The Gothic Romance

With all the recient buzz with **Twilight**, I thought that it would be interesting to do something with Elizabeth Bathory, also known as the Countess Dracula. She slaughtered 635 virgin women for their blood to make her stay young and beautiful for forever. Mwahahahahaha. Joke's on her. If that was the case, don't you think that women would stay virginal for forever to stay youthful and beautious for eternity?

(The 635 is according to legend. It's really unknown as to how many women she killed. According to the site listed below, Bathory's records were sealed after her death, and exact information was lost.)

(For the record, any information that I haven't already acquired, was obtained on this site:
http://www.weird-encyclopedia.com/Bathory-Elizabeth.php and will be cited as EW)

Now Bathory was a real scary chick. She would make Edward **and** Jacob wet themselves.

She was said to bathe in the blood of the virgins as well as drink it. Legend has it that one night, while Elizabeth was having her hair brushed out by one of her bedmaids, the maid, a young girl of probably 14, pulled Bathory's hair accidentally. Bathory, outraged by this "injustice", turned and slapped the girl, her ring catching the cheek and ripping the flesh of the maid. The maid's blood made Elizabeth's hand - somewhat old and spotted - turn young and fresh again. Bathory ordered the maid to be taken to the dungeon, slaughtered, and her blood readied in a bath for the Countess.

Now, this was interesting: "It was largely Slovak servants whom Elizabeth killed, so the name "Csejthe" is only spoken in derision, and she is still called "The Hungarian Whore" in the area." (EW) Now, while Ligeia isn't Hungarian, I would still almost argue that she's a whore. And while Ligeia didn't drink blood, she was just as manipulative as Bathory.

When Bathory was still young, she had an affair with a peasent and got preggers. (There was no such thing as the pill or Plan B in those days.) She was already engaged to a Count, so the pregnancy was hidden until after the baby was born. Don't ask me why, but I can see Legeia doing something like that. Sleeping with someone else while saying that she loved poor Mr. Narr.

Poe has made a great attempt (or success) at merging the Gothic and the love story. There's the great bedroom that has the high ceilings and huge window. Something out of a Frankenstein movie - yanno. And that type of bedroom is exactly the same kind that Elizabeth would have had. She was a Countess after all.

And could you imagine the sheer embarrassment and terror that the Count would have felt after Elizabeth's death should she have come back in the form of a new wife if he (Nadasday - EW) would have remarried. It would be a great compulsion for girls to lose their virginity.

"Jane! What are you doing?!"
"The Blood Countess, mother, father. She has come back from the dead in a new body."
"Oh, ok then. Keep at it. Keep it down, though; your father has to market early morn."

How weird a conversation would that have been? But then again, way back when, fathers used to watch their daughters consumate the marriage in the back of the church. I saw it on the History Channel a long time ago, and I never forgot it. It was back in like the 1100's. Kind of freaky, ne?

But fathers would have had much more incentive to wed their daughters for less money than before. I would think.

I don't know why, but when I think of Ligeia, I could see her as The Blood Countess. Maybe not as violent or sadistic, but perhaps as manipulative. Bathory had several lovers durning her marriage, and she would often have them going out to find her virgins to drain. And her husband, the Count, also joined her in her tourters, and showed her various new ways in which to torture her victims.

While I couldn't see Mr. Narr showing Ligeia new tricks, I could see him easily lead by Ligeia's hand. He would be like a little lost puppy. Sort of pathetic. Maybe that's the reason Ligeia came back; he was so easy to lead and order because of his blind love for her, the silly acolyte.