What Makes a "Good" Vampire?

According to Charlaine Harris in “Dead Until Dark” a good vampire appears to be white, heterosexual, dressed in basic clothing (shop at Dillards), live alone, are monogamous, date humans, drink synthetic blood, and hopefully have ties to the confederacy, at least during the Civil War (“‘You fought for the Confederacy,’ I said wonderingly. ‘If you still had your uniform and wore it to the club the ladies would faint with joy,’” (60)).

Typically vampires are displayed in two ways in the novel:

“Mainstreamers” like Bill	“Nesting” vampires
Drink synthetic blood	Drink blood from fangbangers or glamour humans to take blood when they want.	Drinking blood appears to very much be a sexual nature because Bill often drinks from Sookie after he has sex with her and the first time she really sees his fangs is when she first goes to the Compton house and meets the main nesting vampires. A man, Jerry, is offered to Bill and begins rubbing up against him. As Sookie notes, “The strain in my vampire’s face was terrible to see. His fangs slid out. I saw him fully extended for the first time. The synthetic blood was not answering all Bill’s needs alright,” (73).
Bill is far from openly sexual and is pretty careful about not being too forward with Sookie. His sexuality is in question because he does have sex with Sookie plenty, but that doesn’t mean he has no interest in men at all. When Jerry rubs against him (as mentioned earlier), he does fully extend his fangs. While he doesn’t explicitly show a sexual interest, the phrases “fangs slid out” and “fully extended” do imply a sexual innuendo.	Nesting vampires are repeatedly shown to be open about their sexuality, to the disgust of the main character, Sookie. “Malcolm pulled the human male to him and gave him a long kiss. I began to feel sick. That kind of stuff is private,” (72). “The male vampire with the tattoos put his arm around Janella and rubbed her breasts. I could feel the blood drain out of my face. I was disgusted. It got worse. Janella, as lost to decency as the vampire, put her hand on his crotch and massaged,” (72).	Speaking of sexual activities, nesting vampires appear to be far more open about their sexuality and sexual activities. When Sookie visits the Compton house for the first time and meets the main nesting vampires of the novels, she is disgusted with how openly the vampires do sexual things, especially if it is homosexual in nature.
Live on their own (“‘Vampires like me, who live alone, are a little better reminded of their former humanity,’”(78).)	Live in groups (“‘When vampires live in nests,’ he said suddenly, ‘they often become more cruel because they egg each other on. They see others like themselves constantly, and so they are reminded of how far from being human they are,’” (78).)	The argument is made that vampires should live alone because the solitude makes them better, makes them more human. Vampires that nest are described as losing their humanity because they spend so much time with other vampires and see how different they are from human beings.

Courtney Sellars

WHAT DOES BLOOD REPRESENT IN STOKER’S DRACULA?

WHAT DOES BLOOD REPRESENT IN STOKER’S DRACULA?

BY SYEDA S. RAZA

 

 Blood is a material substance that facilitates the restoration of life. In Gothic literature, blood represents genealogy, lineages, and procreation. The Gothic treatment of blood sometimes focuses on the purity and taintedness of blood, like in Bram Stoker’s Dracula to highlight contemporary societal anxieties.  In Gothic literature, blood holds dual functionality, it not only is a life giver but a life denier. This bifurcated ideology is often seen as a hallmark of the Gothic genre in which it is entirely possible for an action to be purely good and evil at the same time (Hughes). Stroker uses blood as the most blatant and powerful symbol in the novel. He presents blood as the most vital fluid for both humans and vampires, uses it to corrupt the religious beliefs of the people, and to show their sexual desires.

In Gothic literature, blood is the driving force which is essential for the vitality of both good and evil. In the novel, Victorian men as blood donors reflect strength and power as seen when Van Helsing appraises Holmwood’s constitution as “so young and strong of blood so pure that we need not ‘defibrinate’ it “(176). Blood, whose properties were still believed in this period to animate the body, needed to be pure in order to both cure illness and preserve health and thus were provided by these robust men. On the other hand, consuming blood gave vampires youthfulness and fortification in a more demonic way. When Jonathan Harker discovers Dracula sleeping in his tomb, he observes him ''looking as if his youth had been half restored '' (75).

The notion of blood as a life-giver is further extended by its religious connotations in Gothic literature. Here, Stroker tries to present “blood” as a Christian religious symbol. Christians consume sacred wafers and wine in the church that not only represents the body and blood of Christ but also to remember his sacrifice. In Dracula, when Renfield echo’s ''The blood is the life the blood is the life!'' (202) he essentially is referring to Christ’s blood and also the blood that he indirectly consumes by eating insects which in turn increases his power. Contrastingly, Stroker also links blood consumption which greed and corruption in Vampires. Being bitten by the vampires means union with the undead, shearing a person away from his faith. Thus it appears that the consumption of blood by vampires goes against the Christian theologies in Stokers Dracula.

Also, in Stoker’s Gothic fiction there are no bounds on sexuality. Stoker associates blood with the sexual desires of both men and women. We first see this when Jonathan Harker is surrounded by the Count's female companions in the castle. Despite his engagement and love for Mina, he admits that ''I felt in my heart a wicked, burning desire that they would kiss me with those red lips.'' Here, the red lips represent blood and the three female vampires present an image of predatory lovers. On the other hand, after the successful blood transfusion of Lucy by her fiancé, Lucy writes in the diary “Somehow Arthur feels very, very close to me… I seem to feel his presence warm about me” (182). Here again, Lucy’s reaction after the blood transfusion and the way someone reacts when they are sexually involved with someone is very identical. Not only this the vampire puncturing the skin and draining the blood can be seen as seduction, so is the fact victims are turned into the undead at night. Not only this, red cheeks were a Victorian symbol of sexual arousal, which appears often in the novel.

To me, Stoker uses blood to present the notion of “desire” for both the men and women which is often reflected in the Gothic literature. Here, Victorian men use blood as a sign to show strength and dominance to women. Whereas for women, blood represents significance and subversive desires. Specifically for women, vampirism gave voice to the culturally silenced angels of the house. However, blood also promised eternal youth as desired by both women and men.

Work cited

 Hughes, William, David Punter, and Andrew Smith. The Encyclopedia Of The Gothic. Print.

The different aspects of Dracula's monstrosity

Count Dracula is a monster in Stoker’s novel Dracula that incorporates many different aspects of his monstrosity. He is described as a monster that is nothing more than an evil entity. Evil is often represented as an “individual” with inhuman capabilities and sinister objective; these qualities are strongly associated to being a monster that brings out central conflict in the story. He is a vampire in England who sucks the blood out of his female victims who eventually become vampires themselves, ‘passing on’ his monstrosity to other people. The vampire does possess a lot of human-like characteristics in terms of looks, and feelings, when Count Dracula admits his loneliness by saying “loneliness will sit over out roofs with brooding wings” (pg. 200). Despite that, he is a well-defined instance of a monster due to his inhuman abilities, and malicious acts toward people.

              However, a monster does not have to resemble a beastly-related figure. A monster can also be a man, corrupted by greed or ill intentions, which take over their lives. The acts of causing death and destruction to many people can be achievable by people in this world today, and that makes them no less of a monster. The disregard for human survival is a factor that adds horrific elements to their monstrosity.

Another instance of Count Dracula’s monstrous behavior is when he presents alluring, seducing vampires to John Harker. He appears to lose all control, and willpower as he submits to the sexual intentions of the vampires. At that point, Harker is vulnerable to any ill-intentions Count Dracula wishes, but not through his violent acts, but by using the body of other female vampires. This unique aspect of monstrosity is similar to Zemeckis 2007 film Beowulf and how Grendel's mother was sexualized herself to seduce the male character and get what she wanted. Not only does Count Dracula use sexualized female vampires as his weapon, but also turns female victims into the anti-mother in that society – by eating children. This possibly shows Count Dracula’s most repulsive acts as not even children are spared. Claiming that Dracula is not a monster at this point after committing such despicable acts would be absurd.

              A more terrifying aspect is his ability to possess other humans as they submit to his powers. He uses is mind-controlling capabilities are used for showing his supremacy over others. A good example is Renfield, the madman from the asylum, showing his allegiance by saying "I am here to do Your bidding, Master. I am Your slave, and You will reward me." (pg. 95) However, later in the novel it is shown that Dracula in fact possessed him this whole time, and admits to him being controlled by the vampire. He also has Harker’s wife, Mina, under a trance and ultimately makes her drink his blood. Both instances show his manipulative intentions for power and malice.

              It becomes very evident of Dracula’s cruel intentions deeper into the novel. What I feel is the most scariest form of monstrosity is turning people who were sane to the "dark side" as he did with Lucy. This comparison reminded me of the movie Narnia where the evil witch-queen tempted Edmund to eat turkish delight only if he did what she wanted, not to mention her mind-controlling powers. Moreover, along with Count Dracula's inhuman abilities of animal shape-shifting, his contempt for the human race, and his gruesome behavior toward humanity support his many different aspects of his monstrosity.