Lord Ruthven Character Analysis

As his name suggests, Lord Ruthven is of a noble birth, which already contrasts with the original idea that vampirism only affected the lowborn. Furthermore, Polidori states that the antagonist was “more remarkable for his singularities, than his rank” (The Vampyre and Other Tales of Macabre, p3), thus surrounding the character with mystery and providing it with more depth. Ruthven’s dangerous nature is also clearly stated at the beginning, as “the light laughter of the fair only attracted his attention, that he might by a look quell it, and throw fear into those breasts where thoughtlessness reigned” (p3). This single sentence tells us numerous things about the antagonist. Firstly, it shows Ruthven’s destructive influence on his surroundings,

It says that Ruthven “always gambled with success, except where the known sharper was his antagonist, and then he lost more than he gained; but it was always with the same unchanging face, with which he generally watched the society around” (p6). It is possible that the antagonist lost this game on purpose, as to reward the other player for his tricks and cunningness, as suggested by his otherwise successful streak as well as the “unchanging face”, which shows the noble’s confidence and apparent control over the situation. The crucial point, however, is that “when he encountered the rash youthful novice, or the luckless father of a numerous family; than (..) this apparent abstractedness of mind was laid aside, and his eyes sparkled with more fire than that of the cat whilst dallying with the half dead mouse” (p6). The cat metaphor does not only support the earlier statement about Ruthven’s predatory nature, as it also highlights the idea of enjoying oneself at somebody else’s expense. Nevertheless, the most important word in this sample is “apparent”, as it indicates that he was, in fact, fully aware of his surroundings at all time, only waiting for a new victim to arrive. Even more interesting is how Ruthven did not take the money with him. Instead, he lost it to the aforementioned scammer, which stresses the point that his real goal was not to win money, but to make others lose