29 pages • 58 minutes read
Joseph Sheridan le FanuCarmilla
Fiction | Novella | Adult | Published in 2012A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Black Cat/Beast
Carmilla has the ability to transform herself into a large black cat or beast. In this context, the cat may be read as symbolic of hidden libidinal desires. The cat is an animal and thus instinctual; its desires are not filtered through conscious human thought. The cat is compulsive and has a “lithe, sinister restlessness of a beast in a cage” as it paces about the room (49). As an emblem of base instinct, the energies of the black beast cannot be fully controlled (caged) at all times, nor can these energies be fully understood by the consciousness, as they are shadowy and indistinct, just like a “sooty-black animal” (46) that is “indistinctly seen” (82).The beast’s “cage” is consciousness, but it is let loose during the night, when the unconscious has free reign.
Cleopatra’s Asp
In a room in Laura’s schloss there is “somber piece of tapestry […] representing Cleopatra with the asps to her bosom” (24). Besides referencing Carmilla’s vampiric attacks on Laura, the tapestry also has something to say about the nature of conscious choice in the novella. Cleopatra’s suicide by snake was an act directed consciously upon herself. The tapestry is “opposite the foot of the bed” and thus is associated with the sleeping state. If one considers Laura’s incipient vampirism as not being real, but instead a metaphor for her repressed unconscious desires, then the tapestry is a metaphor of Laura’s unconscious‘choosing’ of vampirism. In the unconscious state of sleep, Laura’s unconsciousness is choosing to allow Carmilla’s bite, just like Cleopatra chooses reflexive self-harm in the tapestry. In short, the tapestry adds weight to the argument that Laura’s story is not real, and that it is instead an expression of a mind made mad by psychological repression of desires that it cannot face consciously.
The Schloss
There are multiple schlosses in Carmilla: Laura’s father’s, the General’s, Count Carlsfeld’s, and the ruined Schloss Karnstein. They act as nodes of civilization: Laura’s father’s schloss is full of luxury and Carlsfeld’s schloss is used to host an extravagant ball. The horrors and/or superstitions of vampirism are supposed to be without the bounds of the schloss’s walls; it is in the countryside villages where reports of vampires are heard. Nevertheless, though a schloss is an actual castle with real fortifications, it cannot keep the vampire from penetrating its defenses. In fact, it is from these centers of civilization that the plague of vampirism arises: Carmilla is actually Countess Mircalla of Schloss Karnstein. Vampirism, then, can be read as not a superstition of the common people, but as an outgrowth of the luxury of the upper classes. The end result of this luxury, perhaps, is ruin and destruction, as represented by the ruined Schloss Karnstein.
Mircalla’s Portrait
A portrait of Mircalla, Countess Karnstein, is discovered in Laura’s father’s schloss. Since Carmilla is truly Mircalla, the portrait represents how Carmilla is trapped by her vampirism. Like her portrait, she can never age or change. She is doomed to always remain the very same forever.Furthermore, Laura is actually related to Mircalla: “I am descended from the Karnsteins; that is, mamma was” (42). The portrait was long stored away somewhere in the schloss and the dredging up of the portrait may be interpreted as a metaphor for Laura bringing up elements of her own unconsciousness that have long been repressed. In this way, Mircalla’s portrait is to the schloss as Carmilla is to Laura’s psyche. Carmilla emerges out of Laura’s psyche in the way that Mircalla’s portrait emerges out of the dark and disused rooms of the schloss.
Carmilla/Millarca/Mircalla
Baron Vordenburg says that the vampire Mircalla was “limited” to anagrams of her original name, and that it is a “special conditio[n]” of her vampirism. According to the Baron, Carmilla appears to be restricted by some force; she is not in total control of her decisions. The changes Carmilla can go through are only illusory: the basic existence remains the same. In dying, she was denied the transformation promised in the Christian afterlife and was instead doomed to remain a dissolute Karnstein.She may attempt to be something else but is always under a compulsion she cannot control. However, this is only if the Baron’s expert opinion is correct. It could be that Carmilla changes her name only enough to avoid detection, and that she would keep the name Mircalla if it were practicable. Thus, her usage of anagrams is an instance of her pride in what she is.
