Gee Boyd

Writing 1010

12/10/18

Erin Rogers

The Past, Present, and Future of the Vampire

Hundreds of years ago, vampires were a common fear. Rituals were undertaken for the specific

purpose of preventing vampires from entering one’s home. Nowadays, however, vampires have been

relegated to the young adult fiction section in bookstores. Vampires have evolved from being animated

corpses who return from the grave to haunt their villages, to sophisticated members of our society who

just happen to have an unquenchable thirst for blood. But what brought on this change? Where did the

traditional fear of vampires come from, and why has it dissipated in modern times? What does the future

of the vampire look like?

The modern concept of a vampire can most likely be traced back to Romanian folklore. The most

obvious example is Bram Stoker’s Dracula, a well-known inhabitant of Transylvania. Dracula is,

however, relatively young in Romania’s rich history of vampiric legends. It’s commonly believed that

Stoker’s inspiration for Dracula lay in the life of a Romanian prince who ruled during the 14th and 15th

centuries. Vlad Tepes, also known as Vlad Dracula or Vlad the Impaler, was the ruler of Wallachia, a

historic and geographical area of Romania. He was known by Romanians for his bravery and strength in

defeating invading Turkish and German armies. The Turks and Germans did not see him the same way.

Tales of his cruelty were printed in early German newspapers, often depicting wood-cut prints of him

dining among the bodies of his victims and dipping his bread in their blood. His nickname ‘the Impaler’

was a result of him being portrayed as impaling his victims, sometimes entire armies, on huge stakes

driven into the ground. Little is known about whether Vlad Dracula was actually as violent as he was

described, or if most of the legend was created by German propaganda. Most of his influence on Stoker’s
Dracula is obvious: the name, the location, and the bloodlust. The borrowing of the name ‘Dracula’ might

have been a misunderstanding on Stoker’s part, though. “​There are good reasons to think that Stoker was

struck by this evil character and borrowed his surname, "Dracula," because he thought it meant "son of

the devil," to create his own vampire. In fact, it meant "son of the dragon," and this was because Vlad's

father had joined an order of knighthood called the Order of the Dragon” (Polidoro 2). Another obvious

piece of imagery the two Draculas shared was their connection with wooden stakes. While Vlad Dracula

allegedly had an affinity for using stakes against his victims, a wooden stake is the only way to kill

Stoker’s Dracula. This detail remains through just about every single modern vampire storyline. If Stoker

truly was inspired by the tales of Vlad Dracula, this clearly shows the lasting effects of ancient history and

legends. Vlad Dracula also does well representing why monsters are created in the first place - fear. This

is likely why Germans made so much propaganda about Vlad Dracula. They feared being defeated by

him, and created a fictionalized version of him that would last in storytelling until present day, and maybe

longer. It bears similarities to the Japanese monster Godzilla representing a fear of nuclear warfare, due to

recent events in Japan at the time. While Godzilla evolved to encompass new fears, such as terrorism,

there are not many common fears medieval tyrants and vampires can represent today. This is likely why

vampires are no longer portrayed as animated corpses, and more often as people with feelings and

complex lives. Another factor is likely the vampire’s transition to America. In a new world, without the

stable base of millenia of legends and folklore, the vampire came to represent something new. “​Vampires

have changed and nothing has been more transformative for them than their immigration to America. For

the sake of understanding, by the term European vampires, we do not only mean vampires of European

descent, but also vampires as imagined in early European gothic novels who embody all the traits related

to what early Americans despised in the Old World; absolutism, aristocracy, fetishism with blood purity,

colonialism, class stratification, and cruelty. European vampires are detached from humanity not only

because they are not humans, but also because they are linked with outmoded elements of humanity”
(Kandyli and Zontos 3). ​As time goes on, though, these factors become long-forgotten. We live in a

society still ruled by wealth and class structure, but it’s no longer a singularly European ideal, so the

association with vampires has dropped off completely.

Even in modern day, many Romanians show strong superstition and fear of traditional vampires,

or, in this case, ​strigoi.​ An interesting example of this is the case of Petre Toma, a Romanian villager who

died in 2003 or 2004. Several days after his death, his niece complained of fatigue and feeling ‘drained’.

She believed Toma’s animated corpse was entering her home at night and drinking blood from her heart.

A relative of Toma and several other villagers took it upon themselves to exhume Toma and remove his

heart. The heart was burned and the ashes mixed with water, creating a potion that Toma’s family drank

to be lifted of his curse. Toma’s niece later reported that, after drinking the potion, she recovered quickly

and her deceased uncle never returned to her home. The family was overjoyed, but the police were not.

The six men who exhumed Toma were charged with criminal behavior. The afflicted niece of Toma was

angered as well - not because of the destruction of the body or disrespect to the dead, but because they

hadn’t included her in the actual exhumation. This shows how, despite a lack of American fear of

vampires, some Europeans still cling to these beliefs as strongly as they would to religious beliefs.

In North America, though, the situation couldn’t be more different. American vampires are

almost like humans; they have lives, dreams, relationships, and families. A good example is the Canadian

​ y day, teenage vampires Sarah and Erica attend school and

children’s show ​My Babysitter’s a Vampire. B

hang out with their friends. By night, they roam the streets of their town in search of human prey. Despite

all her newly gained power and strength, Sarah wants nothing more than to be human again. “Get it

through your tiny bat brain… I will never, ever be one of you” (“Jesse’s Girl”, 00:18:50-00:19:02). This

show is a perfect example of how the American vampire has the potential to be scary and violent while

also having remarkably human qualities. This model has spread to countries outside North America as

well. A notable example is Taika Waititi’s ​What We Do in the Shadows, a​ movie about three vampires
sharing a flat in present-day New Zealand. Despite their bloodlust and strange fashion choices, there is

little to distinguish them from the average human. The friends must learn how to cope with the

complexities of the modern world. They encounter problems with love and friendship, much like humans

do in movies without any supernatural plot points.

What meaning will vampires have in the years to come? I believe we will start hearing of fewer

and fewer books, movies, and television shows starring vampires. With the surge of media like ​Twilight

and ​The Vampire Diaries, ​a lot of people have tired of vampires in fiction. It’s understandable - good

vampire fiction can be hard to write, as there are a lot of tropes to fall back on, and not a lot of new ideas,

most likely due to the fact that the greatest surge of vampire fiction happened in the nineteenth century. I

like to believe that someday there will be a sort of ‘vampire renaissance’. Perhaps in the future humanity

will regain its fascination with vampires, and the bloodsucking creatures will represent something new.

Depending on the times, it’s very possible vampires could return as representatives of disease and famine.

Maybe in the very distant future, we will have space vampires to write and fantasize about, and the cycle

will repeat.

“Vampire Legend.” ​Secrets of the Dead. ​PBS. WNET, New York. 27 Oct. 2015. Television.

“Jesse’s Girl.” ​My Babysitter’s a Vampire. ​Teletoon. FreshTV, Canada. 14 Mar. 2011. Television.
 ​ irected by Taika Waititi and Jemaine Clement. New Zealand Film
What We Do in the Shadows. D
Commission, 2008.

Polidoro, Massimo. "In search of Dracula." Skeptical Inquirer, Mar.-Apr. 2006, p. 25+.

Hulubas, Adina. "A Psychological Function of Sacrifices in Romanian Construction Rites." ​Bulletin of
Integrative Psychiatry​, vol. 23, no. 3, 2017, p. 89+.

Kandyli, Aspa, and Zontos, Michail. “The old monster in the new world: The Americanization of the
vampire.” Intellect Limited, vol. 10 no. 3, 2017, p. 227-247.