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Alex Sarkissian
Professor Tyler Dean
English 1C
11 February 2018
The Foreigner
While the majority learned of vampires from literature now regarded as classics, today
the modern audience gains this from visual media, including television and movies. In media
however, the theme of the vampire as the foreigner is the most present and fruitful because it can
be portrayed in many mediums. This research will be exploring how vampires in media can be a
foreigner to the world today (fish out of water), a foreigner when it comes to sexuality, or an
actual foreign being from another country, even with a with a very prominent Transylvanian
accent.
Before going into the research, understanding what exactly the terms “foreign” and
“foreigner” mean before and today are important to understand. While “foreign” can be
connected with countries, language or even sometimes demographics, the definition of foreign is
“of, from, in, or characteristic of a country or language other than one’s own.” As for the term,
“foreigner”, it can be connected to some of the same things but can also include dangerous
stereotypes as well when it comes to specific cultures as we see in older media (and sometimes
even today) portraying someone of a different ethnicity or culture in racially ignorant ways, with
the term being defined as “a person born in or coming from a country other than one’s own”.
This all connects back to vampire as we now see how the vampire characters in media are
foreigners not only to the country they are now in but are unaccustomed to the what the world is
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like today, in the relation to norms or sexuality promiscuity. This text is a basis for many ideas
due to it being the first way a vampire was portrayed as a foreigner in numerous forms of media
today and agree with the author’s depiction of the main characters, especially anti-hero the
Count.
One of the earliest, and what is seen as the original depiction of a foreigner can be seen in
the Bram Stocker’s 1897 classic, “Dracula” where the cliche of vampires having a Transylvanian
accent mainly stemmed from. But a reader grabbing the book today would be presented with a
form of dramatic irony after being exposed to vampire culture in media. In “Dracula”, our
protagonist, Jonathan, is not the strongest nor smartest “hero” to follow. The irony comes from of
the obvious signs of the Count being (at the very least) an unearthly being that will soon harm
Jonathan in some way. The tensions become greater as Jonathan becomes much less oblivious
and finally sees signs of the Count’s true intentions. Plots in the book are set-up like Van Helsing
is going to take charge in killing the Count after the events of Mina discovering Jonathan’s
notebooks and testimonials. All the characters within the story see how the Count is a little “off”
in many regards. The text also concerns how Dracula is a foreign being from another country. I
see the main argument of how he is foreign with the ways his accent that is so prominent in
media but also his views of the other characters in the text and their significance, like how he
treats Jonathan and Lucy. This is the light Stocker clearly portrays the character of Dracula in as
well.
Another example can be seen in the novella, “Carmilla” is narrated by Laura, a resident
of Styria, Austria. Laura’s mother passed away during her infancy so she is now with her father.
We sense that Laura is secluded and a lonely “protagonist”, longing for friends outside of her
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own family. For example, when Laura sees a tragic carriage accident involving Carmilla by her
home, Laura speaks to us specifically and we clearly see the effects of exposure to the world has
done to her. This ultimately plays out with the gruesome attacks by the conclusion of the story.
In this case we see how the effects of a human being a foreigner to norms and the vampire, also a
foreigner, gaining their trust and where that leads. This text definitely became useful to me as it
focuses on the sexual aspect of a vampire being a “foreigner” with the relationship between
Carmilla and Lauren. The main arguments stems from Carmilla not necessarily being from Styria
and the set customs with the land and I believe the Le Fanu’s positions include sympathizing
with both Laura and Carmilla, who can be seen as our protagonist to Lauren but, our antagonist
to nearly every other character and aspect of the story. There is a sexual tension between the
Laura and Carmilla which was something that was not even considered during that time period
and is something Carmilla is oblivious to.
Moving towards film examples of this, we can look at the film version of “Bram
Stocker’s Dracula” which was released in 1992 and was directed by Francis Ford Coppola. In
this film depiction, the plot mirrors the novel it is based on with creative elements changed
throughout as well as the roles of many characters and their significance to the overall story, with
the most prominent being Jonathan. In this case, the subject of sexual foreigner not being as
present as Dracula is pretty familiar sexually with sex scenes with both Lucy and Mina shown
fairly explicit in the film. The main argument however consists of the foreignness Dracula has
towards the old world and the new, with the way he speaks in his accent and customs being from
a different time as he is. This can even be seen in a sex scene when with Mina in bed and
basically “recites” how, “Then, I give you life eternal. Everlasting love. The power of the storm.
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And the beasts of the earth. Walk with me to be my loving wife, forever.” (Coppola, Bram
Stoker’s Dracula
) seconds before biting Mina to turn her into a vampire as well. Examples like
these provide arguments stronger than sources coming from text, as the visual and audio
examples such as moods and accents, better show the foreign nature of a character, or the foreign
actions of a character.
A more modern dramatic take on this could also be seen in “Let The Right One In”, a
Swedish coming-of-age horror romance, shows us the story of Oskar, a normal pre-teen boy
dealing with divorced parents and persistent bullies. Oskar meets Eli, a young vampire, who
moves in with an older man who slaughter people for Eli to drink their blood. But after he is
caught, Eli is on her own with Oskar and after the two become closer and responsible for
