Vampire – n. 1. a reanimated corpse supposed to leave its grave at night to suck the blood of persons sleeping 2. a person who prays ruthlessly on others.

This is the given dictionary defninition of ‘vampire’ – a deadly monster who drinks the blood of humans and only comes out at night. Indeed, this is the vision we get in many Halloween paraphernalia, books, films and myths. But how true is this definition? Is there more to the vampire than it seems? Or is there just too much stories and legens and the like going around to tell the truth from what is made-up?

Background

It is thought that the orignal vampire was a Russian killer Vlad the Impaler – a man who, or so history tells us, impaled his victims through the heart with a stake and drank their blood. One account tells of how the ‘original vampire’ took his breakfast in a field of his own victims, all impaled high upon metre-long rods of wood. Another tells of how the killer used to bathe in the blood of his victims.

A Hundred Years Doesn’t Make That Much Difference…

There are many stories speculating the ways of life of vampires – perhaps the most famous of all being Bram Stoker’s Dracula a nineteenth century classic. This vampire was portrayed as being a womanising man of many wives and several more mistresses, living everywhere from caves to castles and forests and seeking his victims in the stereotype of being young, virginal women. This classic novel is still very much at large today as it was a hundred years ago, when it was first written – and Bram Stoker’s vision has envoked many other writers to tell their story of vampires from how they see them to be.

A couple of a hundred years on, however, the idea of vampires and vampiric desire still runs strongly in the creative world. The popular Twilight Saga, written by Stephenie Meyer, is an International bestseller and has topped the book charts worldwide – and the books, four out of five of which have already been published – tell the story of vampires. Or rather, the tale of one vampire’s passionate, irrevocable love for another human, and their struggle to fit their relationship around the dangers that come with being ‘one of their kind’. The saga charts the story of Isabella Swan, a young girl from Phoenix who moves to a small, rainy, constantly cloudy town called Forks, and from there meets the mysteriously alluring, beautiful Edward Cullen – the vampire. As they are drawn to each other, both Bella and Edward have secrets to keep – and it becomes almost impossible for the two to be apart, even when the threat of their relationship can put them in so much danger. The first book of the series, Twilight, is now a major motion picture, and a huge success. But it gives us so much more than a captivating love story – its prose, dreamy and powerful, gives off the modern imagery of the centuries-old vampire, bringing it to life with an impossible resistance that mirrors the attraction between the two main characters perfectly.

So – Vampires: Are They Really All Bad?

Well, this is a debatable question, regarding whether you are the superstitious type or not. If you are, then the chances are you’ll side with Bram Stoker’s classic – the vampire, whether real or fake, is without a doubt a bloodsucking, undead creature with evil motive.

But, if you prefer the portayal of vampires in Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight, you’ll agree that not all of them can be bad – in fact, the Cullen family in the novel are far from being creatures steeped in evil and desire for the blood of the living.

They have their good and bad points – ethereally beautiful, alluringly handsome, impossible irrestistable as Edward Cullen – or white as death, scarlet-eyed, fang-toothed and frightening, one thing is for sure. Vampires will always be around, whether you want your blood drained from your body or not.