Preview

Twilight Essay

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1954 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Twilight Essay
The Myth of the Vampire in Twilight

The myth of the vampire existed in a multitude of civilizations and cultures under various names such is strigoi (for the Romanian territory), Apotamkin, etc. But no matter the name, vampires will always refer to gothic creatures that drain the blood of humans, thus being monstrous.
The first writer to introduce the vampire in literature was Lord Byron in the eighteenth century, but the most significant writer to develop the myth was Bram Stoker. He is the „father” of the vampire as he gave a complete description of the vampire in his most famous book” Dracula”. After the release of the book, the myth of the vampire became extremely popular amongst writers and as a consequence the books whose main characters were vampires sky-rocketed. Amongst the most famous contemporary writers which developed and modified the myth of the vampire is Stephenie Meyer with her famous „Twilight”.
In her book we find a multitude of deviations from the myth but still she keeps many things as they are with the main purpose of enhancing the vampire’s romantic features. For instance, when Bella takes on the task of finding out the reason why Edward isn’t allowed to come to the La Push beach, she finds a book which describes what Edward is. When searching the camera focuses on all the key words that point to the unnatural and supernatural abilities which Edward has: „the cold one”, one who drinks” the immortal drink” , „undead”, „immortal” and so on.
When Bella confronts him she says that he is „impossibly fast and strong” that is another stereotype kept by Stephenie Meyer most definitely to put emphasis on the fact that Edward is a character that fits the pattern of romantic characters, and like all romantic characters he need features that make his special, that separate him from the crowd.
Probably the greatest change that the myth of the vampire went through was the fact that it is no longer associated with the figure of „ walking cadavers”

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    The vampire myth came from a Dracula character in a movie. The guy that acted like Dracula was Romanian Prince Vlad Tepes. He was born in 1431 , he died in 1476. He modeled some aspects of the Dracula character. In Romania, Tepes is viewed not as blood-drinking sadist, but as a national hero who defended his empire from the Ottoman Turks.…

    • 291 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Urban legends are widely popular in society and some have stood the test of time, one reason is that they are an important part of popular culture and offer insight into the fears of society. Count Dracula, inspired by Vlad III Dracula, was created by Irish author Bram Stoker. This mythical creature was created during the 19th century in gothic literature, Stoker put together what at the time was frightening to people. Society at the time was afraid of going outside at night because they had little to no protection against wild animals, Stoker took this into account and created a half bat half man creature that lives off human blood and wanders the night. Not only was the thought of a bloodsucking monster frightening to society it did not help that it was based off a vicious and relentless historic…

    • 526 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the essence of mythical beings known as vampires, we must first recognize the nature of such. If we were to trace the origins of the vampire, we would conclude with a cursed, grotesque human who had risen from his grave to feed on blood. Though the graves appeared normal until uncovered by the local law, the bodies had yet to decompose and fresh blood saturated their lips. Also known as the undead, vampires subsist by draining the blood from other creatures. Immortality is a power possessed by such creatures, with only a few exceptions known to exist. Abnormal strength and speed are also characteristics shared between the characters in the…

    • 567 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Bram Stoker wrote a book about a fictional character named Count Dracula and ever since people have been looking to find the truth and inspiration behind the famous novel. Most people can agree that vampires don't actually exist, but people have found who they believe to be the inspiration for Stoker’s monster, his name is Vlad ‘Tepes’ Dracula. His early life and how he treated his victims all support this theory, that Stoker’s book was based off of the real Vlad, there is a lot of evidence that Bram Stoker was aware of who Vlad Dracula was and came across him while doing research for his books.…

    • 1128 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dracula is a blood sucking, devious, evil vampire that many people have heard of. Dracula is known for being a fictional character, but Dracula was actually based off of a real person. Vlad III, Prince of Wallachia, was the person behind the cruel Dracula. Even though Dracula is a fictional character Vlad and Dracula have a lot more in common than what people will expect them to; given that one is just a made up vampire character from the head of someone who was believed to have been a madman to the Prince of Wallachia. Vlad the impaler was born while Dracula was created, both used different ways of torment on their victims, and both men had a weird taste for something unique.…

    • 572 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dracula Dynamic Quotes

    • 566 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Vampire stories have been popular for years. One such vampire is Dracula of Bram Stoker’s novel. Dracula drives the plot in many ways, but he is not always the nice guy. Not everyone like him; in fact most are scared of him. Dracula is dynamic, but the antagonist for several reasons. Dracula is evil, scares everyone, and he kills a lot of people.…

    • 566 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    In Chapter 3 the author explains in Chapter three how vampirism isn't always about vampires. Vampirism is a characteristic a character can portray, such as selfishness, exploitation, and rudeness. The character takes advantage of people, like a vampire would to his prey. Many authors actually use vampires, ghosts, or doppelgangers to portray vampiristic qualities instead of letting the reader infer those qualities into a human.…

    • 1763 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Better Essays

    Vampires, along with dragons, ghosts and other supernatural beings, came to existence in many remote cultures on the span of thousands of years. Tagalog mandrugo in Philippines, tunda in Colombia, asanbosam in Africa, vetala in India, vrykolakos in Greece, Jiang Shi in China, Cihuateteo in Aztec Empire and goddess Skehmet from Ancient Egypt are but a few examples of how people from pole to pole called – or perhaps still do it - blood-thirsty and sexually active vampires. Stories and legends concerning those undead creatures evolved and varied. As a general rule they used to explain the inexplicable and keep sacred places intact.…

    • 1420 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    For the last century, Stoker’s novel has been the epitome of the classic “vampire story”. Its rich text and superb dialogue , gives the novel it’s portrayal of vampirism as a disease. “...Van Helsing performed the…

    • 465 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Since the eighteen century, vampire stories have played a strong role of popularity in literature and cinematic environments. The continuous changes of vampires have taken the vampire legend from something feared to something desired. Between Dracula and Twilight it has been over a hundred years. These two novels are a great example of vampire’s evolution. However, both novels have elements of narrative device, they are both written from multiple perspectives, and both were turned into a film. Although Twilight and Dracula are pieces of literature that share a vampire story, there are three important differences that characterize each one.…

    • 548 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The first mention of the word vampire in the English language is in the 1730s, in newspapers which carry reports from the edge of Europe, of bodies being dug up and looking bloated, and having fresh blood around their mouths. They report that these stories have come from peasants, but they make them sound very plausible.” A very real life disease killing people began to catch wind and rumors of supernatural tendencies made this disease even more terrifying, the exaggerated affects of the disease began to become more and more outrageous and a myth began. What myth exactly? It was then, from eastern European regions such as Transylvania that the vampire myth spread westwards.…

    • 114 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Other than being remade into other forms such as movies and cartoons, Dracula was a relatively new concept during the time of its publication and had a major impact to its surrounding society. Today, the novel’s uses of multiple unique elements of writing such as dramatic irony, the everyman, and suspense/mystery continues to speak to interests of readers. In addition, the character itself, like any other supernatural beings including ghosts and witches, naturally intriguing us just based on many people’s love of getting scared; Dracula is portrayed in the novel as a completely evil and manipulative character that feasts upon the lives of mortals for his survival. Throughout the course of “Dracula,” Stoker used an epistolary form of writing not only for its prevalence in the Victorian era, but also for its effectiveness in portraying first person point-of-views and first-hand accounts for multiple characters. By doing so, he was able to make readers feel as if they themselves could have been in the characters’ shoes. Because it was an epistolary format and readers knew exactly what each character knew and did not know, his application of dramatic irony became clearer than other literary pieces as well. Dramatic irony was used in the course of the novel in multiple ways. The Victorian readers already knew of the vampire concept by the 18th century and Dracula was written in the early-mid 19th century. As they read the novel, they generally would have known what Dracula was, and had a similar idea to what we think now, before Jonathan Harker’s realization of Dracula’s intentions (Stoker 22). Another way dramatic irony was added in the novel was the placement of each journal. For instance, readers were notified first of Jonathan’s experiences in his journal and then Mina’s journal was revealed with her wondering about the condition of her finace (Stoker 27,…

    • 1029 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    One of the most famous vampires in history is Count Dracula himself. Although he is considered to be a leader and the most powerful of all vampires, he was actually created by more modern believers. Vampires can be male or female. Some believed they…

    • 990 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Essay On Vampire Legends

    • 1277 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Vampire legends are interesting to study in the modern world and people are surprised worldwide in getting to know more about the vampire culture and legends. People worldwide have heard stories of a night being that does not die at all and survives only on the blood of human beings. Many cultures have their way of describing and portraying their vampires into the society. They also have their way of using vampire lore to incorporate it into their society and make it survive over a long time. Vampire fictions themselves majorly concern with the subject of the vampires who depend on the living creatures for them to survive. Traditionally, vampire stories were not only villainous, but also horrific. Modern understandings habitually reimage the…

    • 1277 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Twilight books is a series of four vampire-themed romance novels by Stephenie Meyer. The protagonist Bella Swan is a teenage girl who moves to Forks, Washington to stay with her dad and ends up falling in love with a 104-year old vampire named Edward. Edward lives with his “adoptive parents” Esme and Carlisle who are also vampires. Twilight became an instant bestseller and when first published, gained many mixed reviews. There are many weak women in Twilight such as Bella, shortage of free agency, and that self-control is the only thing that Twilight brings to the table.…

    • 827 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics