FREE ESSAY ON VAMPIRES, OBSESSION THROUGHOUT ETERNITY OBSESSION

VAMPIRES, OBSESSION THROUGHOUT ETERNITY OBSESSION

Vampires, Obsession Throughout Eternity
Obsession. A persistent, disturbing preoccupation with an often-unreasonable idea,
feeling, object or person; broadly: compelling motivation (Collegiate Dictionary). Many
stories have been told of obsessed men and women who waste their lives on lost causes,
calling them tragedies. But what if you were immortal? What if you were forever? Then
your life would not be wasted, but instead a reason for living would become instinctive.
And what if having an obsession, something criticized by mortal humans, was the only way
to keep your sanity and appetite for life through eternity? When looking through the
vampire's eyes in film and literature, we see that the foremost vampires have an
obsession, a calling that drives them. Without this obsession, it seems, vampires would
be lost through time, wandering the earth with no motivation, and though this may sound
redundant, with no life. Vampires, it seems, are more capable of going through time when
they have a passion. Whether this passion comes from love, knowledge, or power, vampires
- such as the ones from Blade, Bram Stoker's Dracula, and Interview with the Vampire -
are all driven by their own obsessions, without which they become lost, empty.
According to the film Bram Stoker's Dracula (1995), Count Dracula was a man who had sworn
to protect the church from its enemies until he found out that his beloved had committed
suicide because she thought he had been killed in battle. His love and obsession for her,
"Whom he prized above all things on earth," was so strong that he then swore off the
church and thus became vampire. When we again see Count Dracula, he looks old and weak,
and has become very eccentric and seemingly insane. But when by accident he discovers
that his beloved is alive in Mina, the fiance of Jonathan Harker, he embarks on a quest
to be with her. He becomes youthful and cunning; his mind seems to be that of a charming
and intelligent nobleman; instead of that of an elderly recluse. We see the undead come
to life, with powers that overwhelm the imagination. But when Mina decides to leave him
to wed Jonathan Harker, he again turns into a monster, a shadow of his former self. The
life seems to have drained out of him. This proves that it was his love for Mina, his
eternal infatuation with her that had kept him going through the ages. It is this
obsession that forced him to become a vampire, and he then hoped that one day he would be
reunited with his love, because he knew that she would not have been able to join him in
heaven. And though he knew of the dangers that surrounded him, he risked everything to be
with her, for he would have rather die than to lose her again.
Love also drives Louis, the hero (or victim, depending on the point of view) of Interview
with the Vampire. Louis was a sad person when Lestat turned him into a vampire; his sole
reason for living was his own guilt and misery. He did not even allow himself the
ultimate pleasure a vampire has and needs, human blood. He feeds off rats and other
animals, and wanders the street aimlessly, lost. As he puts it after Lestat tells him
that there is no hell, "But there was a hell, and no matter where we moved to, I was in
it." But when Lestat gives him an undead companion, a young girl named Claudia, his whole
world is turned upside down. He has a new "thirst" for life, literally. He begins to
enjoy the very things he had denied himself. As he put it when narrating his story, "Time
can pass quickly for mortals when they're happy. With us, it was the same." But when his
search for knowledge leads to Claudia's death at the hand of other vampires, he loses his
spirit and once again becomes lost. As he describes his new life:
For years I wondered: Italy, Greece… all the ancient lands.
But the world was a tomb to me. A graveyard full of broken statues.
And each of those statues resembled her face.
There was another driving force for the vampires of Interview. It was a quest for
knowledge, a mission to find answers, or a link, to a world that was beyond their grasp.
Louis and Claudia, who became "orphaned" after they left Lestat for dead, were then
involved on a search for other vampires, in hopes of finding out their origin and
nature.
We booked a passage to Europe. Over the weeks, while waiting
For the boat, she studied the myths and legends of the Old World.
Obsessed with the search for what she called 'our kind'"
Thus the two of them had a driving force, as Louis narrates: "We searched village after
village… ruin after ruin… country after country. And always we found
nothing." But when they find the vampire Armand and his Theatre of Vampires, they found
none of the answers they so desperately searched for. The vampire Armand had his own
agenda, and thus sets into motion the events that would lead to the death of Claudia and
the destruction of the Theatre of Vampires. He Knew that he needed something to help him
adhere to the changing times, he needed Louis to guide him, to be his obsession. "The
vampires from the new world came to guide us into a new era, as all we love slowly rots
and fades away." But when Louis turned down his offer, knowing that Armand had been
responsible for Claudia's death, Armand realizes that without Louis as his obsession, he
is "dead." As is, in a way, Louis:
I go on night after night. I feed on those who cross my path. 
But all my passion went with her golden hair.
I'm a spirit of preternatural flesh.
Detached. Unchangeable. Empty.
The action movie Blade, though relying more on the action sequences and Hong Kong style
martial arts, contains a captivating plot with some interesting twists on the vampire
myth. Yet one thing remains constant, and it is the driving obsession behind the two main
vampires. In this case, it's power. Deacon Frost, leader of a vampire cult, is obsessed
with finding LaMagra, a supernatural being that he believes will give him the power to
conquer the world. Blade, on the other hand, is driven by a fanatical passion and power
rush he gets from killing vampires. Their obsessions lead to several confrontations,
which set the stage for the final showdown. What makes Frost the strongest vampire among
his kin and makes him stand out is his passion to conquer the world with LaMagra. But he
is met with opposition from both the House of Erebus (the ruling council of vampires) and
from Blade. Yet his drive is so strong he is seldom seen sleeping nor feeding, but always
working on a way to accomplish his goal. He becomes strong enough by this that he is
eventually able to take on and destroy the House of Erebus. This obsession is apparent
when he throws a party and the question on everyone's mind is "But, where is he?" He is
then shown in front of his computer, still working on finding LaMagra. Blade also seems
to have given up everything for his desire to kill vampires. He allows himself to feel
nothing, not even love for his father figure, Whistler. He is so driven that he often
loses sight of the very humanity he tries to protect. At an instant where Frost throws a
little girl in front of a bus in order to escape, Blade actually hesitates in choosing
between taking out Frost and saving the little girl. Furthermore, when Blade is offered a
cure for his vampirism, he decides to turn it down, saying "You keep your cure. It's not
over… there is a war going on. And I have a job to do!" Thus, this eternal passion
is what gives Blade life. Because without vampires to hunt, Blade would have nothing to
live for.
Vampires are often described as immortal beings of superhuman strength and eternal
beauty. Yet this seems to be more of a curse than a gift. Because how can a vampire live
through eternity in an ever changing world while they remain the same. This is why the
extraordinary vampires of Interview With the Vampire, Blade, and Bram Stoker's Dracula
stood out, because they found the answer, they found a reason for living. Since this
reason for living had to be in eternal proportions, it could come as nothing less as an
essential obsession that drives through the ages, without which the vampires would be
lost. Yet this obsession comes in the same shape as those fundamental human obsessions
(thus showing a glimpse of the vampire's fledging humanity) - Love, Knowledge, and Power.

Bibliography
Blade. Dir. Stephen Norrington. Perf. Wesley Snipes, Stephen Dorff, and Kris 
Kristofferson. New Line Cinema, 1998.
Bram Stoker's Dracula. Dir. Francis Ford Coppola. Perf. Gary Oldman, Winona Ryder, 
Keanu Reeves, and Anthony Hopkins. Columbia Pictures, 1992.
Collegiate Dictionary. Merriam-Webster OnLine. 5 March 2001. 
Interview with the Vampire. Dir. Neil Jordan. Perf. Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, and Antonio 
Banderas. Geffen Pictures, 1994.