turned by another vampire or perhaps transformed due to a religious or folkloric belief, where he comes from and for how long he has been undead, remains unexplored. The story focuses on Ruthven's present actions and the effect they have on Aubrey's life.
Ianthe explains that vampires have killed the families of men who had doubted their existence (252), and they are most powerful in the dark (253), again focusing on what the vampire does, rather than its motives for doing it. She gives Aubrey a detailed account of the vampire's appearance as well, which Aubrey immediately recognizes as an exact description of his former companion. One has to assume Ianthe's description of the vampire coincides with that of Ruthven at the beginning of the novella, since there is no further information given in this scene.
Aubrey does not heed Ianthe's warnings when he goes on an expedition and night falls before he makes it home. Simultaneously, a storm begins, accentuating the danger of the scene. Aubrey passes a cottage and plans to ask for shelter, when he hears the
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His parents are dead but they left him a considerable sum of money. He is “handsome, frank and rich” (ibid.): in short, a textbook example of a young man of rank. His trusting character, however, is his most prominent feature. It allows the reader to think further ahead and foresee events before Aubrey does: “like the innocent adolescent of folklore, he is unable to anticipate consequences of an evil that he only intellectually knows exists” (Twitchell 109). This discrepant awareness creates suspense. His personality invokes pity, as it is the exact opposite of Ruthven's ruthlessness. The same can be said about Ruthven's victims: Ianthe and Aubrey's sister. The dichotomy of innocence versus evil is an important narrative element, especially since it is evil which prevails in the end and throughout the whole