The Overprotective/Possessive Vampire

The vampires that we’ve been reading about, quite frankly, remind me a little bit of my dad. He’s insanely overprotective of me and “joked” relentlessly for years that I would never be allowed to date until I was 30—thankfully, that rule has been dismissed, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t constantly want to know where I am and whether or not I’m okay. Since entering college, he’s let up a bit, but I don’t even want to think about horror stories from high school when he made sure I was home by insanely early times.

Of course, my dad and I don’t have the same relationships as the vampires and humans do in these books, but the relationships are still overbearing on one end of the relationship. For example, Jonathan Harker, dazzled by the three sexy vampiresses, almost allows them to feed on him until Dracula saves the day by coming in and declaring “‘This man belongs to me!’” (Stoker 43). Dracula lays a claim on Jonathan, as if Dracula actually possesses him—a bit rude, considering he didn’t ask Jonathan first.

Carmilla, meanwhile, freaks out Laura during one of her emotional, lesbian fits when she tells our traditional, Victorian narrator, “‘You are mine, you shall be mine, you and I are one forever’” (Le Fanu 18). Carmilla, while draining the rest of her victims and causing their deaths within days, draws out her feeding on Laura because of her personal and romantic feelings. She wants Laura to be her own human forever, but Laura simply isn’t having it.

Bill Compton seems even more possessive of Sookie than the previous vampires were of their favorite humans, if that’s possible. His first instance of claiming rights on her came during the first scene with Malcolm, Liam, and Diane. They’re about to sink their fangs into her when he suddenly says, “‘Sookie is mine’” (Harris 71). When Sookie questions him about this later, the only human we see to challenge their overprotective vampire, he says bluntly, “‘It means you are my human’” (102). When they talk to Eric in Fangtasia, Bill repeats his ownership of her yet another time—talk about a possessive relationship.

In the television series True Blood, we see another instance of ownership, though this one is between a vampire and vampire-to-be. After the Civil War has ended, Bill wakes up drained of most of his blood, with Lorena, his maker, telling him that the only way to return to his family is to drink from her blood. At first he’s apprehensive, but he also really wants to see his family, so he gives in. Lorena immediately begins talking about how they’re going to be together forever, and she says while he drinks her blood, “You . . . are mine!”

This final scene shows the full extent of why vampires are so possessive over certain humans—once they find one they really like, they decide they want to be with that human forever. Perhaps all the other vampires we’ve seen intended to change their humans to vampires at some point down the line and monopolize their love, especially so no one else could have them.