Gothic Romance -or- Dating Edward Cullen: The Vampire Movie
Dracula -or- Driving with Edward and Bella
The literary genre of Gothic romance has fascinated the human collective imagination and haunted our dreams since Horace Walpole's "Castle of Otranto". Ursula's dream below pays homage to such stories.
We are told that in June of 1764 Walpole was visited by a nightmare that became the background for the Castle of Otranto story. Many have followed in Walpole's footsteps, including Mary Shelley whose "Frankenstein" was also inspired by a dream. Ann Radcliff, Bram Stoker, Robert Louis Stephenson's "Strange Case of Dr Jeykll and Mr Hyde", Edgar Allan Poe all were inspired by the ideas of dreams, and nightmares.
Stoker's quintessential "Dracula" has had many incarnations since it was published in May 1897. Reportedly, the story was based on a dream that Stoker had on the night of March 7, 1890 which gave flight to his Victorian masculine erotic imagination, leading to the literary birth of the "Count Dracula" character.
Ursula's is the latest Hollywood dream factory incarnation of vampire stories to inhabit the adolescent imagination. Tales that are in an archetypal search of erotic definition, identity and romantic love. The character Edward Cullen plays a telepathic vampire in the "Twilight" franchise who falls in love with Bella. The Twilight series re-works many literary classics and has created a cult following with many female fans. Ursula's dream clearly associates going to the movies with dating. Perhaps the danger that the dream speaks about is the risk of violence and date rape?
Perhaps a final note, other adolescents who have sent their dreams such as "Vampires and Wiccans" to the International Institute for Dream Research, speak of the thematic of adolescent erotic violence.
Ursula (aka Bella), 16
I had a dream that I was in the place of a fictional character who was dating a vampire. There's a book, and now a movie, that is about a girl named Bella (starts dating the vampire Edward Cullen) who finds out that this group of teens are vampires who turn out to be vegetarians (only drink the blood of animals). Moving on. In my dream, I'm Bella and I appear to be in some sort of danger, but I don't know what it is. In the dream, I'm in the back seat of Edward Cullen's car and we're headed to his house. When we get there Edward opens my door and that's when I wake up. I know it's me, but everybody calls me Bella.