Sheridan Le Fanu in 1872
• Included the vampire tale “Carmilla”
– First person account related by the heroine Laura who was visited at night by vampire Carmilla
– Laura is saved when Carmilla is impaled, decapitated, and cremated
• Carmilla is a female vampire and all her victims are the same sex
• The specific name for the vampire is Mircalla – its two anagrams are Carmilla and Millarca (another female vampire mentioned in the story)
• Carmilla is young and attractive, feeds by puncturing the victim’s breast and drinking blood
• There is an erotic lesbian theme
Dracula
• Novel written by Bram Stoker in 1897
• Main character Count Dracula remains the archvampire of English literature
• Jonathan Harker travels to Dracula’s castle in Transylvania, is attacked by vampires, and escapes to England
• Eventually Van Helsing tracks Dracula back to Transylvania, where they kill him and his three wives
• Dracula was able to survive his physical death through knowledge gained
• Dracula is tall, thin, dressed in black, sharp white teeth
• He is as strong as twenty men, commands the dead, can shape-shift, directs the elements within his range, travels on moonrays, can cause objects to move without touching them
• Precautions against Dracula include: crucifix, pointing with the second and fifth fingers, garlic, wild rose, mountain ash, consecrated communion wafer, unspecific amulets, and prayer
Seven major themes that recur throughout the novel:
• Pre-Christian folk beliefs
• Hunger and feeding
• Faustian theme of a pact with the Devil
• Blood
• Hypnosis
• New Woman
• Pseudo-science
Universal Pictures’ Dracula
• Bela Lugosi
• First American vampire film, 1931
• Overt, blatant horror of WWII undermined the more subtle horror of the movie
• Shift in public taste, from suggestive power to graphic portrayal
• Erotic theme
Thanks Anna
• “Thalaba the Destroyer” by Robert Southey in 1801
• Functions as a secondary theme
Slavic vampire as a central literary theme
• “The Vampyre” short story by Dr. John Polidori in 1819
• Plot:
– Lord Ruthven was highly sought after but only responded to virtuous young women
– He was perceived as a romantic hero by Aubrey, an orphaned boy
– Aubrey eventually realizes Ruthven’s evil ways and learns about vampires while in Greece
– Ruthven is shot and killed, but before he dies he makes Aubrey promise that he won’t tell of his death or his evil ways for a year and a day
– Aubrey eventually becomes mentally ill from the tension that results from keeping Lord Ruthven’s secret, and this illness kills him after his own sister marries Ruthven and falls victim to him
• Publication had an immediate impact on the rest of Europe
Varney the Vampyre or The Feast of Blood
• Anonymous penny dreadful in 1840, 220 chapters
• Varney is unsuccessful in marrying so he is forced to attack innocent young girls for their blood; all but one girl survive
• He is not totally motivated by evil, and he frequently attempts to make amends
• Eventually commits suicide by jumping into the cauldron of Mt. Aetna in Italy
• Sir Francis Varney is the novels’ rogue and tragic hero
– Became a vampire by killing his, innocent wife, a youth, by committing suicide
– Outward appearance is generally hideous and repulsive
– Can die as a normal human but the first rays of the moon with reenliven him
In A Glass Darkly
• Collection of short stories published by Sheridan Le Fanu in 1872
• Included the vampire tale “Carmilla”
– First person account related by the heroine Laura who was visited at night by vampire Carmilla
– Laura is saved when Carmilla is impaled, decapitated, and cremated
• Carmilla is a female vampire and all her victims are the same sex
• The specific name for the vampire is Mircalla – its two anagrams are Carmilla and Millarca (another female vampire mentioned in the story)
• Carmilla is young and attractive, feeds by puncturing the victim’s breast and drinking blood
• There is an erotic lesbian theme
Dracula
• Novel written by Bram Stoker in 1897
• Main character Count Dracula remains the archvampire of English literature
• Jonathan Harker travels to Dracula’s castle in Transylvania, is attacked by vampires, and escapes to England
• Eventually Van Helsing tracks Dracula back to Transylvania, where they kill him and his three wives
• Dracula was able to survive his physical death through knowledge gained
• Dracula is tall, thin, dressed in black, sharp white teeth
• He is as strong as twenty men, commands the dead, can shape-shift, directs the elements within his range, travels on moonrays, can cause objects to move without touching them
• Precautions against Dracula include: crucifix, pointing with the second and fifth fingers, garlic, wild rose, mountain ash, consecrated communion wafer, unspecific amulets, and prayer
Seven major themes that recur throughout the novel:
• Pre-Christian folk beliefs
• Hunger and feeding
• Faustian theme of a pact with the Devil
• Blood
• Hypnosis
• New Woman
• Pseudo-science
Universal Pictures’ Dracula
• Bela Lugosi
• First American vampire film, 1931
• Overt, blatant horror of WWII undermined the more subtle horror of the movie
• Shift in public taste, from suggestive power to graphic portrayal
• Erotic theme
Thanks Anna
