Hypocritical Society in Dead Until Dark

     Vampires have only recently become a topic that sparks lust and curiosity. Especially after the release of the Twilight series written by Stephenie Meyer, young girls lust after the idea of a vampire. Even just a hundred years ago, vampires were used to inflict fear, but they have recently been romanticized. Readers now are commonly conflicted between whether they should fear vampires or see them as endearing. Readers are increasing hypocritical of their views of vampires because most vampire novels are set in hypocritical societies. Sookie Stackhouse is a perfect representation of the hypocritical society that is shown in Charlaine Harris’s Dead Until Dark. One way that Sookie shows her hypocritical nature is with the supposed internal conflict that she faces when it comes to vampires. She takes this conflict to another level when she becomes a fangbanger. She shames fellow women for getting involved with vampires all while she is involved with Bill. Sookie is also a hypocrite when it comes to her “disability”. She has the ability to hear people’s thoughts, but she calls it a disability and tries to repress it. With all the turmoil in and surrounding her town, Sookie could very easily use her gift to read people’s thoughts to help the police in her town, but she does not. She instead spends her days complaining about how she has to hear everyone’s thoughts and how horrible it makes her life. She complains about how she cannot just live her life without hearing people’s thoughts, but at the same time, she listens to people thoughts that she wants to. Sookie claims that she hears people’s voices and cannot make it stop, but when Sam gives her permission to listen to his thoughts, she refuses. Sookie wants people to think that she is a victim for having this gift that she has classified as a disability.
     Sookie, however, is not the only character in the book that is caught being a hypocrite. Many people, especially men, are caught shaming women for getting involved with vampires. If women are caught hooking up with vampires, then they deserve what happens to them. For example, if a woman is involved with a vampire and she ends up dead, it was thought to be her fault. Women in the novel were depicted as sluts who require a male vampire to take interest in them so that they have someone to please. Men, however, are depicted dramatically different in this novel. For example, if a man was caught hooking up or involved with a vampire, then the vampire must have taken advantage of the man and coerced him into getting involved. When men were caught involving themselves with vampires, it was never their fault, and they were never seen as any different or any less than the men that were only involved with humans.

     Like many novels, Charlaine Harris’s Dead Until Dark simply takes aspects of the society that we live in today and amplifies them so that they are easier to recognize. In the society that we live in today, people are increasingly more hypocritical, but they refuse to see it. After reading the novel and critiquing Sookie and some of the other characters, my eyes have opened to the fact that the society that we live in is scarily similar to the society on the novel, and that we need to make a point to be less hypocritical.

Is It Possible to Sympathize with Monsters?

Bruno Celis

Is It Possible to Sympathize with Monsters?

            When we think of monsters, we tend to think of negative characteristics such as cruel, ruthless, frightening, etc. However, Charlaine Harris humanizes vampires in her novel Dead Until Dark. As a result, the reader sympathizes with Bill and his struggles to maintain his intimate relationship with Sookie. Bill, although imperfect, is in a position many of us can relate to and thus makes us connect with him despite our knowledge that he is a murderous vampire.

            To reiterate, Bill is desperate to keep himself and Sookie safe from the head vampire Eric, who is trying to disrupt their relationship by courting Sookie. For instance, Bill travels to New Orleans to win an election, giving him a more prominent status and thus making it harder for Eric to attack him. Despite knowing the Bon Temps murderer is still on the loose, Bill risks leaving Sookie from his protection because he hopes his actions will be beneficial for the long-term. Bill does recognize Sookie’s vulnerability, so he directs Bubba to keep watch for intruders at Sookie’s house. Bill’s entire plan stems from his love for Sookie, which is nearly unthinkable he is capable of caring that much for a human considering he is not even human himself. Harris clarifies that not all vampires are like Bill and are instead like what we would think a vampire would be – evil, bloodthirsty monsters. Humans warn Sookie about how vampires are unpredictable and can cause trouble. Bill’s trio of friends – Malcolm, Diane, Liam – only increase the human’s concern and hatred for vampires by harassing people in Bon Temps. Hence, Bill is significantly acting differently than how a natural vampire would behave. Specifically, Bill is displaying more compassion than expected. Because of this, I personally sympathize with Bill since I view it unfair to see a relationship crumble due to a more powerful figure taking advantage to reap the benefits for himself – I’m looking at you Eric!

Another source of Bill and Sookie’s hardships comes from vampire discrimination. It is revealed that Rene murdered women who had intimate relationships with vampires. Poor Bill just can’t get a break. He had to fight in the Civil War and instead of dying peacefully, he became an undead monster. Yet he puts in the effort to mainstream by being in a relationship with Sookie and tries to treat her well, but people like Rene despise the idea that vampires can live as equally as humans. Rene’s viewpoints reflect modern racism, although most racism does not as extreme as Rene does. Nevertheless, I feel sorry for Bill since he has to constantly worry for Sookie’s safety just because she likes him. Rene knows he can’t take on a vampire, so he targets the human side of the relationship to express his anger. Either way, Bill can’t enjoy being with Sookie as calmly if he were simply human. Personally, I don’t recall being excluded from doing or wanting things due to my ethnicity, but I can imagine how difficult and frustrating it is to be victims of racism – or vampire discrimination in Bill’s case. Thus, I believe monsters can be sympathized with if they are given predicaments that readers can personally relate to – no matter if the monster they relate to is a terrifying, remorseless creature, as popular culture would characterize it.

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

Comparing Vampires of Different Centuries

- 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 17^th-18^thcentury 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 18^thcentury. 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 21^stcentury. 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. 

                  

The New and Old Vampire: Evolution of the Monster

The Changing of the Monster

By: Gabby Nguyen

Throughout the class in which we have focused on vampires, we see the differences between the kind of old school vampire such as Bram Stoker’s interpretation of Dracula and Charlaine Harris’ version of her vampire. It seems as if there is an evolution of how the vampire develops, it is no longer a scary monster that comes to suck on human’s blood, but it is now portrayed as a sexy chiseled man or scantily dressed woman that is over sexual. The comparison between the modern age vampires is quite different from the one of Dracula’s day and age and I believe that this was to appeal to the audience as the writers Harris or Stephanie Meyer portrays their version of the perfect vampire to their readers. The evolving of monsters is still in continuation and is due to the fact that it will conform to what the readers or viewers believe is attractive, and this is what the author will base their writings off of.

            First we see that Stoker uses Dracula as a monster of horror, who holds his prisoners in a dark castle with the threat of him catching them snooping through his things. Dracula is seen as a figure that lurks in the darkness and is associated with darkness, which is a common theme between all characters that are evil. Stoker describes Dracula as “cold as ice, more like the hand of a dead man. His face is aquiline, with a high bridge, thin nose, and arched nostrils” (Stoker 24). And then the film adaptation holds this description true, with a high forehead and red lips, trying to give the audience the visual of what evil looks like. What was kept similar with the evolution of the vampire from Dracula to Bill Compton in Dead until Dark was the reoccurring theme of sexual tones and the interactions between the characters.

            In continuation in talking on the theme of sexual interactions as well as the communication between characters, we see that Sookie and Bill seem to have some type of sexual tension between them, or at least how Harris wrote her books, that is what she intended for her readers to catch on. However, the differences between Dracula and Bill is that Bill is more possessive of Sookie. Dracula was possessive in the way that he just wanted Mina for blood but Bill has an attraction towards Sookie and claiming her as his own. It also is different that in some way, Harris writes more about sex and is more explicit about it than Stoker was. She uses Bill as a sexual symbol as well as the other vampires in the novel and in the show True Blood. And even though Dracula is desired by Mina and Lucy, Bill and the other vampires have their own fan club, the fang-bangers. These people WANT to be bit by the vampires because it gives them pleasure to the point that they will end up dying because of it. I believe that the modern day vampire is more desirable than the era of Dracula because authors make them seem more attractive with the uses of imagery and the ideal man.

            Overall, the changing and growing of monsters is still in continuation. Authors intend to appeal to their readers and directors of shows want consistent viewers. And the way to do this is to keep with the culture of what is popular. And I believe that in the era of Dracula, the appeal was for that intended audience, but Dracula was actually a monster who was preying on women, where in Dead Until Dark, Bill is a vampire who wants to protect a woman he loves and just because he is a so called monster, this comes to his advantage due to his good looks and charm. I am excited to see the further evolving of monsters through books and film adaptations based on how the culture is during that time.

Viewing Dracula as More Than a Monster

Bruno Celis

Viewing Dracula as More Than a Monster

Dracula is clearly portrayed as the upmost example of evil. His weaknesses are religious items, such as holy water and crucifixes, which serve to emphasize how unholy Dracula is. If Dracula cowers and hisses at the sight of a crucifix, that is an obvious sign this creature must be from the depths of Hell. Despite the tendency to classify Dracula as a devilish creature with no traces of human in him, it is important to note that Dracula can still be sympathized with by evaluating his human-like motivations.

When we first meet Dracula, he welcomes Jonathan Harker in a very cordial manner. This is early evidence that shows that Dracula is not a mindless creature driven by evil. He seems to genuinely care for Jonathan. For instance, Dracula heavily scolds the three female vampires after their attempt to suck Jonathan’s blood. Dracula is acting like a father figure to Jonathan by protecting him. Even further, could it be possible that Dracula is attracted to Jonathan in a homosexual way? Stoker never progresses this idea primarily because he foresaw the controversy if he did include a same-sex relationship, yet the subtle hints are there. Granted, Dracula’s ability to elicit emotions of intimacy and compassion may be superficial. In truth, Dracula main focus is to keep Jonathan alive not to form a friendship with him, but to complete the necessary paperwork for his move to London. Dracula is striving for world domination and to bring back glory to his family name. In a way, his actions represent the human quality of seeking power. Thus, Dracula symbolizes both the positive and negative human characteristics, deeming him more than just a one-dimensional figure of evil.

Furthermore, the end of the novel features Dracula fleeing for his life as he is intensely pursued by Van Helsing and his companions. Van Helsing is incredibly determined to once and for all end Dracula’s reign of terror by properly killing him. Somehow, Stoker is able to make the reader feel a little sorry for Dracula despite knowing it is probable best to kill him. How is it even possible to feel sorry for him? From Dracula’s point of view, he simply desires to return to glory for himself and the race of vampires as a whole (although his methods and consequences for humanity may not be ideal). Van Helsing’s mission to stop Dracula will save countless of lives (including innocent babies who randomly get devoured by female vampires), but for Dracula, he will die in dishonor. In this viewpoint, Van Helsing and his men deny Dracula of his happiness, which makes Dracula the victim one sympathizes with and Van Helsing the monster. However, one crucial detail that contradicts this conclusion is Dracula’s facial expression of peace moments before his death. One can argue Dracula loathed being an undead vampire, especially when the novel implies that a vampire does reach Heaven after death. Dracula’s demise means pre-vampire Dracula can now experience eternal peace. Either way, Dracula displays many human characteristics that makes him more than a brainless creature out to terrorize humanity.

Interpretation of Dracula's Powers

The titular character of Bram Stoker's Dracula shows various superhuman abilities throughout the novel. Some of his more supernatural abilities include being able to transform into certain animals, affect the minds of others, seemingly disappear in darkness, manipulate weather phenomenon, and infect others with vampirism. These supernatural abilities, along with his near-immortal life and enhancement of basic human capabilities, emphasize the themes we discussed in class about how vampirism represents and emphasizes a threat to the social standards of Great Britain during the Victorian era, specifically the societal and biological roles of women. Dracula's powers are representative of the futility of forcefully applying rigid social standards, the enforcement and usurpation of male dominance, and parental roles being swapped between mother and father. His ability to shape-shift into a bat and a wolf, both of which are predatory animals, illustrates his role as a dangerous threat and his own predatory nature. This symbolically represents the submissive role that women had to withstand in the Victorian era while men were allowed to hold dominance over them. The ability to disappear and reappear draws further attention to how dangerous he and what he represents is to Victorian society, as it symbolizes how ideas that do not comply with the societal norms can appear anywhere and any time. What point is there in attempting to suppress and remove nonconformist behavior if it will still show up again? The conflict between natural order and societal order comes through Dracula's ability to manipulate the weather. In this case, his ability to influence his surroundings illustrates the dominance that societal and cultural standards exerts over the natural order of the world. The concept of dominance appears again with his ability to to affect the psyche of others, such as in the cases of Renfield and Mina. Dracula's influence over Renfield can be likened to an alpha male in an animal pack assuming dominance over the beta and omega pack members. The case of Mina represents the Victorian norm of men being dominant over women. An inverted example of this comes up during Jonathan's interactions with the three vampiresses in Dracula's castle, as his is forced into a submissive role while the trio assert dominance over him. Later in the novel, Dracula shows an inversion of the maternal role when he has Mina drink his blood from his chest in order to infect her with vampirism. This scene mirrors a mother breastfeeding her child. Both scenarios involve the transition of empowering fluid being transferred between a parent and child, but the milk is swapped for blood in the vampiric situation. Dracula force-feeding Mina his blood is supposed to be a corruption of the caretaker role that women are generally pushed towards by society, as now it is a man who is giving the newborn child, a metaphor for Mina, the nourishment that they require. Lucy's behavior as a vampire, however, averts the concept of swapped parental roles. The only people Lucy specifically targets are children, implying that this corruption does not occur when it is a vampiress that assumes the role of the parent.

Women in Dracula

In the Victorian time period, there was an emphasis on the patriarchy as well as the pure and sanctity of the woman. It was frowned upon as well as feared for women to become their “own woman” to speak. Bram Stoker was able to capture this scare of women becoming the “New Woman” rather than being the perfect woman. The different characteristics of the new woman would be embracing education, social changes and sexual changes in the society. Stoker is able to use the female characters of Lucy, Mina, and the three female vampires to represent this.

The first characters that I will focus on are the female vampires that live in Dracula’s castle. They are introduced to us when they attack Jonathan Harker when he is sleeping. They are described by Harker that “All had brilliant white teeth that shone like pearls against the ruby of their voluptuous lips… I felt in my heart a wicked, burning desire that they would kiss me with those red lips” (Stoker 69). The red is a symbol of evil and one being not pure such as these vampires. These vampires are sexual, unnatural and acting up emotion in which this was not what the traditional women did in Victorian society. Stoker uses the imagery with the color red very consistently when he is describing the interaction between Harker and the female vampires and also with Lucy. Women who were unchaste and who are sexual, they are evil and this is why the vampires are represented as evil as well as Lucy when she turns into a vampire.
Lucy is one of the characters that are on the end of the evil spectrum because when she was still human there was a chapter that Stoker writes when she is courted by three men and also receive three proposals. This could be considered scandalous or inappropriate because women were to be only with one man and that being her husband. Lucy breaks the barrier of being an angel in the house by sort of bragging about these proposals and not really caring about what anyone thinks of what she says. In addition to this, when she turns into a vampire, she is seen carrying a child to kill when the men are going to kill her after her death. Women were to be good mothers during this time period and this description in the book shows that she is the opposite of what was wanted in the house and not being a proper mother because she is endangering a child. 

This brings me to my next character, Mina.  She shows the traits of the ideal woman of the Victorian Era but also she is showing the development of the New Woman. She shows this through showing intelligence in helping the men, working outside of the home and even leaving the home without the accompany of a man. The representation of Mina shows the ideal of the Victorian woman that was wanted during this time period, but we slowly see how she is evolving to fighting the boundaries that were put on women in the household.

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.