Q: “There was something diabolically sweet in her tones . . . which rang through the brains even of us who heard the words addressed to another. As for Arthur, he seemed under a spell; moving his hands from his face, he opened wide his arms.”
C: It is interesting to see Lucy’s transformation not only physically but mentally. First she starts by feeding on children, which is horrible in itself but you can see her use her ways of seduction on Holmwood. I chose this quote because it sort of implies that he is under some sort of “trance” to do what he says and it reminds me of the hypnosim in The Beetle. Similarly, I wrote last week in my common place book about the adaptations of Dracula and just how vampires are romanticized in today’s society in general and it reminded me of the show “The Vampire Diaries.” In this show, the vampires are about to put others under a “spell” of compulsion and make them do what they wish. So the idea that vampires are able to control others’ minds has been around for a long time.
Q: Do vampires have hypnotic “powers” like that in the beetle? Do you believe that what is happening could be described as hypnotism or something else?
