This week I had to look to other students blogs as well as do some external research because while I really enjoyed the story, and picked up on the more than obvious sexuality, I didn't really connect it to a meaning or representation or metaphor pertaining to Irish culture. Thankfully Colleen posted those guidance terms/ideas and it led me to some interesting websites. I'll list some of them for you-
http://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/folklore/vampire-folklore.html
http://www.irelandseye.com/aarticles/history/events/dates/emanc.shtm
http://www.irelandseye.com/aarticles/history/events/dates/emanc2.shtm
Whether or not those websites qualify as "scholarly" has yet to be determined... Additionally, I referred to the book Blood Read: The Vampire as Metaphor in Contemporary Culture edited by Joan Gordon and Veronica Hollinger.
For me, Carmilla was a love story for the soul, and not at all "lesbian". The connection that Laura and Carmilla experienced was physical, mental, emotional, other worldly. I don't like to use the idea of Lesbian undertones, because I think there's a certain attitude associated with such a label, and clearly the love and desire was so animalistic and pure that it can't be defined by a label. Gothic literature often touches of powerfully dramatic feelings and emotion, and how delicious that Carmilla could provide so much classic text!
The first time we're introduced to the uncontrollable attraction is when Carmilla and Laura share their dreams from years ago, confirming that somehow they are kindred spirits meant to be.
" 'I wonder whether you feel as strangely drawn towards me as I do you; I have never had a friend-shall I find one now?'....... Now the truth is, I felt rather unaccountably towards the beautiful stranger. I did feel, as she said, 'drawn towards her,' but there was also something of repulsion. In this ambiguous feeling, however, the sense of attraction immensely prevailed. She interested and won me; she was so beautiful and so indescribably engaging" (Ch. 3).
In a matter of days their connection turns into a kind of unbreakable enslavement, and the mental intimacy they share starts to manifest in holding hands, kissing, and head laying.
"She used to place her pretty arms about my neck, draw me to her, and laying her cheek to mine, murmur with her lips near my ear,'Dearest, your little heart is wounded; think me not cruel because I obey the irresistible law of my strength and weakness; if your dear heart is wounded, my wild heart bleeds with yours. In the rapture of my enormous humiliation I live in your warm life, and you shall die-die, sweetly die- into mine.'..... And when she had spoken such a rhapsody, she would press me more closely in her trembling embrace, and her lips in soft kisses gently glow upon my cheek" (Ch. 4).
I find that passage, probably the most poetic and best description of the binary forces of their soulful connection. Laura is falling more and more in love, Carmilla seems to be feeding off that connection.
In doing independent research I did find some information about the vampire being metaphor for tuberculosis, and that made total sense to me. I read somewhere that TB claimed up to 30% of the population in major cities, like Paris, in the 1800s. Since it's easier to blame others for illness, and families not wanting to be stigmatized as being associated with someone with consumption (much like GRID/AIDS in the 80s), I guess I could understand why it was easier to explain a vampire lurking in the night waiting to fester on women and children. :)
Hello,
ReplyDeleteI found it very interesting that you descried Carmilla's seduction as being very animalistic. Like Marie pointed out to me, "Carmilla essentially 'stalked' Laura as though she were her prey and perhaps it's with that animal instinct that her fascination for Laura played out in what appeared a sexual fashion, like a Lion or Cat playing with it's 'catch' before it finishes it off. After all, Le Fanu offers this description in one of Laura's "nightmares"
Viewing Carmilla's seduction and her expression of love in terms of coming from a "monster" that stalks its prey...maybe Le Fanu presents female empowerment or independence as being negative. This was a perspective I failed to see. However, as readers, I still think Le Fanu leaves the themes and subject matter very open ended.
Like Colleen said, "Because Carmilla is a "monster," her aggression and more "male" characteristics are "sanctioned" in that form. It allows Victorian readers to play with ideas of female empowerment and sexuality without really having to commit to it. Consider Carmilla's literary "cousin" Dracula and the uber-Victorian female characters who can "play" at being assertive and sexual in their vampire form. As readers, we get to play with them!"
I think that despite what Le Fanu's intentions were, the novel remains ambiguous and is open to interpretation of its audience no matter what time period it is written. Also like you asked, here is a site that briefly discusses female sexuality in the Victorian era:
http://www.cwrl.utexas.edu/~ulrich/femhist/sexuality.shtml
third eye, interesting link there. I have to agree with Drea that we shouldn't be too quick to label what occurs between Laura and Carmilla as "lesbian." As third eye's link reveals, Victorians could barely conceive of women as being "sexual," much less liking each other! Furthermore, I think terms like "lesbian" or "gay" set up a discourse that can be limiting in regards to exploring the very real (and very gray) range of sexual experiences that occurs within our lives that might exist "outside" language. But it is true that *something* homoerotic is happening in this novel. Perhaps instead of focusing on the homoeroticism itself, we could focus on what it might signify. We see a lot of homoeroticism in Irish literature, and I wonder if the "play" of gender roles is really a more general "play" on identity. Because gender is the "ultimate" construction of identity, this play, to me, might also be working to destabilize our ideas of nation and nationality. On other student blogs, students have suggested that Carmilla could be representative of the British sucking the life out of Ireland OR that Carmilla is symbolic of the dispossessed Irish. Either way, it's interesting to me to see how Carmilla makes those comments that seem to be about "blurring" boundaries--I live in you, you live in me, etc, and as Drea quoted above, "In the rapture of my enormous humiliation I live in your warm life, and you shall die-die, sweetly die- into mine.'...." There's also the significance of both girls being in each others' dreams--again, a blurring of boundaries. I wonder, then, if some of the gothic "anxiety" inspired by this story has something to do with Anglo-Irish Ascendancy fears of "blending" with their Irish colonial subjects (?).
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you on your views of the homosexual theme. While a lot of other readers have seemed to come to that conclusion (and with good evidence to back it up, I can't say they are way off base, it is just what they took from it) I believed from the start as well that it was not so much two women who loved each other, but more as you described as "animalistic". Carmilla being non-human, I couldn't justify labeling her as lesbian, because that is, after all, a term only humans are classified as. As far as Laura's attraction, I saw it more as her falling into Carmilla's magnetism, which I felt was out of Laura's control. I believe that as a vampire, Carmilla did not have to try hard to lure her pray- it was a part of her natural talent. This idea is strengthened for me during Laura's tale of her "nightmare" when she was six. Here she states,
ReplyDelete"I saw a solemn, but very pretty face looking at me from the side of the bed. It was that of a young lady who was kneeling, with her hands under the coverlet. I looked at her with a kind of pleased wonder, and ceased whimpering. She caressed me with her hands, and lay down beside me on the bed, and drew me towards her, smiling; I felt immediately delightfully soothed, and fell asleep again."
Any normal child, upon seeing a strange person at her bedside, would not succumb to easy feelings so quickly. Obviously, we would not label the child as lesbian, but she seemed to be strongly attracted to Carmilla in this instance, just in a way appropriate with her age, whereas once she’s older, Carmilla has to reel her in a different way. This was part of Carmilla's power.
I think what I was trying to saying about why we shouldn't label the dynamic between Carmilla and Laura as "lesbian" was worded best by Colleen, "I have to agree with Drea that we shouldn't be too quick to label what occurs between Laura and Carmilla as 'lesbian.' As third eye's link reveals, Victorians could barely conceive of women as being 'sexual,' much less liking each other! Furthermore, I think terms like 'lesbian' or 'gay' set up a discourse that can be limiting in regards to exploring the very real (and very gray) range of sexual experiences that occurs within our lives that might exist 'outside' language. "
ReplyDeleteWhat I was trying to convey, was that because women weren't really counted as people with their own set of sexual feelings, and because terms like lesbian and gay didn't exist or have the same connotation as they do today we cannot define the relationship as "lesbian."
Also, when I was talking about a animalistic relationship, I didn't necessarily mean because Carmilla was non-human; rather the chase, emotional roller coaster ride, and later physical acts were uncontrollable and somewhat instinctual, like a raw and natural thing, you know? But I definitely smiled at third eye's comment about a Lion playing with it's prey.