[Novel] Vampires' World - "Twilight" VS "Vampire Academy" Comparison Analysis

Independent Girl and Unindependent Girl

I am going to compare/ contrast the two novels; “Twilight” and “Vampire Academy” - how vampire is represented in both novels but in different ways.

“Twilight” was published in 5 October 2005 by Stephenie Meyer. It explores the theme of a love triangle between a vampire, a human and a werewolf. The novel was spawned from a dream Stephenie had about two people in kind of a little circular meadow with really bright sunlight, and one of them was a beautiful, sparkly boy and one was just a girl who was human and normal, and they were having conversation. The boy was a vampire and he was trying to explain to her how much he cared about her and yet at the same time how much he wanted to kill her. That dream became Chapter 13 of Twilight. And “Twilight” has sequel there are “New Moon”, “Eclipse”, and “Breaking Dawn”.

The story starts out in the perspective 17-year-old Bella Swan as she moves from Phoenix, Arizona to Forks, Washington to live with her father after her mother remarries and goes travelling with her partner, a minor-league baseball player. On her arrival in Forks, she meets a boy called Edward Cullen and immediately drawn to him, but something is not quite right. As the narrative unwinds Bella discovers Edward is a is a ’vegetarian’ vampire, which means he drinks animal blood not human, and the couple fall “irrevocably in love”. All seems to be going well, until three nomad vampires pass through Forks and one of them starts hunting Bella for fun. The pace of the story is upped and their love is put to the test. The romance between Bella and Edward is told from Bella’s point of view, as she narrates the story from cover to cover. It evokes the belief in love at first sight and how Bella and Edward’s all-consuming love can overcome obstacles they may face, including threats to Bella’s mortality from other vampires.

The novel, “Vampire Academy” was written by Richelle Mead and was published in 2007.  The story explores the theme finding identity or growing up. As Rose experiences a lot, and she begins to realize that she's not like the Moroi or humans (even other dhampirs) her age. She can't do the same things they can. They get to live out their teen years and gradually settle into adulthood. Rose and her dhampir classmates don't get that luxury. They have to fight, and they have to protect before they're even ready for it. Richelle got the idea to write this novel when she had taken Eastern European mythology classes in college and there were a lot of great Russian/Romanian vampire stories. And the book actually has sequel there are “Frostbite”, “Shadow Kiss”, “Blood Promise”, “Spirit Bound”, and “Last Sacrifice”.

This book chronicles the life of 17-year-old Rosemarie Hathaway, a dhampir, half-vampire and half-human, who is training to be a guardian at St. Vladimir's Academy along with many others like her. There are good and bad vampires in their world: Moroi, who co-exist peacefully among the humans and only take blood from donors, and also possess the ability to control one of the five elements - water, earth, fire, air or spirit; and Strigoi, blood-sucking, evil vampires who drink to kill. Rose and other dhampir guardians are trained to protect Moroi and kill Strigoi throughout their education. Along with her best friend, Princess Vasilisa Dragomir, a Moroi and the last of her line, with whom she has a nigh unbreakable bond, Rose must run away from St. Vladimir's, in order to protect Lissa from those who wish to harm the princess and use her for their own means.

Both of the writers want to highlight the female character that is really contrast. Bella Swan has very little courage, demonstrates very little fortitude, and is constant in need of reassurance or protection from the dominant male figures in her life. Bella Swan spends the majority of the novel standing precariously on the side-lines of the action, in full faith that men will fight her battles for her. Throughout the story, she is constantly described as fragile and breakable, her victimhood consequently exploited and fetishized.  Much of the physical interaction between Bella and her male counterparts reveals a loss of control- or rather, a willing relinquishment. She is often pulled, dragged and restrained by her love interests Jacob Black and Edward Cullen, with these adjectives betraying the physical manifestations of her willing oppression that leak into the fiber of the text.

Bella doesn’t have real friends by her own. Spends most of her time alone. She was not overly concerned with friendship, let alone until she met Edward Cullen and become part of the colony.

‘It wasn’t just physically that I’d never fit in. And if I couldn’t find a niche in a school with three thousand people, what were my chances here? I didn’t relate well to people my age. Maybe the truth was that I didn’t relate well to people, period’ (Twilight 9)

Instead of that Bella has a very good relationship with her parents. She loves and cares to both of her parents. She chooses to live with her father and leave her mother because she wants to give her mother a chance to have time with Phill, her stepfather beside her school stuff but she always keeps in touch with her by call her or give her an email. She also pays attention her father, although she had not lived with her father for quite a long time. It is explained in the story that she made her father dinner constantly.

‘Last night I discovered that Charlie couldn’t cook much besides fried eggs and bacon. So, I requested that I be assigned kitchen detail for the rest of my stay. He was willing enough to hand over the keys to the banquet hall. I also found out that he had no food in the house. So I had my shopping list and the cash from the jar labeled FOOD MONEY, and I was on my way to the Thriftaway’ (Twilight 27).

On the contrary Rose has very powerful protective instincts. She cannot stand to sit back and see people get hurt, always trying to do something to help wherever possible, even if for a complete and total stranger. She is extraordinarily devoted to helping innocent people and protecting the Moroi. Most often, this protectiveness is directed towards Lissa, although she has shown to be protective over others, including Dimitri as her mentor, Christian, Adrian, Jill, and Viktoria as her best friends.

She could be friendly, warm, not shying away from meeting new people, and has considerable skill in social interactions. Rose has a certain charisma that attracts people and make them flock to her. Rose has witty sense of humor, sharp brilliance, and formidable talent in Moroi protection.

‘With Moroi being the only ones with whom dhampirs could reproduce, we had to stay close to them and intermingle with them. Likewise, it became important to us that the Moroi simply survived. Without them, we were done. And with the way Strigoi loved picking off Moroi, their survival became a legitimate concern for us. ‘(VA, Page 79)

Rose doesn’t have a very good relationship with her parent. Rose originally had a grudge towards her mother for leaving her at the academy at a young age and never visiting her, Rose never had any contact with her father, Abe, until she was eighteen. She always thought that her mother did not pay attention and just think that become a guardian even more important than her daughter. It’s proven when Rose got back to the school and her mother sent her an email.

‘I was about to turn everything off when I noticed I already

had a message. From Janine Hathaway. It was short: I'm glad you're back. What you did was inexcusable.

"Love you too, Mom," I muttered, shutting it all down.’ (VA, Page 34)

 Both mythologies have vampires who can walk in the sun, though for different reasons. The vampires in “Twilight” simply can; they only avoid the sun because it makes them sparkle. In “Vampire Academy”, there are three kind of vampires. Dhampir, half human half vampire that can walk easily under the sun. Moroi, pure vampire, that can also walk in sun but a little bit bother by the light to their eyes.Strigoi, evil vampire, that can be burn by sunlight so they won’t go anywhere until sunset.

Bella and Rose are the strong female character. While Bella is ultimately a malleable female character constructed by the men around her, Rose has very powerful protective instincts.  I think that both books have been very interesting and enjoyable. “Twilight” was very easy to read with simple language and terms, however “Vampire Academy” was more specific and descriptive as based on Russian/Romanian mythology in vampire stories. In my opinion “Vampire Academy” was  better written and was more interesting than “Twilight”, because the character of the novel are interesting and strong than the character on “Twilight”. The story of “Vampire Academy” is also more reasonable than the story of “Twilight”. Stephenie Meyer thaught us to be passive, stagnant, and let the men to protect women as they don’t have their own self-defense. Besides, Richelle Mead taught us to become adults and make a great choice along with the problems we face, and we should be able to protect ourselves. Although in the novel each Moroi have each guard does not mean they cannot protect themselves.

 

 

Work Cited

 

Mead, Richelle. Vampire Academy. Razorbill : United States.2007

Meyer, Stephenie. Twilight. Little, Brown Books for Young Readers : United States. 2005