My Journal: Ghost as Manifestation of Alienation in Charles Dicken's Fictions

Karena bingung ingin posting apa, jadi saya akan posting jurnal skripsi saya. :)
Kenapa hantu? Karena hantu adalah simbol alienasi yang terjadi pada masa Victoria atau Eropa pada abad ke-19. Sedangkan alienasi terjadi akibat kapitalisme. Check this out!

Hantu sebagai Manifestasi Alienasi dalam Fiksi Karya Charles Dickens


Abstract
Charles Dickens was a writer in Victorian period. He had been famous
with his works even until now, he also wrote many ghost stories in his life. In this
research, it’s seen how ghost in Dickens’ stories are related to concept of
alienation, both of Marx and Seeman. This research aims to study the narrative
elements which experiences alienation and can be as well categorized as ghosts.
The kind of alienation experienced by the ghosts is then analyzed. As a
consequence, the study will show how the ghosts become the manifestation of
alienation in Charles Dickens’ works.

Keywords: Ghost, Alienation


Abstrak
Charles Dickens adalah salah satu penulis era Victoria. Ia terkenal dengan
karya-karya besarnya hingga sekarang, termasuk juga dengan cerita hantu dalam
karyanya. Dalam penelitian ini, terlihat adanya hubungan antara hantu yang
disajikan oleh Dickens dengan konsep alienasi yang dicetuskan oleh Marx dan
Seeman. Penelitian ini dilakukan untuk melihat unsur-unsur yang mengalami
alienasi dan dapat dikategorikan sebagai hantu, serta macam-macam alienasi yang
muncul dalam penelitian ini, sehingga akan terlihat hubungan antara unsur-unsur
yang terkategori sebagai hantu dengan alienasi yang terjadi pada unsur-unsur
tersebut. Oleh karena itu, dalam penelitian ini terlihat bahwa hantu merupakan
manifestasi alienasi dalam fiksi karya Charles Dickens.
Kata Kunci: Hantu, Alienasi

Pendahuluan

Dalam tiga fiksi karya Charles Dickens, yaitu A Christmas Carol, Three
Ghost Stories, dan The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain tampak adanya
unsur alienasi yang berkaitan dengan konsep hantu yang terdapat dalam masingmasing
karya.

Hantu dalam karya Charles Dickens memiliki penggambaran yang unik
dan berbeda, karena hantu yang dimunculkan tidak selalu dalam bentuk dalam
artian yang sebenarnya, tetapi dapat pula hantu dalam artian lain. Hantu menurut
Guiley (1992) adalah “the spirit, image, or presence of dead”, ini merupakan
hantu dalam artian sebenarnya, yang berarti ruh yang mengalami kematian
kemudian kembali ke dunia. Sedangkan hantu dalam artian tidak sebenarnya
adalah sesuatu tidak terlihat tetapi berpengaruh pada kehidupan manusia (Smajic,
2010: 16).

Selain itu, hantu yang disajikan oleh Dickens dalam karya-karya tersebut
berkaitan pula dengan konsep alienasi. Teori mengenai alienasi yang dipakai
dalam penelitian ini ada dua, yaitu konsep alienasi Marx yang dibahas oleh Erich
Fromm dan Bertell Ollman, yang lebih menekankan pada konsep kerja dan
aktivitas para buruh dan kaitannya dengan produk dan juga dengan manusia
lainnya, serta konsep alienasi Melvin Seeman sebagai pengembangan teori
alienasi Marx yang lebih memfokuskan pada segi psikologi-sosial yang erat
kaitannya dengan hubungan sosial masyarakat serta hasrat dan harapan bagi
manusia itu sendiri.

Dalam penelitian ini, saya menggunakan metode strukturalisme dalam
meninjau dan menganalisis unsur-unsur yang menjadi topik penelitian ini, yaitu
hantu dihubungkan dengan konsep alienasi. Metode strukturalisme adalah metode
untuk mengetahui bagaimana sesuatu yang ada dibangun oleh struktur-struktur
sehingga akan menjadi satu kesatuan (Hudayat, 2007). Dengan menganalisis
unsur intrinsik yang terdapat dalam karya tersebut, seperti alur, penokohan, dan
tempat, serta melihat persamaan-persamaan yang terdapat dalam tiga karya
tersebut, maka akan terlihat struktur yang terbangun, yaitu kaitan antara hantu dan
alienasi dilihat dari gejala-gejala teks yang terjadi.
Dengan mengkaitkan topik pada penelitian ini dengan teori yang dibahas
maka akan terlihat bagaimana hantu dalam karya Dickens menjadi manifestasi
alienasi, baik dalam hubungannya dengan manusia, produk, aktivitas, maupun
dengan dirinya sendiri.

Pembahasan

Hantu dalam karya Dickens memiliki keunikan tersendiri, karena terdapat
berbagai macam hantu dengan penggambaran yang berbeda dalam setiap
karyanya. Saya mengklasifikasikan hantu dalam karya Dickens menjadi dua jenis,
yaitu hantu simbolik dan hantu non-simbolik. Hantu simbolik adalah sesuatu atau
unsure-unsur yang memiliki ciri-ciri seperti hantu sebenarnya atau sesuatu yang
dapat disimbolkan seperti hantu, sedangkan hantu non-simbolik adalah hantu
dalam artian sebenarnya, yaitu ruh yang bergentayangan.
Dalam A Christmas Carol, hantu Marley menjadi fokus pada pembahasan
ini. Hantu Marley merupakan hantu non-simbolik yang teralienasi dari dirinya
yang merupakan hantu bergentayangan. Bagi Marx, konsep alienasi ini didasarkan
pada perbedaan eksistensi dan esensi, dan fakta alienasi bahwa eksistensi manusia
teralienasi dari esensinya (Fromm, 2001: 62). Dalam kasus Marley, eksistensi
dirinya terlepas dari esensinya sebagai jiwa yang telah mati, bahwa seharusnya
setelah mati ia mendapatkan kedamaian di alam lain, bukan bergentayangan.
Dalam kasus alienasi lainnya, tokoh Scrooge (manusia) dapat merepresentasi
Marley. Hal ini ditunjukkan ketika hantu Marley mendatangi Scrooge dan
meminta tolong agar ia membebaskan dirinya yang terbelenggu rantai. Ketika
Scrooge dapat terlepas dari keteralienasiannya, maka Marley akan selamat.
Scrooge memiliki ciri-ciri yang lebih dekat seperti hantu daripada manusia,
sehingga saya mengklasifikasikannya sebagai hantu simbolik. Ia tidak memiliki
harapan yang jelas dalam hidupnya, dan ia pun hidup jauh dari masyarakat
lainnya. Hal ini berkaitan dengan konsep alienasi Seeman, bahwa seseorang
dikatakan teralienasi jika ia tidak dapat mengetahui harapan hidupnya sendiri dan
ia terpisah dari masyarakat (Seeman, 1959: 784-788)

Aktivitas Scrooge merepresentasikan Marley ketika ia masih hidup.
Mereka memiliki firma dengan nama Scrooge and Marley, dengan nama ini pula
masyarakat dalam cerita tersebut selalu menganggap mereka sama saja. Scrooge
merupakan pemilik dan pekerja dalam perusahaannya tersebut. Ia adalah orang
yang sangat pekerja keras bahkan ketika Natal tiba, ia masih mewajibkan
pegawainya untuk tetap bekerja. Dalam hubungannya dengan manusia lainnya,
maka Scrooge teralienasi, semakin banyak waktu yang dihabiskan untuk aktivitas
kerjanya, semakin sedikit pula waktu untuk bersama dengan orang lain, sehingga
ia teralienasi dari masyarakat yang memang sudah membencinya, karena sikapnya
yang kikir dan sombong atau menurut Seeman, ia melanggar nilai-nilai yang
berlaku dalam masyarakat untuk mencapai tujuannya atau disebut dengan istilah
normlessness (Seeman, 1959: 788).

Dalam Three Ghost Stories, hantu yang terdapat pada karya ini berbedabeda,
baik dalam penggambarannya maupun penampilannya. Dalam The
Signalman, tokoh he menjadi fokus dalam cerita ini. Saya mengketegorikannya
sebagai hantu simbolik, karena pendeskripsian tokohnya yang mirip seperti hantu
dan tempat tinggalnya yang mirip seperti kuburan. Tokoh he merupakan seorang
pemberi sinyal kereta, yang berarti bahwa dia adalah termasuk kedalam kelas
pekerja. menurut Marx, kelas pekerja adalah kelas yang paling teralienasi
(Fromm, 2001: 73). Hal ini karena aktivitas mereka tersekat-sekat sehingga
mereka tidak memiliki pilihan lain untuk menentukan kekuasaan atas dirinya.
Begitu pula dengan signalman, dia hanya bekerja sebagai pemberi sinyal saja.
Konsekuensi dari pekerjaannya itu adalah ia ditempatkan di tempat yang sesuai
dengan aktivitasnya itu, meskipun pada akhirnya ia menjadi teralienasi, baik dari
aktivitasnya, orang lain, maupun dirinya sendiri. Ia pun tinggal jauh dari tempat
tinggal masyarakat lainnya sehingga ia mengalami social-isolation (Seeman,
1959:788), sebagai konsekuensi ia bekerja sebagai seorang pemberi sinyal.

Kemudian, dalam The Haunted House, rumah berhantu ini menjadi fokus
cerita dalam pembahasan ini. Rumah yang merupakan sebuah tempat tinggal
dikategorikan menjadi sebuah hantu simbolik. Rumah ini menjadi sebuah tempat
yang menakutkan bagi masyarakat di sekitarnya, ia terlepas dari esensi yang
sesungguhnya yaitu yang seharusnya menjadi sebuah tempat yang nyaman untuk
ditinggali dan tempat untuk berlindung bagi sebuah keluarga. Oleh karenanya,
rumah itu teralienasi. Selain itu, tempatnya terdapat di lingkungan yang jauh dari
tempat tinggal masyarakat lainnya, sehingga rumah itu menjadi apartness from
society (Seeman, 1959:788), karena dijauhi oleh masyarakat sekitarnya, rumah itu
mengalami social isolation. Hantu-hantu (non-simbolik) itulah yang membuat
rumah itu menjadi teralienasi, sehingga peran hantu non-simbolik pada rumah ini
adalah sebagai pengalienasi bagi rumah tersebut.

Dalam The Trial for Murder, yang menjadi fokus adalah the murdered
man yang merupakan hantu non-simbolik yang mengalienasi narator (I). Hal ini
didasarkan pada hantu the murdered man selalu muncul dihadapan narator yang
merupakan juri persidangan atas kasus pembunuhan dirinya, sehingga narator
dapat melihatnya, sedangkan juri persidangan yang lain tidak dapat melihatnya.
Narator menjadi teralienasi karena dirinya digunakan oleh sesuatu yang asing
(hantu) untuk mencapai tujuan yang asing pula. Hal ini seperti yang diungkapkan
Fromm dalam konsep alienasi Marx, bahwa kasus ini seperti yang terjadi pada
seorang buruh, dimana keberadaannya dimanfaatkan untuk mencapai tujuan si
majikan buruh tersebut. Buruh bekerja dan kemampuannya menjadi terbatas
karena majikannya yang telah mengatur bagian-bagian kerja buruh tersebut.
Padahal seharusnya, manusia itu seharusnya mencapai tujuan dalam dirinya
sendiri, bukan digunakan untuk menjadi alat mencapai sebuah tujuan (Fromm,
2001: 70). Kemampuan asli narator dalam persidangan ini menjadi terbatas,
karena hantu tersebut menunjukkan bagaimana proses ia dibunuh dengan
menampakkan dirinya, sehingga narator menjadi teralienasi dari dirinya sendiri.
Terakhir, dalam karya The Haunted Man and the Ghost’ Bargain, tokoh
Redlaw menjadi tokoh sentral. Ia merupakan seorang chemist yang selalu
menghabiskan waktunya di dalam laboratoriumnya. Saya juga
mengklasifikasikannya sebagai hantu simbolik, karena dari pendeskripsian dirinya
seperti orang yang dihantui. Ia hanya dapat ditemui pada malam hari saja, selain
itu ia memiliki suara yang berat dan menyeramkan. Redlaw selalu dihantui oleh
masa lalunya yang menyedihkan, sehingga ia berasumsi bahwa kenangan masa
lalunya itu yang membuatnya tersiksa. Hantu non-simbolik pada karya ini adalah
Phantom, yang selalu menghantui Redlaw. Phantom dapat menjadi representasi
Redlaw karena digambarkan memiliki ciri-ciri yang sama, dan terdapat satu
adegan ketika mereka berbicara seperti sedang berkaca, sehingga baik Redlaw
maupun Phantom dapat merefleksikan satu sama lainnya,
Redlaw adalah seseorang yang teralienasi, meskipun ia adalah seorang ahli
kimia, ia banyak menghabiskan aktivitasnya di lab miliknya, sehingga hubungan
dirinya dengan masyarakat lainnya pun menjadi terbatas, dengan kata lain ia
mengalami social-isolation. Ia juga powerless atau tidak berdaya ketika
memutuskan sesuatu dan justru takdirnya berada di tangan yang lain (Seeman,
1959:784). Hal ini terjadi ketika phantom menawarkannya untuk melupakan
kenangan masa lalunya. Phantom merasa jika ia menjadi Redlaw, ia akan
melakukan hal itu, sehingga Redlaw pun menyetujui kesepakatan itu karena ia
juga merasa bahwa phantom itu lebih kuat dibandingkan dengan dirinya. Ia juga
mengalami self-estrangement yaitu ia teralienasi dari dirinya sendiri, ketika ia
telah lupa dengan masa lalunya, yang berarti bahwa ia telah terpisah dari dirinya
sendiri, karena ia telah menjadi sesuatu yang baru, seperti konsep alienasi Seeman
mengenai self-estrangement yang dikutip dari Fromm (1955) “By alienation is
meant a mode of experience in which the person experiences himself as an alien.
He has become one might say, estranged from himself”. Redlaw terpisah dari
dirinya sendiri, karena ia kehilangan sesuatu yang dia miliki.

Simpulan

Berdasarkan hasil penelitian dan pembahasan yang dilakukan, saya
menemukan bahwa tiga karya Charles Dickens yang dibahas dalam penelitian ini
menunjukkan bahwa hantu, baik simbolik maupun non-simbolik, berkaitan
dengan alienasi yang dicetuskan oleh Marx melalui Fromm dan Ollman, serta
alienasi Seeman. Hal ini ditunjukkan melalui sikap dan aktivitas para tokoh dalam
karya-karya tersebut yang merupakan unsur-unsur yang penting dalam
membangun hubungan antara cerita dengan teori.
Hantu yang menjadi fokus dalam penelitian ini tidak selalu muncul dalam
artian sebenarnya, tetapi muncul pula dalam arti yang lain, sehingga unsur-unsur
(seperti tokoh manusia dan benda) yang memiliki deskripsi seperti hantu dapat
pula disimbolkan sebagai hantu. Unsur-unsur yang disimbolkan menjadi hantu ini
pun ternyata selalu berkaitan dengan alienasi. Jenis alienasi yang terjadi pada
tokoh yang difokuskan dalam cerita itu pun cukup rumit, karena baik konsep
alienasi Marx dan Seeman terdapat di dalamnya. Hal ini terlihat jelas ketika
aktivitas tokoh menentukan harapan hidupnya. Aktivitas yang dilakukan terlihat
bukan sesuatu yang muncul dalam dirinya sendiri, tetapi tuntutan dari sesuatu
yang asing itu, sehingga ia tidak dapat menentukan apa yang menjadi harapan
hidupnya. Oleh karenanya, tokoh manusia yang rata-rata menjadi hantu simbolik
dalam penelitian ini, hidupnya tidak jelas, dan keberadaan mereka layaknya hantu,
yang tidak mempunyai harapan. Dari aktivitas itu juga yang membuat mereka
diasingkan atau terasing dari orang lainnya, sehingga jelas mereka mengalami
alienasi. Sedangkan hantu non-simbolik, keberadaannya ada yang teralienasi
maupun menjadi pengalienasi. Jadi, baik hantu simbolik maupun non-simbolik
selalu berkaitan dengan alienasi. Sehingga, dari penelitian ini terlihat bahwa hantu
menjadi manifestasi alienasi dalam fiksi karya Charles Dickens.


Daftar Sumber:
Fromm, E. 2001. Konsep Manusia menurut Marx. Terjemahan dari Marx’s
Concept of Man oleh Agung Prihantoro. Yogyakarta: Pustaka Pelajar.
Schacht, R. 1970. Alienasi: Pengantar Paling Komprehensif. Terjemahan dari
Alienation oleh Ikramullah Mahyuddin. Yogyakarta: Percetakan Jalasutra.
Buku dan Jurnal Elektronik:
Coffey, N. 2004. "Every Word of it is True”: The Cultural Significance of the
Victorian Ghost Story. Department of English. Winnipeg, Mannitoba:
University of Mannitoba.
Derrida, J. 1993. Specters of Marx. New York: Routledge.
Dickens, C. 1848. The Haunted Man and The Ghost's Bargain. Feedbooks.
Dickens, C. 1843. A Christmas Carol. Planet PDF.
Dickens, C. Three Ghost Stories. Planet PDF.
Guiley, R. E. 1992. The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits. New York: Facts
on File Inc.
Handley, S. 2007. Visions of An Unseen World: Ghost Beliefs and Ghost
Stories in Eighteenth-Century England. London: Pickering & Chatto.
Hudayat, A. Y. 2007. Metode Penelitian Sastra. Bandung: Fakultas Sastra,
Universitas Padjadjaran.
Ollman, B. 1971. Alienation: Marx's Conception of Man in Capitalist Society.
New York: Cambridge University Press.
Seeman, M. 1959. "On The Meaning of Alienation." American Sociological
Review Volume 24. New York: University of Los Angeles.
Smajic, S. 2010. Ghost-seers, Detectives, and Spiritualists. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press
Robert T. Tally, J. 2009. “Reading the original: Alienation, Writing, and Labor
in ‘Bartleby, the Scrivener’, in Bloom's Literary Theme's: Alienation. New
York: Bloom's Literary Criticism.

The Main Aspects in My Forbidden Face

Actually, this was my essay writing while I studied the Politics of Narrative Methods in my university, I just wanna share what I've read and analyzed. The novel is titled "My Forbidden Face" and was written by Latifa (actually this was her pseudonym). The story's setting is in Afghanistan. This tells about a girl who lives with her family under Taliban regime.

Just read my analysis then :)

here's the book cover

I. Introduction

    My Forbidden Face is the true story of an Afghanistan girl who faces life under Taliban rule.  Latifa, the narrator also the writer, is a teenager who enjoys much of the same luxuries as American teens until the Taliban takes over Kabul, Afghanistan.  Under Taliban rule, Latifa and the rest of her family and friends are forced under the Taliban's ruthless regime.  Beatings, rapes and executions become frequent occurrences in the streets of Kabul as the terrorist group dictates over the people of Afghanistan. (http://www.teenreads.com/reviews/my-forbidden-face-growing-up-under-the-taliban-a-young-womans-story)

   This novel consists of seven chapters. In the first chapter, the narrator tells about when the Taliban come to the city and start to take over the city of Afghan, with the sign of the white flag over the mosque. Then the Taliban regime changes all the rules of the country with Islamic rule of their version. In the story, the Taliban take over the city after the civil wars happen. The Taliban has changed all the rules of the country; the most influenced is women which are actually restricted, like the bird in a cage, for the author gives the chapter’s title. The plot increases in the next chapters, the conflict becomes more serious and horrible.

   This novel is actually kind of diary book by the author. The story is based on true story of the author. Around 1996-2001, the Taliban had power to control Afghanistan, after they took  Jalalabad and Kabul 1996, previously civil wars happened for four years before the periods of Taliban. The story is held along the periods of Taliban, when women became passive victims awaiting liberation. This novel represented the voice of women in Afghanistan at that period.

   In Povey’s (2007) journal book Afghan Women, to understand the plight of Afghan women under the Taliban, it is important to understand why and how the Taliban came to power. Afghanistan was under the power of Soviet. Afghanistan was also given support by Saudia Arabia, Pakistan, Europian countries and other countries in the region. Mujaheddin was under the power of USA. US National Security Adviser, under President Jimmy Carter, admitted that the CIA has been instructed to give secret aid to the Mujaheddin. And this   led to a brutal civil war by Mujaheddin until the country was devastated. After that, the Soviet collapsed and Afghanistan society saw it as their victory because their liberation from Soviet. Indeed, the war against the Soviet invasion had a devastating impact on the rural population and the economy. Cities were also destroyed. With the collapse of the state, the aid community increasingly performed the role of a surrogate state, providing food, healthcare and education. A number of women worked for the aid agencies and also continued carpet weaving and handicraft production. (Rostami-Povey, 2007: p. 22)

   From their devastated country, women started to build their economic lives. There were many people who had died in civil war, included their husbands, and it made them to build their lives from the beginning. However, no long since that, the Taliban came, and they grew out the young generation of Mujaheddin. They ‘educate’ the young Mujaheddin at their madrassas (religious school). Since that, Taliban took over the city and made their own rule of Islamic rules.

   The Taliban actually didn’t use Shari’a law all out, they adopted the norms and values of Pashtunwali to treat the women, so it became restricted and poor of liberation for women. The women became victim of liberation at their own country. Since Taliban came, women couldn’t work to help their economic lives.



II. Women Representation

   We may find some topics to be discussed from this story. I will discuss some main topics from this novel. The most interesting topic that I want to discuss is the representation of the women. Since this novel is based on true story, I want to analyze how are the women represented in this novel from the point of view of the narrator itself? But besides that, I will not focus on how women are represented; I also want to try to analyze the Islamic rules which are used by Taliban.
 
   Afghan women discuss gender in the context of social relations, Islamic religion,culture, domination, subordination and masculinity. Afghan women or other Middle East countries always relate to ethnic, gender, Islam, and culture. And it’s related with Afghanistan’s history, it demonstrates how gender relation have been affected by ethnic conflict, state formation, state-society relation, and imperial domination. Women’s life and freedom are always depended on them who have authority in their country or it means who rules the country.

   Women were successful only if they quoted from the Qur’an in praise of the value of education and showed that the Qur’an does not advocate a hierarchy in which men are placed above women. They found this approach effective, and some men allowed their wives and daughters to be educated. (Rostami-Povey, 2007)

   As what I know from the Islamic rule for women, Islam guards very protectively the women and children. Islam rule the social intercourse between men and women, and it is also to protect women. The use of jilbab and himar for adult women are written in Qur’an distinctively, it is also to protect the women. (Al-Quran, Al-Ahzab:59; An-Nur: 31)

    As what I’ve written in my summary before, Afghan women’s life has been changed since Taliban take over the city. Women is described could live happy and normal, although it was civil war “Just yesterday, despite the civil war, life was ‘normal’ in Kabul, even though the city is in ruins.”  (Latifa, 2001)

    It means, although the city is in ruins but the narrator’s life is called “normal” before the Taliban comes to the city. I assume the ‘normal’ life in what narrator’s mean is the life with freedom, where they can live without any rules that restrict them especially the women. In the story, the authority of the Taliban is signed with the white flag over the mosque. The white flag is the sign of the Taliban, and this means that Taliban has taken over the city.

    In the story, women’s lives are closer with the sorrow and pain. In page 33, the narrator also tells that their family has the proverb that their family kept reciting to reassure ourselves “Joy and sorrow are sisters”, although they are in ruins, actually they are in happy situation in family, and it’s normal for them. We may see from the words that are used by the narrator how their lives are actually fully with joy, but they are actually they live behind the shadow of sorrow.

    In chapter 2, I’m interested with the use of the title, A Canary in a Cage. Actually, the family of the narrator has the canary in a cage, but this is also a metaphor when Taliban restricts the women. It is clearly showed in page 79, when the Narguesse try to take off the chadri of the women
   
   “You’re nothing but woman! You have no right to speak, no right to raise your voice. You have no right to take off your chadri. The days when you could travel and walk around without a chadri are over!” (p. 79)

    These statements indicate the restriction for the women with chadri and also for the women’s right. Women are like the canary in a cage, it can’t fly freely. The women do not have the right like the men should be. I assume in this novel, the narrator wants to focus to gender issue or feminist issue, because it’s talked about the women’s right. How they should the chadri when they go somewhere which is like the canary in a cage.

    Women’s life is told like the canary in the cage, they’re restricted by the new rules. Maybe the author wants readers are more sympathy to the women in this novel. She wants to tell us how women live at that time. It tells that “But fear has become second nature to women now. It’s always with us.” (p. 86), it means that women in Afghan have been accustomed to have fear. It is the same with the words “Joy and sorrows are sisters”

    The women career have changed since Taliban come, they who have a job become unemployment, because the rules say so. Although it has, the women still try to do another job in their house, “Other women bake bread or traditional pastries that their sons sell in the street. Some women do embroidery, or make necklace” (p.96) It is actually the same what Povey has explained in her journal book,“A number of women worked for the aid agencies and also continued carpet weaving and handicraft production” (Rostami- Povey, 2007: p. 21)

   The different treatment for women including when the checkpoint:
“For the women, the Taliban use little boys not much older than eight- these are the only males who may approach us. Since women may not work, there can be no policewomen” (p. 102)
 
    Since there are no women who may not work, they use boys to check the women. The Taliban also will not search the women’s baggage, because they will not touch the women’s clothes (p. 103) It means, the Taliban still have regards to the women not to touch the women’s clothes. They use the little boys to do that since they’re not yet baligh.

    From the story, some parents wants their children get exiled from their own country. Many seriously considered leaving Kabul. Some married their daughters to boys who lived in the West, planning to join their daughters later and lead the entire family into exile. Others tried to sell their possessions to finance an often secret trip abroad (p. 179-180). Those things happen because the Taliban restrict them especially the women.

    There are some parts of the story which the narrator compares the situation of their country when Soviet still in the state like the narrator was reminiscing how the television offered them a lots of entertainment programs. There were open radio stations poured out floods of music. (p. 180)

    “The day before the mujaheddin arrived, at the end of April 1992, we were attending a marriage in the Hotel Kabul in the center of the town…. The festivities got under way at around four o’clock. Girls and boys were dancing in Western dress, and we dined before the religious ceremony was scheduled to begin.” (p. 182)

    Those passages happened before the Taliban came to the country, or at that passage the mujaheddin also didn’t arrive yet. From those passages, the Afghan were still in influence of Western culture, the Soviet was still there.

    There are terrified cases when the narrator tells the condition in Taimani, where there was a clandestine school for little girls, but they had to walk half an hour to get there, which was tremendously dangerous for them. One day, the bodies of several girls, seven or eight years old, were discovered in a garbage dump. They had been kidnapped, raped, and strangled with their own clothing. (p. 167)

Still in Rostami-Povey journal, quoted from Najia,
   “Even a small minority of educated women and middle-class women were forced to marry the Taliban. I know of an educated woman who was the head of the school of medicine at the university and was forced to marry the Taliban. They were either forced or did it out of poverty or fear. Sometimes a woman who was married to one Taliban was raped by ten other Taliban. Sometimes they were taken to outside of Afghanistan, especially to the Gulf region and were sold as sex workers.” (Rostami-Povey, 2007)

    From the fact that written in Povey’s journal, I consider this case with the case that happen in the novel. There were actually relevant, although the narrator in the novel told about the girls and Najia told about the women, but there were actually in same condition. Women got raped and killed.

    In the story, Latifa and her sister and her friends made an underground school because many parents don’t want their children indoctrinated by the Taliban, then a lots of boys in the neighborhood don’t go to school anymore. From this case, I assume there are many underground movements, associations, organizations, that are made by the society because of Taliban restriction. For example, as what Shafiqa told in Povey’s journal about her activity as the director of Women’s Vacational Training Centre

    “We had 6,000 students from seven to thirty-five years of age. When the Taliban came to power, they closed down our institution. But we continued our underground activities in our homes. Many times we were threatened with imprisonment and torture, but we continued. It was very difficult for men as well. Men also had problems if they wanted to work. They had to grow beard and hair to a particular length, and there were no jobs for them to do. In some ways, it was easier for women. Wearing chaddari allowed us to do some work.” (Rostami- Povey, 2007 : p. 29-30)

    They move underground without the knowledge of Taliban, they try to protect their organization to survive for the society. Women and men have the same difficulties to live. Women are very restricted, men should grow beard to have job. And this makes men hard to give life to their family. However, Islam obliges the men to seek income to fulfill their needs. But Taliban make it complicated.

III.Islamic Law

  In this novel, is also showed the Islamic law that is used by the Taliban to ruleAfghanistan. However, the Islamic law that they used is kind of their version. Still in Povey’s  journal, especially for the treatment to the women “ Their treatment of women was based on the conservative norms and values of Pashtunwali that they had absorbed in the madrassas rather than on the Shari’a law.” (ibid, p. 23)

   However, in the story the narrator tells us that the country will be ruled by a completely Islamic system. If we see from the Islamic rule, there are some rules that are not according to Shari’a. For example,

“All non-Muslims, Hindus, and Jews must wear yellow clothing or a piece of yellow cloth. They must remark their homes with a yellow flag so that they may be recognizable.” (p. 49)

  For I know, in Islamic law, Islam doesn’t differentiate between the Muslims and non-Muslims. Other page shows when Taliban have massacred hundreds of civilians in the holy city and kidnapped Iranian diplomats in the name of religion that would never condone such barbarism. (p. 129) Then still in the same page,

  “They preach jihad” observes my father, “but a Muslim does not kill another Muslim. Nowhere does it say in the Koran that one should take another life. This is the proof that they make up their own Shari’a, trying to persuade us that everything they decided is written in the Koran. Their laws aren’t written, they’re connected by a few mullahs who ought to keep themselves.”(p. 129)
 
   From the passage above, I assume, the Taliban use Shari’a to legalize their own will and as what narrator’s father told above, they make up their own Shari’a. Jihad is in the Koran, but not for killing other Muslims, Jihad is done for release and save other Muslim who is under the evilness of kafir. So, I assume, the Taliban do not use all Shari’a law totally.

    The most significant topic in the chapter 2 is the country which is ruled by the completely Islamic system. It is actually interesting to discuss, whether the Taliban rules the country using the Islamic rules, on the other hand, there are many rules are in contrary with the Koran, for example in case,

    “The Koran specifically states that a woman may show her nakedness to a man if he is either her husband or her physician.” (p. 69) In contrast, the Taliban government rules that “No male physician may touch the body of a woman under the pretext of a medical examination” (p. 48)

    I think it is weird that they use Islamic rules but there is racialism especially for the women, whereas there is no racialism in Islam. Islam has ruled the relation between the men and women specifically in 5 rules, there are justice, trade, health, education, and marriage. Physician is including in health, so it is allowed in the Koran.

IV. Massacres and Regime

   We may find in the novel, the chapter that tells us about the massacres. The Massacres, of course, are much related to the government authority. In the story, we may find some massacred which is done by Afghanistan regime whether the Taliban, Mujaheddin, or Communist.

   “The Taliban have massacred hundreds of civilians in the holy city and kidnapped Iranian diplomats in the name of religion that would never condone such barbarism.”
    The Taliban use religion as their reason to do massacres with the name of jihad. It has been explained in the third part of this essay.
    Besides the Taliban, massacre was also done by Communist regime.

“A week later, there was a television report on the crimes committed by the Communists. Group of prisoners were shown; executed en masse at Pol-i-Sharkhi: hundreds of pairs of shoes lying scattered about; and mass graves. When the Communists were in power thousands of people accused of anti-Communism had been arrested, executed, and thrown into common graves.” (p. 187)

    This shows that massacre is not only done by the Taliban but also Communist regime. They killed everyone who becomes their opposite. During the civil war, massacre happen brutally in Afghanistan. Mass graves are founds in many places as what narrator said below

    “Much later, after Massoud’s mujaheddin arrived in Kabul, they showed us a terrifying report on television. When they dug up this greasy dirt, they uncovered the corpses of prisoners who had been summarily executed. So we had been walking, without realizing it, on a mass grave.”(p. 145)

    The regime is very influenced on the society life. The policy will influence the feature of the country. For example, Afghanistan under Soviet, become the communist nation, with the typical ideology and life-style. The Taliban take over the country, then they use Islamic law as the nation law, the ideology of the nation also change and also the life-style of the society.

      After the Communist regime fell, they tried to take the city back. The Afghan claimed this was their victory against the Soviet.

   “After the victory against the Soviets, the Afghan resistance controlled almost all the countryside, and the Communist government in Kabul tried principally to defend the large cities, the main roads, and the airports.” (p. 137)

V.Territory

   In this novel, the territory of Afghanistan is still questioned because, the area ofMiddle East is adjacent. While the narrator tells her journey to Jalalabad, she finds Pakistanis take Afghan’s land, and make their own rule and policy.

   “It’s obvious that Pakistan is using our devastated country ruined by years of civil war, as a convenient washing machine to ‘launder’ merchandise. That’s also why Pakistan speedily recognized the Taliban regime – many of whose fighters came from Pakistan, with the blessing of the United States.”(p. 112) 

    The Pakistanis exploit Afghanistan land because the country is in ruin. Moreover, Afghanistan in the civil war was supported by Pakistan. I assume that Pakistanis feel that they reserve to own the land.

    “This territory really belongs to us, and the Pakistanis stole it. It’s not their land, and they’re so conscious of this that before they killed Najibullah, they tried to make him sign a document officially recognizing this illegal border.” (p. 108)   

     So I assume, maybe there is a conspiracy between the Afghanistan government which means the Taliban, with the Pakistanis, so they can take the land and make their own rule on it. During the civil war, Afghanistan was supported by Pakistan, and they give the contribution to Afghan with sending their army to help in civil war.

VI.Conclusion

     My Forbidden Face is a novel based on true story written by Latifa, a pseudonym of the writer. The stories of the novel are not really different with her own experiences as an Afghan woman who lived in Taliban regime. If  we compare My Forbidden Face with the journal book Afghan Women written by Elaheh Rostami-Povey as a non-fictional book, we may find the same cases happen in Afghanistan, especially in women representation. This novel actually talks about gender, ethnic, and nation. From this novel, I find four main topics; there are women representation, Islamic law, the massacres and the regime, and also the territory.

References:

Latifa. (2001). My Forbidden Face (L. Coverdale, Trans.). New York: Hyperion.

Rostami-Povey, E. (2007). Afghan Woman: Identity and Invasion. London: Zed Books.

http://www.teenreads.com/reviews/my-forbidden-face-growing-up-under-the-taliban-a-young-womans-story (retrieved on Friday, Dec 9th 2011)

The Vampire and Mortal Nature in Louis’ Character in Anna Rice's Interview with the Vampire

I.    Introduction

I.1 Background

   In this paper, I’m going to talk about the vampire nature or the vampire characteristic in Anne Rice’ Interview with the Vampire. This topic is attracted to me because the vampire, as a fantastical creature, appear as the characters in Rice’ novel.  Especially, the character of Louis who makes me feel respect to vampire character. The vampire instincts which are in Louis’, actually, are quite different from other vampires which appear in the novel, for example Lestat. Louis still has morality of being vampire. He still has human nature inside, he also the religious one. But Louis vampire nature also appears in contrast with the mortal nature. That’s why Louis character is different from other vampire. In my previous reflection, I’d told that I like the character of Louis, who was actually feminine character in the novel. For those reason, I take this topic for my final assignment.

I.2. History of Vampire

According to Encarta, Vampire, in folklore, a corpse that rises from the grave during the night, often in the form of a bat, and, for nourishment, sucks the blood of sleeping humans. [1] The word Vampire first appeared in English from 1734, in a travelogue titled Travels of Three English Gentlemen published in the Harleian Miscellany in 1745.  Vampires are mythological or folkloric beings who subsist by feeding on the life essence (generally in the form of blood) of living creatures, regardless of whether they are undead or a living person.[2]  Horst, Schriften and Hypothesen about Vampire, (Zauberbibliothek, III) defines a Vampire as “a dead body which continues to live in the grave; which it leaves, however, by night, for the purpose of sucking blood of the living, whereby it is nourished and preserved in good condition, instead of becoming decomposed like other dead bodies.”[3] It means that vampire is a mythological creature which has special gifts of being vampire doesn’t same as other dead bodies which uncanny like zombie.

Many writers have their own definition and imagination about vampire. Among of them also have different characteristic, life, and instinct of vampire being. In some cultures also have the different histories and forms of vampire. As what Wikipedia said, vampire is a mythological being, so it has different culture in some countries which have mythological story of vampire. But generally, vampire beings in the whole world have similar description, they are the blood sucker, whether human or animal blood, live immortality, afraid of sunlight, out and hunting at night, has pale skin, and many more.

I.3. Vampire Characteristic

In Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, Rice describes her vampires’ characters in various.  However, she includes gender identity to her vampires’ character. For example, Louis is the feminine character and Lestat is the masculine one. It‘s illustrated from the description of the character. Lestat has much power than Louis, because he’s the one who made Louis to be vampire. Also with Rice’s, other fantastic and gothic writers has own description about their vampire being, characteristic, and physicality. In this below, I want to show some mental and physicality which have been categorized generally.

Physical characteristics:

·         Pale skin

·         Sensitivity to sunlight physically (i.e., sunburn easily) and/or visually

·         Visual sensitivity to any light source

·         Better night vision than day vision

·         Eye color changing with mood or for no apparent reason

·         Heightened senses

·         Unaccounted-for strength (i.e., stronger than one should be without working   out) and quick reflexes

·         Often feels hungry and/or thirsty despite an adequate food diet

·         Extreme cravings for certain types of food or extreme cravings that can not be satisfied with food

·         Often feel run down, fatigued, tired despite an adequate food diet and activity level

·         Frequent headaches for no apparent reason

·         Does not require very much sleep

·         Able to heal quicker than others

Mental characteristics:

·         Strong-willed; independent nature; confident

·         Intellectual/highly intelligent

·         Well-learned/educated, although not necessarily school-educated

·         Predatory nature

·         Dark nature

·         Prefers nighttime over daytime; i.e., nocturnal nature

·         Moodiness/mood swings/quick-tempered

·         Mental and/or personality disorders (diagnosed by a medical doctor)

Psychic abilities and metaphysical characteristics:

·         Empathy

·         Telepathy

·         Mind reading

·         See and read auras

·         Extra-sensory perception (ESP)

·         Clairaudience, being able to mentally hear things from a distance

·         Clairvoyance, being able to mentally see things from a distance

·         Clairsentience, having knowledge that one can not explain

·         Audiovoyance, being able to see and/or hear spirits and possibly communicate with them

·         Telekinesis

·         Pyrokinesis

·         Astral travel/astral projection

·         Psychometry

·         Invisibility, although not as in the Invisible Man kind of invisibility; the kind of invisibility where one can blend into a setting, room and/or crowd, and not be noticed by anyone looking for them.

·         Precognition/visions

·         Past-life memories, especially vampiric past-life memories

·         Immortal soul and a belief in reincarnation

·         Experience déjà vu quite frequently

·         Able to sense other vampires (often referred to as "vamp radar")

·         Involved in "alternative" religions (such as pagan, Wiccan, satanic, etc.) or have "alternative" spiritual beliefs

·         Most are either born vampires or experience an awakening to their vampiric nature later in life, usually in their teen years but it can happen later in life

(http://vampiresarereal.tripod.com/id7.html accessed on Tuesday, December 28^th 2010: 23.01)  

Anne Rice describes her vampires’ unique characteristic, mental, and also physicality. Not all of the above mentioned, including in Rice’s vampires. She just adds some specialties in her vampires such as empathy, past-life memories and so on as mortal nature which appears in some vampires. In my opinion, vampire nature is the gift for vampire being to exist or to survive in the world. Vampire nature is similar with vampire instincts, physic, and mental.  In this paper, I make a restriction for the characteristics in Interview with the Vampire for the vampire nature and also mortal nature in Louis’ character.

II.   Discussion

The vampire was utterly white and smooth, as if he were sculpted from bleached bone, and his face was as seemingly inanimate as a statue, except for two brilliant green eyes that looked down at the boy intently like flames in a skull. But then the vampire smiled almost wistfully, and the smooth white substance of his face moved with the infinitely flexible but minimal lines of a cartoon.[4]

  

       The paragraph above shows the description of vampire Louis. Rice describes his vampire physicality as pale-skinned, brilliant-eyed, but also the expression of wistful appeared on his face. Vampire is an elegant fantastical creature which has long long life or as immortal creature. Vampire is a living corpse which in his face describes like inanimate statue it implies the experiences of his life through the lines of his furrow face. His brilliant green eyes make him more elegant as fantastical creature. Rice places the description of his main character vampire in the beginning of the book. It makes the readers easily to imagine of vampire Louis. Vampire Louis’ characteristic, actually, doesn’t appear yet in the beginning of the book. But we may find more about Louis’ in the style of his conversation with the boy.

       I also include Louis’ religiousness in this discussion, since Louis is a vampire. He can’t easily let his mortal life. His mortal characteristic influenced his immortal life so much, that’s why he is different with other vampires.

              
       I was Catholic; I believed in saints. I lit tapers before their marble statues in churches; I knew their pictures, their symbols, their names. (p11)

       In those sentences, Louis described as a religious before becoming vampire. Because of his religiousness, it affected on his vampire life. How he feels still as a mortal, who couldn’t kill human and drink human blood. Those also will indicate that vampire isn’t afraid with the symbol of Catholic. In the interview with the boy, Louis tells of his vampire nature:

               “Oh, the rumor about crosses!” the vampire laughed. “You refer to our being afraid of crosses?”

               “Unable to look on them, I thought,” said the boy.

“Nonsense, my friend, sheer nonsense. I can look on anything I like. And I rather like looking on crucifixes in particular.”

               “The story about stakes through the heart,” said the boy, his cheeks coloring slightly.

               “The same,” said the vampire, “Bull-shit,” he said, carefully articulating both syllables, so that the boy

smiled. (p27)

From the conversations above, we may assume that the vampires in Anne Rice’s book aren’t afraid to the Catholic symbols, because Rice makes her character religious. So, it doesn’t make sense if the vampire is religious, but he is afraid of Catholic symbols like cross. Another Louis’ religiousness is also appeared in the middle of the book after Lestat being killed by Claudia.

“I was sitting still in the Saturday night cathedral… I looked up now and saw a gray-haired priest. ‘You wish to go to confession?’ he asked. ‘I was about to lock up the church.’

“And then I said it, lifting my hand to make the Sign of the Cross. ‘Bless me, father, for I have sinned, sinned so often and so long I do not know how to change, nor how to confess before God what I’ve done’ (p160-161)

In this part, Louis came to the church to calm down himself after Lestat being killed. His mortal

and immortal mental appeared. He actually believed and disbelieved in God. In next text, he showed his experience of asking about God’s existence (p 162). After that, his vampire nature, his killer instinct appeared:

“… And then I grabbed him on the very steps to Communion rail and pulled him down to face me there and sank my teeth into his neck.” (p162)

Louis’ emotion had made his vampire killing instinct rises, and then he killed the priest without

thinking twice. It’s natural in vampire beings, when vampire gets emotional, his vampire nature will appear soon. Especially, his body was much closed with his victim. His killer instinct arises when he needs feeding.The vampire nature which is in Louis also arose when Louis found Claudia alone in a house beside a dead body.

“I had bent down and driven hard into her soft, small neck and hearing her tiny cry, whispered even as I felt the hot blood on my lips… For four years I had not savored a human; for four years I hadn’t really known; and now I heard her heart of in that terrible rhythm, and such a heart – not the heart of a man and an animal, but the rapid, tenacious hart, of the child, beating harder and harder, refusing to die, beating like tiny fists boating on a door, crying,… I think I rose to my feet still locked to her, the heart pulling my heart faster with no hope of cease, the rich blood rushing so fast for me….” (p83)

Even though, Louis tried not to drink a human blood, but he couldn’t keep himself from his

vampire instinct. The vampire could feel the human bloodstream flow swiftly inside the human body.

“You must understand that by now I was burning with physical need to drink. I could not have made it through another day without feeding. But there were two alternatives: rat abounded in the streets and somewhere very near a dog was howling hopelessly” (p82)

However, Louis had two alternatives in feeding, drink rats’ blood or dog. It means he drank

animal blood which is less satisfaction for a vampire. But he had explained :

“That the death of an animal yielded such pleasure and experience to me that I only begun to understand it, and wished to save the experience of human death for my mature understanding. “(p80)

       Different from Louis, Lestat who made Louis, he had his own lifestyle to be vampire. Lestat is the teacher for Louis, that’s why Louis can’t escape from him, because Louis needs him. Louis was afraid if he didn’t know essential secrets as vampire which Lestat might know (p71). Louis wanted to escape from Lestat, he also thought that he might wish for die (p79). Because for Louis, killing an animal is such a pleasure rather than killing a human. His mortal is still showed in his vampire nature. That’s why, Lestat who taught him killing was mad of Louis.

“’Louis! You are in love with your mortal nature! You chase after the phantoms of your former self… And in your romance with mortal life, you’re dead to your vampire nature!’ (p90)

              Kill them swiftly if you will but do it! Learn that you’re a killer!’ (p93)

‘When I gave you that first kill, I thought you would hunger for the next and the next, that you would go to each human life as if it to a full cup, the way I had. But you didn’t. And all this time I suppose I kept from straightening you out because you were best weaker… But you’re weak, Louis. You’re a mark. For vampires and now for humans alike.’” (p94)

                 
  Those are few words from Lestat that being mad of Louis mortal nature. Because, Lestat took Louis to be his companion was for being strong vampire companion. But Louis didn’t become for what Lestat wished for. Although at first, Louis wanted to be free from Lestat, actually he needed him especially after Lestat being killed by Claudia. This Louis’ longing of Lestat might appear as both mortal nature and vampire nature which is longing for companion.

                  

“I wanted to forget him, yet it seemed I thought of him always. It was as if the empty nights were made for thinking of him. I found myself so vividly aware of him it was as if he had only just left the room and the ring of his voice were still there… I wanted him alive! In the dark nights of eastern Europe, Lestat was the only vampire I’d found.” (p213)

       Another Louis mortal nature appears when he was in Theatre des Vampires. Louis came with Claudia after being invited by a vampire. He saw a girl in theater which was actually a human surrounded by vampires, but it seemed like true theater. Louis could feel the girl pain in the stage who was killed by the vampires.

                  

       “I felt my spirit contract in fear for her, and in longing. Her beauty was heartbreaking” (p237)

“I could hardly bear it, the sight of her yearning towards him, seeing her dying now, under the vampire’s power. I wanted to cry out to her, to break her swoon. And I wanted her.” (p238)

“I felt weak, dazed, hunger rising in me, knotting my heart, my veins.” (p238)

Louis could feel the girl suffered at the stage, he wanted to help her, but he couldn’t. His

empathy for the girl couldn’t be explained as mortal nature. But he also could feel her blood which rising his hunger as vampire nature. When his mortal nature appears, his vampire nature also appears, in which he can feel the blood veins from the girl, although he also feel sad about the girl.

III.    Conclusion

Vampire is a mythological creature which has many specification in its characteristic.

Generally, vampire drinks blood whether human or animal blood. Vampire describes has pale skin, exotic eyes, cold body temperatur, dark creature, and many more. In many countries, vampire has own specification which different among the cultures.

In Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, she also has own specification about vampire which

she describes it in her gothic novels. She also has different way how to make human become vampire. This novel is an introduction of vampire; she makes her unique vampires characters which she describes in the protagonist character, Louis.

Louis has two natural characters, mortal nature and vampire nature. Mortal nature affects Louis life after becoming a vampire. Mortal nature is one of Louis characters before becoming a vampire. Louis who is religious affects on his vampire nature. Mortal nature can’t be separated from Louis because it affects him how to be a different vampire among the others. Louis’ also has different vampire nature which has explained above especially with his companion, Lestat. Louis and Lestat are very different in character. Louis’ vampire nature is not strong as Lestat. Louis drinks from animal blood, because he is hate to kill human every time. Different with Louis, Lestat enjoys himself as vampire with his own lifestyle and culture of killing. Lestat who made Louis, can’t stand for Louis’ mortal nature that makes Louis becomes weak vampire.  

Louis’ mortal nature makes him become a altruistical vampire, a weak vampire, and religious vampire. His belief in God confused him when he can’t stand any longer to kill human. However, his religiousness makes him seem confused about the existence of God. On the other hand, his vampire nature appears as he can’t be elusory of human blood, like he’s done to the priest and Claudia. His mortal and vampire nature are important to him to exist in the world. However, mortal nature doesn’t always in contrast with vampire nature. They also appear with the same way, as Louis feel longing of Lestat. His mortal nature goes along his vampire nature. It is fact that Louis is longing for Lestat is a mortal nature, and on the other side that he is need companion in his life is a vampire nature, since Lestat is the one who made him. So, I think, every vampire has own mortal nature beside its vampire nature, since they are previously human beings, they will have mortal nature beside their vampire nature.

References:

Anne Rice, Interview with the Vampire (London: Warner Books, 1976).

Vampire." Microsoft® Encarta® 2009 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2008.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire (accessed on Tuesday, December, 28 2010, 22.16)

Summers, M. U. http books google com books id fpaCCyGuMqwC. The Vampire, His Kith and Kin. University Books, 1960.

http://vampiresarereal.tripod.com/id7.html (accessed on Tuesday, December 28^th 2010: 23.01)

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[1] Vampire." Microsoft® Encarta® 2009 [DVD]. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Corporation, 2008.

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire (accessed on Tuesday, December, 28 2010, 22.16)

[3] Summers, M. U. http books google com books id fpaCCyGuMqwC. The Vampire, His Kith and Kin. University Books, 1960.

[4] Anne Rice, Interview with the Vampire (London: Warner Books, 1976).p6