- Alina Shrestha
Vampires are super natural creators that are constantly shown/ fantasized about in our pop cultural television or novels. Vampires were first introduced in late 17th-18thcentury from Eastern Europe, they were the best known as the classic monsters who feeds on human blood for existence. The behavior, lifestyle of vampires has changed over the centuries, they have grown softer/ more interactive towards human world. The most general descriptions of vampires are having pale skin, fangs, super strength, and super-fast. The vampires overall from all centuries are portrayed with similar style like staying away from the sun, sucking bloods, sensual/ hypnotic super power, etc. They are awake at night and are associated with dark tones. The role/ behavior of vampires in human world have drastically changed over years.
Before mainstreaming was popular among vampires, Count Dracula was considered a legendary blood sucking creature in the 18thcentury. He enjoyed drinking on humans, (Jonathan, Mina, Lucy) he felt powerful when the victims were at the weakest state. He had the ability to turn humans into vampires by sucking their blood. The novel, and the movie portrays Dracula as dark, evil by using darker toned colors like red, black etc. He was the ideal vampire that humans were afraid to socialize or relate with. He was inhuman, ruthless and a killer.
The novels, Dead Until darkand Twilightwas published in the 21stcentury. Bill and Edward seemed to mainstream in these novels. The vampire’s social behavior has changed drastically compared to the Count Dacula. Bill drinks synthetic blood, while Edward drinks animal blood. Both of the characters try to settle among humans. While they both mainstreamed, Edward and Bill had their own differences. In the novel Twilight, Edward is shown to have flawless skin, textured with marble like substance, his skin is shown to have a crystalline property which sparkles like diamond whenever exposed to the sunlight. Their eyes change color depending on their diet (blood type) and age. While in the novel Dead Until Dark, Bill has pale skin like Edward’s, but his skin does not sparkle when exposed to the sun. Bill doesn’t interact with the outside world during the day, he is found asleep in the ground on the cemetery. Edward on the other hand, doesn’t sleep at all, and stay in a part of the town with little to no sunlight so that he can interact with the humans and mainstream. Edward interacts with humans on day and night bases by attending the high school and being involved in the community while Bill only interacts at night with the humans.
Over centuries, I think the perception of vampires has weakened. The society tends to humanize vampire by finding a human significant other, Bella to Edward and Sookie to Bill. Their longing to belong to human society makes them weaker. Hence drinking synthetic blood and animal’s blood. I feel that since they don’t age after transforming into a vampire, they get bored of their old lifestyle causing them to try living in new situations. I feel that since Edward was the only vampire in the family who was single and Bill who was single wanted to find a girl for themselves leading them to mainstream to find younger generation female for their own excitement and entertainment. The vampires may have different views towards human society but they all feed on blood, have some type of mindreading, telepathic skills that makes them able to “read” or “see” humans beyond what humans can see or sense.
You present an interesting point by tying in Twilight to Dead Until Dark. In my blog post titled “What Makes a ‘Good’ Vampire?” I explore the idea of vampires mainstreaming with a focus on Dead Until Dark. You bring up some good points about the changes that have been made over time to vampires in order to make them more attractive, such as Edward sparkling and both Bill and Edward not drinking human blood (Synthetic in the former case and animal blood in the latter). Bill is changed in other ways to make him more attractive and one interpretation as “good”, as I explore more in depth in my post. Bill lives on his own, repairing a nice property that he fixes up with many luxury items he doesn’t need but it could be assumed he made for Sookie’s enjoyment (like the really nice bathroom with a hot tub and a bedroom). Note that in Twilight they have a really nice house, too, but Edward doesn’t have a bed because he doesn’t need one.
ReplyDeleteCourtney Sellars
I like how you pointed out the differences in the characteristics and behavior of vampire over the years. I totally agree with the all the points that you made, and I do believe that your point that Bill and Edward both were in search of excitement and curiosity to try something new which ultimately led them to mainstream and find a younger generation female. However, it could be that they found something “special” in both these girls. I do remember that in twilight it was the scent/smell of Bella’s blood and not being able to read Bella’s mind attracted Edward towards Bella. Also, in the case of Dead until Dark it is scent/smell of Sookie’s blood and Sookie’s inability to read Bill’s mind attracted both of them to each other. Other than that, I think you did a very job comparing and contrasting Bill and Edward.
ReplyDeleteSyeda S. Raza
I like that you were able to synthesize all the vampires that we discussed in class. I believe that there are many differences but that it all had to do with the time period that the novel or movie was made in. We see that Dracula was not really “mainstreaming” such as Bill Compton or the Cullen family from Twilight was, because it seemed as if he did not really care if he was caught. There was the little point that he did try to mimic the accents of Mina when entered London but that could have been just to make her more attracted to him. Whereas Bill Compton and the whole Cullen family are in the business of blending in, but the difference is that Bill is trying to interact more with the people in the small town instead of just living without notice. I think that because of the growth of vampires, it is helping in the development of novels to be written and this is something that can be used to help other writers in developing new ideas.
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