By Suzanne Carré

By the dawn of the 1800′s, the vampire has evolved from pagan god to the Devil incarnate and returned to a diminutive demon corrupting the sleeper with erotic dreams. When European thought started to unify in the 18th century, the vampire of witchcraft, being fought by the Catholic Church, merges irreversibly with the vivified dead of the Balkans. The vampire then took up permanent residence in the grave, using a coffin to protect their bodies from sunlight.

But aside from existing as a supernatural being capable of directing the forces of nature, vampires are also ugly corpses (at least most of the time), and entice their human victims with sexual pleasure. The vampire feeds by drinking blood of the living, and the victim eventually succumbs to the blood lust of the vampire and dies, to become a vampire themselves. The modern vampire as we know it was coming into being. Yet, the Industrial Revolution was to influence the vampire even more with a new but disturbing behavior—spreading disease.

Plague

When we think of plague, the Black Death seems to fit the description perfectly. But in Europe the last significant outbreak occurred in Vienna (1679). We are now in the 1800′s and the bubonic plague is a very distant memory. No era is without its epidemics, and the Industrial Revolution saw an overcrowding of cities to repeat the conditions of the Black Death. This time there is one major difference. The Victorians were into hygiene.

Sewer systems got the rats off the streets but this came at a price. Rising damp and leaking plumping in Victorian houses led to breeding conditions for tuberculous. Called consumption, the disease wasted its victims—they grew weak and pale, they were bed-ridden, and importantly they coughed blood before they died. It was almost as if a vampire drained their vitality and left blood on their lips to mark where they kissed. Certainly the disease influenced a case of witch hunting in New England and vampirism in that area.

Blood and Sex

Another very important disease to reach pandemic proportions in Victorian times was syphilis. In England, poverty lead to much prostitution and industrialists “owned” their workers and likewise trafficked their employees, particularly children, after hours. Syphilis spread rapidly. Rich or poor, no one was spared of this mysterious affliction. It was a perfect disease in that it punished the population for their sexual indiscretions.

With the discovery of pathogens, the bacteria causing tuberculosis was announced in 1882 but the toxic agent responsible for syphilis remained unknown until the 20th century. At the time syphilis acted like a corruption of the blood. It could be transmitted by transfusion and conducted to babies still in their mother’s womb. The disease had almost a magic power to destroy its victim for contact with immoral persons.

The mixing of sex and blood with a little essence of the supernatural was a ideal descriptor for the vampire. This was not missed by Bram Stoker, although he seems to combine the effects of both tuberculosis and syphilis, to pathologically describe his vampire spreading the corruption of the undead by both the bite, and contact with vampire blood.

Pestilence

The Victorians were conscious of being clean. Corruption of clean equated to the decay of death. All creatures associated with unclean were also linked in the same way to death. The rat and other creepy, crawling animals naturally joined the ranks of pestilence from antiquity, but now they took on a sinister meaning. Plague proportions of these pests indicated the presence of malicious spirits or the dead. Since the vampire represented the walking undead, they soon associated with the most unclean of animals.

Folklore of the vampire often crossed with the myth of the werewolf. Vampires were night creatures and soon the wolf linked with the vampire too. It wasn’t long before all night creatures were part of the vampire myth. With a vampire capable of witchcraft, his supernatural powers enabled the Prince of Darkness to control the beasts of the night. Since the Devil could realize any natural form, it is not surprising that this capability is also attributed to the vampire. Certain legends attribute the male vampire with the power to transform into bats and wolves but the mythology is not consistent. As a result not all vampires change into animals but only because this is not a pure vampire trait.

Sexual drive

Any filth or objects related to dirt were considered factors of disease by the Victorians. It didn’t just include physical dirt, as moral hygiene was also very important. Death weighed heavily at the time, not just because of a fear of dying, but the uncertainty of being “good enough” to go to heaven. The moral standard was constantly challenged by the reality of syphilis, due to unchaste affairs, and the fear of young singles going crazy because they were given to masturbation. The vampire delivering erotic dreams didn’t have to look a sexy beast to initiate sexual addictions. The very thought of sex after midnight meant you were under the vampire’s spell.

We’ve now arrived at the modern vampire known to literature by the beginning of the 20th century. I will look at the way the past 100 years have modified the vampire image but for now, it is important to consider the bad things vampires get up to at night. First is a look at their most important habit—drinking blood.

« »