Eastern European folklore often describe vampires as animated corpses of the recently deceased that have been possessed by a bloodthirsty demon. These vampires would rise at night from their graves to stalk the living in a search of sex and blood. It is believed that once these vampires choose their victims there is only death. While influenced by this lore and the legends of 15th century Romanian Prince Vlad III the Impaler, Bram Stoker went in a different direction when he created Dracula in 1897. In the novel Dracula is described as a Transylvanian nobleman who is a descendant of Attila the Hun. Dracula was a sorcerer who studied necromancy and was proficient at alchemy and black magic.

While ideas of Dracula and the walking dead often send shivers down our spines most people would agree that there is something utterly attractive about ‘vampires’. Pop culture today paints a far different picture of vampires than the ideals of even 100 years ago. Today’s vampires while still very super human resemble something very much human and even vulnerable. Prime examples of this are vampires like Louis from Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice and Edward Cullen of Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight saga. Both vampires struggle with what they have become and what exists for them after this life.

Louis believes like most that his soul has been damned and that his existence defies nature. While that haunting knowledge drives him his desire for human contact and even love force him to come to terms with his own immortality. Edward while on the surface also believes that his soul his forever lost but deep down he wonders how this can be so. His sire and surrogate father Carlisle has mastered his desire for blood and has become a doctor and saved countless lives. The other striking difference is that all of the Cullen’s have chosen to survive on animal blood, and have learned to suppress their desires for the blood of humans. This is a far cry from Dracula and his demonic friends whom a majority of the younger generations now laugh at as campy and unrealistic.

While these are only two categories of a wide range of vampire lore, the striking difference between the vampires today and those of yesteryear should make us question what it means of ourselves. Has life become something so complicated that even the undead once considered soulless and demonic struggle with morality and right and wrong? Have we become so desensitized to our own fears and humanity, and become so unaware of our old world values and faith that we push our struggles onto something completely inhuman?