"Because there was so much the Victorians couldn't write about directly, chiefly sex and sexuality, they found ways of transforming those taboo subjects and issues into other forms. The Victorians were masters of sublimation. But even today, when there are no limits on subject matter or treatment, writers still use ghosts, vampires, werewolves, and all manner of scary things to symbolize various aspects of our more common reality.
- Foster, in the chapter discusses two main subjects that both tie into this excerpt. He discusses how Victorians used Vampires and ghosts to convey messages to the viewers that represents "sex and sexuality." Because message containing sexual were supposed to be censored during theses times Victorian writers used a complete transformation of the total idea and made it into a fantasy scenario that when looked deep enough into could be decoded to show a crazy old man taking the innocence of young women and leaving their mark behind. He also discusses a Vampire not in it's literal sense but in the terms of its definition vampirism: selfishness, exploitation, a refusal to respect the anatomy of other people. Foster discussed this idea by giving examples from novels of men who portrayed this characteristic, but then went on to explain how we as people have a vampire "with us" due to our "exploitative and selfish ways" and until we rid ourselves of those that inner vampire will continue to follow us. Throughout this chapter I was amazed at how Foster took to my an inanimate object defined it's "true meaning" and not only related to the actions of characters in books but to human beings. I was never aware of this. I was amazed by the fact that one could possibly break down another Victorian character, or any character for that matter and describe its actions enough to literally define the character and then relate it to human characteristics, to see if it has a "hidden" label that can be related to people. Both topics discussed in this chapter dealt with hidden meanings and symbolism and their role in the Victorian Era and also in present day.
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