Vampire social fear 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Vampire social fear 2 - Essay Example In earlier times, vampires have been portrayed in mostly negative light mostly showing demonic themes, but currently, vampire and their fear has gradually disintegrated to the extent that they have become part of the modern society and rather than being viewed as monsters, they now even now inspire trends. Everything from fashion to the entertainment industry portrays vampires as sexy, mysterious entities, who feature in movies like Twilight as abnormally romantic beings. Science has also adopted the myth of the vampire to describe living things that exhibit similar characteristics to those famed to be of vampires. As an illustration, ‘Vampire’ is derived from the biological term, vampirism, which refers to living things that feed on the life matter (that is: blood) of other living beings, for example, the Vampire Bat. According to vampire legends people who are considered to be evil in their life will turn to vampires in their after-life. These people include, but may n ot be limited to: outcasts, people who died as a result of suicide, criminals, and any other type of person that is considered to immensely evil in his acts. This paper will discuss how the society has ingrained the fear of vampires in its activities and how such fears are associated with the supernatural and superstition. Also considered is the effect of these fears on perception about ‘liminal states of existence’ (living on the margins). Since vampires are considered undead (because they are logically already dead yet still live), this paper will illustrate how vampires might be exposed to both advantage and disadvantages of the modern society due to advanced technology (Williams 15). Vampires in Today’s Society The legend of the vampire has gone through transformations that have changed the dark former image of evil, crime and demonism to one that is simply a source of mystery and fascination. Today’s society has dismissed the phenomena of ‘undea d’ beings that awake in the night to look for blood and in the process, turn the bitten humans into vampires. All the former reasons used to justify the existence of vampires have been shown to be untrue. Myths have been argued out by juxtaposing them with real life facts, thus emphasizing their fallacy. The vampire persona has been described by scientific medicine enabling us to understand why ‘weird’ people act as they do. Vampires have acquired a new dimension in today’s society: they fulfill our fantasies through literary fiction like works like Stephen King's Night Shift collection of short stories. In his book, King gives a chilling encounter of how people come face to face with normal people turned into vampires in the short story: One for the Road. King shows how a normal out-of-the-way town became a horror spot. The story ends with the implied warning that anyone should not make a stopover at a town where it is rumored vampires reside, because you will be turned into one yourself (King 416). Vampires have also been used by psychoanalysts to describe the nature of man’s psyche. Analysts use the paradigm of a vampire to illustrate how people react when they are faced with challenges that go beyond the levels of manageable reality. A vampire is used to symbolize the ultimate fear that one can face in his life. Vampires have enabled psychoanalysts to determine the psyche behind people who commit hideous acts like homicide that is accompanied by excessively