Why is vampirism popular

The concept originally arose when the Austro-Hungarian Empire was expanding in the 18th century, a time when its citizens often came into contact with rural people digging up corpses. An epidemic was causing death in the villages, and often the first ones to die were thought to be vampires causing the death of others.

The decomposing bodies they had excavated left them confused and startled about what was happening to the corpses, believing the bodies still had life. The westerners were rational and scientific, and tried to explain what was happening to them.

Slavic culture tended to use this idea of vampirism as a method of social control, where people were told to behave correctly, or they would become a vampire. There are almost as many different characteristics of vampires as there are vampire legends. But the main characteristic of vampires or vampyres is they drink human blood. In general, vampires hunt at night since sunlight weakens their powers. Some may have the ability to morph into a bat or a wolf. Vampires have super strength and often have a hypnotic, sensual effect on their victims.

Vlad Dracul was born in Transylvania, Romania. He ruled Walachia, Romania, off and on from Some historians describe him as a just—yet brutally cruel—ruler who valiantly fought off the Ottoman Empire. He earned his nickname because his favorite way to kill his enemies was to impale them on a wooden stake. According to legend, Vlad Dracul enjoyed dining amidst his dying victims and dipping his bread in their blood.

Whether those gory tales are true is unknown. Nonetheless, the similarities between the two are intriguing. Vampire superstition thrived in the Middle Ages , especially as the plague decimated entire towns. The disease often left behind bleeding mouth lesions on its victims, which to the uneducated was a sure sign of vampirism.

Some symptoms of porphyria can be temporarily relieved by ingesting blood. Other diseases blamed for promoting the vampire myth include rabies or goiter. When a suspected vampire died, their bodies were often disinterred to search for signs of vampirism. Other accounts describe the decapitation and burning of the corpses of suspected vampires well into the nineteenth century.

Mercy Brown may rival Count Dracula as the most notorious vampire. According to vampire folklore, vampires display some tell-tale physical signs of their affliction: pale skin, an absence of a reflection in mirrors, fangs and red glowing eyes.

These attributes are commonly assigned to the blood-sucking undead in popular culture. Other historic descriptions of vampires state that they begin as a blurry shape and have no skeletal structure. They have red, bloody eyes and snouts rather than noses, through which they suck the blood of their victims. After 40 days, vampires take a more human form and become a lot harder to dispose of. Despite their inhuman descriptions throughout history, doctors believe there may have been a medical explanation for the proliferation of vampire stories in Eastern Europe.

Porphyria also known as porphyric haemophilia or Dracula disease , a hereditary blood disease, was once widespread among the aristocracy. Patients were sensitive to light, developed brownish teeth, and had skin lesions. They were often told to drink blood from other people to replenish their own. When people kiss, their eyes are normally closed and I think everyone can agree that kissing is intimate. Also, in the photo, you do not see clothing at all. Even though you only see shoulders up, this can imply that they are naked.

The fact that they are both good looking only adds to the sexuality. My point is that Vampires already have sexual aspects, but the TV, movies and books sexualize them and exaggerate these aspects to make these sexual aspects super obvious.

This quote is from a Psychoanalytic review by Charles Henry. This can be compared with a human finding pleasure from being bitten by a Vampire. The fact that the Vampire is frightening and wants to suck their blood draws the victim in. It is probably hard to imagine how Vampires and religion relate at all, but they do! In many different literary works, movies and television shows, Vampires have been a religious symbols.

In the book Dracula, the Vampire had no power over symbols of Christ. Tadlock explains how Christ can be like a weapon against vampires. This reminds me of how Vampires are supposed to be afraid of garlic and they cannot get near it.

He says that faith plays a big role in the gothic genre. Faith ad Vampires definitely represent good and evil. Faith and Vampirism compliment each other, in my opinion. However, this only how it used to be. You do not really see that much directly about faith versus Vampires anymore.

In modern Vampire novels, movies and television shows, Vampires are sometime religious themselves. I mean, it is not super common that vampires are religious, but they are sometimes.

Christ is no longer something used against Vampires. There is one thing that most modern Vampires do have a weakness for. Most Vampires can be killed with a wooden stake, that is put through their heart.

I think that a long time ago, whenever this was come up with, it had to do with Christ. I think that the wooden stake represents a cross. Now, people do not think of it that way, but back then Christ was a weapon towards Vampires so it only makes sense that this is why they chose a wooden stake to be able to kill the Vampires.

This way of killing Vampires is just something that has suck around, but people probably do not think of it a being a religious symbol anymore. Sources: 1 Justin Tadlock Essay ,. There are people living among us that believe they are real life Vampires. In an article from abc News, they interviewed a nurse who believes that she is a Vampire. Apparently, people who think they are Vampires today, do not claim to be supernatural, like the Vampires we are used to on TV.

They usually do not feed on strangers because they have donors, who are usually friends or loved ones. This means that the people that think they are Vampires are not the only crazy ones, because there are crazy people that believe them! These people really believe this is a real thing and that they feel like they have low energy and they need to get energy from other people by drinking their blood. While I was researching for this post, I came across a very interesting website. It is a website specifically for real Vampires and or people that just want to learn more.

I am not saying that I think Vampires are real, but this site does have a lot of evidence. This site references Yale and other prestigious Universities. Apparently being a Vampire is caused by a disease. They think that being a Vampire is a medical condition that you can inherit from your parents. Personally, I do not believe that some people need blood to survive. The people that do not have this disease, but just think they are Vampires are crazy, in my opinion.

I think that movies and TV shows are making people love Vampires, but the people that think that actually are one are taking the love to a new level. Source: Merriam-Webster. Sources: Kokkola, Lydia. Sources: Carter, Rachel. Nosferatu from Nosferatu looks like a monster Dracula from Dracula no longer looks like a monster Stefan and Damon from The Vampire Diaries super hot You can see the progression in the photos.

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