Yet people in real life can see him perfectly. In other words, a vampire and a normal person stand in front of a mirror and the vampire you can't see, yet the guy next to him and see him even though the vamp doesn't cast a reflection.
2006-10-08 15:58:01 · 27 answers · asked by ZORRO 3 in Society & Culture ➔ Mythology & Folklore
Well i found a few reason.
1.) Vampires don't have souls, so they can't see their reflection (Wierd then how are they alive or remaining the undead if there's no life surce O.o)
2.) Mirrors years ago was lined with silver and mercury to make a reflection and silver incorruptble (from evil i assume) , so vampires can't see their reflection.
2006-10-08 16:09:04 · answer #1 · answered by drE-drE 2 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Ok here's the dilly. The first time mirrors are mentioned in a vampire story is with Bram Stoker, you know, the scene where Jonathan Harker goes to the Counts castle and the whole place is devoid of mirrors. Folktales say that a person without a soul don't reflect in mirrors. Some have theorized (in the realm of fantasy)that the vampire doesn't reflect light, thus its aversion of it and danger to it. Thus not being able to reflect light, he projects an image but not based on reflected light and as such when you look at him through a reflected image in a mirror, the image isn't there. It is also said that you can't see a vampire with his back to you, also kind of supporting the notion that he appears to who he wishes to be seen by. Others state that theoretically any shape shifter of which some vampires are capable of doing, don't reflect in mirrors either.
2006-10-08 16:25:20 · answer #2 · answered by cuttlekid 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
The now popular idea that vampires cast no reflection in a mirror (and often have an intense aversion to them) seems to have been first been put forward in Bram Stoker's novel, Dracula. Soon after his arrival at Castle Dracula, Jonathan Harker observed the building was devoid of mirrors. When Dracula silently came into Harker's room while he was shaving, Harker noticed that Dracula, who was standing behind him, did not appear in the shaving mirror as he should have. Dracula complained that mirrors were the objects of human vanity, and, seizing the mirror, he broke it.
"The mirror incident does not seem to have any precedent in either vampire folklore or earlier vampire short stories and dramas, although Stoker seems to have been aware of folklore about mirrors. Mirrors were seen as somehow revealing a person's spiritual double, the soul. In seeing themselves revealed in a mirror, individuals found confirmation that, that there was a soul and that hence life went on. They also found in the reflection a new source of anxiety, as the mirror could be used negatively to affect the soul. The notion that the image in the mirror was somehow the soul underlay the idea that breaking the mirror brought seven year's bad luck. Breaking the mirror also damaged the soul.
"Thus, one could speculate that the vampire had no soul, had nothing to reflect in the mirror. The mirror forced the vampire to confront the nature of his/her existence as the undead, neither living nor dead.
2006-10-08 16:07:12 · answer #3 · answered by melissa p 2 · 7⤊ 1⤋
Again, the truth is they do cast a reflection in to a mirror but they do not like what the reflection shows them. Not many people read up on the legend of the real vampires. But vampire are suppose to be able to cast an illusion as to what you see or smell, But the mirror is suppose show the vampire what he or she really looks like, And looking like a dead body in different stages of decomposition, can turn someone stomach and it is suppose to be ten time worst for a vampire to see. Please try to go to your public library and reading it for yourselves............
2006-10-09 11:09:13 · answer #4 · answered by kilroymaster 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Simple, how are you going to see the image of something that does not exist? Nobody has ever documented a case of a real person that did not have his image reflected in a mirror. Most so called "vampires" can be found in some psychiatrist's journal of obsessive aberrations with blood drinking, but they all have a mirror image and a record of mental illness.
2006-10-08 23:59:24 · answer #5 · answered by willgvaa 3 · 0⤊ 2⤋
Accordeing to the folklore, the vampire would not ahve a reflection becaseu they did not have a soul. This later also transferred to the idea that they could not be photographed. Both of these ideas are, of course ridiculous in that we know that reflections and photographs have nothing to do with the soul. It does make for intersting plot devices in movies and television though, both in horror and in comedy.
2006-10-08 16:08:38 · answer #6 · answered by kveldulfgondlir 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Well, usually whenever a vampire and a human are looking into a mirror together neither see the vampire's reflextion, thats how the person realizes something isn't normal. Maybe, the vampire not seeing his reflection is associated to his fear of light. Maybe they don't react well to any kind of light.
2006-10-08 16:08:52 · answer #7 · answered by Lilel 4 · 1⤊ 2⤋
What if a vampire's body was an illusion?
Then the vampire, being a soulless kind of ghost/ poltergeist/ ball of energy, just influences directly the victim's mind into 'seeing' him.
Such influence would not apply to any reflection.
2006-10-09 02:02:58 · answer #8 · answered by Sattva 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Mirrors are made of silver (or at least they used to be), and traditionally silver has an adverse effect on malicious supernatural creatures, i.e. Werewolves and silver bullets. Theoretically a vampire could see himself in a mirror that wasn't made with silver, assuming the author of the story thought it through that well ;)
2006-10-08 19:08:44 · answer #9 · answered by KdS 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Part of the mystique of being a vampire. Since the soul is gone they cast no reflections.
Always wondered why the clothes didn't show up in the mirror???
2006-10-08 16:00:33 · answer #10 · answered by TLWOLFf 4 · 6⤊ 1⤋