Over
the past few years, vampires have become a huge part of the book and movie
industries. However, Foster argues that modern vampires are only at the tip of
the iceberg. He argues that there is an overarching archetype of the “vampire”
in literature. It could be a ghost or other supernatural creature, but more
often than not, the “vampire” is made of nothing more than a specific story
type. It involves someone or something that adheres to old values and someone
that focuses on new, more modern values. The more traditional figure smothers
the modern one until he or she dies or conforms to the old values.
Vampires
in literature, whether real or implied through the circumstances, nearly always
conceal some sort of taboo message or subject, most commonly, sex. Especially
in Victorian times, the subject of sex was written about in expertly concealed
ways in many novels and stories. Vampires are perfect for this disguise because
young women were considered “damaged” and could not be married after losing
their virginity; after being bitten by a vampire, people lose their humanity
and are, in most pieces of literature, completely estranged from humans by
their lack of self-control and lust for blood.
In
other cases, the “vampires” are used to convey a message or moral of the story,
both to the readers and other characters in the story. One fantastic example of
this that Foster brings up is Marley’s situation in A Christmas Carol.
As a literal ghost paying off the debts to humanity he accumulated in his
lifetime, he sends the extremely clear message that it is imperative that
Scrooge turn his life around and become a better person so as to avoid the
horrid fate Marley is forced to endure in the afterlife. As a general rule in
literature, it is much more interesting to have a supernatural character
deliver messages similar to this one, which is why this is such a widespread
method. In addition to the fact that it is more interesting to the readers, it
makes more of an impact on the character who needs to hear the message than if they
had heard it from an ordinary person.
The
use of vampires to conceal another message or subject is ingenious because it
is hard to read about a vampire in an otherwise completely ordinary setting and
not think that there must be a reason for its appearance in the story. The
added scrutiny makes the reader much more likely to pick up on the message
behind the supernatural than they are to pick up on other symbols such as a
bare room with blue curtains being a symbol of the character’s depression. Even
audience members reading for pleasure rather than for study will likely
recognize the meaning of the supernatural appearance, whereas more subtle
elements will go unnoticed by casual readers. Thus, the use of the supernatural
is extremely useful in conveying the messages the author is aiming to disclose
without writing about them plainly and in the open. In this way, the
supernatural and vampires are irreplaceable in literature.
