The Figure of the Vampire in Le Fanu's Carmilla - Assignment Example

The Figure of the Vampire in Le Fanu’s Carmilla Literature Review Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's, Carmilla, have been written in 1872 during the Victorian era is among the oldest gothic novels of the vampire genre. The novel has aspects of both the traditional Gothic fiction as well as some Irish folklore and mythology since the author is Irish. Carmilla as the sole vampire in the novel is associated with the Irish mythological creature banshee by the author based on her relation with the victim's family. Like a banshee, Carmilla is a distant ancestress, which is the main reason she is attracted to the family. She has nocturnal habits, and she wears white garments that enhance her beauty even more. Like the ancient Irish folklore, Carmilla arrives at Laura's home in a carriage with a mysterious attendant. The element of lesbianism is strongly prevalent in the novel based on the time it was written. There is a strong sense of love between the vampire (Carmilla) and Laura. Perverse sexuality is common in vampire genre literature as authors’ associate true love with vampires since they live forever. Based on this, Le Fanu expresses a strong lesbian sexuality in his character, Carmilla, as she engages in the life of Laura. Generally, gothic literature is mainly concerned with transgression as evident in the novel. The crossing of boundaries or the commitment of transgression is what gives the characters their unique characteristics. In this novel, social boundaries, sexual boundaries, and an individual’s identity boundaries are transgressed giving the novel and the characters a sense of uniqueness. Given the nature of vampires as described in myths and folklore across different cultures, the vampire can be said to be the symbolic representation of transgressions in Gothic literature which is characterized by death and supernatural and the fear of the unknown and unexplained. This essay is aimed at determining the figure of the vampire in Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's, Carmilla, written in 1872 during the Victorian era. The vampire in Le Fanu's ‘Carmilla’ is portrayed as the epitome of youth and beauty. This is revealed from the novel, as she does not age; she is a vampire whose body does not age thus she always looks like a twenty-year-old. She is depicted as a distressed heroine who only needs affection and a sense of belonging thus her actions. According to the novel, Carmilla was a victim of a vampire in her life & thus turned into one herself meaning that she did not choose the life she has to live now. According to Le Fanu, Carmilla arrives at Laura’s house young and beautiful on a journey of life and death. According to this, Carmilla can be portrayed to have done her actions following unconscious actions thus she was helpless and very dependent on the goodness of other people. This can also be observed in the novel when Carmilla and Laura first meet. The novel states that Carmilla professes to Laura that she had seen her face once in a dream, which was the same dream that Laura had had. Le Fanu, through Laura as our first person narrator, describes Carmilla as beautiful and young. Throughout the novel, Laura refers to Carmilla as beautiful thus; it is clear that even Laura felt that the beauty of Carmilla needed to be recognized. “Beautiful stranger”, “She interested and won me; she was so beautiful and so indescribably engaging”, “Sometimes after an hour of apathy, my strange and beautiful companion would take my hand and hold it with a fond pressure.” - Laura The figure of deceit in Carmilla can also be observed. Although she was at first presented as a distressed heroine, Carmilla’s true nature is revealed later in the novel. Camilla was aware of her actions but was only playing along to gain trust and acceptance from Laura and the family. Carmilla’s deceitful nature can be observed as she convinces Laura to accept her as a friend. According to Laura, She felt a sense of horror as she connected Carmilla’s face to that of her childhood incident but she ultimately chooses to disregard her feelings of repulsion and accept the feelings of attractions. This decision was made based on Carmilla’s deceitful feelings of love and attraction towards Laura forcing her to accept a feeling that would be mutual as Carmilla was staying with them. The deceitful nature can also be observed throughout the novel since Camilla hides her real identity from everyone. She does not reveal to the family of her real nature and origin but deceives them by molding a character that would fit into the life of the family. Based on Carmilla’s actions of turning into a black cat and sucking blood from Laura, she is harmful to Laura. She hides her harmful nature and relies on deceit to get an opportunity to feed on Laura. Le Fanu portrays Carmilla as a figure of mystery. From the beginning of the novel, mysterious things happen. Carmilla is brought to the home by a carriage and a mysterious companion who is not revealed. The author through his literary powers has managed to keep Carmilla as figure of mystery. Le Fanu does not reveal anything about Carmilla leaving the audience in suspense. Camilla's personality is hidden leaving the audience in a suspense and anxiety. Through her portrayed image, she does not really shock or intrigue the reader as one would imagine but her personality is mostly a mystery even at the end of the novel. As Le Fanu has depicted, she is a vampire whose body does not age thus she always looks like a twenty-year-old and sensual. The entire novel is written in first person from Laura's point of view meaning that she could have presented her story with some hidden details, which remain a mystery, as she does not disclose them. Laura narrates the story approximately eight years after the events in the story occurred therefore we only know what Laura knows leaving everything else as a mystery. According to Laura, mystery was part of Carmilla based on her interaction with her and the conversations she had with her. According to Laura, Carmilla’s life was summed up into three vague disclosers: first was her name which she disclosed as Carmilla, second was that she was from a very ancient and noble family and third was that the direction to her home was to west. Camilla was so secretive that she could not even tell Laura what her family name was, the country she was from, the estate name nor the armorial bearings. Laura adds that most of the things that Carmilla told her amounted to nothing thus leaving her in the dark. Although she is diabolical, her image as presented by Le Fanu, does not present her as such. Carmilla’s history is hidden from us the details of what happened to her and who turned her into a vampire are hidden leaving a mystery. Regarding her relationship with Laura, she does not reveal herself and her identity to Laura. As she drinks Laura’s blood at night, she turns into a black cat; the mystery behind this is that we do not understand why she turns into a black cat and not another creature. Based in Le Fanu’s Irish descendent we can only assume that she turned into a black cat to depict the beliefs of the author and myths from the community regarding black cats. Generally, what we know about Carmilla is limited throughout the novel leaving mysteries such as what or who her mysterious attendants were, what caused them to serve her, where they went, were they also vampires, how and why was Laura picked, what later happened to Laura, did she turn into a vampire etc. Based on Le Fanu’s, the author’s, Irish descent, Carmilla can be described as the figure of a banshee (a female spirit perceived as the messenger of the otherworld and as an omen of death in Irish mythology). A banshee is associated with the death of the victim and other members of the victim’s family and people who closely associated with them. This figure of Carmilla is based on her acts; she constantly sucks blood from Laura causing her health to deteriorate. Although in Irish mythology the banshee is a ruthless and horrid killer, Le Fanu depicts Carmilla as a horrid but graceful killer. This can be attributed to the feelings that Carmilla has towards Laura. It can be argued that Carmilla shows gracefulness in her actions since she does not like what she is doing but has to do it to live because she did not choose that kind of life, or it be due to the strong, sensual feelings she has towards Laura. On the other hand, her graceful nature can be attributed to the need to keep Laura alive so she can feed on her for a longer period. Nevertheless, based on Carmilla’s mysterious nature, the truth behind her actions cannot be really linked. In most literature, the vampire is depicted as a sensual creature who gets his way through seduction and deception. In Le Fanu's Carmilla, the vampire is also depicted as a sensual creature. Carmilla seduces and deceives Laura into accepting her friendship and convinces her so much that she disregards her feeling of horror and resentment towards Carmilla and takes on the feelings of attractiveness. The sensual nature of Carmilla can be viewed throughout the novel. Through gossip, Carmilla manages to convince Laura and the people around her that she is harmless. She then uses the gained trust to plans and cultivated sensual emotions in Laura, who she speaks very highly of. Based in this, Laura grows to have emotional attachments to Carmilla thus; she is blinded from Carmilla's true intentions. Laura narrates “It was like the ardor of a lover; it embarrassed me; it was hateful and yet overpowering, and with gloating eyes she drew me to her, and her hot lips travelled along my cheek in kisses” Carmilla continued to show affection and sensual emotions towards Laura as Laura narrated. She would constantly tell her “You are mine, you shall be mine, you and I are one for ever.” Meaning that Carmilla had no plans of taking her life anytime soon due to the love she had for her. Vampires are depicted in this novel as a figure of diabolical engineerity. Carmilla uses deceit and seduction to have her way throughout her life as depicted in the novel. She pretends her whole life in the eyes of other people, but she has a diabolical plan to harm them. Throughout the novel, Carmilla acts as Laura's closest friend by engaging in gossip, dialogue and passing time with Laura while her true intentions are disguised. She uses the false profile to gain trust thus she is able to use Laura at night to feed and hence killing her slowly. Based on her diabolical nature, Carmilla is able to keep herself safe and avoid suspicion as she continues to live and feed on Laura. From the beginning of the novel, Carmilla plans to take Laura as her victim. She plans for the accident that happens near Laura’s home and her excuse for staying with the family. She even gets her attendant who pretends to be Carmilla’s mother to help her reach Laura’s house and talk to Laura’s father into looking after Carmilla until she can return to collect her. Based on these occurrences, it can be argued that vampires are creatures of diabolical engineerity who plan their movement in order to attain what they truly desire. The vampire figure expressed by Le Fanu’s, Carmilla, embodies characteristics of strong homosexual desires. Sex, as added by Le Fanu, is sinister and is not explicit through the novel. It is, however, present in the novel based on the frequent comments by Laura regarding Carmilla's beauty and the emotions in their friendship. It is full of acts of romance; constant kisses and caresses depicting a more physical relationship between the two. It can be argued that Carmilla's homosexuality can be expressed through her choice of victims as she chooses to prey on females although male victims would be easier to prey on through the seductive ways. Moreover, her homosexual characteristics are witnessed throughout the novel as she converses with Laura. Laura narrates that Carmilla would gaze at her face with languid and burning eyes while breathing so hard that her dress would rise and fall with the respiration. Carmilla would also kiss her on the cheecks in a sensual way. Based on this, it can be argued that Carmilla's actions exceeded the socially accepted norms of affection and sexuality thus placing her in the lesbian category. The sexuality of vampires, as depicted by Le Fanu, shows that the feelings that they have are strong depicting the epitome of true love. It can be argued that Carmilla's gracefulness while feeding on Laura and the constant engagement in dialogue and gossip with her to cover up for her actions are means for her to be with her. Her actions can be viewed as love with a twist since she has to live on blood thus she has to feed on Laura while still maintaining her love for her. Carmilla's love for Laura can be said to be true love and full of passion based on how Laura narrates. Carmilla tells Laura that she lives in her and that she would die for her because if how much she loves her. Carmilla's homosexuality can be explained as she is graceful and gentle towards Laura. She expresses great affection towards Laura. Although there are mixed reactions in Laura regarding the constant embraces and kisses from Carmilla, she then tends to have a soft spot for Carmilla. This shows that Carmilla's interactions with Laura increased the homosexual feelings in Laura leading her to feel the need to have a female companion. Laura narrates "In these mysterious moods I did not like her. I experienced a strange, tumultuous excitement that was pleasurable, ever and anon, mingled with a vague sense of fear and disgust." According to the novel, Carmilla only preyed on female victims where she kills many in just a few days but she serenades the few that she falls in love with in this case Laura. Conclusively, La Fanu’s depiction of the vampire in the novel, Carmilla, is similar to the depiction of vampires in most old gothic literature. Although there was an aspect of Irish mythology and folklore, the novel manages to portray the true image of vampires through Carmilla. La Fanu’s work is greatly enhanced by the use of Laura as the first person narrator. This ensures that the readers have a clear image of the figure of Carmilla through the eyes of the targeted victim while maintaining a sense of mystery in the novel. Compared to other gothic literature in the vampire genre such as Dracula, which was written later, Le Fanu’s figure of the vampire set the stage for the creation of vampires in literature. Reference list Davis, M. (2004). Gothic's Enigmatic Signifier: The Case of J. Sheridan Le Fanu's ‘Carmilla’. Gothic Studies, 6(2), pp.223-235. English.upenn.edu, (2015).Carmilla, by Le Fanu. 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