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1.3 General Thesis: the Elements of Vampire Culture Reflected in Dracula 3
2. Elements of Vampire Culture in Dracula 5
2.1 Suspense: Dracular from a strange man to a vampire 5
2.2 Blood: Love and Power Dracula preying on Lucy and Mina 6
2.3 Good VS Evil: Dracula the Vampire is finally defeated by the unity of Human Beings 7
3. Cultural Signficance of Vampire Exemplified by Dracula the Vampire 9
3.1 Self-reflexive Horror-the Mirror of the Dithyrambic but Deadly Self 9
3.2 Depiction of Vampire-the Pursuit of Truth 11
4. Popular Vampire Culture under the Influence of Dracular 13
4.1 Twilight Series 13
4.2 Ture Blood 14
4.3 The Vampire’s Diaries 15
5. Conclusion 16
Bibliography 17
1 Introduction
The images of vampires have been ubiquitous in the western cultures, and in recent years have become increasingly popular, even leading to a vampire crazy. Though vampire cultures originated on the European continent, their development has mainly taken place in the English cultures. After the transformations raised by the three periods—medieval legends and superstitions, literature of the Industrial Revolution, and persified modern cultures, the images of vampires in people’s imaginary world have undergone a very interesting and thought-provoking transition—from an evil and supernatural being to an incarnation of average person. At the same time, different backgrounds of historical periods, people’s ideas and concepts, and social ethics have all exerted certain important influences on the development of vampire cultures.
This paper aims to make a further research of the novel Dracula. With the wide spreading of the vampire film and TV series, more and more people become crazy about the vampires. What’s the history of this legend? In which background did the author write this novel? What’s the idea or purpose of the novel? The thesis of the paper is to find out the answers and study the culture of the Vampire.
1.1 The Historical Development of Vampire Culture
The vampires of folk history were totally abominable creatures. They were described as cruel, smelly corpses, eager for blood. They are never actually observed in their vampire state, by the living, but their existence is confirmed by circumstantial evidence within the surrounding community.(Drabble, 2005:171)
The evidence for the existence of a vampire was thought to include such things as the sudden deaths of citizen and animals, under unclear or questionable circumstances. Also indicative of vampirism, was the sudden onslaught of mysterious disease symptoms, especially those causing pale skin coloration and slow physical wasting
In 1897, with the publishing of his novel Dracula, Bram Stoker successfully transforms the image and the conventions of the Vampire from lowly sub-human parasite, to that of an intelligent, but somewhat evil superhero. Count Dracula resides in a castle, has superhuman powers and unlimited material wealth. He is a mysterious and genious intellect, who is almost immortal.