Introduction

Vampires have occupied popular culture for quite a while, so I figured figuring out what they might mean deserved some of my attention.

Symbols

Authors use symbols to imbue their writing with meaning. Symbolism, however, rarely amounts to just “X stands for Y.”

Take, for example, Frankenstein's monster. Famous monsters in literature and film often reflect the anxieties of writers and audiences in their time. In this case, Frankenstein's monster evokes fears of what science might reveal in contrast to faith. However, Frankenstein's monster appeals to many other ideas, such as themes of creation and internal vs. external.

Vampiric symbolism

To understand what vampires might mean, it helps to first lay out the vampire archetype. Though not universally true, vampires generally exhibit 2 main characteristics:

1. They belong to the noble and/or ruling class
2. They suck blood from humans who do not occupy the noble and/or ruling class

Based on these characteristics, we can see vampires as representing the noble and/or ruling class's leeching off the working class at the cost of the latter's well-being.

Modern symbolism

Hold on, what about the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer? Certainly her books involve more romance than politics!

Here, I want to make 2 observations I find interesting:

1. As the world's political organization moved heavily away from nobility toward elected governments, people don't seem to resonate with the idea of leeching nobility as much.
2. The Fifty Shades series by E. L. James, which started as a fanfiction of Twilight, amazingly re-introduces this upper class to lower class dynamic! Christian Grey, the analog to the vampire character from Twilight, (ab)uses his vast wealth to “pursue” Anastasia Steele, sometimes undermining her well-being.¹

Conclusion

In previous post, I encouraged thinking deeply about choices writers make. Hopefully now you can see by example how those choices can create meaning beyond the text.