Vampires in Literature

Dracula
Dracula is arguably the most famous vampire. He was created by Irish author Bram Stoker in his 1897 novel, Dracula. In the novel, Count Dracula moves from his native Transylvania to England in the search for victims of his undead curse with the actions of a group led by Professor Abraham Van Helsing to combat him. After a very exciting and tense campaign, filled with scenes of bloodcurdling horror, they succeed in destroying Dracula.

Stoker’s Dracula laid down many of the rules we know of vampirism today. The rules include a vampire’s fear of crucifixes, of garlic, of running water, that it has no reflection in mirrors, that it can turn into a bat, that its blood sucking will turn victims into vampires, and several other rules.

Dracula became popular after Stoker died in 1912. In 1922, a German studio adapted Dracula into the silent film Nosferatu without paying royalties. Even though there were differences in character names and minor plot points, it was evident that they took most of their ideas from Dracula. To prevent more plagiarism attempts, Florence Stoker (Bram Stoker’s widow) established copyright on the character. She enlisted the help of her friend Hamilton Deane to direct the broadway production of Dracula, which later became Universal Studios 1931 movie Dracula, both starring Bela Lugosi. Movie Scene (end 3:13)

Dracula has since spawned a whole industry of vampire culture, appearing in countless movies, tv shows, theatre, and music.

Female Vampires
Although not as popular as their male counterparts, female vampires are just as deadly. They are cunning, beautiful, seductive, and blood thirsty. A lot of female vampires tend to be overtly sexual and closely resemble succubi.

Female vampires have often been connected with goddesses in ancient religions or were used to represent all that was wrong with women. Mythology typically has defined them by their sexuality and associations with the pagan and evil. They often preyed on children and men.

Lamia
Lamia is a female vampire-like creature that originated in Greek mythology. She caught the attention of Zues, the king of the gods, and had several children with him. Hera, Zues’s wife, got jealous and killed all of Lamia’s children except for one. Distraught over the death of her family, Lamia turned into an evil creature possessed with anger and grief. She spent the rest of her life hunting and draining the blood of young children and men. According to Greek Mythology, Lamia’s penchant for sucking the blood of children turned her into a hideous being that was half-woman and half-serpent. While Lamia did not fit the typical definition of a vampire, an undead creature who lives off of the blood of living beings, she turned to vampirism as an outlet for her grief by destroying other women's children to account for her own loss.

Carmilla
Carmilla, created by irish author Sheridan Le Fanu in 1872, was the first female vampire. In fact, Carmilla came 26 years before Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Carmilla is narrated by Laura, one of Carmilla’s victims and her lover. After a carriage accident, Carmilla mysteriously arrived on Laura and her father’s doorstep and was taken in by them. She slept through most of the day, dodged questions about her background, and had random bursts of energy and tiredness. Laura had strange visions of “a monstruos cat” and “two large needles… deep into [her] breasts.”

Since Le Fanu was one of the first authors of vampire literature, he got to make up his own rules of vampirism. For example, Carmilla could walk through walls and turn into a giant cat. Additionally, there was a vampire named “Millarca” killing the townspeople, which we find out is Carmilla. Another one of Le Fanu’s vampirism rules is that vampires have to either use their real name or a scramble of their name. Carmilla is a monster and a murderer, but she also desperately seeks love and tries to give it to Laura. But her idea of love is twisted- she sees feeding on Laura as romantic and sexual fulfillment.

Vampires in Movies and TV Shows