Writing Vampire Character (in story and essay)

Character Analysis

Do the character of the people and their interactions drive the plot, or does the plot drive the characters? Are the above options mutually exclusive? Just how much control does the writer have over the characters within the book, story, or poem that he/she is creating?

The answers to the above string of questions are as diverse as the authors who are writing and the characters within the work being created. This diversity, of course, provides abundant area for examination and is where your paper might begin. And the last thing you want to do is to simply point out the characteristics of the protagonists – they are more than the sum of their parts. But you must be able to point to a specific point within the text to back up each and every assertion you make. How then, to begin?

Let’s use Polidori’s “Vampire” for an example. I HAVE SET IT TO OPEN IN ANOTHER WINDOW FOR SIDE-TO-SIDE EASE OF READING.

We will answer the following – in no particular order at this time:

• What do they look like – their physical appearance?

• What is their family background and their history (if given).

• What emotional quirks do they have?

• What world view/expectations do they display?

• Do the emotional and stated and unstated expectations drive their behavior? How does it do so?

• What relationship do they have with the vampire – are they the vampire, victim, or slayer?

• What vampire characteristics do they possess if they are the vampire?

  Begin by picking one character to examine. It will be tempting to pick one of the main characters, but it will impress your professor much more if you pick minor characters. But for now, for ease, I am going to use Aubrey as the example.

  Aubrey

  What does Aubrey look like physically?

  • He is Handsome

  History/Background

  • He is an orphan
  • He has a sister
  • He is rich

  • His “Guardians” fail in their care for him until is it too late

  Emotional Quirks

  • He has CULTIVATED his emotions, nothis judgment (he lacks sense)

  • He is frank (he speaks his innocent opinions and thinks that everyone is equally honest, thus he can be easily fooled into thinking highly of himself by those who have something to gain from him thinking he’s the bomb.

  Emotional Quirks and POV driving behavior?Yep!

• The PLOT (author’s need to move the story along) then prevents him from actually accessing reality by introducing him to the mystery man, Lord Ruthven, who he then fantasizes about.

• He is snoopy (look at his examination into the financial affairs of Lord Ruthven

• His belief in codes of male conduct (his word is his bond) are used by the vampire against Aubrey and used to prevent premature discovery by society that Ruthven is a vampire.

World View/Expectations

• He expects everyone to be like him

• He is a romantic (in this world a very bad thing since it fails the whole reality test thing) Note that romantic is then defined as “the dreams of poets” which have little to do with real but a whole lot to do with ignoring reality. The cottage is in ruins simply so the picture will have a particular feeling, NOT because the poor saps who live there can’t afford to fix it.

• He believes in honor and the male codes of morality for his time, to a destructive degree, sacrificing his sister to the code

Relationship to vampire? Aubrey gradually comes to believe in the vampire, recognize vampiric behavior, and to try to combat the vampire’s behavioral excesses (see Italy section).

Okay, now we have some idea of the created character of Aubrey. What do we do with it now? Yes, there is always more (remember I said you needed to go beyond the list?) to a character analysis.

Now you need to come up with a defensible thesis. And no, as an instructor I am not going to provide an essay for you to submit! The thesis that leap to my mind – and there are a few immediate ones, are:

• Aubrey’s romantic notions placed his adherence to the code of honor over his sister’s survival. (Which was a BAD thing!)

• Polidori here argues through Aubrey that romanticism and naivety – rigid and unthinking adherence to a code of conduct works against the good of society (and not just against the individuals involved).

• Aubrey is victimized by unfeeling, monetarily minded guardians (the whole poor little rich kid thing).

As a WriterI am offer a few other ideas for you to think about. To begin with, what are the pro’s and con’s about not giving a definitive physical description. Aubrey is “handsome?”

Generally today’s writers not only give a total description, but they often give it repeatedly. While this does convey the idea of what the person looks like from the writer’s head to that of the reader, is something lost when this is done? I argue that sometimes it is better to allow the reader to supply a few details – they will often like the soup better if they get to help make it.

Once the you have set the character’s behavioral patterns for the reader, do you really want them to behave out of character? Yes, granted that non-fictional humans occasionally behave out of character, but most readers expect the character to stay in character, and you lose a bit of their belief when you abruptly alter the character. I would recommend that you at least say something along the lines of, “And Sue, who always had coffee for breakfast, suddenly took an irrational dislike to it.” Not a great example, but there it is – it’s free advice from a writing instructor.