Vampires Essay Example For Students

Vampires Essay VampiresVampires have been seen and documented throughout history. The historyof vampires goes further back in time than most people realize. The chaldeans,who lived near the Euphrates river in the southwestern part of Asia more thanfive hundred years before the time of Christ , feared vampire or creaturessimilar to vampires enough so that they created charms to protect themselvesfrom being attacked by such creatures. The Assyrians and the Babylonians feareda creature similar to a vampire known as an Ekimmu. These creatures known asEkimmus were believed by the Assyrians to roam the planet searching for foodalthough it was not always a persons blood but rather a persons vitality orthat persons energy force. It was believed that if such a creature would entersomeones house that person along with his or her family would slowly weaken,get sick and probably die. In the countries of Syria and Palestine referenceswere made to such blood sucking monsters on ancient carved tablets. In Ireland the people believed in these creatures, which they affectionately came to callred blood suckers . Due to their belief in these mythical creatures they beganthe practice of placing stones on these vampires graves to kep them fromescaping.This then became standard practice and is still used to this day in theform of a tombstone. Tombstones were used to control ghosts and other spiritsinstead of their original use in controlling vampires. Due to the fact that vampires seemed to be so commonplace around theglobe, there was a large variety of vampires that differed in shape, behaviorand method of becoming a vampire. All of these factors varied from region toregion. In the country of Bulgaria a vampire had only one nostril. ThisBulgarian vampire would rise out of its grave nine days after death in the formof a shower of sparks and remained in this shape for a period of forty days. After the completion of these forty days the shower of sparks would regain itshuman form. Once human-like the vampire goes from playing childish tricks, whichit did in its spark form , to more serious matters , such as the attacking ofhumans and drinking of their blood.Vampires are well known for their cravingfor blood but in many countries vampires were not limited to just thatsubstance as part of their diet, but would also consume foods that humans atesuch as eggs and rice. That, however, does not mean that their yearn for bloodwas any weaker than before. Most vampires would attack their victims and suckthe blood from puncture wounds made in the neck (The Russian vampire would suckthe blood directly from the victims heart). Sometimes the vampire would gorgeitself until it had drained the victim completely while other times it wouldtake just enough to satisfy that nights thirst and come back the followingnight and take a bit more. The method of drinking from the same victim nightaft er night would cause the victim to get weaker and weaker . Due to the factthat the victim was indeed attacked by a vampire, that would mean that upon thevictims death they too would become undead. (. Vampires p22)Certain cultures around the globe also had systems to recognize vampires. In some cultures vampires were distinguished due to the color of their hair. Inmost Christian countries vampires could be recognized because they had red hairlike Judas Iscariot, the man who betrayed Christ in the bible, was said to havehad red hair. Eye color was another tell-tale sign used to identify vampires. InGreece ,where most people have dark colored eyes, vampires were said to haveblue eyes, Rumania they were said to have had gray eyes, and in Ireland they hadblack eyes. Treatment Guidelines? Effect on Therapists? Willin EssayPlague was another factor which could explain the growth of the vampirelegend. In the Stephen King book Salems Lot which is the story of a town thatis infested by Vampires and due to the infestation of vampires causes the townto become a ghost town. In the book it says But a little over a year agosomething began to happen in Jerusalems Lot that was not unusual, people beganto drop out of sight. (King, Stephen. Salems Lot p15) This phenomenon which isfound in Stephen Kings book was not at all uncommon in ancient times especiallyin remote places. Villagers in these remote places would have believed thatblood was a Vital substance that gave life. Since they did not know much aboutdisease their lack of knowledge of diseases and their lack of medicalpractitioners in these remote areas would give the perfect opportunity for theirsuperstitious beliefs to come into play. If suddenly much of the town began tofall ill at the same time a nd they all displayed similar symptoms such as weightloss , weakness and paleness they would think that these people must have beendrained of the vital substance, blood. Searching for an explanation without anymedical knowledge the one thing that would make sense to them would be that avampire was on the loose while the fact that the town could be in the middle ofan epidemic such as the black plague during the Dark Ages. In Stephen Kingsbook a town would just seem to disappear for no reason and the only explanationwould be vampires. In the Dark ages the situation would be very similar to thatin the Stephen King book except that in Stephen Kings book the vampires arereal. Tuberculosis or consumption as it was often called is a disease thatalthough was not highly contagious was a very common disease up until the mid-1800s . The beginning stages of this disease do not contain very recognizablesymptoms.By the time the symptoms showed up (such as weight loss and fatiguewhich is where the name consumption came from) the disease was already in itslater stages. Tuberculosis would have been very difficult to diagnose by peoplewith no medical knowledge especially when the most serious symptoms of thedisease such as coughing and spitting up blood were not present. Tuberculosiswas often openly confused with vampirism as was the case when in the mid- 1800sthe corpses of many victims of Tuberculosis were treated as vampires and buriedface down or by being dug up and burned when members of their families suddenlycame down with Tuberculosis.(Garden,Nancy. Vampires p69)The mental aspect of vampires has always seemed to be that of someonewho was not in their right min d. In Anne Rices book The Vampire Lestat at onepoint one of the vampires in the book just looks at the other one and simplysays Youre the mad one. ( Rice, Anne. The Vampire Lestat p73) not realizingthat madness plays a large part towards explaining the vampire legend as well asother mental conditions. One of these conditions which could explain the vampirelegend is the condition known as a cataleptic condition which many times isbrought