Paradoxes of good and evil in vampire narratives

Abstract

By focusing mainly on Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, The Vampire Lestat and the loose adaptation of L.J. Smith’s The Vampire Diaries into a television series, this thesis will trace the evolution of the vampire figure throughout the centuries and explore the paradoxes and ambivalences surrounding the Undead. The main point of discussion is the concept of the perverted as being dependent on good, which also serves to connect to other themes such as otherness, isolation, and immortality. The introduction considers the nature of the vampire and draws a few examples from works published prior to Stoker’s classic novel. The focus of the first chapter is solely on Dracula: how he established himself as the archetypal vampire, feared and abhorred by many; as well as the forces that contribute to his monstrosity. The perspective then shifts to Anne Rice’s contemporary texts, particularly the first two novels in The Vampire Chronicles, where the vampire becomes the narrator of his own story. He is now ‘an outlaw…haunted by a sense of loneliness, helplessness, and despair… [a] victim of Destiny…drawn to evil against his better will’. Through Rice’s representation, ‘the sympathetic vampire’ is seen to establish itself strongly in the minds of the audience. The struggle with good and evil continues to haunt this creature’s existence even as he becomes the ‘vampire star’ on television; hence the third chapter deals with the Vampire Diaries series, looking mainly at the goodness in the characters of Stefan, Damon, Katherine, and Klaus, and the evil that paradoxically follows from it.