Andrea Dunn
English 263
Booker
Online Artifact: Carmilla
Joseph Sheriden Le Fanu’s vampire classic, Carmilla, was published in 1872 at the height of an epidemic. That epidemic was Consumption, later renamed Tuberculosis (TB). By the early 1900s, TB had claimed the lives of more than 40% of the population in major European cities. Dictionary definitions of consumption can be traced back to the 1300s, although the disease has now been traced to 3000 BC. In his article “Scientists diagnose first case of tuberculosis in Iron Age man,” Steve Connor, Science Editor of The Independent, explains the significance of this find:
“DNA tests confirmed the presence of the TB microbe in the man’s spinal bones… Until now the earliest case of TB in Britain was in a skeleton dating from the 1st century. The latest find proves the disease had been in Britain long before the Roman crossed from Gaul. ‘It indicates that even in a remote rural settlement the disease was here centuries before the Roman Conquest,’ says Simon Mays, a specialist in human skeletal remains at English Heritage” (The Independent).
The significance of this find, debunks all previous beliefs about the origins and transference of TB from animal to human. It also highlights that TB was a disease that affected all nations regardless of population or development. It was believed that TB originated in cattle and only affected developed cities like London and Paris. In the article “A Short Account of Tuberculosis in Ireland 1850-1990,” A. Barr discusses the effect TB had on Ireland. He discusses statistics, and more importantly the lack of documentation and census taking in Ireland (under British rule mind you). Barr suggests that TB hit Ireland harder than almost any other European country is the surrounding area but that political authorities were unmotivated to take national measures against the disease. Barr explains “until 1900 little action was taken by the State to combat the disease.” Additionally, he equates living conditions in Ireland with TB outbreaks,
“Many attempts have been made to explain the excessive tuberculosis mortality to which Ireland is subject, but perhaps no single factor contributed so much to this cause as the appalling conditions under which the Irish peasants lived…. In all there were 1,328,839 inhabited houses of which 77 percent were mud cabins having only one room” (58).
According to Susan Sontag, author of Illness as metaphor: and, AIDS and its metaphors, TB is a disease of the lungs, with very extreme symptoms:
“TB is understood as a disease of extreme contrasts: white pallor and red flush, hyperactivity alternating with languidness. The spasmodic course of the disease is illustrated by what is thought of as the prototypical TB symptom, coughing. The sufferer is wacked by coughs, then sinks back, recovers breath, breathes normally, and then coughs again” (11).
While I don’t want to fill up my blog with her explanations of how TB manifests itself, I would highly recommend going to
and reading pages 11 through 14.
I do, however want to include one more thought shared by Sontag on page 13, “TB was-still is- thought to produce spells of euphoria, increased appetite, exacerbated sexual desire… Having TB was imagined to be an aphrodisiac, and to confer extraordinary powers of seduction.” Sontag’s suggestion of “hyperactivity alternating with languidness”, as well as her conclusion about the sexualization of the disease are two behaviors we see over and over again in Carmilla, played out in the two female characters Laura and Mircalla/Carmilla.
Beginning in the second chapter of Carmilla, people already begin to fall prey to disease and soon after perish. The first death in the area readers become aware of is Mademoiselle Rheinfeldt (66). On the following page, Laura reads a letter written by General Rheinfeldt, in which he writes, “Before then I had no idea of her danger. I have lost her, and now learn all, too late. (…) The fiend who betrayed our infatuated hospitality has done it all. (…) I thank God my child died without a suspicion of the cause of her sufferings. I devote my remaining days to tracking and extinguishing a monster” (67-68).
The reader does not know the significance or meaning of this letter upon the first read through of Carmilla. We know now the “monster” was in fact the vampire Mircalla and that Mademoiselle’s symptoms leading up to death were actually symptoms of TB. In various parts through Carmilla, we observe symptoms of illness that are caused by a vampire, and that the vampire in the story is really consumption.
Last week I referenced the book Blood Read: The Vampire as Metaphor in Contemporary Culture, by Joan Gordon and Veronica Hollinger. If you google “vampire as metaphor for tuberculosis” the majority of essays, critiques, and reviews will credit a very specific passage from Blood Read that compares symptoms of disease with visuals we normally associate with vampires;
“Our next group of essays reads the vampire as a metaphor for consumption. In the nineteenth century, to look back again, the vampire functioned as a natural metaphor for the symptoms of tuberculosis: consider its associations with wasting, with paleness, with the flow of blood from the mouth, night restlessness, alternate burning and chills, even with the victim’s rumored sexual energy” (6).
Blood Read is essentially a collection of essays, and one essay of fascination is “My Vampire, My Friend: The Intimacy Dracula Destroyed, “ by Nina Auerbach. It’s a fascinating read on the sexual power and achievement “Carmilla” had by making the vampire a woman instead of a man. (If only I had picked that for my online artifact!)
What’s fascinating about Carmilla is that not only do those in close proximity to Mircalla begin to experience the fear, dread, and physical aliments of being affected by a vampire, but also Mircalla herself has the symptoms associated with TB.
An example of Mircalla/TB:
1. SEXUALà “ ‘In the rapture of my enormous humiliation I live in your warm life, and you shall die-die, sweetly die- into mine. I cannot help it; as I draw near to you, you, in your turn, will draw near to others, and learn the rapture that cruelty, which yet is love; so, for a while, seek to know no more of me and mine, but trust me with all your loving spirit.’ 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” (107).
2. PHSYICALà “She used to come down very late, generally not until one o’clock, she would then take a cup of chocolate, but eat nothing; we then went out for a walk, which was a mere saunter, and she seemed, almost immediately, exhausted, and either returned to the schloss or sat on one of the benches (…) this was a bodily languor in which her mind did not sympathise” (112). And again on page 137, “ ‘There is nothing ever wrong with me, but a little weakness. People say I am languid; I am incapable of exertion; I can scarcely walk as far as a child of three years old; and every now and then the little strength I have falters, and I become as you have just seen me, But after all I am very easily set up again; in a moment I am perfectly myself’’ (137).
In each of these passages Mircalla has behaviors and characteristics that Sontag claims are classic folklore representations of TB, including exhaustion, weak lungs, the coming and going of symptoms, polarizing sexual energy, and of course the act of passing on TB, or in the case of Carmilla, vampire induced illness! This is demonstrated a little further in the reading, “It was now three weeks since the commencement of this unaccountable state. My sufferings had, during the last week, told upon my appearance. I had grown pale, my eyes were dilated and darkened underneath, and the languor which I had long felt began to display itself in my countenance” (160).
Folklore often deals with mysterious and supernatural ways of explaining the unknown. Depending on the culture and time, just about any major event, whether social, economic, or political has been represented in some way. For Carmilla, the vampire is that representation.
WORKS CITED
Gordon, Joan, and Veronica Hollinger. Blood Read: the Vampire as Metaphor in
Contemporary Culture. Philadelphia, Pa.: University of Pennsylvania, 1997. Print.
llness as Metaphor ; And, AIDS and Its Metaphors. Doubleday. Web. 2 Mar. 2010.
Barr, A. "A Short Account of Tuberculosis in Ireland 1850-1900." Irish Journal of
Medical Science 21.2 (1956): 58-67. SpringerLink. 21 Oct. 2008. Web. 2 Mar.
2010.
Le, Fanu Joseph Sheridan. In a Glass Darkly. [S.l.: S.n.], 1977. Print.
Scientists Diagnose First Case of Tuberculosis Is Iron Age Man 12 Dec. 2002. The
Independent. Web. 3 Mar. 2010.
Drea,
ReplyDeleteI found your blog to be quite interesting. A completely different perspective than most have considered, but with your discussions; it makes sense.
As a nurse, I'm pretty familiar with TB and find it interesting that Sontag comments,
“TB was-still is- thought to produce spells of euphoria, increased appetite, exacerbated sexual desire… Having TB was imagined to be an aphrodisiac, and to confer extraordinary powers of seduction.”
This is quite obviously a myth/misconception since TB symptoms don't produce euphoria except perhaps in the very, very late stages which may be due to lack of oxygen to the brain and could possibly produce hallucinations. As for appetite, the opposite is found as people with TB lose their appetite and I have never heard of TB causing hypersexuality. Other diseases like neurosyphilis can cause hypersexuality and mood changes.
Either way though, I do see this as a very interesting portrayal of consumption and quit possible since as I did read the 19th century literature and society did indeed romanticize this disorder. I did read more of Sontag's book, "Illness as metaphor: and, AIDS and its metaphors" and found it quite fascinating and very eye opening about the way we regard disease. Thanks for the suggestion.
Ironically after reading more about neurosyphilis, I find it interesting that the symptoms associated with this disease actually fit better with the descriptions listed in "Carmilla", but that's a whole other issue and topic to explore.