Peripeteia

Useful short film for the Gothic on the history of the vampire figure:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7CsRZK_yL4

The vampire before Stoker

John Polidori, Lord Byron’s doctor, was living at the Villa Diodati as part of the house party of 1816 that gave rise most famously to Mary Shelley’s novel Frankenstein. His own contribution to the notorious ghost storytelling
competition was The Vampyre. You can find the story online. As you read it, think about:

1. The similarities and differences between Polidori’s vampire and Stoker’s.
2. The use of foreign locations and their significance.
3. The use of male and female characters.
4. The idea of pursuit in the two texts.
5. How does Polidori create a sense of threat? How does this relate to Stoker’s
methods in Dracula?

Lord Byron wrote a long poem entitled The Giaour, in which the following lines appear; What is there here that you find of interest in comparison to Stoker’s novel?

But first on earth, as Vampyre sent,
Thy corse shall from its tomb be rent;
Then ghastly haunt the native place,
And suck the blood of all thy race;
There from thy daughter, sister, wife,
At midnight drain the stream of life;
Yet loathe the banquet which perforce
Must feed thy livid living corse,
Thy victims, ere they yet expire,
Shall know the demon for their sire;
As cursing thee, thou cursing them,
Thy flowers are withered on the stem.
But one that for thy crime must fall,
The youngest, best beloved of all,
Shall bless thee with a father's name—
That word shall wrap thy heart in flame!
Yet thou must end thy task and mark
Her cheek's last tinge—her eye's last spark,
And the last glassy glance must view
Which freezes o'er its lifeless blue;
Then with unhallowed hand shall tear
The tresses of her yellow hair,
Of which, in life a lock when shorn
Affection's fondest pledge was worn—
But now is borne away by thee
Memorial of thine agony!
Yet with thine own best blood shall drip;
Thy gnashing tooth, and haggard lip;
Then stalking to thy sullen grave,
Go—and with Gouls and Afrits rave,
Till these in horror shrink away
From spectre more accursed than they.