Vampires were first introduced into cinemas as vampire films and are gaining popularity in many countries. However, most of these films were used to illustrate horror and love stories (Garcia, Pg. 120). By examining ancient vampire writings and films, we may see what earlier generations found frightful. These books and movies also portray what was sexually seductive, taboo, and appealing at the time. The vampire’s appearance has changed over time to improve the reader’s perception of the character. Another significant element in expressing terror is the growth of religion and the humanities. Characters in our stories and movies change due to human perceptions of good and evil shifts.
Additionally, since these films were invented, the vampire genre has grown significantly, becoming a significant part of cinematic history. They are used to look into those people’s reasoning and perception about various issues, such as how fear is viewed, how people deal with anxiety, and what they fear most in their life. Nonetheless, several writers of novels have presented an objective view of the vampire. How they prey upon human beings whenever their wishes are unfulfilled, Sheridan Le Fanu is one of these writers who have taken more significant steps in building images of the vampires in their writing works (Wilson, Pg. 194). Ultimately, this essay explores how Novella embodied some of Jeffrey Weinstock’s principles of vampire cinemas and the importance of understanding the Novella.
Carmilla by Le Fanu has effectively utilized Weinstock’s principles of the vampires, which effectively created the understanding of how vampires associate with human beings. One of these principles, illustrated in this Novella, is how the vampires prey upon human beings. Le Fanu gave a story of a young woman preyed on by a vampire named Carmilla; this is one of the principles Weinstock highlighted. The Vampires typically utilize their razor-sharp teeth to take blood from their victims, killing them and transforming them into vampires. Besides, Vampires usually hunt at night because sunlight impairs their abilities, and they befriend human beings before killing them for food. Carmilla takes advantage of young women who are weak because she finds them attractive. She appeared to retain her youthful beauty at all times. Carmilla regularly misleads those around her, hiding her actual self until it is too late and using her youth and beauty to fool people. Moreover, Jeffrey explained in the cinematic vampire films, undead cinema, that by using beauty, the vampires kill the people and feed on them. Ultimately, this is also reflected in Carmilla, where most men and women end up being killed by vampires due to the belief that a beautiful lady cannot harm them.
Moreover, Weinstock also indicated in the vampire film, the undead cinema, that another principle of vampires is always more about sex. In the story which Rat Kiley told about Mary Anne and his childhood sweetheart Mark Fossie in the song sweetheart, Mary is depicted as a sex object at the beginning of the text. Still, with time despite some of Mary Ann’s acts, such as the necessity to travel to the village or her disappearance, being dubious, we see Mark Fossie’s love for her and the risks he is prepared to face for her. Women are viewed to be beautiful and sexual human beings who are always submissive to what is done by the opposite sex. In Carmilla, other beautiful characters, such as Carmilla and Mary Anne, give the subject of sexual desires and beauty to the gender. In this text, we see several men who get into a trap due to their beauty and sexual desires towards the Vampire, Carmilla. The magical power and signs that Carmilla might be deadly are unknown to General Spielsdorf and Laura’s father; they even laugh at the painting without knowing how dangerous Carmilla is. Le Fanu rejects the stereotypical notions of lesbianism and female parasitism by showing Carmilla and Laura’s mutual attraction to one another. Ultimately, it is evident in both Carmilla and Undead cinema that vampires are sexually attractive and utilize this opportunity to prey on the men they fall in love with without knowing it.
Additionally, according to Weinstock’s principles, vampire novels also have the theme of romance, femininity and beauty. They demonstrate love, sex, and the advantages of beauty. Because they don’t understand how an attractive person could be dangerous, men tend to be naive. In The Sweetheart of the Song Tra Bong, the men portray Mary Ann’s goals with a lack of knowledge and naiveté. This story didn’t have any vampires, but it had a lot of themes that kept coming up about how beauty was being. In the vampire film undead cinema, Weinstock mainly focused on how the beauty is generated by the characters in this film and how personalities impact other characters in the entire cinema. For example, because Carmilla simultaneously fulfils the roles of a caring mother and adoring kid, Laura is drawn to her physically and emotionally, which makes them connect (Yan, Pg. 405). In most films, the monster-female relationship uses the principle of beauty in fulfilling an individual’s emotional needs, which cannot be fulfilled in real life. Finally, according to the idea of Him Holte, after reviewing the work of the Weinstock film, the undead cinema, it is clear evidence that another principle used is the technological principles. This can be explained in terms of how technology advances the creation of films or how it enhances the technological sophistication in vampire films.
Carmilla’s Novella by Sheridan Le Fanu also utilized the principle of otherness as one of the principles of vampire cinemas. Under this principle, the vampires are viewed as mysterious and reflected as most godly. In most films, such as the undead cinema and Carmilla, vampires are considered to have supernatural powers, which gave them the opportunities to win out the abilities of human beings (Wilson, Pg. 194). As a result of the supernatural and godly nature, human beings develop fear towards these vampires and kill them by specifically striking hard substances in delicate parts of their bodies. In Carmilla, Laura’s health is steadily deteriorating as a result of Carmilla’s nighttime bites, which would have killed her if General Spielsdorf hadn’t interfered. Laura has reason to be terrified of this due to Carmilla’s godly supernatural powers. Ultimately, General Spielsdorf, Baron Vordenburg, and Laura’s father stab Carmilla in the heart, sealing her doom for all time.
The readers need to understand Sheridan Le Fanu’s principle in writing. Carmilla is one of the novellas. One of the importance of understanding this part is to acquire personal writing skills. The vampire novel has some principle that guides every work of writing; therefore, through understanding fundamental principles, people develop skills in different literature styles, character developments and the organization of ideas. Ultimately, another essential part of understanding this is getting the message conveyed by the novels and comparing different vampire novels.
In conclusion, vampires were first introduced into cinemas as vampire films, and it is gaining popularity in many countries. Since these films were invented, the vampire genre has grown significantly, becoming a significant part of cinematic history. Nonetheless, several writers of novels have presented the objective view of vampires and how they prey upon human beings whenever their wishes are unfulfilled. However, Sheridan Le Fanu’s Novella utilizes the principles of vampire cinema, such as sexual attraction, beauty and romance and the theme of death in bringing out the image of vampires. Ultimately, it is essential to understand these parts of the novel to acquire some of the writing skills and also get the message being portrayed.
Work Cited
Garcia, Y. (2021). Constructing the Vampire Myth in Cinema: A Short Analysis of Nosferatu (1922), Dracula (1931) and Dracula (1958). Bulletin of the Transilvania University of Brasov. Series IV: Philology and Cultural Studies, 115-128.
Wilson, Shelby. “Blood Doubles: A Renegotiation of Sheridan le Fanu’s Carmilla on Film.” Queer/Adaptation. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2019. 193-208.
Yan, Rae X. “Natural history, homeopathy, and the real horrors of Le Fanu’s Carmilla.” Nineteenth-Century Contexts 43.4 (2021): 403-416.
Wilson, Shelby. “Blood Doubles: A Renegotiation of Sheridan le Fanu’s Carmilla on Film.” Queer/Adaptation. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham, 2019. 193-208.
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