Foreword This paper seeks to present and describe the early concept of the vampire in British literary works

and how it rose to popularity, continuing to fascinate people even more so today, one hundred years after Bram Stokers famous Dracula was first published. What is a vampire? Regardless of its many forms depicted in myths, legends, folklore and fiction the vampire is mainly defined by one fundamental trait: it needs the life force of other living creatures in order to sustain itself. Traditionally this is achieved by drinking blood, but draining one of energy without implying direct physical action is also tagged as vampirism. Nowadays everybody is familiar with the idea of the vampire and the belief in the existence of beings that devour human blood dates back to ancient times in many cultures. But the vampire makes its firm appearance in literature in the 18th century, the motif of blood drinking rarely appearing in fiction before. This definite appearance is most likely a result of the dramatic increase in vampire belief that spread throughout Europe when mass hysteria referred to as the "18th-Century Vampire Controversy" began. The panic was set in motion with an outbreak of alleged vampire attacks in East Prussia in 1721 and in the Habsburg Monarchy from 1725 to 1734, which reached other localities. Two famous vampire cases, the first to be officially recorded, involved the corpses of Peter Plogojowitz and Arnold Paole from Serbia. The two incidents were welldocumented: government officials examined the bodies, wrote case reports, and published books throughout Europe. With the Eastern European myths and legends forming a solid basis the vampire emerges in literature, first in German poetry, with one of the first works of art to touch upon the subject being the short German poem The Vampire (1748) by Heinrich August Ossenfelder. In British literature the first mention of vampires appears in Robert Southey's monumental oriental epic poem Thalaba the Destroyer (1797). One hundred years later, Bram Stoker publishes Dracula (1897) which has been the definitive

description of the vampire in popular fiction for the last century. Even if the vampire is not Stokers invention, the novel's influence on the popularity of vampires has served as a solid basis for many theatrical, film and television interpretations throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Although somewhat less known than Dracula, William Pollidoris The Vampyre, Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu and Varney the Vampire; or, The Feast of Blood by James Malcolm Rymer, all of which are British literary works, are of great importance in forming the basis for vampire literature. Pollidoris short story is the first work of prose to touch upon vampires and can be considered the founder of the vampire literary genre. Varney comes with new views on the vampire character and certain elements that would also be used in Dracula and later become standard in vampire literature. Carmilla is also an important name in the genre as it had a heavy influence on Dracula and it also had some film adaptations. The vampires popularity is evident in modern culture, with frequent appearances in books (Vampire Chronicles, Twilight, House of Night), movies, animation, Japanese animation (anime, eg Vampire Knight), games (Dungeons and Dragons, Legacy of Kain), even beakfast cereal (Count Chocula) etc and although the initial concept of the vampire is very different from some of the emerging new vampire models, British literary works such as The Vampyre, Varney the Vampire, Carmilla and Dracula comprise the solid foundation from which the vampire began to fascinate people and rise to popularity.

Contents Chapter I Vampires before Dracula Pages: 4-15 - The induction of the vampire motif in European literature: first appearances of the vampire in literature - brief mention of vampires in 18th century German poetry - Vampires in British poetry and in British prose notably The Vampyre by William J Polidori, Varney the Vampire; or, The Feast of Blood by James Malcolm Rymer (alternatively attributed to Thomas Preskett Prest) and Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu Chapter II The Count Pages 16 - 22 - A presentation of Bram Stokers Dracula, detailed plot and characteristics of the vampire Count. Chapter III The Fascination for the Undead Pages 23 - 27 - Viewing the eerie concept of the undead as fascinating - Viewing the vampire in British literature as a mesmerizing and fascinating character - Conclusion Bibliography Page 28

Chapter I Vampires before Dracula

Vampire literature covers the range of literary work concerned primarily with the theme of vampires. Before the masterpiece of the genre, Bram Stokers Dracula, the vampire appears in other significantly influential works: William Polidoris The Vampyre (1819), the penny dreadful Varney the Vampire (1847) and Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla (1872). Although vampiric entities have been documented in many cultures and according to the supposition of literary historian Brian Frost that the "belief in vampires and bloodsucking demons is as old as man himself", and may go back to "prehistoric times", the term vampire was not popularized until the early 18th century, after an invasion of vampire superstition into Western Europe from areas where vampire legends were frequent, such as the Balkans and Eastern Europe, although local variants also bore different names, such as vampir in Serbia and Bulgaria, vrykolakas in Greece and strigoi in Romania. Concerning the vampire motif, literary historian Brian Frost, in his book The Monster with a Thousand Faces: Guises of the Vampire in Myth and Literature, asserts the following: The permanent induction of the vampire motif into European literature came in the eighteenth century, following the considerable interest aroused in vampirism by the publication of a spate of learned treatises on the subject. Like most fantastic themes, vampirism first found extensive embodiment in poetry, and it is generally accepted that the poem which had the signal honour of introducing the motif into modern European literature was Heinrich Ossenfelder's "Der Vampir" (1748) After 1748 the vampire reappears in German poetry in the narrative poem Lenore (1773) by Gottfried August Brger. There have been various tales about a dead person returning from the grave to visit his/her beloved or spouse and bring them death in some way, with Lenore being a noteworthy example. Its line Denn die Toten reiten schnell ("For the dead travel fast") was to be quoted in Bram Stoker's classic Dracula. A later German poem exploring the same issue with an outstanding vampiric element was The Bride of Corinth (1797) by Goethe, a story about a young woman who returns from the grave to seek her betrothed.

In British literature the vampire is first mentioned in Thalaba the Destroyer (1797), Robert Southey's monumental oriental epic poem where the character Oneiza, the deceased beloved of the main character Thalaba, turns into a vampire, however that is not of critical importance to the story. Not long after, in 1813 Lord Byron publishes The Giaour, where the concept of vampire is notably mentioned. After telling how the Giaour killed Hassan, the Ottoman narrator predicts that in retribution for his crime, the Giaour will be damned to become a vampire after his death and take the life of his own dear ones by drinking their blood, to his own appalling torment as well as theirs. Byron also wrote an enigmatic fragmentary story, Fragment of a novel, about the puzzling fate of an aristocrat named Augustus Darvell whilst journeying in the Orient as his contribution to the famous ghost story competition at the Villa Diodati by Lake Geneva in 1816, between him, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley and John William Polidori (who was Byron's personal physician). This story provided the basis for The Vampyre (1819) by Polidori and thus is considered important in the development and evolution of the vampire story in English literature. The story is written in an epistolary form with the narrator describing the events that had occurred in a letter. The narrator begins a journey or "Grand Tour" to the East with an elderly man, Augustus Darvell. During the journey, Darvell grows physically weaker, "daily more enfeebled." They both arrive at a Turkish cemetery between Smyrna and Ephesus close to the columns of Diana. Near death, Darvell has the narrator consent not to reveal his imminent death to anyone. A stork appears in the cemetery with a snake in its mouth. After Darvell dies, the narrator is shocked to see that his face becomes black and his body quickly decomposes. Darvell is buried in the Turkish cemetery by the narrator. According to John Polidori, Byron intended to have Darvell reappear, alive again, as a vampire, but did not finish the story.

The Vampyre The Vampyre is a short story written by John William Polidori and is viewed as a progenitor of the romantic vampire genre of fantasy fiction. The work is described by Christopher Frayling as "the first story successfully to fuse the disparate elements of vampirism into a coherent literary genre." It created the image of the vampire as an aristocratic gentleman, intriguing and charming to those around him an image that would later be used again and often in vampire fiction, notably Dracula is also a noble and wellmannered gentleman along with Carmilla also has noble origins and charming manners. It was first published on 1 April 1819 by Henry Colburn in the New Monthly Magazine with the false credit "A Tale by Lord Byron" but both Byron and Polidori affirmed that the story is Polidori's. The story revolves around Lord Ruthven, a man of obscure origins who has entered London society and Aubrey, a young Englishman, who becomes acquainted with him. The story begins directly with a description of the vampire, Lord Ruthven and most notably his peculiarities: IT happened that in the midst of the dissipations attendant upon a London winter, there appeared at the various parties of the leaders of the ton a nobleman, more remarkable for his singularities, than his rank. He gazed upon the mirth around him, as if he could not participate therein. Apparently, the light laughter of the fair only attracted his attention, that he might by a look quell it, and throw fear into those breasts where thoughtlessness reigned. Those who felt this sensation of awe, could not explain whence it arose: some attributed it to the dead grey eye, which, fixing upon the object's face, did not seem to penetrate, and at one glance to pierce through to the inward workings of the heart; but fell upon the cheek with a leaden ray that weighed upon the skin it could not pass. His peculiarities caused him to be invited to every house; all wished to see him, and those who had been accustomed to violent excitement, and now felt the weight of ennui, were pleased at having something in their presence capable of engaging their attention. In spite of the deadly hue of his face, which never gained a warmer tint, either from the blush of modesty, or from the strong emotion of passion,

though its form and outline were beautiful, many of the female hunters after notoriety attempted to win his attentions, and gain, at least, some marks of what they might term affection (John William Polidori, The Vampyre) Thus it is evident from the beginning that Lord Ruthven is remarkably bizarre, especially owing to the strange physical features that sparked the excitement and interest of those around him. Aubrey accompanies Ruthven to Rome, but departs after Ruthven seduces the daughter of a mutual acquaintance. Aubrey journeys to Greece where he begins to like Ianthe, an innkeeper's daughter. Ianthe tells Aubrey about the legends of the vampire and both him and the reader receive an evident hint towards the horrifying truth about Lord Ruthven: Her earnestness and apparent belief of what she narrated, excited the interest even of Aubrey; and often as she told him the tale of the living vampyre, who had passed years amidst his friends, and dearest ties, forced every year, by feeding upon the life of a lovely female to prolong his existence for the ensuing months, his blood would run cold, whilst he attempted to laugh her out of such idle and horrible fantasies; but Ianthe cited to him the names of old men, who had at last detected one living among themselves, after several of their near relatives and children had been found marked with the stamp of the fiend's appetite; and when she found him so incredulous, she begged of him to believe her, for it had been remarked, that those who had dared to question their existence, always had some proof given, which obliged them, with grief and heartbreaking, to confess it was true. She detailed to him the traditional appearance of these monsters, and his horror was increased by hearing a pretty accurate description of Lord Ruthven; he, however, still persisted in persuading her, that there could be no truth in her fears, though at the same time he wondered at the many coincidences which had all tended to excite a belief in the supernatural power of Lord Ruthven. (John William Polidori, The Vampyre) Ruthven appears at the scene and shortly afterwards Ianthe dies killed by a vampire. Aubrey makes no connection between Ruthven and the murder and accompanies him in his travels yet again. The pair are attacked by bandits and Ruthven is mortally wounded. Before he dies, Ruthven coerces Aubrey to vow that he will not talk about his death or anything else he knows about Ruthven for a year and a day. Ruthven made another request--that his body be placed on the mountain to catch the first ray of the rising moon,

a wish that was fulfilled. Aubrey returned to the spot later, to find Ruthvens body missing, and assumed that robbers took the body to steal his clothes. Looking back, Aubrey acknowledges that everyone who Ruthven met ended up suffering. Aubrey returns to London and is astonished when Ruthven appears shortly afterwards, alive and unscathed. Ruthven reminds Aubrey of his oath not to speak about his death. Ruthven then begins to seduce Aubrey's sister while Aubrey, incapable of protecting her, has a nervous breakdown. Ruthven and Aubrey's sister are engaged to marry on the same day the oath ends. Just before he dies, Aubrey writes a letter to his sister divulging Ruthven's history, but it does not arrive in time. Ruthven marries Aubrey's sister, takes away her life on their wedding night, and disappears. The story was an immediate popular success, to a certain extent because of the Byron attribution but also because it makes use of the gothic horror penchant of the public. Polidori shaped the vampire from a character in folklore into the form that is familiar todayan aristocratic fiend who preys among high society. Polidori's work had an enormous impact on contemporary sensibilities and ran through numerous editions and translations. Edgar Allan Poe, Nikolai Gogol, Alexandre Dumas, and Alexis Tolstoy all produced vampire tales, and themes in Polidori's tale would continue to influence Bram Stoker's Dracula and eventually the whole vampire genre. Dumas makes explicit reference to Lord Ruthven in The Count of Monte Cristo, going so far as to state that his character "The Comtesse G..." had been personally acquainted with Lord Ruthven.

Varney the Vampire Varney the Vampire is arguably not a valuable literary work by itself, as it is sometimes incoherent and not of great literary quality, but it is an important element in the vampire literary genre as it is the first work that encompasses many of todays standard elements of vampire fiction (e.g. having fangs), it was an influence on Dracula, and it also generates the concept of the vampire that loathes his condition.

Varney the Vampire; or, The Feast of Blood was a mid-Victorian era gothic horror story by James Malcolm Rymer (alternatively attributed to Thomas Preskett Prest), which first appeared 184547 in a series of pamphlets commonly referred to as penny dreadfuls because of their low price and typically frightening contents. It was published in book form in 1847. It is of epic length: the original edition runs to 868 double columned pages divided into 220 chapters. The story focuses on the troubles that Sir Francis Varney, a vampire, inflicts upon the Bannerworths, a once prosperous family driven to ruin by the recent death of their father. The earliest chapters give the standard motives of blood sustenance for Varney's actions toward the family, but later ones hint that Varney is motivated by financial interests. Varney is portrayed as loathing his condition and over the course of the book he is presented with mounting sympathy as a victim of circumstances. He tries to save himself, but is powerless and in the end commits suicide by throwing himself into Mount Vesuvius, after he had left a written account of his origin with a sympathetic priest. According to Varney, he was cursed with vampirism after betraying a royalist to Oliver Cromwell and unintentionally killing his own son afterwards in a fit of rage, although he "dies" and is revived several times in the course of his career. This allowed the author a variety of origin stories, including one in which a medical student (Dr. Chillingworth) applies galvanism to Varney's hanged corpse and revives him. Varney was a most important influence on later vampire fiction, particularly Dracula (1897) by Bram Stoker. Many of today's standard vampire tropes originated in Varney: Varney has fangs, leaves two puncture wounds on the necks of his victims, has hypnotic powers, and has superhuman strength. In this story we have the first example of the standard trope in which the vampire comes through the window at night and attacks a maiden as she lies sleeping. Unlike later fictional vampires, he is able to go about in daylight without consequences and has no particular fear or loathing of crosses or garlic. He can eat and drink like a human as a form of disguise, but he reveals that human food

and drink do not agree with him. His vampirism appears to be a fit that comes on him when his vigour begins to run low; he is a regular person between feedings. Like Lord Ruthven in The Vampyre, he can be healed by the light of the full moon. (Rymer exploits this for dramatic effect often; while Ruthven's death and resurrection happens once in The Vampyre and forms an important plot point, Varney dies and is resurrected countess times throughout Varney the Vampire.) This is also the first example of the "sympathetic vampire," a vampire who despises his condition but is nevertheless a slave to it. Regardless of its inconsistencies, Varney the Vampire is more or less a cohesive whole, originating many Vampire themes and conventions familiar to modern audiences.

Carmilla Carmilla brings new elements in the vampire genre as well as being more erotic than previous works. Carmilla is a lesbian vampire of astonishing beauty, charming manners and peculiar languidness. Novelty elements and more interesting aspects of her vampirism are that she sleeps in a coffin where she lays immersed in blood, she can shape-shift into a monstrous cat and pass through closed doors. Unlike Lord Ruthven who escapes and Varney who commits suicide, Carmilla dies via traditional staking and beheading. Carmilla is a Gothic novella by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu. First published in 1872, it tells the story of a young woman's vulnerability to the attentions of a female vampire named Carmilla. Carmilla was first published in the magazine The Dark Blue and then in the author's collection of short stories, In a Glass Darkly the same year. Le Fanu's story is set in the Duchy of Styria - such central European locations became a standard element of vampire fiction.

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The story is presented by Le Fanu as part of the casebook of Dr Hesselius, whose departure from medical orthodoxy place him as the first occult doctor in literature. The story is narrated by Laura, one of the two main protagonists. Laura begins her account by recounting her childhood in a "picturesque and solitary" castle in the midst of an extensive forest in Styria where she lives with her father, a wealthy English widower, retired from the Austrian Service. When she is six years old, Laura has a dream of a beautiful visitor in her bedchamber and wakes up terrified, claiming to have been bitten on the chest, although no wounds are found on her. Twelve years later, her father tells Laura of a letter he received earlier from his friend General Spielsdorf. The General was supposed to bring his niece, Bertha Rheinfeldt, to visit the two, but the niece unexpectedly died under unexplained circumstances. The General vaguely concludes that he will discuss and detail the situation when they meet. Laura is saddened by the loss of a potential friend but not long afterwards a carriage accident outside Laura's home unexpectedly brings a girl of her age into the family's care, her name is Carmilla. Both girls immediately recognize each other from the 'dream' they both had when they were young. Carmilla appears injured after her carriage accident, but her mysterious mother informs Laura's father that her journey is imperative and cannot be postponed. She sets up to leave her daughter with Laura and her father until she can return in three months. Before she leaves she firmly notes that her daughter will not divulge any information whatsoever about her family, past, or herself and that Carmilla is of sound mind. Laura comments that this information seems uncalled for to say, and her father laughs it off. Laura describes Carmilla as a very beautiful person with striking features that fascinated her: She was slender, and wonderfully graceful. Except that her movements were languidvery languidindeed, there was nothing in her appearance to indicate an invalid. Her complexion was rich and brilliant; her features were small and beautifully formed; her eyes large, dark, and lustrous; her hair was quite wonderful, I never saw hair so magnificently thick and long when it was down about her shoulders; I have often placed my hands under it, and laughed with wonder at its weight. It was exquisitely fine and soft, and in color a rich very dark brown, with something of gold. I loved to let it down, tumbling with its own weight, as, in her room, she lay back in her chair talking in

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her sweet low voice, I used to fold and braid it, and spread it out and play with it. Heavens! If I had but known all! (Sheridan Le Fanu, Carmilla, Chapter 4) Carmilla and Laura grow to be very close friends, but occasionally Carmilla's mood abruptly changes and she begins to often make disturbing romantic advances towards Laura: She used to place her pretty arms about my neck, draw me to her, and laying her cheek to mine, murmur with her lips near my ear, Dearest, your little heart is wounded; think me not cruel because I obey the irresistible law of my strength and weakness; if your dear heart is wounded, my wild heart bleeds with yours. In the rapture of my enormous humiliation I live in your warm life, and you shall diedie, sweetly die into mine. I cannot help it; as I draw near to you, you, in your turn, will draw near to others, and learn the rapture of that cruelty, which yet is love; so, for a while, seek to know no more of me and mine, but trust me with all your loving spirit.. (Sheridan Le Fanu, Carmilla, Chapter 4 ) As her mother informed them beforehand, Carmilla refuses to tell anything about herself or her background, despite questioning from Laura. I said there were particulars which did not please me. I have told you that her confidence won me the first night I saw her; but I found that she exercised with respect to herself, her mother, her history, everything in fact connected with her life, plans, and people, an ever wakeful reserve. (Sheridan Le Fanu, Carmilla, Chapter 4) Her secrecy isn't the only puzzling thing about her. Carmilla sleeps much of the day, and appears to sleepwalk at night. When a funeral procession passes by the two girls and Laura starts singing a hymn, Carmilla becomes angry and reproaches Laura for singing a Christian song. When a shipment of family heirloom restored portraits is brought at the castle, Laura takes notice of the portrait of "Mircalla, Countess Karnstein", dated 1698. The portrait resembles Carmilla exactly, down to the mole on her neck. During Carmilla's stay, Laura has nightmares of a monstrous cat-like beast coming in her room at night and biting her on the chest. The beast then turns into female figure and disappears through the closed door. Laura's health begins to wane and her father has a doctor examine her. He speaks in private with her father and only requests that Laura never be left unattended.

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Her father then leaves with Laura in a carriage for the ruined village of Karnstein. They leave a message behind asking Carmilla and one of the governesses to follow after once the constantly late-sleeping Carmilla awakes. On their way to Karnstein, Laura and her father come across General Spielsdorf. He tells them his own appalling story. Spielsdorf and his niece had met a young woman named Millarca and her mysterious mother at a costume ball. The General's niece immediately began liking Millarca. The mother, persuaded the General that she was an old friend of his and asked that Millarca be allowed to stay with them for three weeks while she took care of a private matter of great importance. The General's niece fell inexplicably ill and suffered exactly the same symptoms as Laura. After consulting with a priestly doctor who he had specially ordered, the General realized that his niece was being visited by a vampire. He hid in a closet with a sword and waited until he saw a fiendish cat-like creature appear in his niece's bedroom and bite her on the neck. He then leapt from his hiding place and attacked the beast, which took the form of Millarca. She fled through the locked door, unharmed. The General's niece died immediately afterward. When they arrive at Karnstein the General asks a nearby woodsman where he can find the tomb of Mircalla Karnstein. The woodsman tells them that the tomb was relocated long ago, by the hero who destroyed the vampires that haunted the region. While the General and Laura are left alone in the ruined chapel, Carmilla appears. The General and Carmilla both fly into a rage upon seeing each other and the General attacks her with an axe. Carmilla flees and the General explains to Laura that Carmilla is also Millarca, both anagrams for the original name of the vampire Countess Mircalla Karnstein. The party is then joined by Baron Vordenburg, the descendant of the hero who rid the area of vampires long ago. Vordenburg is an authority on vampires and has discovered that his ancestor was romantically involved with the Countess Karnstein, before she died and became one of the undead. Using his forefather's notes he locates the hidden tomb of Carmilla. An Imperial Commission is then summoned who exhume and destroy the body of the vampire on behalf of the ruling Habsburg Monarchy, within whose domains Styria is situated: The grave of the Countess Mircalla was opened; and the General and my father recognized each his perfidious and beautiful guest, in the face

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now disclosed to view. The features, though a hundred and fifty years had passed since her funeral, were tinted with the warmth of life. Her eyes were open; no cadaverous smell exhaled from the coffin. The two medical men, one officially present, the other on the part of the promoter of the inquiry, attested the marvelous fact that there was a faint but appreciable respiration, and a corresponding action of the heart. The limbs were perfectly flexible, the flesh elastic; and the leaden coffin floated with blood, in which to a depth of seven inches, the body lay immersed. Here then, were all the admitted signs and proofs of vampirism. The body, therefore, in accordance with the ancient practice, was raised, and a sharp stake driven through the heart of the vampire, who uttered a piercing shriek at the moment, in all respects such as might escape from a living person in the last agony. Then the head was struck off, and a torrent of blood flowed from the severed neck. The body and head was next placed on a pile of wood, and reduced to ashes, which were thrown upon the river and borne away, and that territory has never since been plagued by the visits of a vampire. (Sheridan Le Fanu, Carmilla, Chapter 15)

Critics have looked for the sources used in the writing of the text. Matthew Gibson has shown that LeFanu used Dom Augustin Calmet's Treatise on Vampires and Revenants , translated into English in 1850 as The Phantom World, the Reverend Sabine BaringGould's The Book of Were-wolves (1863), and his account of Erszebet Bathory, Coleridge's Christabel, and Captain Basil Hall's Schloss Hainfeld; or a Winter in Lower Styria (London and Edinburgh, 1836). Hall's account provides much of the Styrian background and in particular a model for both Carmilla and Laura in the figure of Jane Anne Cranstoun, Countess Purgstall. Carmilla, the title character, is the original prototype for a legion of female and lesbian vampires. Though Le Fanu portrays his vampire's sexuality with the wariness that one would expect for his time, it is evident that lesbian attraction is the main dynamic

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between Carmilla and the narrator of the story as she makes unsettling amorous advances towards Laura. Carmilla selected exclusively female victims, though only became emotionally involved with a few. Carmilla had nocturnal habits, but was not confined to the darkness. She had unearthly beauty and was able to change her form and to pass through solid walls. Her animal alter ego was a monstrous black cat (not a large dog as in Dracula). She did, however, sleep in a coffin. Although Carmilla is a lesser known and far shorter Gothic vampire story than the generally-considered master work of that genre, Dracula, the latter is heavily influenced by Le Fanu's short story. In the earliest manuscript of Dracula, dated 8 March 1890, the castle is set in Styria, although the setting was changed to Transylvania six days later. Stoker's posthumously published short story "Dracula's Guest", known as the deleted first chapter to Dracula, shows a more obvious and intact debt to Carmilla: Both stories are told in the first person. Dracula expands on the idea of a first person account by creating a series of journal entries and logs of different persons and creating a plausible background story for them having been compiled. Stoker also indulges the air of mystery further than Le Fanu by allowing the characters to solve the enigma of the vampire along with the reader. The descriptions of Carmilla and the character of Lucy in Dracula are similar, and have become archetypes for the appearance of the waif-like victims and seducers in vampire stories as being tall, slender, languid, and with large eyes, full lips and soft voices. Both women also sleepwalk. Stoker's Dr. Abraham Van Helsing is a direct parallel to Le Fanu's vampire expert Baron Vordenburg: both characters used to investigate and catalyse actions in opposition to the vampire, and symbolically represent knowledge of the unknown and stability of mind in the onslaught of chaos and death.

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Chapter II - The Count

Dracula is by far the most famous and most important work of vampire literature. It draws on past works but it is longer and more elaborate, it isnt simply a gothic work depicting vampires, it also allows the reader to view Victorian society. Unlike past works Christianity is a very important element in Dracula and the idea of the vampire that needs to sleep in a coffin is extended as Dracula must rest in native soil, an element which is of key importance to the story plot. Dracula is an 1897 novel by Irish author Bram Stoker, featuring as its primary antagonist the vampire Count Dracula. It was first published as a hardcover in 1897 by Archibald Constable and Co. Dracula has been attributed to many literary genres including vampire literature, horror fiction, the gothic novel and invasion literature. Structurally it is an epistolary novel, that is, told as a series of letters, diary entries, ships' logs, etc. Literary critics have examined many themes in the novel, such as the role of women in Victorian culture, conventional and conservative sexuality, immigration, colonialism and folklore. The novel is mainly composed of journal entries and letters written by several narrators who also serve as the novel's main protagonists; Stoker supplemented the story with occasional newspaper clippings to relate events not directly witnessed by the story's characters. The tale begins with Jonathan Harker, a newly qualified English solicitor, journeying by train and carriage from England to Count Dracula's remote castle (situated in the Carpathian Mountains on the border of Transylvania, Bukovina and Moldavia). The purpose of his mission is to provide legal support to Dracula for a real estate transaction overseen by Harker's employer, Peter Hawkins, of Exeter in England. At first enticed by Dracula's gracious manner, Harker soon discovers that he has become a prisoner in the castle. He also begins to see disquieting facets of Dracula's nocturnal life.The more Harker investigates the nature of his confinement, the more uneasy he becomes. He realizes that the count possesses supernatural powers and diabolical ambitions. One evening, Harker is nearly attacked by three beautiful and seductive female vampires, but

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the count staves them off, telling the vampires that Harker belongs to him. Fearing for his life, Harker attempts to escape from the castle by climbing down the walls. Meanwhile, in England, Harkers fiance, Mina Murray, corresponds with her friend Lucy Westenra. Lucy has received marriage proposals from three menDr. John Seward, Arthur Holmwood, and an American named Quincey Morris. Though saddened by the fact that she must reject two of these suitors, Lucy accepts Holmwoods proposal. Mina visits Lucy at the seaside town of Whitby. A Russian ship is wrecked on the shore near the town with all its crew missing and its captain dead. The only sign of life aboard is a large dog that bounds ashore and disappears into the countryside; the only cargo is a set of fifty boxes of earth shipped from Castle Dracula. Not long after, Lucy suddenly begins sleepwalking. One night, Mina finds Lucy in the town cemetery and believes she sees a dark form with glowing red eyes bending over Lucy. Lucy becomes pale and ill, and she bears two tiny red marks at her throat, for which neither Dr. Seward nor Mina can account. Suffering from brain fever, Harker reappears in the city of Buda-Pest. Mina goes to join him. Unable to arrive at a satisfactory diagnosis, Dr. Seward sends for his old mentor, Professor Van Helsing. Van Helsing arrives in Whitby, and, after his initial examination of Lucy immediately determines the cause of her condition but refuses to disclose it, knowing that Seward's faith in him will be shaken if he starts to speak of vampires. He orders that her chambers be covered with garlica traditional charm against vampires. For a time, this effort seems to stave off Lucys illness. She begins to recover, but her mother, unaware of the garlics power, unwittingly removes the odiferous plants from the room, leaving Lucy vulnerable to further attack. Van Helsing tries multiple blood transfusions, but they are clearly losing ground. On a night when Van Helsing must return to Amsterdam (and his message to Seward asking him to watch the Westenra household is accidentally sent to the wrong address), Lucy and her mother are attacked by a wolf. Mrs Westenra, who has a heart condition, dies of fright, and Lucy apparently dies soon after. Lucy is buried, but soon afterward the newspapers report children being stalked in the night by a "bloofer lady" (as they describe it), i.e. "beautiful lady". Van Helsing convinces the other men that Lucy belongs to the Un-Deadin other words, she has been transformed into a vampire like Dracula. The men remain unconvinced until they

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see Lucy preying on a defenseless child, which convinces them that she must be destroyed. They agree to follow the ritual of vampire slaying to ensure that Lucys soul will return to eternal rest. While the undead Lucy sleeps, Holmwood plunges a stake through her heart. The men then cut off her head and stuff her mouth with garlic. After this deed is done, they pledge to destroy Dracula himself. Now married, Mina and Jonathan return to England and join forces with the others. Mina helps Van Helsing collect the various diary and journal entries that Harker, Seward, and the others have written, attempting to piece together a narrative that will lead them to the count. Learning all they can of Draculas affairs, Van Helsing and his band track down the boxes of earth that the count uses as a sanctuary during the night from Draculas castle. Their efforts seem to be going well, but then one of Dr. Sewards mental patients, Renfield, lets Dracula into the asylum where the others are staying, allowing the count to prey upon Mina. Dracula also forcefully feeds Mina his blood, creating a spiritual bond between them to control her. The only way to forestall this is to kill Dracula first. As Mina begins the slow change into a vampire, the men sterilize the boxes of earth, forcing Dracula to flee to the safety of his native Transylvania. Mina slowly succumbs to the blood of the vampire that flows through her veins, switching back and forth from a state of consciousness to a state of semi-trance during which she is telepathically connected with Dracula. It is this connection that they start to use to deduce Dracula's movements. It is only possible to detect Dracula's surroundings when Mina is put under hypnosis by Van Helsing. Dracula flees back to his castle in Transylvania, followed by Van Helsing's group, who manage to track him down just before sundown and destroy him by shearing "through the throat" with a knife and stabbing him in the heart also with a knife. Dracula crumbles to dust, his spell is lifted and Mina is freed from the marks. Quincey Morris is killed in the final battle, stabbed by Gypsies who had been charged with returning Dracula to his castle; the survivors return to England. The book closes with a note about Mina's and Jonathan's married life and the birth of their first-born son, whom they name after all four members of the party, but refer to only as Quincey in remembrance of their American friend.

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The Dead Un-Dead was one of Stoker's original titles for Dracula, and up until a few weeks before publication, the manuscript was titled simply The Un-Dead. Stoker's Notes for Dracula show that the name of the count was originally "Count Wampyr", but while doing research, Stoker became intrigued by the name "Dracula", after reading William Wilkinson's book Account of the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia with Political Observations Relative to Them (London 1820), which he found in the Whitby Library, and consulted a number of times during visits to Whitby in the 1890s. The name Dracula was the family name of the descendants of Vlad II of Wallachia, who took the name "Dracul" after being invested in the Order of the Dragon in 1431. In the Romanian language, the word dracul can mean either "the dragon" or, especially in the present day, "the devil". The image of a vampire portrayed as an aristocratic man, like the character of Dracula, was created by John Polidori in The Vampyre. When it was first published, in 1897, Dracula was not an immediate bestseller, although reviewers were vigorous in their praise. The contemporary Daily Mail ranked Stoker's powers above those of Mary Shelley and Edgar Allan Poe as well as Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. According to literary historians Nina Auerbach and David Skal in the Norton Critical Edition, the novel has become more significant for modern readers than it was for contemporary Victorian readers, most of whom enjoyed it just as a good adventure story; it only reached its broad iconic legendary classic status later in the 20th century when the movie versions appeared. However, some Victorian fans were ahead of the time, describing it as "the sensation of the season" and "the most blood-curdling novel of the paralysed century". The Daily Mail review of June 1, 1897 proclaimed it a classic of Gothic horror: "In seeking a parallel to this weird, powerful, and horrorful story our mind reverts to such tales as The Mysteries of Udolpho, Frankenstein, The Fall of the House of Usher ... but Dracula is even more appalling in its gloomy fascination than any one of these." Similarly good reviews appeared when the book was published in the U.S. in 1899. Stoker relies heavily on the conventions of Gothic fiction, a genre that was extremely popular in the early nineteenth century. Gothic fiction traditionally includes elements such as gloomy castles, sublime landscapes, and innocent maidens threatened by

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ineffable evil. Stoker modernizes this tradition in his novel, however, moving from the conventional setting of Draculas ruined castle into the bustle of modern England. As Stoker portrays the collision of two disparate worldsthe counts ancient Transylvania and the protagonists modern Londonhe lays bare many of the anxieties that characterized his age: the repercussions of scientific advancement, the consequences of abandoning traditional beliefs, and the dangers of female sexuality. To this day, Dracula remains a fascinating study of popular attitudes toward sex, religion, and science at the end of the nineteenth century.

Count Dracula bears resemblances to the fictional vampires before him as well as having some differences. His powers, abilities and weaknesses are clearly described and defined, unlike his predecessors who are somewhat more vaguely constructed. Here are the characteristics of Count Dracula as presented by Bram Stoker in his novel Dracula and comparison to the other fictional vampires appearing before him. He survives on the blood of others and is potentially immortal this is the main characteristic of all vampires. Also he can turn others into vampires it is unknown if Carmilla or Lord Ruthven possess this ability however Varney does turn someone else into a vampire at some point. He has the strength of twenty men (as it is shown when he effortlessly lifts the heavy boxes of earth when trying to speed the process of delivering them inside the house) and has hypnotic powers over his victims (when Renfield recounts how the Count persuaded him to invite him in the asylum, he says that he speaks his invitation before realizing what he is doing). Carmilla also possesses these abilities, the hypnotic abilities are noticeable when Carmilla makes advances on Laura, the girl feels repulsed but fascinated at the same time; while her strength is seen when the General tries to strike her down with a hatchet and she grips his wrist immobilizing his hand instantly. Furthermore, Baron Vordenburg states that One sign of the vampire is the power of the hand. The slender hand of Mircalla closed like a vice of steel on the Generals wrist when he raised the hatchet to strike. But its power is not confined to its grasp; it leaves a

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numbness in the limb it seizes, which is slowly, if ever, recovered from. (Sheridan Le Fanu, Carmilla, Chapter 16) He can shape-shift into the form of a wolf or a bat and also can shift into mist or elemental dust the description of this ability in the novel being particularly chilling and enthralling and none of the vampires before him possessed this ability: The mist grew thicker and thicker and I could see now how it came in, for I could see it like smoke, or with the white energy of boiling water, pouring in, not through the window, but through the joinings of the door. It got thicker and thicker, till it seemed as if it became concentrated into a sort of pillar of cloud in the room, through the top of which I could see the light of the gas shining like a red eye. Things began to whirl through my brain just as the cloudy column was now whirling in the room, and through it all came the scriptural words "a pillar of cloud by day and of fire by night." Was it indeed such spiritual guidance that was coming to me in my sleep? But the pillar was composed of both the day and the night guiding, for the fire was in the red eye, which at the thought gat a new fascination for me, till, as I looked, the fire divided, and seemed to shine on me through the fog like two red eyes, such as Lucy told me of in her momentary mental wandering when, on the cliff, the dying sunlight struck the windows of St. Mary's Church. Suddenly the horror burst upon me that it was thus that Jonathan had seen those awful women growing into reality through the whirling mist in the moonlight, and in my dream I must have fainted, for all became black darkness. The last conscious effort which imagination made was to show me a livid white face bending over me out of the mist. (Bram Stoker, Dracula, Chapter 19) Carmilla shape-shifts into a large cat-like creature and although never described as mist she can pass through closed doors, a feat observed in Draculas vampires as well He has no reflection in the mirror as Harker observes when in his shaving glass he cannot see the Count although he is sitting right beside him. He can go out during daylight but he is less powerful. . Ruthven, Carmilla and Varney are also able to go out in the day, but Carmilla is notable for her habit of sleeping much of the day, waking up very late. He may not enter a household unless invited in by an inhabitant, he can cross running water only at the slack or the flood of the tide, he must sleep on the soil of his native land,

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he is repelled by garlic and holy symbols (crucifix, holy wafer) and he can be destroyed by driving a stake through his heart and decapitating him. It is unknown if the first two characteristics apply to Ruthven and Carmilla as they are never shown in circumstances where we could notice such weaknesses, the third and fourth characteristics listed does not apply to Ruthven or Varney but Carmilla sleeps in her original coffin in the ruined village of Karnstein and had a fit of anger when Laura sang a Christian song, but garlic is never mentioned. Also Carmilla is destroyed by staking and beheading. In the novel, Professor Van Helsing reveals most of these characteristics and some others after he had proved to them that Lucy became a vampire and they had decided to eliminate the Count: There are such beings as vampires, some of us have evidence that they exist. [...] The nosferatu do not die like the bee when he sting once. He is only stronger, and being stronger, have yet more power to work evil. This vampire which is amongst us is of himself so strong in person as twenty men, he is of cunning more than mortal, for his cunning be the growth of ages, he have still the aids of necromancy, which is, as his etymology imply, the divination by the dead, and all the dead that he can come nigh to are for him at command, he is brute, and more than brute, he is devil in callous, and the heart of him is not, he can, within his range, direct the elements, the storm, the fog, the thunder, he can command all the meaner things, the rat, and the owl, and the bat, the moth, and the fox, and the wolf, he can grow and become small, and he can at times vanish and come unknown. (Bram Stoker, Dracula, Chapter 18) These characteristics are mainly inspired by the myths and legends spread in Europe and some of them are strongly connected to Christianity which is an important element of the novel. Before plunging a knife into his heart the party won many battles over the Count with the use of holy objects such as crucifixes and Communion Wafers. Count Dracula served as a solid foundation for new vampire concepts to be shaped and although some characteristics have been discarded and new ones added he remains the most important name in vampire literature.

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Chapter III The Fascination for the Undead

"The vampire is the night-prowling symbol of man's hunger for - and fear of - everlasting life...The mixture of attraction and repulsion...is the essence of the vampire concept." - Margaret Carter, author of the preface to Varney the Vampire Immortality is as much a controversial idea as it is mesmerising and fascinating, it is a trait of the gods, it denotes great power and besides Divinity it is also Evil which holds great power. Humanity has since ancient times believed stories of repulsive monsters that gain immortality by forcefully drinking the essence of life the blood of living creatures. But associating such a tremendous power with cruel evilness doesnt necessarily make it less desirable, the human mind is fascinated by the idea of immortality even if simply because we are terribly egotistic creatures, few of whom would think to reject power in favour of morality. Abstract notions of life, death, life beyond death concern man since Ancient times. Not even today do we know what happens when we die, we only know how life is born and that we inevitably die. What happens afterwards? Religions have answers but there is no actual certainty, we may come to believe certain things but we cannot actually be unmistakably certain of anything so its no wonder then that the human mind is so deeply enthralled by death and undeath as there many questions left unanswered and a boundless imagination to make use of when contemplating the idea. The undead are popular in many aspects of modern culture but they appear just as much in the past. Immortality in the form of a mindless ghoul, a ghost bound to a cursed place, a rotting zombie or living skeleton is extremely undesirable but it can be admitted that in entertaining and thrilling the human mind they play their part well. The idea of the dead returning from their graves one way or another appals humanity as much as it fascinates it, otherwise it would not have treaded into mans imagination so often.

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Much more appealing a form of potentially immortal risen dead is the vampire, as presented above in four literary works as with certain weaknesses comes also immeasurable power. In his book The Monster with a Thousand Faces: Guises of the Vampire in Myth and Literature Brian Frost writes: Man's attitude toward the vampire, particularly the human species popularly known as the Undead, has always been somewhat contradictorya mixture of revulsion and fascination. This ambivalence probably arises from the fact that our natural abhorrence of such anomalies is tinged with a sneaking admiration for their ability to cheat death, disgusted though we are by the means employed. However, let those who scoff at the notion of vampires remember that there have been, and always will be, desperate people who will pay any price for immortality. As the famous quote preceding Poe's "Ligeia" asserts: "Man doth not yield himself to the angels, nor unto death utterly, save only through the weakness of his feeble will". This being so, the first requirement of any would-be vampire is an indomitable will to survive. Given that kind of momentum, surely almost anythingmetamorphosis into a vampire includedmight be possible. The contradictory mixture of repugnance, fear, fascination and desire that can be felt when thinking about or coming in contact with the vampire has been thoroughly described in literary works. For example it is noteworthy how Carmillas bold passionate gestures affect Laura as she is captivated and disgusted by them at the same time: From these foolish embraces, which were not of very frequent occurrence, I must allow, I used to wish to extricate myself; but my energies seemed to fail me. Her murmured words sounded like a lullaby in my ear, and soothed my resistance into a trance, from which I only seemed to recover myself when she withdrew her arms. In these mysterious moods I did not like her. I experienced a strange tumultuous excitement that was pleasurable, ever and anon, mingled with a vague sense of fear and disgust. I had no distinct thoughts about her while such scenes lasted, but I was conscious of a love growing into adoration, and also of abhorrence. This I know is paradox, but I can make no other attempt to explain the feeling. (Sheridan Le Fanu, Carmilla, Chapter 4) Even Professor Abraham Van Helsing from Dracula, possessing the strongest mind in the group and nerves of steel falters for a moment when discovering the beautiful female

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vampires in Draculas castle and contemplates how the enigmatic fascination for such ghastly creatures can take over mans mind. I knew that there were at least three graves to find, graves that are inhabit. So I search, and search, and I find one of them. She lay in her Vampire sleep, so full of life and voluptuous beauty that I shudder as though I have come to do murder. Ah, I doubt not that in the old time, when such things were, many a man who set forth to do such a task as mine, found at the last his heart fail him, and then his nerve. So he delay, and delay, and delay, till the mere beauty and the fascination of the wanton Undead have hypnotize him. And he remain on and on, till sunset come, and the Vampire sleep be over. Then the beautiful eyes of the fair woman open and look love, and the voluptuous mouth present to a kiss, and the man is weak. And there remain one more victim in the Vampire fold. One more to swell the grim and grisly ranks of the Undead! . . . There is some fascination, surely, when I am moved by the mere presence of such an one, even lying as she lay in a tomb fretted with age and heavy with the dust of centuries, though there be that horrid odor such as the lairs of the Count have had. Yes, I was moved. I, Van Helsing, with all my purpose and with my motive for hate. I was moved to a yearning for delay which seemed to paralyze my faculties and to clog my very soul. It may have been that the need of natural sleep, and the strange oppression of the air were beginning to overcome me. Certain it was that I was lapsing into sleep, the open eyed sleep of one who yields to a sweet fascination [...] (Bram Stoker, Dracula, Chapter 27) Feeding upon the essence of life is as gruesome as it is rewarding, it prolongs life to the point of potential immortality, it preserves youth and beauty, it grants inhuman strength and even more mystical powers, such as shape-shifting. But whether or not we believe in divinity righteousness must exist, as such the vampire can be considered a creature of evil, as it usually causes the death of its victims, and a perversion of nature, an abomination of the living realm as he should have been dead and thus they have such characteristics as being affected by sunlight, not having a mirror reflection or casting no shadow. They are also said to be soulless.

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In more recent fiction the vampire became an even more fascinating figure as some authors exploited some characteristics and made them stunningly beautiful, more appealing, seductive and granting them more powers. However weaknesses were not forgotten, for example Anne Rices vampires are unaffected by holy symbols or garlic and cannot be killed by staking but direct sunlight sears them and turns them into ash in a matter of minutes. Different authors created all sorts of different vampires, removing, adding and modifying characteristics as they wished allowing it to become even more entertaining as with every vampire book a new type of vampire can be discovered. Brian Frost demonstrates in his aforementioned book that the popularity of the vampire is most likely going to continue to rise: As this book amply demonstrates, the vampire story has, in the past, been enormously popular with authors and readers alike, and the signs are that its future will be just as rosy. Indeed, the number of vampire novels published in the United States and Britain in recent years has been truly phenomenal, and there seems every likelihood that the subject of vampirism, in all its fantastic forms, will continue to be a major source of inspiration for writers of weird fiction for many years to come When it thinks of the vampire the human mind would ponder, is it more appealing to live a normal life in accordance to the universal laws or aspire for immortality at the cost of becoming a despicable abomination? First of all is immortality in the physical realm truly worth pursuing? Even at the cost of blood? Some would say yes, but why? Because most people fear death and the unknown that lies beyond death. Some soothe their minds believing in an immortal life of the soul after death, some believe this life they have now is the only life they will ever have, some have an insatiable thirst to simply live. The vampires potential immortality in the physical plain granted by blood drinking is something that seems much more concrete than the debatable and abstract immortality of the soul and it would also preserve ones individuality something that is normally considered lost upon death. These things appeal to the normally egotistic nature of the human as some might think themselves worthy of immortality, or appeal to the greedy power-hungry nature of the human, as blood-drinking also grants certain powers such as

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enhanced senses and superhuman strength. As it was already mentioned, with new strengths also come new weaknesses resulting from the condition of being undead and in a state defying what is perceived as normal or in some conceptions defying divinity. But, engrossed in fascination some would think no price is too great in exchange for the powers of the vampire, while others would appeal to their sense of morality or to their religious beliefs and shun such a ghastly idea as fantasizing about being a vampire. But they could nonetheless indulge themselves to contemplate the fictional vampire and allow themselves to be seduced by various vampires in literature even if simply because it is interesting to imagine what could go on in the mind of vampire and because they have the potential of being fascinating characters.

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Bibliography The Vampyre by William J Polidori, Varney the Vampire; or, The Feast of Blood by James Malcolm Rymer (alternatively attributed to Thomas Preskett Prest) Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu Dracula by Bram Stoker The Monster with a Thousand Faces: Guises of the Vampire in Myth and Literature by Brian Frost Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia www.wikipedia.org http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire

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