The Transformation Of The Literary Vampire

12 Pages 3083 Words

Stories of vampires go back earlier than Abraham Stoker, before the existence of Vlad the Impaler, and even before the origin of the Hungarian word “vampir” from which we get the current word “vampire”. Stories of the undead date back to the times of Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome, and were called “lamiae”. Since these times, many authors like Suzy McKee Charnas, Stephen King, Anthony Masters, Edgar Allan Poe, Anne Rice, Gabriel Ronay, and the most famous, Abraham Stoker, have all written books, plays, poems, and even movies that include vampires as characters. While the tales of the vampire seem to contain the same essential material, the vampires themselves have gone through major transformations. In the beginning, we met Dracula described to us as a monstrous creature given no voice, no opinion, and no real part except for being the monster. However, by the time we reach Interview with the Vampire, the vampire not only has a voice and a part, but he narrates the story. And it is not just any story, but rather a story of passion, pain, love, rage, loneliness, and terror, everything that suggests he not only has feelings, but possibly a soul as well, whatever that might be. He is even a vampire we, the reader, can actually relate to. The vampire as we once knew it has changed to what we have now come to adore. As the years have progressed, the vampire has had the ability to take on a much more humanistic side. Rather than seeing the vampire as the monster he/she once was, we now look at the vampire with a type of yearning. The transference of good and evil went from being so distinct, to blurred, to completely off mark and twisted. It is now possible for the vampire to be the protagonist and those trying to kill him/her the antagonist. Dare to say that the vampire actually became someone we could know: the person next door or the brilliant, broody, remarkably beautiful, offbeat professor; and the person trying...