Carmilla Literary Elements

Gothic novella

Styria, a remote region in Austria; 19th century

Laura gives her first-person narration to Doctor Hesselius. His papers are being put together by an aide, who narrates the prologue.

Tone: foreboding, gloomy, anxious, speculative, grave

Mood: dreary, gloomy, threatening, lonely, brooding

The protagonist of the story is Laura, and the antagonist is Carmilla/Millarca/Mircalla.

Will Laura discover that her new companion is actually a vampire, and will that vampire be destroyed?

The General lunges at Carmilla, who becomes fiendish and powerful in her rage and evades his weapon. The General then tells Laura definitively that Carmilla is Millarca, or Mircalla, the vampire who killed his niece and has been ravaging the region.

1. Mademoiselle De Lafontaine speaks of the supernatural nature of the moonlit night, foreshadowing something spooky and magical to come. This is right before Carmilla arrives.
2. The older lady gives Carmilla "a glance which I fancied was not quite so affectionate as one might have anticipated from the beginning of the scene" (9), which foreshadows the knowledge that they are not actually mother and daughter.
3. In Laura's first meeting with Carmilla, she feels a twinge of repulsion amid her attraction, foreshadowing that all is not right with her new friend.

N/A

1. Laura calls the different languages spoken in her home as a "Babel," an allusion to the biblical tower of Babel (2).
2. Laura's father quotes Antonio from Shakespeare's "Merchant of Venice" (7).
3. On the wall of Carmilla's room in Laura's castle is a painting of Cleopatra and her asps, which is the way the Egyptian queen killed herself.

The imagery regarding Carmilla juxtaposes her beauty, charm, and gentility with what we know of her true, undead, and bloodthirsty identity. The imagery of the schloss and its surroundings focuses on its loveliness and loneliness, its isolation, its picturesque and awe-inspiring natural beauty; this place is a perfect place for a vampire due to its remoteness and sublimity.

"I was conscious of a love growing into adoration, and also of abhorrence. This I know is paradox, but I can make no other attempt to reconcile the feeling" (Laura, 16).

Laura's experiences with Carmilla mirror Bertha's with Millarca—the seduction, the languor, and the fading.

N/A

1. "... a cruel love—strange love—that would have taken my life" (Carmilla, 26).
2. "... but dreams come through stone walls, light up dark rooms, or darken light ones" (Laura, 26).
3. "Only a fever passing through, or some other malady, as they often do, he said, knocks at the door, and not being able to get in, passes on, with that alarm" (Carmilla, 28).
4. "... angrier passions seemed to have had their share in bringing it about" (Laura 37).