The Evolution And Cultural Implication Of The Vampire Image In The Euramerican Gothic Novels

"The vampire" is a literary image that often appears in the Gothic novels in Europe and the United States.Vampires live in a dark and secret environment and live by sucking human blood.Therefore,in human's eyes,they are horrifying,creepy,mysterious,scary and supernatural.The legend of vampires has a long history in Europe and the United State.However,it was from the novel Dracula in the 19 th century that the image of vampire entered the literary text and caused a sensation in the European literary world.After that,in the 20 th century,the famous novel Interview with the Vampire appeared in the European literary world,which pushed the vampire story to a peak.The publication of The Vampire Diaries in the 21 st century has enabled the vampire stories to attract more readers.It is worth noting that these three novels have been adapted into film and television works with high ratings among the European film and television dramas.This paper holds that these three novels exactly show the evolution of the vampire image in the European Gothic novels.Therefore,this paper explores the changes of the ancient image of the vampire in these works and analyzes the reasons for such changes by comparing the changes and differences between the vampire images in these three works in terms of appearance,habits,living environment,specific functions and weaknesses.This paper argues that the changes of the image of vampires in these Gothic novels from the initial bestiality outbreak to the later humanity awakening are a significant change and a cultural phenomenon that deserves our attention.The vampire in Dracula is emotionless.For humans,the vampire in this book is just a demon that brutalizes human beings and should be eliminated.The vampires Claudia and Louis in Interview with the Vampire have already had human feelings and are no longer the demons who only know how to kill human beings and suck their blood.In Vampire Diaries,vampires have become indistinguishable from humans.They have their own love and hate,and the whole show revolves around the emotional clues of Elena,Damon and Stefan,which makes us more aware of the humanity of these vampires and more sympathetic to their experiences.This paper argues that the most important reason why the image of vampires can still hold a place in the era of endless artistic works is the humanity of vampires in novels,films and television dramas.The image of these vampires have transformed from the id of indulging its bloodthirsty desire,to the ego of wandering between indulgence and self-restraint,and to the superego of transcending the desire to save people.Vampires have been transformed from demons into alienated humans.Their transformation from demons in opposition against human beings to vampires who have feelings,integrate into the human world and cooperate with different races indicates that they have already possessed humanity.