A Vampire Woman
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ScribdTranslationsA vampire woman.
Carmilla
Literature is a constant back and forth of influences, plagiarisms, and rewritings.
which it is almost always possible to find background and references, even in
the case of the most recognized masterpieces. The famous Gothic novel Dracula
(1897) is a perfect example: one of its clearest and most important influences,
written 25 years earlier, is the short novel Carmilla, by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu,
Irish writer who today is forgotten. Few people know that before the
Count Dracula, archetype of the modern vampire and an unavoidable reference when
talks about these supernatural beings, there was a young woman named Carmilla, a
female vampire with homosexual preferences.
Sheridan Le Fanu studied law, and later dedicated himself to journalism and to
writing. Born in Dublin in 1814, descendant of playwrights and parents of a
notable literary culture. After numerous narrative attempts and being a director
from various newspapers in Ireland, he gained recognition for one of his most notable works.
achieved, Carmilla (1871); of her favorite genre, horror and mystery fiction,
achieve a little-known job today, a piece that will unleash creation of
one of the central myths of the 20th century: Dracula, the vampire.
Thus, Carmilla tells the story of Laura, a young English girl who lives with her father.
in a castle located in Eastern Europe. One day, a cart overturns in front of
his house. The victims of the accident are two noble women: Carmilla, a young woman, and
her mother, who asks Laura's father to take in her daughter, because she has to
to urgently continue her journey, of which she gives no further details; the woman promises
return for her in three months. The relationship between Laura and Carmilla seems like that of two
young friends, but little by little Laura (the narrator of the story) begins to
to perceive that Carmilla feels strongly attracted to her; in addition to that, her
behavior is very strange: sleeps all day and explodes in sudden attacks
about anger from time to time. Shortly after, Laura falls ill and her father
he begins to wonder what is happening to his daughter, since the arrival of Carmilla,
Laura begins to suffer from discomfort and nightmares. The story comes to its end.
when the family discovers the true identity of the strange visitor, which is
actually a noble vampire, Millarca Karnstein, who would have died over 100 years ago
years ago and has fallen in love with Laura.
Fitzgerald, funeral from Carmilla
There are differences and similarities between Carmilla and Dracula that are worth noting.
rescue: in this last one the vampire is a man, whereas in the first one it is a
young woman; however, in both cases it is about a noble. Although in the
the second one is about a "heterosexual" vampire, in the first one we find a
vampire with lesbian preferences. Among the transpositions of one novel to another,
Van Helsing becomes Baron Vordenburg (both experts in vampires and
characters who ultimately solve the final mystery of the narrative), Lucy is
Carmilla (these, both, have rosy cheeks, slender, languid, with eyes
large and fleshy lips that fall into frequent states of sleepwalking)
Innocent Mina embodies Laura. One of Carmilla's victims is a young woman.
called Bertha Rheinfeldt, a character that precedes Renfield, the man whom
hypnotically enslaves Count Dracula. On the other hand, the two works
they are narrated in the first person in the form of a diary and correspondence, a
a recurring characteristic of gothic narrative, which could even remind us of
Henry James and his famous novella The Turn of the Screw. Finally, the two
the works are located in the same region of the old continent: the first in Styria, and
although the second ended up located in Transylvania, in the early manuscripts
From Bram Stoker, the story of the vampire count took place in Styria.
Carmilla is not a particularly well-known or studied novel as a work
master of literature, is not even considered a notable gothic tale - a
despite possessing many of the typical elements of its genre and having influenced a
of the great masterpieces of Western literature. However, it has been
object of the adaptation of several films, among which Vampyr (1932) stands out
from Danish Carl Dreyer or Blood and Roses, from French director Roger Vadim. There are
also numerous comics, animes, television series, and video games that make
reference to this narrative or are directly based on it.
Descendant of myths, legends, and rituals, from all the peoples of the earth and of
all times, from Hindu tradition to Babylonian epics, the
The vampire archetype has mapped the relationship of man with nature,
death and her own body. However, Carmilla is more than all that, for
it raises, for the first time, in very much accordance with the claim of femininity
modern and the variety of sexual preferences, a vampire who seduces a
woman. It breaks yet another taboo of modernity and perhaps explains why the
The word that opposes 'puritanism' is libertinism, which comes from the word freedom.