Comparing 'London, 1800-1913 And Jerome Cohen' Monster Culture

Vampire Essay

There are many monsters that are in literature throughout time. One example is the vampire. We can clearly see how it reflects on what was happening in London connecting “London, 1800-1913” and Jeffery Jerome Cohen “Monster Culture (Seven Theses)” as well as many other pieces of information.

Cohen says that the monsters cultures create, actually show the culture and their crises. In “London, 1800-1913” it mentions how London was facing a time where the wealthy and the poor were being separated. The wealthy were being educated and rich, and they were being separated from the poor, but still depended on them. In stories of vampires, like “The Vampyre” by John Polidori, the vampires usually feed off of the blood of people. These people were usually poor, not as strong, and “pure” women. Connecting the story with history, the rich are actually feeding off of the poor and suppressing the woman’s rights movement as that has started around this time. Vampires are actually the rich people in all these stories.

In many vampire stories, vampires cannot go into the light and can only be killed by religious objects. Being repelled by light and religion. Being repelled by light puts the vampires in isolation, just as the rich were in isolation in London during this time. Also, around this time when Vampires were created, the church came up to public question. So, vampires had an element of being repelled by religious items. Moreover, morality, cultural and sexual mores were also being brought up into public question. Vampires are also known for being sexually free. So these both were also connected