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Evolution of the vampire
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Published: November 20, 2008
Vampires appear in stories and legends in virtually every culture in almost every region of the world, said Lenoir-Rhyne University professor Dale Bailey. In the spring, he'll teach a class that focuses on vampires in literature.
The stinky bloodsucker
Go back to the 11th, 12th and 13th centuries, especially in Eastern Europe, and there are accounts of vampire plagues, of people digging up bodies and staking them.
Vampires in those stories are swollen, stinky, dirty things that return from the dead to feed on living relatives.
"There's nothing at all sexy of alluring about them," Bailey said.
Sophisticated vampires
In the 19th century, English writers developed the notion of the aristocratic vampire, like count Dracula.
The first piece of fiction Bailey is aware of that transformed the vampire from the stinky, dead peasant into the urbane aristocrat was by John Polidori, the personal physician to George Gordon Byron, better known as Lord Byron.
Famous names in vampire transformation
In June 1816, Polidori, Byron and Mary Shelley and husband Percy Bysshe Shelley were on vacation on Lake Geneva.
With a rainy day trapping them indoors, the four entertained themselves with ghost stories. Mary Shelley would write "Frankenstein" from the story she came up with that weekend. Byron began a vampire story but did not finish it.
Polidori, the least celebrated of the group, did finish his own vampire yarn.
The poet who became Vampyre
Polidori based his bloodsucking character on a man he hated, his employer Byron. Byron was like a rock star by 19th century standards, Bailey said. He was a handsome, charismatic nobleman. Women threw themselves at him and Byron, known for his loose sexual morals, did not resist. Among other shocking acts, he slept with his half sister, Bailey said.
In Polidori's story, "The Vampyre," Lord Ruthven was a villain who seduced women, sucked their blood and took their wealth. Throughout the rest of the 19th century, the authors of the most famous vampires in literature took their cues about the characters' sexuality and class from Polidori's story.
In 1897, Bram Stoker published "Dracula," which incorporated elements from the oldest myths and the new literary ideas about vampires. Dracula smelled a little, Bailey said, but he also was a count.
When we stopped being scared
Part of what was scary about the 19th century vampires was their social status. It's hard for modern Americans to understand, but the class that ruled England hoarded all the wealth, leaving the vast majority of people relatively impoverished.
The vampire seductor reflects the notion that the very rich are people to be afraid of, Bailey said.
In today's culture, the idea of aristocracy ceases to be threatening. We are instead fascinated by them, sometimes nostalgic for the guys who dressed so cool and ruled so much.
"The frightening part drops out and we become attracted to our vampires," said Bailey. "We aspire to be them."
Another byron link to vampires
Vampires have become in many ways what literary scholars refer to as the Byronic hero, the kind of protagonist who appeared in much of Byron's work. He is the handsome, charismatic, wealthy man who also is tortured by some secret crime or wrongdoing.
"Even in Byron's time, women liked the bad guy," says Bailey.
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