Polidori's Vampire "Lord Ruthven"One of the most recognizable literary vampires of the 19th century is John William Polidori's Vampire. Lord Ruthven – the man with a mysterious past and one of the most charismatic and interesting vampires of the 19th century – is a gothic villain who was used by his creator (Polidori) as a social metaphor. How is this possible? It is worth noting, as Christopher Frayling argues, that John William Polidori was one of the leading 19th-century authors whose penchant for blending the components of vampirism into a coherent literary genre was an immediate success in his ever-important history. , Le Vampyre (“The Vampyre”). Here are a few lines of testimony taken from Christopher Frayling's book, Vampyres: Lord Byron to Count Dracula. In this book, Frayling writes: "Polidori transformed the vampire from a folklore character into the form recognized today: an aristocratic demon who preys on high society" (Frayling). In this regard, Senf also writes: "Polidori's work anticipates some of the ways in which other writers would use the vampire as a social metaphor in realistic fiction" (Senf: 39). Based on the previous conclusions, it seems fair to suggest that Polidori's The Vampire is not just the story of a monstrous character. of the vampire of folkloric tradition waiting to be destroyed by a wooden stake pierced through the heart, it is rather that kind of 19th century vampire whose literary presence is heavily loaded with metaphorical connotations. For example, the presence of Lord Ruthven in the story is only an attempt by Polidori to address issues related to moral standards like vice and virtue. For a deeper understanding, we will draw on research conducted by Jeremy L. Keffer to explore the ways in which these moral standards are applied. ...... middle of paper ...... victim. However, Le Fanu connects this biological parasitism and the economic dependence that was virtually imposed on women for most of her life by making Carmilla both a vampire and the ideal guest of her victims' families. (This relationship will be widely used as a metaphor for economic parasitism in Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights and Middlemarch and to a lesser extent in Dracula.) (Senf: 54).CHAPTER TWO - THE GOTHIC AND THE BRONTES' INTEREST IN THE GOTHICThe Gothic tradition in literatureHaving studied the figure of the vampire in 19th-century English literature, let us now explore in this section the Gothic and the Brontës' interest in the Gothic. As an introduction to the Gothic literary world, I offer an extract from Anne. B Tracy's book The Gothic novel 1790-1830: plot summaries and index motifs: