27 pages • 54 minutes read
John PolidoriThe Vampyre
Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1819A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Oath
As Ruthven lies dying after the bandits capture him and Aubrey, he makes Aubrey swear an oath:
Swear by all your soul reveres, by all your nature fears, swear that for a year and a day you will not impart your knowledge of my crimes or death to any living being in any way, whatever may happen, or whatever you may see (55).
Aubrey agrees, and his promise proves his undoing. The oath is a symbol of Aubrey’s Tragic Flaw and the powerlessness of good in the struggle of Good Versus Evil. In committing Aubrey to this oath, Ruthven cruelly exploits the young man’s sense of honor. The oath leads to Aubrey’s and his sister’s deaths. Ruthven’s reminder of the oath when he re-enters Aubrey’s life is a repetition of the symbol; Aubrey’s willingness to uphold the oath even when confronted with the supernatural leads to his death.
Nature
Nature in the Romantic and Gothic often symbolizes the ultimate power of the world beyond human civilization and pure beauty. Romantic and Gothic writers tend to separate human society from the natural world. Human society is artificial and limiting while the natural world is authentic and a font of inspiration and innocence. Ianthe, a simple young girl from the Greek countryside is described as exceedingly beautiful. As a rural woman, Ianthe is poised to have a more authentic connection to the natural world than the aristocrats from London. Polidori uses images from the natural world to convey the beauty Aubrey sees in her: Watching Ianthe makes Aubrey forget “the letters he had just decyphered upon an almost effaced tablet, in the contemplation of her sylph-like figure” (40). Polidori uses Romantic metaphors to make Ianthe a symbol of the natural world’s enduring beauty. Ianthe contrasts sharply against the effaced stone tablets, which symbolize the transience of human creations in the face of the natural world; Ianthe’s natural beauty is more interesting and fulfilling than writing, a product of human culture.
Ianthe is antithetical to the socially formal world of Aubrey and Ruthven. Her connection to nature, both through her living circumstances and Aubrey’s perceptions of her, portray her as more authentic than the aristocrats of London.
Madness
Madness is a trope often associated with gothic fiction. Gothic is concerned with the unreliable inner psyches of individuals, moral decay, and the supernatural. Biased and unrealistic ideas about mental health have made “madness,” or mental illness generally, a convenient plot device for gothic fiction since its inception. Madness is often used to convey a character’s insight into the world, particularly after a brush with the supernatural. In gothic fiction, biased ideas about mental illness take the form of “madness” that allows a character to see the “true nature” of reality or is otherwise used to explain away the irrational and violent actions of villains. This use of mental illness in the “madness” trope stems from ideas about mental illness in Polidori’s time, which associated neuronormative functioning with goodness and blamed neurodivergency on the moral failings of an individual.
In The Vampyre, madness symbolizes Aubrey’s knowledge of reality. As Aubrey learns about Ruthven’s true nature, those around him begin to question his sanity. Aubrey is infantilized for his “madness” and treated as if he cannot act without autonomy. His guardians watch over him and appoint a physician to do the same. Ironically, Aubrey is the only one who understands the situation. Those that deem him “mad” and filter his actions through their biased ideas of mental illness allow Ruthven to get away with murder. The Vampyre reverses conventional wisdom about mental illness in Polidori’s time, portraying “madness” as being more grounded in reality, while still relying on negative stereotypes about those with mental illness.
