Chapter 3: Nice to Eat You: Acts of VampiresWhat are the essentials of the Vampire story? Apply these essentials to the literary work you have read. Firstly, as Foster establishes, a vampire is never just a vampire, or sometimes, as in the case of Orwell's 1984, perhaps not even a vampire at all. Of course the word vampire carries with it that connotation of a blood-sucking deranged man whom sleeps in a coffin and lurks in the nighttime praying on young, innocent women.
Traditional "Vampire"
However, there is something called an emotional vampire.
(This video explains what an emotional vampire is and what one should do to keep themselves safe from such people.)
This "vampire" refers to a personality type in which, in a person-to-person relationship, one person "drains" the other, taking all of their energy and leaving them feel helpless and useless while the "vampire" feels alive and triumphant. In the case of 1984, O'Brien is a vampire.
O'Brien, "1984" movie
He "drains" Winston, leaving him feel almost dead. "...but the aim of this was simply to humiliate him and destroy his power of arguing and reasoning. Their real weapon was the merciless questioning that went on and on... until he began weeping as much from shame as from nervous fatigue" (Orwell 215). Emphasizing that O'Brien knows he is using Winston as much as he can, O'Brien states that when he is done with Winston, Winston will not be capable of human emotion. He also says that Big Brother and the Party were established, not to protect the citizens of Oceania, but because the Party wants power, proving the selfish nature of the Party and, in part, O'Brien. And, although Winston is not innocent in the sense of being a law-abiding, unquestionably devoted citizen of Oceania, he still indeed deserves the respect of a human being rather than the emotional abuse of O'Brien the vampire.
Firstly, as Foster establishes, a vampire is never just a vampire, or sometimes, as in the case of Orwell's 1984, perhaps not even a vampire at all. Of course the word vampire carries with it that connotation of a blood-sucking deranged man whom sleeps in a coffin and lurks in the nighttime praying on young, innocent women.
However, there is something called an emotional vampire.
(This video explains what an emotional vampire is and what one should do to keep themselves safe from such people.)
This "vampire" refers to a personality type in which, in a person-to-person relationship, one person "drains" the other, taking all of their energy and leaving them feel helpless and useless while the "vampire" feels alive and triumphant. In the case of 1984, O'Brien is a vampire.
He "drains" Winston, leaving him feel almost dead. "...but the aim of this was simply to humiliate him and destroy his power of arguing and reasoning. Their real weapon was the merciless questioning that went on and on... until he began weeping as much from shame as from nervous fatigue" (Orwell 215). Emphasizing that O'Brien knows he is using Winston as much as he can, O'Brien states that when he is done with Winston, Winston will not be capable of human emotion. He also says that Big Brother and the Party were established, not to protect the citizens of Oceania, but because the Party wants power, proving the selfish nature of the Party and, in part, O'Brien. And, although Winston is not innocent in the sense of being a law-abiding, unquestionably devoted citizen of Oceania, he still indeed deserves the respect of a human being rather than the emotional abuse of O'Brien the vampire.