Stories of blood-sucking monsters are universal and have been around for centuries.
There’s the Greek lamiae, the Chinese jiangshi, the African asanbosam, and the Australian
yah-mah-ya-who to name a few.
But let’s focus on the one who has outlived them all, whose monstrous legend lives among
us even today—Count Dracula.
The stories of blood-sucking monsters constantly shifts to reflect the culture and issues of
its time.
For instance, there are real-life diseases with symptoms similar to the traits found
in some vampires: sensitivity to light, a sudden decline in health, even the desire
to bite other people.
So, before we understood concepts like viruses and germs, creating a fictional explanation
makes a lot of sense.
Also, if you look at the sharp teeth and long fingernails of the typical western vampire,
and how they use these to attack their prey, the vampire becomes a metaphor for a human’s
capacity for great violence.
Vampires often appear humanoid and primarily attack humans, so associating their violent
attacks with the violence we see in the real world is easy—because both predator and
prey look like us.
We can find this monster in folklore, legends, and literature long before the word “vampire”
appears for the first time in English around 1730.
However, it wasn’t until the Irish author Abraham ‘Bram’ Stoker wrote his 1897 novel
Dracula, that the characteristics of this creature became widely recognizable in the
modern world.
Stoker actually started outlining the novel in 1890, years before he even encountered
the name ‘Dracula.’
We know this because he wrote notes, a lot of notes.
Emily Gerard’s book of Transylvanian superstitions The land beyond the forest and Reverend Sabine
Baring-Gould’s The Book of Were-Wolves were two books which clearly inspired him.
He clipped newspaper articles, recorded tombstone inscriptions, and transcribed ship captain's
logbooks to make his narrative more realistic.
He was also influenced by Victorian theatre, including his friend and employer - the actor
Henry Irving.
Stoker’s original list of characters shows the famous vampire was first only known as
the “Count.”
It is most likely that he read the name “Dracula” for the first time in William Wilkinson’s
book An Account of the Principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia while on vacation with his family,
after he had already started writing the story.
In tradition with a lot of Gothic literature, Dracula is a member of the aristocracy, which
also explains the dramatic castle setting, and the Count’s great wealth of “old gold.”
In his memos, Stoker combined many existing literary and folklore traits that we now see
as typical vampire characteristics: no reflection in mirrors, never eats or drinks, has enormous
strength, and the ability to see in the dark.
It was already accepted that vampires could turn others into the undead, have large canine
teeth and pointed nails, and be vulnerable to garlic and wooden stakes.
But Count Dracula was the first vampire to have all of these traits.
And influenced by werewolf legends, Stoker gives Dracula the ability to shapeshift into
a bat, a wolf, or mist, a first for vampires!
Seven years of making vampire notes paid off, and when the book was finally published, it
was a critical and popular success.
The 1922 movie Nosferatu, which tells the Dracula story with a few names changes, was
not authorized by Stoker and came dangerously close to copyright infringement.
Stoker’s widow even tried to have the film removed from public circulation.
The controversy surrounding the film increased the popularity of both the book and the Count
himself.
The prevelance of Dracula movies in the 40’s, inspired a 16-year-old Richard Matheson, to
contemplate his own version of a vampire tale: he wondered quote “if one vampire was scary,
a world filled with vampires would be really scary.”
Matheson published I am Legend, in 1954, telling the story of the only apparent human survivor
in New York City after a vampire plague infects the population.
Matheson’s vampires becomes monsters not from a bite or curse, but because of the Vampiris
virus.
This is one of the first times the metaphor of vampirism as a disease is explicitly stated.
Urbanism, immigration, sexual transmitted disease, politics, corporate greed, capitalism,
racism, sexism, the fetishization of youth— these are only a few of the things vampires
have represented.
In 1975, Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot modernizes Stoker’s original story.
King admits he was inspired by Dracula, as well as the divisive political atmosphere
at that time in the United States that in King’s own words gave him a quote “fear
of the future.”
Fun fact: thanks to the window-scratching scene in the tv-movie version of Salem’s
Lot, the first monsters I remember being really scared of were vampires.
Which, given that I am now an expert in the undead, is so perfectly ironic I could die.
And then reanimate.
It wouldn’t be a post-Dracula vampire episode if I didn’t mention the two names that made
the modern vampire “sexy”…Anne Rice’s Vampire Chronicles and Stephenie Meyer’s
Twilight series.
In 1976, the publication of Interview with a Vampire introduced the world to the beautiful,
soulful Louis, whose cold dead heart is still capable of love and regret.
Rice gave us the first reluctant vampires in literature, those who were more concerned
with self-identity and morality than any previously portrayed.
Then in 2003, we were given the brooding, abstinent, “vegetarian” Edward Cullen
in Twilight.
Meyer makes turning someone into a vampire the most romantic thing you can do because
it ensures you and your true love will be together forever.
Also, vampires now sparkle.
Thanks for that.
Other vampire stories reframe the undead monster in exciting ways.
Jewelle Gomez’s The Gilda Stories features a black, feminist vampire heroine who uses
her undead life to explore her education and her sexuality while helping to create progressive
change in society.
Octavia Butler’s Fledgling features vampires who actually engage in symbiotic relationships
with those they feed from.
The narrative addresses themes of polyamory, intimacy, race, and genetic experimentation
through the eyes of a black female protagonist.
In contrast, Guillermo del Toro’s The Strain trilogy gives us parasitic worms who inhabit
living human bodies, and whose failure to value human life makes them monstrous even
without their need for human blood.
Even though all modern vampire stories have their roots in Stoker’s original Dracula,
each one is unique in its interpretation.
As times change, so do vampires.
The vampire reflects the culture and time of its creation.
I wonder what form they’ll take next?