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Vampires are mythological beings
who survive by feeding on the life essence (blood) of living
creatures. In folkloric tales, vampires often visited loved
ones and caused mischief or deaths in the neighborhoods
they inhabited when they were alive. They wore shrouds and
were often described as bloated and of ruddy or dark
countenance. This is markedly different from modern
fictional portrayals of gaunt, pale vampires beginning in
the early 19th century. Although vampiric entities have been
recorded in many cultures and according to speculation by
literary historian Brian Frost that the belief in vampires
and bloodsucking demons is as old as man himself, and may
go back to prehistoric times.
The term vampire was not popularized
until the early 18th century, after an influx of vampire
superstition into Western Europe from areas where vampire
legends were frequent, such as the Balkans and Eastern
Europe, although local variants were also known by different
names, such as vampire (вампир) in Serbia and Bulgaria,
vrykolakas in Greece and strigoi in Romania. This increased
level of vampire superstition in Europe led to mass hysteria
and in some cases resulted in corpses actually being staked
and people being accused of vampirism.
The vampire of modern fiction was born
in 1819 with the publication of The Vampire by John
Polidori. The story was highly successful and arguably the
most influential vampire work of the early 19th century.
However, it is Bram Stoker's 1897 novel Dracula that is
remembered as the quintessential vampire novel and which
provided the basis of modern vampire fiction. Dracula drew
on earlier mythologies of werewolves and similar imaginary
demons and was to voice the anxieties of an age, and the
fears of late Victorian patriarchy.
In modern day fiction, the vampire
tends to be depicted as a suave, charismatic villain.
Despite the general disbelief in vampiric entities,
occasional sightings of vampires are reported. Indeed,
vampire hunting societies still exist, although they are
largely formed for social reasons. Allegations of vampire
attacks swept through the African country of Malawi during
late 2002 and early 2003, with mobs stoning one individual
to death and attacking at least four others, including
Governor Eric Chiwaya, based on the belief that the
government was colluding with vampires.
In early 1970 local press spread
rumors that a vampire haunted Highgate Cemetery in London.
Amateur vampire hunters flocked in large numbers to the
cemetery. Several books have been written about the case,
notably by Sean Manchester, a local man who was among the
first to suggest the existence of the Highgate Vampire and
who later claimed to have exorcised and destroyed a whole
nest of vampires in the area. In January 2005, rumors
circulated that an attacker had bitten a number of people in
Birmingham, England, fuelling concerns about a vampire
roaming the streets. However, local police stated that no
such crime had been reported and that the case appears to be
an urban legend.
Paul Barber in his book Vampires,
Burial and Death has described that belief in vampires
resulted from people of pre-industrial societies attempting
to explain the natural, but to them inexplicable, process of
death and decomposition.
People sometimes suspected vampirism
when a cadaver did not look as they thought a normal corpse
should when disinterred. However, rates of decomposition
vary depending on temperature and soil composition, and many
of the signs are little known. This has led vampire hunters
to mistakenly conclude that a dead body had not decomposed
at all, or, ironically, to interpret signs of decomposition
as signs of continued life. Corpses swell as gases from
decomposition accumulate in the torso and the increased
pressure forces blood to ooze from the nose and mouth. This
causes the body to look plump, well-fed, and
ruddy "changes that are all the more striking if the person
was pale or thin in life". In the Arnold Paole case, an old
woman's exhumed corpse was judged by her neighbors to look
more plump and healthy than she had ever looked in life. The
exuding blood gave the impression that the corpse had
recently been engaging in vampiric activity. Darkening of
the skin is also caused by decomposition. The staking of a
swollen, decomposing body could cause the body to bleed and
force the accumulated gases to escape the body. This could
produce a groan-like sound when the gases moved past the
vocal cords, or a sound reminiscent of flatulence when they
passed through the anus.
After death, the skin and gums lose
fluids and contract, exposing the roots of the hair, nails,
and teeth, even teeth that were concealed in the jaw. This
can produce the illusion that the hair, nails, and teeth
have grown. At a certain stage, the nails fall off and the
skin peels away, as reported in the Plogojowitz case—the
dermis and nail beds emerging underneath were interpreted as
new skin and new nails.
It has also been hypothesized that
vampire legends were influenced by individuals being buried
alive because of shortcomings in then-current medical
knowledge. In some cases in which people reported sounds
emanating from a specific coffin, it was later dug up and
fingernail marks were discovered on the inside from the
victim trying to escape. In other cases the person would hit
their heads, noses or faces and it would appear that they
had been feeding. A problem with this theory is the
question of how people presumably buried alive managed to
stay alive for any extended period without food, water or
fresh air. An alternate explanation for noise is the
bubbling of escaping gases from natural decomposition of
bodies.
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Count Dracula is a fictional
character, the titular antagonist of Bram Stoker's 1897
Gothic horror novel Dracula. Some aspects of his character
may have been inspired by the 15th century Romanian general
Vlad the Impaler. In the United States the character became
public domain in 1899 and subsequently appears frequently in
all manner of popular culture, from films to videogames to
breakfast cereals.
Count Dracula (his first name is never
given in the novel) is a centuries-old vampire , sorcerer
and Transylvanian nobleman, who claims to be a
Hungarian(Székely) descended from Attila the Hun. He
inhabits a decaying castle in the Carpathian Mountains near
the Borgo Pass. Contrary to the vampires of Eastern European
folklore, which are portrayed as repulsive, corpse-like
creatures, Dracula can exude a veneer of aristocratic charm
which masks his unfathomable evil.
Far prior to the beginning of the
novel, Dracula studied the black arts at the academy of
Scholomance in the Carpathian Mountains, overlooking the
town of Sibiu (also known as Hermannstadt) and became
proficient in alchemy and magic (Dracula Chapter 18 and
Chapter 23). Later he took up a military profession,
combating the Turks across the Danube, according to the
character Abraham Van Helsing. Using the black arts, Dracula
returned from death as a vampire and lives for several
centuries in his castle with three vampiric women for
company.
As the novel begins in the late 19th
century, Dracula acts on a long contemplated plan for world
domination, and infiltrates London to begin his reign of
terror. He summons Jonathan Harker, a newly qualified
English solicitor, to provide legal support for a real
estate transaction overseen by Harker's employer. Dracula at
first charms Harker with his cordiality and historical
knowledge and even rescues him from the clutches of his
three bloodthirsty brides. In truth, however, Dracula wishes
to keep Harker alive just long enough for his legal
transaction to finish and to learn as much as possible about
England.
Dracula leaves his castle and boards a
Russian ship, the Demeter, taking along with him boxes of
Transylvanian soil, which he needs in order to regain his
strength. During the voyage to Whitby, a coastal town in
northern England, he sustains himself on the ship's crew
members. Only one body is later found, that of the captain,
who is found tied up to the ship's helm. The captain's log
is recovered and tells of strange events that had taken
place during the ship's journey. Dracula leaves the ship in
the form of a wolf.
Soon the Count is menacing Harker's
devoted fiancée, Wilhelmina Mina Murray, and her vivacious
friend, Lucy Westenra. There is also a notable link between
Dracula and Renfield, a patient in an insane asylum
compelled to consume insects, spiders, birds, and other
creatures — in ascending order of size — in order to absorb
their life force. Renfield acts as a kind of motion
sensor, detecting Dracula's proximity and supplying clues
accordingly. Dracula begins to visit Lucy's bed chamber on a
nightly basis, draining her of blood while simultaneously
infecting her with the curse of vampirism. Not knowing the
cause for Lucy's deterioration, her companions call upon the
Dutch doctor Van Helsing, the former mentor of one of Lucy's
suitors. Van Helsing soon deduces her condition's
supernatural origins, but does not speak out. Despite an
attempt at keeping the vampire at bay with garlic, Dracula
entices Lucy out of her chamber late at night and drains her
blood, killing her.
Van Helsing and a group of men enter
Lucy's crypt and kill her reanimated corpse. They later
enter Dracula's residence at Carfax, destroying his boxes of
earth, depriving the Count of his ability to rest. Dracula
leaves England to return to his homeland, but not before
biting Mina.
The final section of the novel details
the heroes racing Dracula back to Transylvania, and in a
climactic battle with with Dracula's gypsy bodyguards,
destroying him. Despite the popular image of Dracula having
a stake driven through his heart, Mina's narrative describes
his throat being cut by Jonathan Harker's kukri knife and
his heart pierced by Quincey Morris's Bowie knife (Mina
Harker's Journal, 6 November, Dracula Chapter 27). The
absense of the proper rituals of destruction has led some to
express doubts whether Dracula has really been finished off.
Dracula, it is suggested, may rise again.
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