For Monday: Polidori, “The Vampyre” from The Vampyre and Other Tales of the Macabre

Henry Fuseli, The Nightmare (1787)

Answer TWO of the following questions in a short response—at least a few sentences, and try to use specific detail drawn from the story. Don’t worry about getting the answers “right,” but be honest and respond based on your reading of the story. Quote whenever possible and discuss what a specific passage or idea might mean.

Q1: Why is Aubrey so taken with Lord Ruthven? What about Aubrey—or Ruthven himself—allows this to happen? How does the narrator let us know this is an unnatural (and unhealthy) attraction?

Q2: How does The Vampyre contrast Enlightenment civilization with the Romantic sublime? In other words, how is Polidori trying to make the reader (and his or her beliefs) “shrink into the minuteness of our own nature, and…in a manner, [become] annihilated before him” (Burke)?

Q3: How does The Vampyre follow the traditional vampire story that we’ve seen in dozens of books and films? Where does it depart from the narrative? Considering that this is the first in a long line of vampire narratives, what did he create that stuck…and what didn’t?

Q4: How are women depicted in this story? Why do you think this is important, especially considering that Lord Ruthven targets young women, including Aubrey’s sister?

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British Literature from 1800, "The Mythmakers"

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