Before Bram Stoker made love (or hate) for Vampires mainstream, a 100-page story by Sheridan Le Fanu, written in 1872, laid the foundation for Dracula.
Carmilla is a gripping gothic tale steeped in darkness, cold, and death. It begins innocently enough, but even then, the sense of anticipation of something about to go wrong is palpable.
The opening lines that describe the estate and its location set the tone for horrors that will unfold.
Nothing can be more picturesque or solitary. It stands on a slight eminence in a forest. The road, very old and narrow, passes in front of its drawbridge, never raised in my time, and its moat, stocked with perch, and sailed over by many swans, and floating on its surface white fleets of water lilies……The forest opens in an irregular and very picturesque glade before its gate, and at the right a steep Gothic bridge carries the road over a stream that winds in deep shadow through the wood.
Just as one is settling into this remote and deceptively beautiful place, Laura, the narrator and heroine, experiences an extraordinarily chilly encounter of the supernatural kind. From that point onward, there is never a dull moment in the book.
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The central theme of the text is the relationship between Laura and their surprise visitor, a young and beautiful girl named Carmilla, and how she changes Laura’s life.
Laura, who leads an almost solitary existence with her father and governesses, is really excited to have a companion of her own age finally. The friendship is clearly homosexual, most definitely from Carmilla’s side. Deprived of friends and besotted with Carmilla’s beauty, Laura enjoys the affectionate gestures of her new friend, but gets uncomfortable with the wild expressions of passions. If there are any doubts about the nature of their relationship, lines like these will remove them.
Shy and strange was the look with which she [Carmilla] quickly hid her face in my neck and hair, with tumultuous sighs, that seemed almost to sob, and pressed in mine a hand that trembled. Her soft cheek was glowing against mine. “Darling, darling,” she murmured, “I live in you; and you would die for me, I love you so.”
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During Carmilla’s stay, strange things transpire in the village, and Laura’s health begins to decline. Now, because readers know that this is a story about vampires, the events don’t seem as puzzling. As Laura describes her strange experiences, the plot gives itself away:
Certain vague and strange sensations visited me in my sleep. The prevailing one was of that pleasant, peculiar cold thrill which we feel in bathing….… 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 longer and more lovingly as they reached my throat, but there the caress fixed itself.
The rest of the story is the unraveling of the cause of Laura’s troubles, and the truth about Carmilla and her past, which, though predictable, makes for quite horrific reading. Lonely castles, female victims, old family portraits, missing maternal influence — the classic gothic checklist is all here.
It’s interesting to observe that beyond the supernatural elements and obvious gothic elements of the story there is something to be said of the portrayal of women.
So while Mr. Le Fanu takes the enterprise of writing the story in a female voice, he essentially sees the world from a male’s point of view. The female characters are either victims or devils, or as important as the furniture in the room. The saviors are all men, of course.
That brings me to the important point of why did Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu choose to write a gothic tale about lesbian vampires? Was he basically just giving in to the male fantasy of watching two women get it on?
P.S. — Apart from being one of the earliest novels about Vampires, Carmilla also seems to have laid the foundation of how ghosts will be represented in stories and televisions for years to come. Read on and tell me if you don’t agree!
The room was lighted by the candle that burnt there all through the night, and I saw a female figure standing at the foot of the bed, a little at the right side. It was in a dark loose dress, and its hair was down and covered its shoulders. A block of stone could not have been more still. There was not the slightest stir of respiration. As I stared at it, the figure appeared to have changed its place, and was now nearer the door; then, close to it, the door opened, and it passed out.
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4 comments
Sounds like a scary read. I think I should pick up some horror novels to read next.
It’s scary but not the lose-your-sleep-at-night scary which is why its also fun
hmmm..sounds like the movie The Ring. Oh well I’ve added it to my TBR. Hope to pick it up sometime this yr. 🙂
Interesting..why the Ring?