| What is it about vampires that they have so captivated audiences in recent years? There is something about the characters chosen for the stories that attract viewers. The depictions of these characters in the classic story of Dracula and in the more modern stories of The Vampire Diaries television show and the Twilight series movies are what I will focus on in this analysis. I will examine these characteristics using Discourse Analysis. | ||
| Dracula is the story of the original vampire. Bram Stoker created characters such as Dr. Van Helsing and Mina Harker to demonstrate the weaknesses of one of fictions most unbeatable monsters. Stoker has taken what could have been a simple horror story and turned it into a captivating love story with a supernatural force tearing the lovers apart. The winner at the end of this story is love. | ||
| Twilight started as a book series about a teenage girl named Bella Swan who has gone to live with her father in Forks, Washington. She becomes captivated with the Cullen family, a family about whom the people of Forks know very little about. Bella Swan and Edward Cullen are the new generation's dream love story. Two people who were never supposed to meet, who were never supposed to fall in love, but did. This is a love that overcame hundreds of years and the disapproval of the most powerful vampires in the world. | ||
| The Vampire Diaries is the newest edition to the vampire storyline. It's not just about vampires, though. There are also some werewolves and a witch or two that get involved. Stefan Salvatore has returned to his hometown of Mystic Falls, Virginia, to get to know Elena Gilbert. He is fascinated with her because she looks exactly like his old love of over one hundred years ago, Katherine Pierce. Stefan's brother Damon follows him back to town because he is determined to save Katherine from the sealed tomb she has been hidden in for over one hundred years. |
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Before I continue, I need to clear up two of the show's characters: Elena and Katherine. Elena and Katherine are mythical dopplegangers who can break a curse that has been laid on the vampires. Yes, they are played by the same actress. Elena is a mortal and Katherine is a vampire. |  |
| These stories encompass a large passage of time in which the story of vampires remained captivating to audiences. I want to look at two specific parts of the stories - gender roles and sexualities - that I believe are a major part of the long lasting stories that have fascinated audiences for generations. In analyzing the gender roles and sexualities, I will use Discourse Analysis 1 to look at images from each story and compare the changes in the stories over time as gender roles and sexualities in real life change as well. |
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a class taught by Bob Bednar in the Communication Studies Department at Southwestern University
