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proclaimsHISTORY
Though written by the same author, the novel and its movie adaption are markedly different, to the extent that they might as well be separate canons. However, what the novel provides is a fuller illumination of Abraham’s personality. Considering this, I may use some of the novel’s material to supplement my interpretation, and to further expand on the history of vampires in America. Main plot elements will remain separate, and no contradictory information will be used.
Legends say that vampires were born from an evil spirit, spread between maker and made. While other legends suggest that have always been separate creatures, created alongside men in the beginning; thereafter maintaining a tenuous and bloody coexistence with those who regard their existence as myth. And yet, stories of bloodsucking creatures tend to have more bite in Abraham’s universe. While most remain dubious, vampires are certainly more than simple superstition and folklore in a world in which unexplained and prolific murders, where bodies turn up dead and drained, are still reported occurrences. In the novel, a French immigrant describes the turmoil of Paris in the 1780s, in which every night “brought in new screams, and every morning, new pale eyed bodies on the street” (29). And there was “nary a person in France who had any doubt to the identity of their murderers—it was les vampires!”
Believers have considered vampires a “silent curse” in Paris for centuries, and it’s reasonable to assume that vampires don’t discriminate. The blood of the French was certainly as sweet as the blood of the Hungarian maidens sacrificed to the voracious appetite of Countess Elizabeth Báthory and her female partner. The two lovers were no different than vampires of earlier days, in terms of their bloody wants and needs. But whereas vampires have remained in the shadows for centuries, the Blood Countess made a circus of her indulgences.
Historically, vampires fed on the destitute and the sick, those whose deaths were easily forgotten. They feasted during times of war and revolution, using the bloody turmoil to cover their own murders, such as in the instance of post-revolutionary Paris. The Blood Countess, however, was hardly discreet—and it was only a matter of time until people took notice the murder of countless young, virgin girls. They were put to trial and sentenced to death. Those who knew of the truth of their existence were struck by a fever. They hunted vampires mercilessly in droves until many vampires were forced to seek asylum in America in the 1600s, contiguous with the early days of European colonization.
In these rich and vast lands, vampires feasted on natives and colonists without repercussion. However, their migration was not simply for the sake of survival. They were led by a vampire named Adam, purported to be the first of their kind, who sought to make a nation of vampires in this new land. As colonies developed into bustling cities and revolution swept the land, vampires blended into human society as they had done in their native Europe. They were land owners, lawyers, pharmacists, and even politicians. It was easy for vampires to masquerade as humans, appearing no different from their human counterparts.
You would think that vampires would be mankind’s common enemy. Alas, that’s definitely not the case. To maintain a low profile, vampires took advantage of America’s most abhorrent system. They made devil’s deals with plantation owners, monsters cavorting with monsters, offering their alliance in exchange for the blood of slaves—the weak, the sick and the old. Some even become owners themselves. They could feed in the shadows, while maintaining their public personas. This alliance would prove to be crucial during the Civil War.
Adam saw their rise to power as only a matter of time, as vampires gained stronger influence human society. Under this new nation, all men would be slaves, because vampires were meant to have control, just as all humans were meant to be subjugated. Just look at the food chain! Alas, Adam could have never anticipated that a boy of humble roots would become a prodigious hunter. That he would one day become president and abolish the system that kept his kind satiated. Most of all, Adam could have never foreseen how Abraham Lincoln would drive vampires from America, and take his life with his bare hands.
It all started when Jack Barts ate Abraham Lincoln’s mother.
Personality:
If it wasn’t obvious enough, the book is historically inaccurate, and the movie is even more so. (It’s extremely inaccurate, actually) Abraham’s sister doesn’t get a mention, nor his step-mother and step-siblings, and it seems like he only has one son out of the four he should have. And that’s only the big facts. I’ll try to reconcile small inaccuracies as best as I can, but where it’s logically / chronologically impossible, the inaccuracies will be treated as canon
THE REAL LINCOLN
The movie paints an idealized portrait of Abraham Lincoln, depicting a hero’s tale akin to the Lincoln taught in American grade school.
Though Abraham certainly abhorred the system of slavery, some argue that he was not a true abolitionist until later in his presidential term. He sought to stymie the spread of slavery, but was also forced to toe a precarious line in a nation already fractured between the North and the South. Some historians say that abolishing slavery was not his intent when first entering the office. As Frederick Douglass, a close friend of Lincoln, states in his Oration: “he was ready and willing at any time during the first years of his administration to deny, postpone, and sacrifice the rights of humanity in the colored people to promote the welfare of the white people of this country.” (In the sense that doing so would keep the nation together). But as we all know, the country nevertheless descended into war regardless, and it wasn’t long before Lincoln gave his Emancipation Proclamation, and only as he got older did he become strong proponent of equal rights. Let’s not even get started on the movie’s simplification of the civil war…
However, I’m not applying President Lincoln as we know him, but Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter; and as such, I’ll be basing my interpretation of his personality exclusively on canon material.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER
Abraham is the type of person who stands up for his convictions regardless of the repercussions. Compassion comes easy to him, as natural as his own pulse. Even as a boy, Abe doesn’t have to think twice before rushing to his friend’s defense against a cruel landowner and vampire, Jack Barts. (An event that would be his mother’s death knell) For his friends, he would endanger himself to save their lives, proven again later on when an adult Willie is kidnapped by Adam and Abraham faces a pack of vampires to save him. It’s this innate compassion, only bolstered by his Baptist upbringing, that allows Abraham to see beyond the ignorance that plagues America, and as he grows older, to become aware of the plight of those affected by cruelty and prejudice. In reality, slavery wasn’t the only impetus that began the civil war, but in the movie, Abraham makes it clear that the war is a fight for the soul of the nation. For righting grave injustices, and in turn, smoking the vampires out of their hole. As his mother says to him in the first scene of the move—“'til every man is free, we are all salves.”
However, Abraham didn’t start out with dreams of becoming president and abolishing slavery. From the time he was a boy, he sought only a singular goal: to avenge his mother’s death. So intent was he to seek retribution that he would challenge a monster when he could barely fire a gun. He’s the type of person who can be dogged to the point appearing single-minded. Once Abraham seeks to get something accomplished, he won’t back down—a symptom of both perseverance and obstinacy. However, it’s this stubbornness, an unwillingness to accept failure, that continually allows him to achieve great things.
Just observe the course of his life:
As a young man, Abraham escapes his first fight with Jack Barts by a hair, but his intent to destroy him is ever the same and he commits himself to becoming a vampire hunter. While training to fight in the dark, Henry beats him bloody, to which Abraham says again. And despite having no formal education, he manages to self-study and become a lawyer. Later on, he loses his first bid to Illinois State legislature, but that doesn’t deter him from trying again. Even in the toughest hours of the civil war, after his son is murdered by the hands of vampires, and hundreds upon hundreds of boys have already died, Abraham refuses to concede. If they already got this far, they had to keep going, for their sacrifices should not be in vain. His doggedness makes for perseverance and it is his most dangerous weapon, honing his skills and fashioning Abraham into a legendary hunter and politician.
Though some may call this bravery, others might deem it reckless and short-sighted. Abraham can certainly be both, since stubbornness doesn’t come without drawbacks, especially when coupled with youth. Abraham Lincoln is definitely an impatient and emotional young man in his younger years, which equates to a tendency to be rash. At one point, Henry has to slam Abraham’s head into a counter to stop him from chasing after Barts when he spies him at a local tavern. He knows Abraham isn’t ready, determination outpacing his abilities, even if his student can’t see it for himself.
Many tend to idealize Lincoln, when history tells us that he was still a man given to his own faults and prejudices. Progressive for his age, but hardly perfect. There’s an echo of this in the movie and the book, though the latter gives us more insight into his personality as a child.
He possesses a quick mind and a large heart, but in his worst moments he is angry, vengeful and downright self-righteous. For example, the novel shows a resentful Abraham who hates his father until his death. After Thomas Lincoln tells him of how he watched his grandfather get attacked by a vampire, he then learns that a vampire had also murdered his mother, the penalty for Thomas Lincoln’s unpaid loan. Instead of sympathy and understanding, this inspires resentment at his father’s cowardice—his father's inability to fight back, to do anything to save either of them; for being a man with little ambition, earning barely enough and never more to support his family. A self-righteous judgment, but a lasting one that an older Abraham comes to regret after his father’s death.
In the movie only Nancy’s plotline is played out, and even that’s changed though she remains collateral for Thomas’ loan. Given the altered circumstance, Abraham probably didn’t feel the same resentment toward his father since Nancy’s death was indirectly his fault, though they weren't exactly close. (In the case of the movie, most of his anger was focused on his own inability to protect his mother as he watched Jack Barts consume her.) Nonetheless, what the novel shows us is Abraham’s capability for anger and how enduring it can be. But this anger is the spark that incites his decision to kill Jack Barts—to destroy all the vampires he can, in both version of the story.
"Judge us not all the same,"Henry tells Abraham. Both vampires and men can be monsters, but not every man and vampire is a monster. For all his compassion, Abraham is merciless toward vampires and struggles to see them as people. Even Henry isn’t excluded from his wrath. In both the novel and the book, upon discovering that his mentor is in fact a vampire, his first reaction is to destroy him—and in the movie, he nearly does. Never mind that Henry saves his life, never mind that this man is practically his brother. He’s angry that Henry deceived him (in the movie); moreover, he’s blinded by his all-encompassing hate for vampires, despite Henry’s advice that strength is not born through hate, but truth. In other words, Abraham is like many young men—hot-headed, tempestuous and often driven by his emotions.
Most of the time though, Abe is a humble man of hayseed roots, and as the rail-splitter becomes a lawyer, who then becomes a President, he remains humble. In spite of his incredible prowess at public speaking, it was normal in his speeches for Abraham to admit that he was a man of little education. He is also a little awkward, slightly aloof, and certainly shy. When he takes interest in Mary Todd, his friend, Joshua Speed, has to drag Abraham to a party in order to get him to talk to her. And even then, he’s a wallflower. He retreats to a couch as the other dance and mingle; a country kid amongst a sea of Springfield luminaries, munching away at hors d’oeuvres and sticking out like a sore thumb. Luckily, Mary Todd comes to him—the woman who is to become his wife. As a husband, Abraham is as committed as they come, and eventually gives up the hunter shenanigans in part to protect his new family.
Straightforward in his dealings, both openly compassionate and pragmatic, he is a man who instills a sense of trust. Restrained and reserved, yet possessed of quiet profundity: this is Abraham Lincoln.
ABILITIES
Abraham Lincoln is a fucking badass and Tim Berkmambetov has never heard of physics.
Even as a human he can keep pace with vampires, who are gifted with super strength and speed. He fights with prodigious skill and speed, managing at one point to massacre a room full of twenty vampires with only a few scratches and bruises to show for his effort. (Though it was harrowing during the thick of the battle, and he nearly did bite it.) He fells a mile-high tree with a single strike of his axe. In another scene, he even chases down a vampire by parkouring across a stampede of horses, leaping from back to back and managing not to die. And even when he's 50, Abe still has enough strength to slam his silver pocket watch into Adam and gouge a wound deep into his flesh. (I'll be playing him during his late-20s however.)
ITEMS
His silver-coated axe (that has a gun inside its handle), a silver-coated knife and his journal)
Though written by the same author, the novel and its movie adaption are markedly different, to the extent that they might as well be separate canons. However, what the novel provides is a fuller illumination of Abraham’s personality. Considering this, I may use some of the novel’s material to supplement my interpretation, and to further expand on the history of vampires in America. Main plot elements will remain separate, and no contradictory information will be used.
Legends say that vampires were born from an evil spirit, spread between maker and made. While other legends suggest that have always been separate creatures, created alongside men in the beginning; thereafter maintaining a tenuous and bloody coexistence with those who regard their existence as myth. And yet, stories of bloodsucking creatures tend to have more bite in Abraham’s universe. While most remain dubious, vampires are certainly more than simple superstition and folklore in a world in which unexplained and prolific murders, where bodies turn up dead and drained, are still reported occurrences. In the novel, a French immigrant describes the turmoil of Paris in the 1780s, in which every night “brought in new screams, and every morning, new pale eyed bodies on the street” (29). And there was “nary a person in France who had any doubt to the identity of their murderers—it was les vampires!”
Believers have considered vampires a “silent curse” in Paris for centuries, and it’s reasonable to assume that vampires don’t discriminate. The blood of the French was certainly as sweet as the blood of the Hungarian maidens sacrificed to the voracious appetite of Countess Elizabeth Báthory and her female partner. The two lovers were no different than vampires of earlier days, in terms of their bloody wants and needs. But whereas vampires have remained in the shadows for centuries, the Blood Countess made a circus of her indulgences.
Historically, vampires fed on the destitute and the sick, those whose deaths were easily forgotten. They feasted during times of war and revolution, using the bloody turmoil to cover their own murders, such as in the instance of post-revolutionary Paris. The Blood Countess, however, was hardly discreet—and it was only a matter of time until people took notice the murder of countless young, virgin girls. They were put to trial and sentenced to death. Those who knew of the truth of their existence were struck by a fever. They hunted vampires mercilessly in droves until many vampires were forced to seek asylum in America in the 1600s, contiguous with the early days of European colonization.
In these rich and vast lands, vampires feasted on natives and colonists without repercussion. However, their migration was not simply for the sake of survival. They were led by a vampire named Adam, purported to be the first of their kind, who sought to make a nation of vampires in this new land. As colonies developed into bustling cities and revolution swept the land, vampires blended into human society as they had done in their native Europe. They were land owners, lawyers, pharmacists, and even politicians. It was easy for vampires to masquerade as humans, appearing no different from their human counterparts.
You would think that vampires would be mankind’s common enemy. Alas, that’s definitely not the case. To maintain a low profile, vampires took advantage of America’s most abhorrent system. They made devil’s deals with plantation owners, monsters cavorting with monsters, offering their alliance in exchange for the blood of slaves—the weak, the sick and the old. Some even become owners themselves. They could feed in the shadows, while maintaining their public personas. This alliance would prove to be crucial during the Civil War.
Adam saw their rise to power as only a matter of time, as vampires gained stronger influence human society. Under this new nation, all men would be slaves, because vampires were meant to have control, just as all humans were meant to be subjugated. Just look at the food chain! Alas, Adam could have never anticipated that a boy of humble roots would become a prodigious hunter. That he would one day become president and abolish the system that kept his kind satiated. Most of all, Adam could have never foreseen how Abraham Lincoln would drive vampires from America, and take his life with his bare hands.
It all started when Jack Barts ate Abraham Lincoln’s mother.
Personality:
If it wasn’t obvious enough, the book is historically inaccurate, and the movie is even more so. (It’s extremely inaccurate, actually) Abraham’s sister doesn’t get a mention, nor his step-mother and step-siblings, and it seems like he only has one son out of the four he should have. And that’s only the big facts. I’ll try to reconcile small inaccuracies as best as I can, but where it’s logically / chronologically impossible, the inaccuracies will be treated as canon
THE REAL LINCOLN
The movie paints an idealized portrait of Abraham Lincoln, depicting a hero’s tale akin to the Lincoln taught in American grade school.
Though Abraham certainly abhorred the system of slavery, some argue that he was not a true abolitionist until later in his presidential term. He sought to stymie the spread of slavery, but was also forced to toe a precarious line in a nation already fractured between the North and the South. Some historians say that abolishing slavery was not his intent when first entering the office. As Frederick Douglass, a close friend of Lincoln, states in his Oration: “he was ready and willing at any time during the first years of his administration to deny, postpone, and sacrifice the rights of humanity in the colored people to promote the welfare of the white people of this country.” (In the sense that doing so would keep the nation together). But as we all know, the country nevertheless descended into war regardless, and it wasn’t long before Lincoln gave his Emancipation Proclamation, and only as he got older did he become strong proponent of equal rights. Let’s not even get started on the movie’s simplification of the civil war…
However, I’m not applying President Lincoln as we know him, but Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter; and as such, I’ll be basing my interpretation of his personality exclusively on canon material.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN: VAMPIRE HUNTER
Abraham is the type of person who stands up for his convictions regardless of the repercussions. Compassion comes easy to him, as natural as his own pulse. Even as a boy, Abe doesn’t have to think twice before rushing to his friend’s defense against a cruel landowner and vampire, Jack Barts. (An event that would be his mother’s death knell) For his friends, he would endanger himself to save their lives, proven again later on when an adult Willie is kidnapped by Adam and Abraham faces a pack of vampires to save him. It’s this innate compassion, only bolstered by his Baptist upbringing, that allows Abraham to see beyond the ignorance that plagues America, and as he grows older, to become aware of the plight of those affected by cruelty and prejudice. In reality, slavery wasn’t the only impetus that began the civil war, but in the movie, Abraham makes it clear that the war is a fight for the soul of the nation. For righting grave injustices, and in turn, smoking the vampires out of their hole. As his mother says to him in the first scene of the move—“'til every man is free, we are all salves.”
However, Abraham didn’t start out with dreams of becoming president and abolishing slavery. From the time he was a boy, he sought only a singular goal: to avenge his mother’s death. So intent was he to seek retribution that he would challenge a monster when he could barely fire a gun. He’s the type of person who can be dogged to the point appearing single-minded. Once Abraham seeks to get something accomplished, he won’t back down—a symptom of both perseverance and obstinacy. However, it’s this stubbornness, an unwillingness to accept failure, that continually allows him to achieve great things.
Just observe the course of his life:
As a young man, Abraham escapes his first fight with Jack Barts by a hair, but his intent to destroy him is ever the same and he commits himself to becoming a vampire hunter. While training to fight in the dark, Henry beats him bloody, to which Abraham says again. And despite having no formal education, he manages to self-study and become a lawyer. Later on, he loses his first bid to Illinois State legislature, but that doesn’t deter him from trying again. Even in the toughest hours of the civil war, after his son is murdered by the hands of vampires, and hundreds upon hundreds of boys have already died, Abraham refuses to concede. If they already got this far, they had to keep going, for their sacrifices should not be in vain. His doggedness makes for perseverance and it is his most dangerous weapon, honing his skills and fashioning Abraham into a legendary hunter and politician.
Though some may call this bravery, others might deem it reckless and short-sighted. Abraham can certainly be both, since stubbornness doesn’t come without drawbacks, especially when coupled with youth. Abraham Lincoln is definitely an impatient and emotional young man in his younger years, which equates to a tendency to be rash. At one point, Henry has to slam Abraham’s head into a counter to stop him from chasing after Barts when he spies him at a local tavern. He knows Abraham isn’t ready, determination outpacing his abilities, even if his student can’t see it for himself.
Many tend to idealize Lincoln, when history tells us that he was still a man given to his own faults and prejudices. Progressive for his age, but hardly perfect. There’s an echo of this in the movie and the book, though the latter gives us more insight into his personality as a child.
He possesses a quick mind and a large heart, but in his worst moments he is angry, vengeful and downright self-righteous. For example, the novel shows a resentful Abraham who hates his father until his death. After Thomas Lincoln tells him of how he watched his grandfather get attacked by a vampire, he then learns that a vampire had also murdered his mother, the penalty for Thomas Lincoln’s unpaid loan. Instead of sympathy and understanding, this inspires resentment at his father’s cowardice—his father's inability to fight back, to do anything to save either of them; for being a man with little ambition, earning barely enough and never more to support his family. A self-righteous judgment, but a lasting one that an older Abraham comes to regret after his father’s death.
In the movie only Nancy’s plotline is played out, and even that’s changed though she remains collateral for Thomas’ loan. Given the altered circumstance, Abraham probably didn’t feel the same resentment toward his father since Nancy’s death was indirectly his fault, though they weren't exactly close. (In the case of the movie, most of his anger was focused on his own inability to protect his mother as he watched Jack Barts consume her.) Nonetheless, what the novel shows us is Abraham’s capability for anger and how enduring it can be. But this anger is the spark that incites his decision to kill Jack Barts—to destroy all the vampires he can, in both version of the story.
"Judge us not all the same,"Henry tells Abraham. Both vampires and men can be monsters, but not every man and vampire is a monster. For all his compassion, Abraham is merciless toward vampires and struggles to see them as people. Even Henry isn’t excluded from his wrath. In both the novel and the book, upon discovering that his mentor is in fact a vampire, his first reaction is to destroy him—and in the movie, he nearly does. Never mind that Henry saves his life, never mind that this man is practically his brother. He’s angry that Henry deceived him (in the movie); moreover, he’s blinded by his all-encompassing hate for vampires, despite Henry’s advice that strength is not born through hate, but truth. In other words, Abraham is like many young men—hot-headed, tempestuous and often driven by his emotions.
Most of the time though, Abe is a humble man of hayseed roots, and as the rail-splitter becomes a lawyer, who then becomes a President, he remains humble. In spite of his incredible prowess at public speaking, it was normal in his speeches for Abraham to admit that he was a man of little education. He is also a little awkward, slightly aloof, and certainly shy. When he takes interest in Mary Todd, his friend, Joshua Speed, has to drag Abraham to a party in order to get him to talk to her. And even then, he’s a wallflower. He retreats to a couch as the other dance and mingle; a country kid amongst a sea of Springfield luminaries, munching away at hors d’oeuvres and sticking out like a sore thumb. Luckily, Mary Todd comes to him—the woman who is to become his wife. As a husband, Abraham is as committed as they come, and eventually gives up the hunter shenanigans in part to protect his new family.
Straightforward in his dealings, both openly compassionate and pragmatic, he is a man who instills a sense of trust. Restrained and reserved, yet possessed of quiet profundity: this is Abraham Lincoln.
ABILITIES
Abraham Lincoln is a fucking badass and Tim Berkmambetov has never heard of physics.
Even as a human he can keep pace with vampires, who are gifted with super strength and speed. He fights with prodigious skill and speed, managing at one point to massacre a room full of twenty vampires with only a few scratches and bruises to show for his effort. (Though it was harrowing during the thick of the battle, and he nearly did bite it.) He fells a mile-high tree with a single strike of his axe. In another scene, he even chases down a vampire by parkouring across a stampede of horses, leaping from back to back and managing not to die. And even when he's 50, Abe still has enough strength to slam his silver pocket watch into Adam and gouge a wound deep into his flesh. (I'll be playing him during his late-20s however.)
ITEMS
His silver-coated axe (that has a gun inside its handle), a silver-coated knife and his journal)