Carmilla

Though there are many aspects of the novel that I found to be fascinating, the relationship between the characters Carmilla and Laura was what I found to be the most intriguing. I have to say that I was quite surprised by the relationship between the two characters, especially when you take into account the fact that Le Fanu’s novel was not published until 1872. I did not believe that such open allusions to homosexuality, if any, were made in literature at that time. To be honest when Le Fanu first began to describe the two characters relationship I thought that I was imagining the less than innocent infatuation the two characters had with each other. However, it soon became clear that I was in fact not hallucinating and that Carmilla’s open displays of affection for Laura bordered on lesbianism. “Sometimes after an hour of apathy, my strange and beautiful companion would take my hand and hold it with a fond pressure…It was like the ardour of a lover… and her hot lips travelled along my cheek in kisses; and she would whisper, almost in sobs, “You are mine, you shall be mine, you and I are one for ever.” (Ch. 4)

Though the feelings were not returned as affectionately by Laura, her vivid accounts of her dreams were more sexually charged that anything else in the story. “Certain vague and strange sensations visited me in my sleep…they left an awful impression, and a sense of exhaustion, as if I had passed through a long period of great mental exertion and danger... Sometimes there came a sensation as if a hand was drawn softly along my cheek and neck. Sometimes it was as if warm lips kissed me, and longer and more lovingly as they reached my throat, but there the caress fixed itself. My heart beat: faster, my breathing rose and fell rapidly and full drawn; a sobbing, that rose into a sense of strangulation, and turned into a dreadful convulsion, in which my senses me and I became unconscious.” (Ch. 7)

While Carmilla’s displays of affection were sensual, Laura’s feelings for Carmilla were of an entirely different nature. “I felt rather unaccountably towards the beautiful stranger. I did feel, as she said, 'drawn towards her', but there was also something of repulsion. In this feeling, however, the sense of attraction immensely prevailed.” (Ch. 3) Carmilla’s supernatural hold on Laura was not quite strong enough to deter Laura’s own doubt as to Carmilla's insanity and to her motives. Having said that, Carmilla did still possess great power over Laura and in doing so was able to constantly draw Laura to her, resulting in Laura’s feelings toward Carmilla to be continually conflicting throughout the story. “I experienced a strange tumultuous excitement that was pleasurable, ever and anon, mingled with a vague sense of fear and disgust. I had no distinct thoughts about her while such scenes lasted, but I was conscious of a love growing into adoration, and also of abhorrence.” (Ch. 4)

While the relationship between Laura and Carmilla does seem to be romantic, I do not believe that it was so much the intention of the author to portray a lesbian couple, as it was to portray Carmilla’s supernatural seduction of her victim Laura. Although Carmilla did show blatant sexual advances toward Laura in her conscious and even unconscious state, and made professions of love toward Laura numerous times, I cannot help but think that her motives for such actions were solely for the acquisition of Laura’s blood. It was clear from the beginning that Carmilla was not in the her full strength and I believe it is why she pursued Laura in the manner in which she did, instead of taking her at once and bleeding her dry as vampires are known to do. Similarly, it is obvious that Laura’s feelings for Carmilla were a direct effect of her supernatural seduction and in her own mind she was actually repulsed by Carmilla and her advances.

It seemed that although the story was not set in Ireland, rather a place in Austria, the devastation that the vampires brought upon Styria was reflective of the effects of the famine that was plaguing Ireland at the time. Allusions to this can be seen in the meek population of Styria, “I have said 'the nearest inhabited village', because there is, only three miles westward… a ruined village...Respecting the cause of the desertion of this striking and melancholy spot, there is a legend which I shall relate to you another time.” (Ch. 1)

Another aspect of the novel that I found interesting was the role of the men in the story. I don’t know if it was just me, but I found the men in the story to be very emasculated. They all seemed to share a very submissive quality, always following the orders of the women, which I found to be very strange, like the theme of homosexuality, for the time in which the novel was written. What do you guys think; did you find the roles of the males and females were switched in the novel?