The first aristocratic vampire story published in english is John Polidori’s The Vampyre (1819); a short story about a mysterious aristocrat named Lord Ruthven who appears human but is secretly a vampire. Unlike the previous descriptions of vampires, Polidori transforms the vampire figure into a sophisticated and refined creature who lives amongst the upperclass of society. He creates a monster who looks and acts human giving him the opportunity to easily infiltrate into society. Moreover, his vampire takes on the role of an aristocrat giving him the opportunities and social interactions he wouldn’t otherwise have. Rather than the folkloric hideous monster, he created a human-like and attractively alluring creature.
John Polidori (1795- 1821) was born in Soho and was the eldest son of an English mother and an Italian writer. Much of his life he was closeted in Catholic boarding schools at the age of eight. His father pulled him from school at the age of fifteen to attend the University of Edinburgh where he would study medicine. He concluded his education by writing a dissertation on the uncanny phenomenon of sleep-walking. In 1816, after graduating, he was offered a job to work for Lord Byron as his personal physician and accompanied him on a trip through Europe. At the Villa Diodati, a house Byron rented by Lake Geneva in Switzerland, Polidori had the opportunity to meet with Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin, her husband-to-be, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and their companion (Mary's stepsister) Claire Clairmont. The group shared horror stories including a few they had each written. Byron wrote a fragment of a story, The Fragment, featuring the main character Augustus Darvell which Polidori later used as the basis for his novel The Vampyre.
Polidori felt as though he was an outsider, an employee, who was often forced to sit and listen to Byron’s undemocratic arrogance. These feelings of resentment only grew as John felt increasingly overshadowed in the company of Byron. Overtime Polidori began to feel that his own sense of self was being drained by his proximity to Byron and his fame. Polidori eventually sought to distance himself leading to his suicide in mid-June.
There are several parallels which ought to be examined between the protagonist in The Vampyre and Polidori’s relationship with Lord Byron. The Vampyre is a story of the young Englishman, Aubrey, who meets the mysterious Lord Ruthven at a high society party. The two decide to take on the Grand Tour in Europe together. In Greece Aubrey meets Inathe who he falls in love with but is tragically killed by a vampire. After Inathe’s death, Aubrey becomes tormented with visions of the vampire and when he recovers his senses he finds Ruthven caring for him. Aubrey agrees to continue his travels with Ruthven.
While traveling through unfamiliar areas of Greece, Ruthven gets shot by bandits. On his deathbed he makes Aubrey swear that he will not say anything to anyone about him for a year and a day after his death and Aubrey agrees. When Aubrey returns to London, he sees Ruthven there alive and well and reminds Aubrey of his oath. In the climax of the story, Ruthven seduces Aubrey’s sister and takes her hand in marriage. When Aubrey tries to protect his sister from the suffering that Ruthven will cause her, he suddenly has a mental breakdown. He writes to his sister a letter disclosing all that he knows about Ruthven but the letter, tragically, does not arrive on time. Aubrey dies after the marriage is solemnized and the couple leaves London whereafter his sister, as the story’s final sentence dramatically announces, is “glutted the thirst of a VAMPYRE”.
Polidori transforms the hitherto gruesome figure of European vampire lore into an aristocratic gothic villain. This ‘new’ type of vampire mixes with the wealthy class and seems fairly normal in appearance however is evil deep down. Gothic terror is thereafter represented as more of a mental, internal experience which is often provoked by uncannily familiar people and objects as opposed to the previous sublime phenomena of vampires. This ‘new’ vampire embodies the fear of moral decline and questions the notion of social norms. Ruthven, who represents the wealthy upperclass, is a metaphor for the corruption which lies in those with power and wealth and its consequences. The horror in Ruthven is that he can mirror anyone in society with wealth and power and that is the most terrifying of all.
Understanding Polidori’s background and experience with the upperclass of society, it is suggestive that his version of a vampire is a metaphor for the aristocrats of society. The aristocrat is seen, in Polidori’s eyes, as a parasite who has an overwhelming amount of privilege granting them the ability to get away with anything. From the first introduction of Ruthven, he is described as having “the reputation of a winning tongue; and whether it was that it even overcame the dread of his singular character, or that they were moved by his apparent hatred of vice, he was as often among those females who form the boast of their sex from their domestic virtues, as among those who sully it by their vices” (1-2). His ability to attract both men and women allows him to lure his victims effortlessly and unexpectedly.
Knowing Polidori’s story, it is difficult to not read The Vampyre as an allegory between him and his relationship with Byron. Though the vampire is still a killer, he is one who lures his victims rather than preys. Ruthven’s ability to pull anyone who steps in his direction is very much similar to Polidori’s impression of Lord Byron. Both Aubrey and Polidori felt succeeded and overshadowed by a significant other in their lives so much so that both their stories result in death. What is worth noting is that Polidoris vampire has been humanized to the point in which Aubrey does not die from its supernatural abilities but rather from his own mental imbalance. This ‘new’ vampires ability to kill based on impact and not just interaction is one that has never been seen before. Polidori’s vampire has assimilated a number of Byron’s qualities and is responsible for detaching the vampire from his folkloric roots and rendering him solely Byronic.
The Vampyre was a pivotal leap forward in the vampire evolution because prior to the story, vampires had been creatures of animal instinct that looked hideous and crawled out of their graves at night. By contrast, Lord Ruthven is a socially adept man who frequents parties and attracts the attention of both women and men. He rather shows his evil character in more subtle ways. He enjoys toying with Aubrey’s mind and driving him to the point of madness by preying on his beloved sister. He forces Aubrey to make oaths he knows he cannot keep and forces him to question his own self worth. He promotes vice and is a corrupter of innocence. Much like Polidori, his innocence and mentality is inevitably destroyed after his time with Lord Byron. Lord Byron toys with his mind by devaluing all that he does. He has degraded his view of himself as invaluable and as a result Polidori takes his own life.
This ‘new’ monster that Polidori has brought to life isn’t terrifying in terms of his external characteristics but rather it is his mental capabilities that lure his victims his way. This is something that no human could grasp or recognize instantly which is what makes this monster much more frightening. As this version of the ‘new’ vampire evolves, Polidori’s basis for terror maintains relevant. The Vampyre was an immediate success and several other authors quickly adapted the character of Lord Ruthven into other works. The most famous of which is Bram Stoker’s Dracula, written almost one hundred years later . Much like Ruthven, Dracula is an aristocratic stranger to society who is physically different to those around him yet sexually tempting and alluring. In Dracula, Jonathon Haker is a young solicitor traveling to Transylvania to meet with Count Dracula who is buying property in England. After some time spent at his castle, Haker realizes that Dracula is evil, writing in his journal: “this was the begin I was helping transfer to London, where, perhaps, for centuries to come he might, amongst it’s teeming minion, satiate his lust for blood… The very thought drove me mad. A terrible desire came upon me to rid the world of such a monster” (44).
Polidori’s vampire has emulated in popular fiction. Much like The Vampyre, Stoker emulates Polidori’s ‘new’ vampire which focuses on the psychological emphasis that fear provokes. In The Vampyre Aubrey faces a series of mental declines beginning with the death of Inathe, then the ‘death’ of Ruthven and the sudden reappearance of Ruthven alive and well. When Ruthven reappears, Aubrey famously says, “'Lord Ruthven again before him… he could not believe it possible… the dead rise again!… It was impossible that it could be real”. This reaction is mirrored in Stoker’s Dracula when Haker has a mental collapse after seeing the face of horror in the Castle of Dracula. Stoker echoes Polidori’s interest in the conflict between the rational and the irrational, the understanding of what is logical and the supernatural phenomena which is seen as the impossible. Though both protagonists see with their bear eyes the unimaginable, they are driven to madness in their inability to accept it. Much like The Vampyre, Dracula is a story of an innocent man who meets a vampire passing as a normal mortal in society. However, after some time realizes who this man really is and devotes his life to killing vampires. Though Dracula is considered to be much more a hero story, the basic premise of a protagonist vampire who looks and acts human as well as belongs to higher class of society is the foundation for the characteristics of Dracula.
Vampire literature remains indebted to Polidori for creating a new archetype, one that will be further embellished and revised by his successors. With that, John Polidori created a vampire who is not just a story of a monstrous figure whose purpose to evoke fear, it is rather a literary presence who is loaded with metaphorical connotations to question the cruelty in the upperclass and the imbalance in creates on the rest of society.