In my vampire novel, Nessa, the vampire, is a
beautiful, elegant woman. But as her mortal lover, Frank, finds out early in
the novel, she is capable of acts of physical violence he finds difficult to comprehend.
Furthermore, when he sees her fangs dripping with blood, the lovely woman he
loves is transformed into the hideous, undead creature of myth.
The
novella Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde by Robert Louis
Stevenson is about a London lawyer named Gabriel John Utterson who
investigates strange occurrences between his old friend, Dr Henry Jekyll, and
the vile Mr Edward Hyde. The work is famous for its vivid portrayal of a split
personality, split in the sense that within the same person there is both an
apparently good and an evil personality each being quite distinct from the
other. The novella's impact is such that it has become a part of the language,
with the phrase "Jekyll and Hyde" coming to mean a person who is
vastly different in moral character from one situation to the next.
In my
novel, Nessa strives deny her vampirism as much as possible. She wants to be
the "good human," not the "evil" vampire. However, there
are times when circumstances force her to become the lethal vampire in her own self-defense,
or to save Frank. Even acting in self defense, her ferocity and physical power enable
her to act in a way most people would find abhorrent. There are instances in
the novel when her actions go far beyond self-defense, and the crueler, aspect
of her nature is revealed.
We all
struggle with our own impulses of good and evil. In order to retain our
essential humanity it is necessary we keep our evil impulses at bay. Recent
history has shown that under certain circumstances "good people" can
act in ways that contravene the ethical and moral standards under which we
live.
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