Study Guide for "Der Vampir" (The Vampire) 1748 Ossenfelder

While this is a poem about a vampire, think about the basics of every narrative story, they still are here: Author, Plot, Characters, and Setting.

_Create a time-line of the plot._What are the characteristics of the characters, including those not stated?_ Where is this set?_How does the author write himself into the work?

I see several approaches off-hand to this poem. I would begin with the same premise I used in my study of LMetamorphosis of a Vampire: the premises the desired woman are clinging to are those of morality (not loosing ones virginity) and Church (not loosing ones virginity to anyone other than ones husband). Here is an analysis of a Theological Reading.

_ This is another "young maiden" which means it begins (or continues) the victimization of the young woman by preference over that of the victimization of a young male.

_What the heck is a "Heyduck" that we are told folks are "like?" Okay, a "Heyduck" is a semi-military official of the Seventeenth and Eighteenth century in Hungary.

_ What the hey is "Theyse's portal?" This is a variant spelling of the Tesza, a river in Hungary.

- In case you don't know, Tokay was a popular brand of Hungarian wine.

_ We know that Christine clings to her mother's teachings - - which is in opposition to that teaching that the vampire offers. We know that her mother has "charms"(ll 22), and have to wonder if these are charms against the vampire, or charms meant against a living lover.

_The vampire is capable of "creeping"(ll 14) into her bed without her express permission? Or is she supposed to have given her permission for his entry to her chamber, and person?

_She "Trembles" as he "kisses her?" But is this good tremble or bad tremble? Good kissing or bad kissing? Is she trembling because she is in his cold arms, because she is dying, or because her life blood is being torn gently away -- betrayed by a kiss.

_ He has a question for her... isn't this better than the "unbending" strictures of her mother? Of course, what is the wages for this bending -- death?

_In this poem, the vampire is pitted against the mother? Do we hear the other mother perhaps echoed here: mother church? Both the church and a mother give instruction in proper behavior, one in how to live life, and the former in how to live life in order to gain eternal life -- a thing the vampire also offers her!

_ Is this a vampire lover, or a young man who resents the young lady's refusal to have sex with him, and who thinks of all the ways in which his proposed actions, and those of the vampire, are similar?