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Bram Stoker And The Vampire Essay

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Death and the unknown has always been a source of man’s greatest fear. The vampire serves as a physical manifestation of this fear- an immortal creature that feeds on the blood of the innocent. As dangerous as they are, vampires are alluring- they possess an “aura of glamour”. Vampires have long crept into our imaginations from the lusty romance novel, “Twilight” to Bram Stokers’ “Dracula”. While most people tend to believe that all vampires come from Transylvania, are slender, and can transform into bats, Stoker did not create the vampire. Vampires existed long before except they were revenants; animated corpses of evil beings, with origins dating back to Mesopotamia, Ancient India and Serbia. The belief in vampires originates from the ignorance that people had during their time regarding postmortem decay, illnesses / diseases and other unexplainable events. With the accounts of Peter Plogojowitz, Arnod Paole, and the Shoemaker of Silesia, it can be determined that although these accounts provide sufficient and accurate data, they are inaccurate in their interpretations. This is due to the lack of knowledge and experience in physiology, pathology and anatomy of the human body. …show more content…

He was the first in his village to become a vampire then passed the infection onto others. Plogojowitz’s death shows the classic misconceptions of vampirism. Within a week of Peter Plogojowitz’s death, nine people in his village also died and claimed to have seen him giving a description of his body as the following: not decomposed, skin, hair and nails growing. His body was then exhumed and the following observations were made: new fresh skin emerging, fresh blood in his mouth, and wild signs (erection). All the indications pertaining to a vampire was present and his heart was pierced with a

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