All of the above stories focus on the Vampires role in society and their struggles to live amongst the living, some are driven purely to kill and remain soul-less whilst others wish to integrate with humans finding resourceful ways to obtain the blood they need to survive without harming those who are still living. Another focal point within all of the above is the relationships between Vampires and humans regarding love. It is inevitable that this type of relationship will draw in viewers as it plays up to human fantasy of tainted and forbidden love, with a creature that appears human on the surface yet constantly in battle to suppress the wild, dangerous and unpredictable beast within.
Image of Vampire of course being depicted as both beautiful and youthful
So what is the fascination that we humans have with these un-dead yet dead unearthly creatures? Especially since they supposedly hunt and kill humans to drink their blood (not the most attractive quality in potential partner).
Vampires play an important role in literature and film due to their characteristics serving as metaphors for human behaviour such as lust and temptation. Gothic Horror and modern Vampire Fiction paints Vampires as being extremely attractive, mysterious, seductive and beautiful as well as dangerous and blood thirsty making it often difficult for the ever more curious humans to keep their distance. However Vampires in fiction also struggle with their lust for humans, one one hand humans are a source of food to he hunted and killed but somehow they find themselves as predators of human flesh sexual nature also. Just as equally as humans have a a hard time fighting temptation to stay away from the Vampire the Vampires are Fighting their own temptations.
Above is an image of Edward Cullen a Vampire character form the hugely successful book and film series Twilight
Angel, Vampire and Buffy's boyfriend in the hit T.V series Buffy the Vampire Slayer
The fact that Vampires are neither exactly dead or un-dead is and interesting theory also. They are of course not living beings in the sense that they have no pulse, nor no need for food, (except blood) water, shelter or even the need to breathe yet they are still living and appear in the form of human beings. This notion toys with the instinctive human fear of death. As it it impossible to know what happens after our lives on earth are over, humans are of course innately afraid of what lies ahead after we part this world known as life, so therefore it is only natural that the idea of immortality is extremely attractive. To mention just a couple, both the Television series Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Vampire themed Movie Byzantium have played with this idea of converting to a life of Vampireism to escape the our inevitable fate of death. During the Buffy episode "Lie to me" it first appears as a coincidence that a familiar face from Buffy's past "Ford" has been transferred from her previous school in L.A to her current high school in Sunnydale. However it is eventually revealed that Ford's real reason for turning up in Sunnydale is that he wishes to be killed by and thus transformed into a Vampire to avoid dying, as he he has been diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour. Not dissimilar, Byzatium tells the story of two Vampires on the run from an evil Vampire Brotherhood. As they do not wish to harm innocent human beings the pair kill and feed either from violent criminals or the sick and elderly who wish to die. The younger of the two Vampires Elanor (the daughter of the other) eventually falls in love with a writer named Frank who is dying from Leukaemia in order to keep him from fulfilling his fate of an early death she takes him to and unnamed island to be killed by the unnamed saint and thus transformed into a Vampire resulting in his immortality.
But it is not only that Vampires are to an extent immortal (without staking, or decapitation) another attractive quality that these creatures of the night possess is eternal youth not only in appearance but in strength it is thought that when they feed on the blood of humans they are in-fact feeding on the life source itself which maintains their ageless abilities and beauty.
3 of the cast members from Vampire drama, Vampire Diaries. The Two male characters are both Vampires in the series. However it can be noted that most of the cast in this series are young and beautiful, Vampires or not.
Bibliography
Alexander, B. (2009) ‘Dangerous liaisons: Why we find vampires sexy - Health - Sexual health - Sexploration - msnbc.com’. msnbc.com. Available at: http://www.nbcnews.com/id/33509755/ns/health-sexual_health/t/dangerous-liaisons-why-we-find-vampires-sexy/#.VQwBJtKsWSo (Accessed: 20 March 2015).
HadesPub (no date) Why are we so deeply attracted to vampires? Nancy Kilpatrick reveals the secret... Available at: http://liswire.com/content/why-are-we-so-deeply-attracted-vampires-nancy-kilpatrick-reveals-secret (Accessed: 20 March 2015).
Johannah Cousins ~ 2 min read and Users Online: 11626Join Us Now! (no date) ‘Edward Cullen and the Allure of Depression’. Psych Central.com. Available at: http://psychcentral.com/lib/edward-cullen-and-the-allure-of-depression/0003729 (Accessed: 20 March 2015).
Jones, P. (1899) ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s 18th birthday’. RadioTimes. Available at: http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-03-10/the-a-to-z-of-buffy-the-vampire-slayer (Accessed: 20 March 2015).
Jordan, N. (2013) Byzantium, IMDb. IMDb. Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1531901/ (Accessed: 20 March 2015).
LURE OF THE VAMPIRE (no date a). Available at: http://www.angelfire.com/ny3/ENDEMONIADA/lureofvampire.html (Accessed: 20 March 2015).
LURE OF THE VAMPIRE (no date b). Available at: http://www.angelfire.com/ny3/ENDEMONIADA/lureofvampire.html (Accessed: 20 March 2015).
Sexy Vampire wallpapers HD free - 252405 (2012). 1ms. Available at: http://1ms.net/sexy-vampire-252405.html (Accessed: 20 March 2015).
Team Buffy vs Team Angel - Battles (no date). Available at: http://www.comicvine.com/forums/battles-7/team-buffy-vs-team-angel-1530793/ (Accessed: 20 March 2015).
‘The CW Announces 2014 – 2015 Schedule for “The Vampire Diaries,” “The Originals,” & More!’ (no date). The Vampire Diaries. Available at: http://vampirediaries.alloyentertainment.com/the-cw-primetime-schedule-2014-2015/ (Accessed: 20 March 2015).
Whedon, J. (2006) Lie to Me, IMDb. IMDb. Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0533453/ (Accessed: 20 March 2015).
Citation
(HadesPub, no date)
(Alexander, 2009)
(Whedon, 2006)
(Jordan, 2013)
(LURE OF THE VAMPIRE, no date a)
(LURE OF THE VAMPIRE, no date b)
(Sexy Vampire wallpapers HD free - 252405, 2012)
(Johannah Cousins ~ 2 min read and Users Online: 11626Join Us Now!, no date)
(Jones, 1899)
(Team Buffy vs Team Angel - Battles, no date)
(‘The CW Announces 2014 – 2015 Schedule for “The Vampire Diaries,” “The Originals,” & More!’, no date)
No comments:
Post a Comment