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Elizabeth Shethory Research Paper

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Elizabeth Báthory: The Blood Countess of Hungary
The myth of the vampire, and most often of Dracula, is one of the most prevalent in horror and mythology today. While this is most often traced back to Bram Stoker’s inspiration, Vlad Dracul, a more hidden but just as violently terrible and prolific killer brings to light many of the common conceptions of vampires and monsters in horror today: Elizabeth Báthory, the 14th-15th century “vampire” who is known for her beauty, sexuality, and affinity for torture and blood.
The Myth
Born in 1560 or 1561, Erzsébet Báthory (known popularly by the anglicized form Elizabeth) was the daughter of two Báthory nobles and later became the Countess of Hungary. Like many royals of the time, the Báthorys prided …show more content…

However, the two shared a common interest in torture. Supposedly, Ferenc built a torture chamber for Elizabeth, and he was known to “toss a pair of Turkish prisoners in the air and catch them on his swords” for dinner party entertainment (Carroll, The Blood Countess). Although the two clearly fed on each other’s nasty habits, when Ferenc was away, Elizabeth’s pathological desire for torture flourished even more than it did in his presence. Upon her husband’s departure, Elizabeth supposedly had affairs with her servants, and after several visits from her aforementioned aunt, Elizabeth began taking after her in terms of sadomasochism and affairs with women. Along with these newfound fascinations, Elizabeth developed an interest in the occult and witchcraft, particularly potion-making (Carroll, The Blood Countess). She devoted much of her time to torture and sexual deviancy. This led to the beginning of her legacy as she started to torture her servants. One of her choice methods included tying her servants down, coating them in honey, and allowing them to be attacked by bees and ants (This Day in History, Bathory’s torturous escapades). She was also rumored to drag servants into the snow, unclothe them, and douse them in water, leaving them to slowly freeze to death (Kürti,

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