Male Oppression in Carmilla

The novella Carmilla, written by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu, presents a female vampire who begins a peculiar relationship with her victim: instead of treating the young Laura just as prey, Carmilla tries to befriend her. For the female vampire, sucking blood is not enough; she must enter her victim’s private life, becoming a part of it. However, that intimacy, homosexual in its nature, is considered the most egregious crime by the male figures of the narrative, who do not hesitate to violently reject the vampire’s behavior, fighting to maintain their hold on the feminine.

As is typical of the Victorian vampires, Carmilla calls forth what is considered unspeakable for its time. Through her relationship with Laura, she animates an element of homosexuality: from the places she bites Laura – the breasts – to their dynamic of trust and mutual comfort, the two characters quickly become more than friends, forming a strong bond with sexual connotations. Carmilla, therefore, represents transgression fully, bringing that forbidden sexual behavior to life both symbolically and physically – a behavior so unspeakable that even Laura, who is closer to it than anyone else, discovers herself incapable of saying it out loud in front of her father.

Although the vampire considers this homosexuality natural – for she thinks that everything comes from nature – the father figures of the story strongly disagree with her, instead seeing Carmilla as a threat to their families. They basically form an erotic triangle between Laura and the vampire, fighting for control over the girl’s sexuality. This group of men treats Carmilla’s vampirism as a disease – indirectly putting homosexuality in the same condition – and their solution is not even a cure, but extermination: violence, for them, is the only reasonable solution for sexual transgression.

The power of the novella comes from the fact that even though they succeed in murdering Carmilla, Laura still thinks about her, through reveries, when she imagines the vampire visiting her at night so many years later. In other words, the male figures can oppress, silence, and even kill, but are still unable to vanquish the vampire’s influence on Laura: the desire that Carmilla represents and embodies still endures through time.

December 12, 2024.