Dracula And Le Fanu's 1872 Carmilla

In response to a period full of rapid social changes and technological progress, apprehension about the future of English society arose. Oftentimes, such misgivings spilled into literature, posing the extreme cases of a particular concern, which is why vampirism is utilized as a vehicle to explore nineteenth century anxieties, before becoming quickly extinguish, in Bram Stoker’s 1987 Dracula and Le Fanu’s 1872 Carmilla. Both literary works feature a titular character who subconsciously embodies social angst. While Dracula follows a series of accounts concerning a proud, vampiric count and his attempt to subjugate mankind and Carmilla is presented as casebook entry in which a woman narrates her encounter with a predatory, yet affectionate vampire,

both works feature similar and common anxieties rooted in historical conditions, including women and female sexuality, maintenance of the current social standing, and reevaluating religion in a time of scientific discovery. Furthermore, the form in which the texts are presented allows for a separation between the writing and the creator, authorizing a new space where the writer can safely, even if indirectly, confront concerns with the power to quickly resolve them.

The presence of vampires most notably attempts to answer, “the woman question”. “The woman question” was a term that was originally employed to refer to the debate on whether women should be permitted to study in universities. Quickly, the term came to encompass a much larger debate, including what should a woman’s role is society be, both economically and politically, how should women’s seemingly inherent composition be categorized, and on social and sexual reform. The most divisive of these broad areas was the issue of marriage and female sexuality. Stoker’s Dracula raises this issue early on as vampires are used to delineate the “improper” female characteristics that should be met with the equal amount of abhorrence one should give to a nefarious supernatural creature. In Dracula’s castle, Jonathan encounters three vampiric women who boldly advanced towards him, taking charge of his company. One of the women is described as having “. . . deliberate voluptuousness which was both thrilling and repulsive” (Stoker 42), rather than possessing a passive, modest state that was acceptable. The women-vampire’s overt sexual potency is portrayed as equivocal to an unsettling predatory gaze, making them both captivating and repulsive. Sexual desire was ascribed as a luxury reserved for men, or even a state women, if ever, rarely felt, and therefore detrimental to express it. Even the suggestion of the vampire women’s sexual security, in which they take control of an intimate encounter with a man, is an affront to the prescribed social views that women should be unassuming and virtuous. Worse still, the women present a threat to the male protagonist by creating temptation. Johnathan is not held to the same level of accountability, since it is not on him to resent temptation as it is for the women not to create temptation. Essentially, an unabashedly sexual woman is a monster. This idea is further expanded in Lucy Westenra’s ultimate demise.

As a human, Lucy receives three marriage proposals, scandalously joking to her friend in a personal letter, “Why can’t they let a girl marry three men, or as many as want her, and save all this trouble?” (Stoker 65).

Lucy enjoys the attention of her male suitors and even indecently jokes about polygamy, expressing a hidden want for sexual autonomy. Once Dracula arrives in England, Lucy becomes his initial target. Lucy’s sleepwalking shapes her into an ideal victim, as she is exposed in a vulnerable state in which her subconscious yearnings are more accessible and she is also physically available to Dracula. For her break of social protocol, she is transformed into a vampire, characterized by “voluptuous wantonness” (Stoker 231). She becomes even more beautiful in her undeath, in a state where she can embrace her sexuality, which enforces the belief that visible sensuality in women is unorthodox. In addition, the traditional view of what a woman should be, a nurturer, mother, and wife, is drastically inverted for a woman who does not wish to stay confined. Lucy is denied the opportunity to be married and instead develops into a child-feasting fiend. Her susceptibility to seduction is punished with an unnatural, vulgar monstrosity. Subsequently, Lucy is finally killed and reverted to her original, pre-vampiric state, when her fiancee, the male figure she was to be subordinate to, stakes her. This action cements a patriarchal figure’s control over Lucy once again, who only then, can be returned to a peaceful state of purity, while the other two prospective suitors watch as Arthur exert his dominance over Lucy. Comparatively, the female character who survives the Dracula’s tactics is Mina who does not succumb by maintaining the socially demanded

virtues.

In Carmilla, Laura’s encounters with eponymous vampire have sexual undertones. Laura recounts the close physical affection Carmilla would give to her, “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 . . .” (Le Fanu 106) and compared her passion to that of a lover, even wondering at one point if Carmilla was a male suitor in disguise, unable to understand Carmilla’s strong affection. Eventually, Laura comes to feel equal parts aversion and attachment for Carmilla, expressing how her ardor made her uncomfortable. In a time where it was normalized for middle class women to have close relationships, often romanticized, female same-sex desire was often overlook or not considered plausible at all. Scholars cite the reason that lesbianism was never made illegal in Britain like male homosexuality is that women were either not considered capable (such as an rumor antidotal that Queen Victorian rejected legislation on the grounds that it simply did not exist) or it was too delicate of a subject to bring up. In the text, the socially deviant behavior, that by never explicitly expressed is telling of how it was designated as even unmentionable, is exhibited by a monster. Even Laura, who displays an ambivalence towards Carmilla’s attention, is forever altered by her experience and never full recovers, dying by the time her account reaches the initial narrator. She, after coming into contact with abnormal behavior, is not allowed to reintegrate into society.