The way I see vampires, they are a fusion - the human immortal soul and the body made flesh.
And when the vampire and werewolf stories, and Frankenstein, were first popular as opposed to being actual legend, the body was considered base while the soul was exalted. People were supposed to turn from their baser instincts, forsake the body, and that has been that way off and on for... well, a long time. Self-flagilation by Fr. Serra for instance, back in the 1700s, the hermits of pre-New Testament times, living in the wilderness and forsaking creature comforts, and so on. Sex was for the dark, and is intensely physical. Something not to admit to, something to shun in the light of day.
Enter the vampire. A very sexy character in Victorian times. He enters women's bedrooms and ravishes them. He penetrates their skin with his fangs. He deprives them of their blood, their will, and their lives. He, at least Dracula, is aristocratic, charming, rich, attractive, magnetic, yet he embodies the basest sins of the flesh. And when he is killed, his body crumbles into dust - ashes to ashes, dust to dust, the righteous vengeance against fleshly desires and deeds. The body must be forsaken for the good of the soul and spirit. It's a very moralistic construct.
The werewolf is the body betraying the soul of the sensitive man. An addict, perhaps, or someone ravaged by illness. Demon-possessed at the full moon, the Creature cannot face the light of day. So it comes in the night, and forces its victim to perform dark acts in the dark of night. He has no choice. He is as much a victim of the werewolf as the people he slaughters. Helpless, as Man is helpless against the Dark One. Another moral lesson.
People now tend to like vampires, unless they're made to be OTT, like the ones in Buffy. Who wouldn't want to live forever? The vampire is seductive from concept to 'reality'. And with moral ambiguity more common now, vampires are thought of in a different way.
Loved the Jekyll and Hyde reference. Though Jekyll at first had a choice. He was seduced by his body/baser instincts. I forget, didn't he justify it somehow in the beginning? I think in HBP, Snape comes off more like the end of J&H than Greyback, but that's just me. I haven't paid much attention to the good doctor and his alter ego for a long time now.
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Date: 2005-09-16 01:45 am (UTC)And when the vampire and werewolf stories, and Frankenstein, were first popular as opposed to being actual legend, the body was considered base while the soul was exalted. People were supposed to turn from their baser instincts, forsake the body, and that has been that way off and on for... well, a long time. Self-flagilation by Fr. Serra for instance, back in the 1700s, the hermits of pre-New Testament times, living in the wilderness and forsaking creature comforts, and so on. Sex was for the dark, and is intensely physical. Something not to admit to, something to shun in the light of day.
Enter the vampire. A very sexy character in Victorian times. He enters women's bedrooms and ravishes them. He penetrates their skin with his fangs. He deprives them of their blood, their will, and their lives. He, at least Dracula, is aristocratic, charming, rich, attractive, magnetic, yet he embodies the basest sins of the flesh. And when he is killed, his body crumbles into dust - ashes to ashes, dust to dust, the righteous vengeance against fleshly desires and deeds. The body must be forsaken for the good of the soul and spirit. It's a very moralistic construct.
The werewolf is the body betraying the soul of the sensitive man. An addict, perhaps, or someone ravaged by illness. Demon-possessed at the full moon, the Creature cannot face the light of day. So it comes in the night, and forces its victim to perform dark acts in the dark of night. He has no choice. He is as much a victim of the werewolf as the people he slaughters. Helpless, as Man is helpless against the Dark One. Another moral lesson.
People now tend to like vampires, unless they're made to be OTT, like the ones in Buffy. Who wouldn't want to live forever? The vampire is seductive from concept to 'reality'. And with moral ambiguity more common now, vampires are thought of in a different way.
Loved the Jekyll and Hyde reference. Though Jekyll at first had a choice. He was seduced by his body/baser instincts. I forget, didn't he justify it somehow in the beginning? I think in HBP, Snape comes off more like the end of J&H than Greyback, but that's just me. I haven't paid much attention to the good doctor and his alter ego for a long time now.