Stoker And Rice’s Books About Vampires Essay, Research Paper

Stoker and Rice’s Books About Vampires

Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Anne Rice’s series The Vampire Chronicles are

books about vampires. The way the two authors write about the vampires’ powers,

the way they live and how they are created and destroyed prove that two books

about the same subject can be different in many ways. It also shows how the

vampire legend has evolved over a long period of time.

Special powers are used in both of the authors writings. A few of the

powers are the same, or very close to it, in each account. enhaced or super-

human strenth is one of these abilites. On page 7 in Anne Rice’s book The

Vampire Lestat, her main chacter Lestast says ?As for my strength, well it was

three times what it had once been. I could bend a copper penny double.? After

becoming a vampire he notices his super human strength. Not much is written

about Stoker’s use of super-strength for Count DraculaTherefore, One tends to

believe that Dracula in fact did not have enhanced strength. Stoker did use the

power of morphing into animals in his novel. In Dracula , the Count can morph

into a bat and he can turn into a greyish-green mist. He uses these powers so

humans dont detect his presence. As a gas he can pass by humans without them

even noticing and as a bat he can cover more ground in a shorter amount of time.

Rice’s novels mention nothing of being able to morph into a bat, mist or

anything else for that matter.

The ability to fly is used in each novel but they are used very

differently. In Dracula the count can fly but, in order to do this he must

turn into a bat and fly as a bat would fly. More powerful vampires in The

Vampire Chronicles can fly as , for example, super man would fly. In order for

a vampire to fly it requires lots of energy and a great force of will Lestat

says ? It was as if a current of air had caught me. I went up hundereds of feet

in one instant, and then the clouds were below me-a white light that I could

scarcely see. I decided to drift.? (Rice, Queen of the damned 286)

Mental powers are used extensivly in both of the authors’ creations.

Mind reading is common in The Vampire Chronicles. Vampires in the Chronicles can

not read the minds of vampires they themselves have created or minds that are

skillfully cloaked against them. Being able to read the minds of mortals allows

them to manipulate their victims. They can also hypnotize and scramble the

thoghts of mortals, as when Lestat takes a drink from a victim and makes so that

she will not remember it. When speaking with one another and when giving their

powerful blood, they can provide full-blown images of their past experiences.

Vampires can move objects at will, such as when they open doors or locks, or

when shoving another vampire away without touching them. ?When I saw he wouldn’t

move, my anger and out of me like an invisible fist. And I saw him moved

backwards as if the fist had struck him.? (Rice, The vampire Lestat 265) In

Dracula hypnotism is mentioned. This is where the phrase ?look into my eyes?

was probably coined from. Like Lestat, Dracula has the ability to change the

will of other people. In Dracula , Jonathen Harker is a guest in the counts

castle. After a while Jonathen becomes suapicious of the counts activities. He

then becomes scared and uncomfortable and he wants to leave . Through will

changing the count makes Jonathen feel comfortable and he unknowingly keeps him

as a prisoner. The powers of the vampires mildly differs between the two

authors. Obviously Rice, because she wrote an entire series of novels not just

one, has more space to descibe the indivdual abilities of the main vampires in

her series. Stoker on the other hand wrote only one book about Dracula therfore

his chacter is described in less detail than are Rices.

The vampires way of life, unlike special abilities, is a great source of

conflict. The modern age Anne Rice and the classic old english Bram Stoker have

different views on the settings, travel, contact with people and other vampires,

and the way the vampires feel and express emotions in their novels.

What comes to your mind when you think of the words ?vampire country??

If you thought of castles in the middle of nowhere and countries with names you

cant even pronounce let alone know where they are, then Bram Stoker doesnt

dissappoint you. Stoker’s novel takes place in and around Transylvania . Raymond

McNally says of Transylvania ?At first, like many americans, I assumed that this

was some mythical place. I found out , however , that it is a province, a

historical region of western Romania bounded by the Carpathian mountains?

(McNally 1). The eerie atmosphere adds to the mystery of the story. In

Transylvania Count Dracula resides in huge, stone castle. The castle has come

to be known as Castle Dracula . In Dracula , Johnathen Harker writes in his

journal ?I was not able to light on any map or work giving the exact location of

the Castle Dracula, as there are no maps of this country as yet to compare with

our own ordinance survey maps; but I found that Bistritz, the post named by

Count Dracula, is a fairly well known place? (Stoker 2). In contrast, Rice

sets her story in the modern world. New Orleans is the main area which her story

takes place. Her vampires like to live in houses rather than castles. This now

brings up the subject of contact with people. Lestat likes to talk to people, he

finds that if you dress as a mortal you can easily pass as one. This also makes

finding a victim alot easier. Stoker ahd his Count more or less lure victims

into his castle or he would fly into town as a bat and feed on unsuspecting

passersby. Count Dracula also had a harem of five female vampires living with

him in his castle. Other than that there is no mention of contact with other

vampires. Actually there is no mention of any other vampires that exist in the

world Stoker created. Anne Rice, obviously with more space to explore her

vampires, made an entire world of vampires living incognito with mortals. She

actually has a family tree of vampires which decends from a vampire in ancient

Egypt. Her vampires can be found in every country and area in her novels. This

is made possible because traveling is very easy for her vampires. Dracula can as

long as he takes some of his native soil and his coffin. Without these he would

perish. This is actually the key to his demise. In his attempt to move from

Transylvania to England, Dracula has some of his native soil loaded into crates

along with his coffin loaded onto a ship. After they arrive he has them taken to

another castle he has chosen. The vampire hunters, Proffesor Abraham Van Helsing

and Doctor John Seward find where the crates were delivered to. after plotting

their course they proceed to find the castle and destroy Dracula while he was

sleeping in his coffin. Rice’s vampires seem to be more human than Stoker’s they

have more freedom and seem less like monsters. ?Rice’s immortals are beautiful,

do not live in graves, do not avoid garlic, and can see their reflections in

mirrors. According to Anne, in catholic theology, the inability to see one

reflection means that the soul is in hell, and she did not want her vampires to

have any better assurance of god than mortals? (Mascetti 86). Her vampires

ability to feel emotion separates her from every other novelist on this subject.

The only emotions Stoker shows in his novel his desire. Dracula wants a woman

named Lucy Westenra and will stop at nothing to get her. This shows the

evolution of the vampire myth over a period of about seventy-five years. Rices

stories are much more modern, not onnly in setting and the characters abilities

but als in the way the vampires act and think.

Aside from the subject of the vampires emotions, the biggest conflict

comes when you talk about how the vampires in each novel are created and

destroyed. The strange thing about Stokers noval is that he never says how the

Count was created. Its as if he was just there. Dracula does have the ability to

create other vampires however. We know this because of the fact that he made the

five women vampires that share his castle with him. He also turns the object of

his desire, Lucy Westenra, into a vampire in an attempt to keep her by his side

forever. His plans fails when Lucy’s husband kills her for her own good and for

the good of others. Anne Rice creates all of the vampires in her novel in an

Adam and Eve sort of way. The first vampire Akasha was a sorcerer in Egypt

through magic she transformed herself into a vampire. Akasha then creates her

husband Enkil by trnsfusing her blood with his. Through time the two created

more vampires and the ones they created made more vampires. Thus creating about

a thousand or so vampires in the world. making a mortal a vampire is a tricky

process in both novels the process is basically the same except Rice gives a

more detailed description. making a vampire involves draining the chosen mortal

to the point of death-just before the heart stops-so that the powerful vampire

blood can take hold and fuse with the heart. The process is risky because the

vampire thirsts for the human heart and might drinkuntil the heart stops and the

mortal dies. Plus anything less than taking the blood until the heart stops

would result in hybrids which are more monster than human, or avampire that is

too weak to survive. The vampire then gives his blood to the mortal, depleting

himself until he is greatly exhausted. Rices vampires more frequently perform

this than in Stokers novel. In Dracula the count only does this once when he

attemps to make Lucy a Vampire. Dracula is overall a more simpler novel than

any one of Rices creations. Her books go into great detail on almost any subject

that concerns vampires. Rice even changes some aspects of the vampire myth in

order to accomodate her characters and her visions for them. Stoker simply takes

the vampire myth and creates a novel about a vampire with these attributes.

Although the birth of the vampires and how they are created have some

similarities the manner in which they are destroyed and repelled holds many

differences. As mentioned before Rice changes some aspects of the vampire legend.

This is where most of those changes occur. A vampire in Rice’s series named

Louis says this of an old legend ?Nonsense my friend, sheer nonsense. I can look

at anything I like. And I rather like looking at crucifixes in particular?(Rice,

Interview with the Vampire 23). In Dracula however there is this excerpt ?The

count suddenly stopped and cowered back. Further and Further back he cowered, as

we, lifting our crucifixes, advanced?(Stoker 271). according to legend, death to

a vampire can be caused by few different methods. Stoker uses the fact that

Death can be caused by fire, sunlight, and stake through the heart.