Whatever the ruling for the film to carry these tones of patriarchy, it is nonetheless carried through in other, deeper contexts of the narrative. Take for example the scene in which Dracula is seducing Mina on the bed.
“This point would appear to erase the former reading of ‘enforced fellatio’ and the equation between blood and semen; it draws attention instead to Mina as a menstruating girl – this is the taboo that is violated in this scene. “
(Gelder, 71)
If we are to believe that there is a true symbolic equation between blood and semen in vampire films, then this scene possesses some possibly contradictory questions. The narratives of vampire films usually require the vampire, or in this case Dracula, to drink the blood from its victims, usually typically Arian young virgins who have not yet entered the realm of adulthood but in this case it is Mina, the woman, who drinks the blood from Dracula; significant for the fact that a shift in roles has occurred, and Dracula would seem to be on the receiving end. However, this scene also draws attention to Mina who is now seen as the menstruating girl, a taboo that has now been touched. Further more, Dracula causes a reasonably sized slit in his chest symbolic perhaps of the vagina, but present on the phallic vampire, with fluid (blood) being released altering the phallocentric power to that of the woman, and giving the symbol of the vagina the sadistic power so usually confirmed to be obtained by the phallus.
“But the novel’s power ‘derives from its dealings with taboo’ (262), since the vampire’s function is to cross back and forth over boundaries that should otherwise be secure – the boundaries between humans and animals, humans and God, and, as expression of its ‘polymorphous’ sexuality, man and woman”
(Gelder, 70)
Once again we have seen a shift in gender roles, but more specifically, we see how the vampire is able to transcend boarders and boundaries, in this case, of the sexes, but in other cases suggested in the above quote, the demon to which Dracula transforms into after the two lovers are disturbed on the bed by the band of men, and the power of unnatural force of which Dracula is so often seen displaying, all suggest a creature blurring the elements of life and culture: animals, God, and sexuality.
Nosferatu, Dracula & Religion
On occasions, vampire films ask us to look at ourselves as the horrors, rather than blood sucking creatures of the night. It has already been discussed that perhaps in some narratives the true horror is woman’s sexual independence, but an interesting case to study is Shadow of the Vampire (E. Elias Merhige; US, 2000). This film questions the integrity of Max Shreck, the actor who played Nosferatu in Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauensby (F.W. Murnau; Germany, 1922), and asks if the actor was indeed a vampire himself. But Shadow of the Vampire presents the audience with not one, but two villains, and indeed dabbles with the possibility (as do most vampire films) that the Vampire is not inherently evil. In this film, the director, F.W. Murnau is perhaps the true villain; so desperate is he to make his art that he is willing to barter with people’s lives. This is juxtaposed with Max Shreck telling the producer of the film that, “It was a woman that did this too me!” He loved her so much, and then she left. His intense desire for woman made him this way. Perhaps, as a vampire, the integrity of love is questioned which goes against the traditional Christian and social goal.
“The central sacrament of Christianity is wine drunk as blood (in the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation, this is at the spiritual level no mere symbol, it is the actual blood of Christ); the most important icon of Christianity is a dead man who has eternal life.”
(Dyer, 10)
While in most vampire films, the notion the Christianity and the vampire are link is often hazily linked however in a few, it is pushed to a more equal level. In Bram Stokers Dracula, the very reason Vlad becomes a vampire is because he feels God has deserted him and upon drinking the blood gushing from the crucifix, turns into the ever living Vampire we know as Dracula. It could be suggested through the various motifs of the vampire, i.e. blood drinking and the hatred of the cross, that Dracula is not exactly an enemy of Christ, more an inversion of the Christ idea representing moral retribution.
Dilution and Imperialist Societies
“”The vampire was always a figure to be desired as well as feared, to be identified with as well as distanced from.” (Dyer, 11), while I respect much of Dyer’s readings of the vampire films, I believe that this comment, of the vampire being desired, must be disputed. While it is no doubt the case that Dracula can and certainly has moments where he is desired and possibly considered sexy, this is not the case with all vampire films. Again, referring to Nosferatu, he is old, decaying, and although ever living, looks as though he is about to die any moment. He is a tragic figure that certainly has no connection with the sexy, the desired, the arousing, but that of decay, other worldly, and out of date. He comes from a land far away, inhabited by the Gypsy and untouched by modern science. Oddly enough, this is not far from the sexy Dracula, (although he appears ugly in his land, handsome in ours), but Nosferatu remains very much ‘ugly’ with as many meanings as possible.
“But Dracula’s own account of ‘the whirlpool of European races’ (28) in constant conflict with each other presents the darker side of this picture. Diversity means instability: it invites contestation: identities become confused: one can no longer tell ‘who was who’”
(Gelder, 11)
Perhaps this could be interpreted as losing one’s national identity which posses a problem when a nation is an ‘idea’ of belonging, within a particular territory, and it is perhaps designed to create order with its own cultural codes and practices that define its members. In Dracula and indeed briefly in Nosferatu, a character from the West enters this world with the pinnacle of the ‘tour’ being the vampires residents. While this may sound harmonious in the 21st century when considering the European Union and enlargement, in the early 20th the notion of a diluted nation of races and cultures is not appropriate for an imperialist ideology, which Jonathan Harker perhaps represents, and fully depends upon a stable identification between the constructed nation and self.
This could go further by suggesting that, “the more diverse a nation, the less claim it has to national identity; and this weakening’ of identity makes it more vulnerable to absorption by imperialistic nations elsewhere.” (Gelder, 12). With the vampire representing this homogenisation, and possessing a slippery exterior of definition, he acts as a perfect villain and transgressor of meaning for the ‘self’ to anyone in an imperialist society. He is after all representing a breakdown of borders and boundaries, in this case, definition of race, and therefore national identity.
Buffy & Contemporary Society
Taking this discussion back to women in vampire narratives, the impact the TV series Buffy the Vampire Slayer has had on the vampire role is huge. It ran from 1997 to 2003 following the movie release of the same title a few years before. After 7 seasons and other spin off such as Angel, there is no doubting that this franchise has made its mark on the narrative however this is not the only reason its worth taking up as a discussion. This narrative is unlike the others previously discussed in this essay, as its central character is a modern day female teenager in the heart of a Californian community. However where we slip back into the traditional vampire narrative is when a patriarchal figure played by Donald Sutherland comes out of the past to tell her that there is an underbelly to the culture she knows at present, and this underbelly threatens her way of life, and the lives of her friends around her. Here there is a transition that happens to most slayers of vampire.
Ken Gelder notes that while in Dracula, the men use belief in the vampire’s existence as a tool to recover their masculinity, Buffy on the other hand “uses this belief as a possibility of her own empowerment as a woman,” (Gelder 143). She uses this strength in her now empowered sex to not only dispatch blood sucking vampires, but also sexist boys at school, who frequently call her ‘bitch’; a title that her fellow female students don’t seem to mind the label. It would seem perhaps that here Buffy is seen as a transgressor from her other female counterparts but she couldn’t do it with out the role of the vampire. This makes her strong, and she is idolised among the female community for her strength as she transcends the boundaries put before her by her Californian culture. However as an interesting side note, it could also be argued that had the vampires not been there, she would remain in the maxim ‘I shop, therefore I am’, and therefore this free spirited fighter and defender of woman is defined only when juxtaposed against the vampire himself.
Conclusion
What Buffy manages to do is keep the threat of the vampire and indeed all other threats possible to society alive, after all the vampire is ever living. In Blade (Stephen Norrington; US, 1998), there are possible parallels drawn between the HIV virus and vampirism. The over use of science in the field of blood sucking, and the term ‘virus’ in the Blade 2 (Guillermo del Toro; US, 2002) suggest a narrative concerned with current contemporary issues surrounding blood. The same happens in Buffy although the issues never seem to be engaged in any true depth but certainly are mentioned. When looking at vampire narratives of the last century, other contemporary issues are again touched. Whether it be the treat of industrialisation, anti-imperialist societies and the loss of nation identity or the rise of the woman in both society and their sexuality, the vampire it seems will always remain ever-living, for until we completely stop being threatened, our fear will always be drained by the jaws of a blood sucker.
Bibliography
Dyer, Richard: Dracula and desire from Sight & Sound, January 1993, pp 8-12
Gelder, Ken (1994): Reading the Vampire, Routledge, USA / Canada.
Filmography
Blade (Stephen Norrington; US, 1998),
Blade 2 (Guillermo del Toro; US, 2002)
Bram Stokers Dracula (Francis Ford Coppola; US, 1992)
Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV) (US 1997-2003)
Nosferatu, eine Symphonie des Grauensby (F.W. Murnau; Germany, 1922),
Shadow of the Vampire (E. Elias Merhige; US, 2000)