Vampires Essay Research Paper Vampires

Vampires Essay, Research Paper

Vampires Although vampires are referred to most around Halloween, these creatures of the night are talked about all year long. Vampires have become on of the most popular monsters of our time. From books to movies there is always a new vampire story to hear or watch. Although all of the books’ or movies’ storylines and plots are different they all still are focused on the one creature that we have all grown to like or fear. Although a vampire is charming, seductive, and witty, he is also a deadly hunter that stalks his prey to either make it his own kind or just make it his meal. So why have we grown so fond of a creature that only comes out at night and has a lust for human blood. In the following paragraphs I would like to explain the attributes of vampires in hope to show what makes us so fond to these creatures of death. Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary defines a vampire as “a bloodsucking ghost or reanimated body of a dead person believed to come out from the grave and wander about by night sucking the blood of persons asleep” (qtd. in Baumann 5). This statement is also supported by the Oxford Advanced Learner’s Dictionary of Current English and Encyclopedia International (950; 6). There are many different definitions of what a vampire is but basically the word vampire is applied to a dead and buried person who rises out of the grave every night and goes about stealthily sucking the blood of whoever is available. Vampires, like other supernatural creatures, have physical characteristics that distinguish them from humans. Generally, vampires are pale and skinny and the most widely known universal characteristic would be the fangs (Baumann 7). Right before the bloody encounter, the vampire uses its piercing eyes to hypnotize its prey. The vampire plunges these two, long, sharp teeth into the jugular vein and sucks the blood from its victims (Baumann 7). It is also well known that vampires cast no shadow nor a reflection in the mirror (Stoker 245). A vampire can transform himself into a wolf or bat to gain entry into a victim’s house in which it would resume its normal form once inside. Vampires, on certain occasions, can also be seen as phantoms (Crow 252). Vampires are not always spotted right away but because of the differences between humans and vampires, it can be done. People mostly like the physical characteristics of vampires because they are not human. People like different things, things that are inhuman, things that change and have powers. Vampires have supernatural powers, but they can not always do as they wish because their power is limited. A vampire will remain undead as long as it feasts blood of the living and is not killed (Stoker 245). A vampire can not die like a human but the mere passing of time and the growing of age because he can grow younger. People who have died by the hands of a vampire are at his command (Stoker 243). A vampire ” can direct the elements: the storm, the fog, the thunder; he can command all the meaner thing: the rat, and the owl, and the bat, and the fox, and the wolf ” (Stoker 243). A vampire possesses strength so overwhelming that it is estimated to be the equivalent of twenty people (Stoker 243). A vampire can transform himself into a wolf, can come in mist, can slip through hair breadth space, can see in the dark, and he can come on moonlight rays as elemental dust (Stoker 245). A vampire can only enter a house at first if invited, after that he can then come as he pleases (Stoker 246). Along with strengths comes weaknesses. A vampire is powerless is the daytime. If the undead creature is not in its coffin, it can only transform itself at sunrise, noon, or sunset (Stoker 246). A vampire with all its power still has to abide by some of nature’s laws. One reason people would like the powers of a vampire is because we as humans do not possess these powers and most of the time we are always wanting something that we can’t have. Another reason why people would like the powers that a vampires have is because of what they would do with them if they had them. There is nothing a person wants more than to posses the power to change into different forms or beings or the ability to live forever. No one is born a vampire; yet, one can become a vampire if certain conditions are met. According to legend, when a werewolf dies, it immediately becomes a vampire (Baumann 7). Priests proclaim that people who commit serious sins leave their graves at night because their souls can find no peace (Baumann 7). People excommunicated by the church are also liable to become vampires; so are people cursed by their parents, wizards, and people who commit suicide (Baumann 5). Some people can become vampires solely by having their blood sucked, during life, by another vampire (Crow 252). Even after death a person can become a vampire, that is if an animal jumps over the corpse or if a bird flies over it (Crow 252). These undead or living corpses are doomed to live as vampires until they can be destroyed. Although people do indeed like vampires, they still would be afraid of them and would want to know the ways to stop or kill them if they were being attacked. Certain procedures have to be employed if one desires to keep vampires away and endure safety from them. The most common method is placing garlic in front of all doors and windows (Baumann 8). A person wearing a crucifix or rosary is also supposed to be safe, so is someone stan