(Sheridan, 2013)Carmilla is one of the first stories, if not the first, concerning vampirism. Written by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, an Irish writer who is often compared to Edgar Allen Poe, this novella was originally published in 1872, thus predating in fact a full twenty-five years before Bram Stoker’s famous tale ’Dracula’, which is heavily influenced by Carmilla. It tells the story of a young woman's susceptibility to the attentions of a female vampire named Carmilla and the story is thick with
come out at night? By disguising themselves with the use of costumes and performance, vampires such as Lestat and Carmilla are able to infiltrate human society and prey from within. Whenever it is to fit in or to help them prey by dressing up, acting a certain way or living in a proper house, vampires are able to survive. But sometimes they don't need to act. Both Claudia and Carmilla simply use their venerable appearance to get close to their victims. If there's one thing that vampires across
The Lilith in Dracula, Carmilla, Christabel, Geraldine and The Hunger For centuries Lilith, the Queen of the Night, has been blamed when a child or man dies without certain cause or when a woman refuses to be submissive to her husband. While the Legend of Lilith is not widely known today, it is not difficult to find information about the demoness. However, there are slight variations found from story to story. Here we will focus on the myth as found in Hebrew mythology, and we will particularly
Bram Stoker and Sheridan Le Fanu’s texts, Dracula (1898) and “Carmilla” (1872), use gothic tropes in similar ways to captivate readers with horror and terror. This essay will illustrate how, in comparison, both texts include gothic tropes: the New Woman, sexuality and setting, in order to provoke emotions and reactions from the readers. To achieve this, this essay will focus on the women that challenge traditional gender roles and stereotypes, and deconstruct each text in regards to the very strong
Victorian gothic story, “Carmilla,” not only challenges typical Victorian gothic, but also breaks the barrier in a society where lesbianism is considered a taboo. Through “Carmilla,” Le Fanu breaks the barrier in society for lesbianism in the 19th century by challenging three important things: traditional vampire traits, role of women, and religion.
writers or generic conventions, but vary aspects of it in significant ways.” (Clayton, 155). Sheridan Le Fanu’s, Carmilla, Bram Stoker’s, Dracula and Elizabeth Kostova’s, The Historian, clearly engage in this intertextual exchange, as evidenced by their use of narrative structure, striking character parallels and authors choice of language. Published in 1872, Le Fanu relates the story of Carmilla from a first person point of view, through four distinct perspectives. The first narrator, an unnamed assistant
Victorian Sexuality in Stoker’s Dracula, LeFanu’s Carmilla, and Polidori’s Vampyre Literature is representative of the time in which it is produced. Literature can reflect societal views, attitudes, and fears.Vampire literature, in particular, often represents the fears of a society.In the Victorian Era, a time of intense sexual repression, it was common for vampire stories to reflect the fear of sexuality that was rampant in society. Bram Stoker’s Dracula illustrated fears about sexual women
countryside, they become clearer when they are transferred to an Irish setting. During Le Fanu’s last years, his mind become almost completely occupied by the supernatural and all the short stories he wrote at this time were of that nature e.g. ‘Carmilla’ and ‘Green Tea’. His peculiar habits of life contributed to this obsession and there can be little doubt but that many of these weird tales came to him in the form of dreams. Brinsley Le Fanu, his son, gave S.M. Ellis an account of his daily routine:
narrator telling the audience about how different Count Dracula was from what he was used to back then. It was the nineteenth century, and, obviously, many things were not the way they are today. Instead of creating a gay vampire like the author of Carmilla chose to do, Bram Stoker decided to make Dracula this different-looking person by giving him some peculiar characteristics, such as pointing ears and massive eyebrows. Also, the Count has three brides, who are also vampires. Having more than one
The story of Carmilla begins when a carriage loses control and crashes near the castle where young Laura lives with her father. Inside, there is an unconscious woman, who is later revealed as Carmilla. Carmilla's mother convinces Laura's father to let Carmilla stay with them while she finishes her journey, so when Carmilla wakes up she is already under the custody of Laura's father. Carmilla is described as a beautiful and charming young woman and she and Laura immediately grow to be very close friends
attempt to discuss the two gothic tales ‘Carmilla’ and ‘Dracula’ in relation to cultural contexts in which they exist as being presented to the reader through the gender behaviour and sexuality that is portrayed through the texts. Vampire stories always seem to involve some aspect of sexuality and power. Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu wrote Carmilla. It was first published in 1872 as part of the collection of short stories titles ‘In a Glass Darkly.’ Carmilla predates the publishing of Dracula by 25 years
who, despite the passage of time, remains haunted by the memory of Carmilla: “[To] this hour the image of Carmilla returns to memory with ambiguous alterations– sometimes the playful, languid, beautiful girl…and often from a reverie I have started, fancying I heard the light step of Carmilla at the drawing-room door” (ch.16). At this stage, arguing that Laura was simply under the vampire’s hypnotizing effect is moot seeing as Carmilla is extricated by the end of the novella. She no longer Blank is suggesting
through the novels, the reader himself becomes the director creating different images in his mind. In the same way, while reading Carmilla, I, becoming the director, have chosen three songs (introduction, middle and climax part) that would fit in this novel; somehow giving the directions to the film. After Laura meets Carmilla, Laura begins to catch strange feelings for Carmilla; sometimes of love and sometimes of hatred. Laura says “I had no distinct thoughts about her while such scenes lasted, but I
censure. The most notorious killer of the time, Jack the Ripper, chose prostitutes as his victims, women of ‘sin’. Fear and vitriol for the minority persists to this day, exemplified by the continued exclusion of LGBTQ+ individuals from the mainstream. Carmilla, by J.S. Le Fanu, dares to challenge the expectations for female relationships of the era and surreptitiously attacks the concept of patriarchal
A. Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla are written very differently. Stoker chose to follow the storyline via journal entries and letters written by the characters, allowing us to see what is going on in the story from their points of view. This kept the audience from knowing more than the characters did and also showed the characters’ personal takes on the unfolding events. Le Fanu chose to show the story from the reflective writings of the main character, also limiting our knowledge
The source material used for “never quite sane in the night.” was the 1872 gothic novella “Carmilla”, a first person narrative from the perspective of Laura, the target and victim of a vampire. Taking inspiration from the semi-monologue style in which it was written, I created an episodic account of specific significant and reflective moments from throughout the lifetime of Carmilla, the novella’s love interest and antagonist. The time setting used to make the accounts accurate to the canonical
In Christina Rosseti “Goblin Market” and Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla, both authors mythologize homosexuality and the structures which hinder the agency of homoeroticism within the sphere of homosocial women’s relations; and in doing this, Rossetti and Le Fanu symbolize representations of these structures and shed a light on their society’s attitudes towards feminine desire, longing, and, ultimately, lesbianism. Their use of symbolism allegorizes their respective stories so to comment, or illuminate/challenge
each culture’s fears and fantasies are brought to life, made physical, and given uncanny independence (Cohen 4). All that is threatening and destabilizing to normal society is configured in the body of the vampire. In Le Fanu’s Carmilla, the monstrous vampire body of Carmilla is both eternally beautiful and monstrously corrupt. It is through this body that society’s anxieties of aging, beauty, and mortality are confronted and explored.
Psychoanalytic Criticism to Carmilla Vampire fiction is one of the most interesting genres in literature today. Every vampire story has a division between romance and death. When analyzing a gothic novella, the reader conveys feelings of suspense and thrill. There are many different literary criticisms that can be applied to vampire stories. When you study the literature extensively, you identify that the story isn’t just haunting undertones. Although the supernatural is illusory, many of the
a vehicle to explore nineteenth century anxieties, before becoming quickly extinguish, in Bram Stoker’s 1987 Dracula and Le Fanu’s 1872 Carmilla. Both literary works feature a titular character who subconsciously embodies social angst. While Dracula follows a series of accounts concerning a proud, vampiric count and his attempt to subjugate mankind and Carmilla is presented as casebook entry in which a woman narrates her encounter with a predatory, yet affectionate vampire,