Summary
Edward from Twilight is one of our century's more commonly known vampires. Edward is the vampire from the beloved Twilight series, where he is seen as brooding, cold, mysterious, seductive, and as some allure to his being. He is a telepathic vampire and one of the founding members of the Olympic Coven, who is masquerading as a 17-year-old high school junior even though he was a 107-year-old man.
In many ways, Edward and Lord Ruthven are similar in the pale skin, the allure, and the mysterious nature of their presence, which causes excitement to those around them. From the short story "n spite of the deadly hue of his face, which never gained a warmer tint, either from the blush of modesty, or from the strong emotion of passion, though its form and outline were beautiful, many of the female hunters after notoriety attempted to win his attentions" which describes the effect Lord Ruthven had on the people around. This aspect can be seen in Edward during the first movie, where many girls gawk, stare and fantasize about being with him. We can see their seductive nature is an aspect of them being a vampire and how it allows interaction with people, as usual, so no one becomes freely suspicious of their being. Them looking so out of the norm even allows them into different spaces they might not have had access to and gives both of them a sense of the power of fooling these people.
In contrast, both characters that Lord Ruthven is a villain in his story while Edward acts more like a Byronic hero, showing the different aspects of being a vampire. "He had required, to enhance his gratification, that his victim, the partner of his guilt, should be hurled from the pinnacle of unsullied virtue, down to the lowest abyss of infamy and degradation." From this quote, we can see that Lord Ruthven only cares about fulfilling his desire and wreaking havoc on the places that he ventures to. In contrast, Edward stays secluded from humans. He does not even become violent with them to obtain blood; he wants to keep his identity, and people protected from humans and also don't want to put his people in harm's way potentially. This difference in characters shows the different elements of vampires and how inducing fear but have a strangely welcoming presence.
Hi, I loved the twilight movies as well. Who was your favorite character Edward Cullen or Jacob Black?
Hi! Twilight has always been and still is one of my comfort series. It is very interesting how people have come from describing vampires as these horrid creatures whose only purpose is to cause chaos and death to making them appealing both sexually and emotionally while still retaining that sense of weariness.
Your comparison is convincing! However, I have to point out that Ruthven is definitely supposed to be a Byronic Hero as well. Polidori was actually Lord Byron’s doctor, and he based the character on Byron himself!