Theme Of Displacement In Carmilla By Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu

The emergence of a distinct Irish gothic literary genre is often claimed to have stemmed from Irish Protestant social and political anxieties. Killeen cites Foster’s argument that “there is an intrinsic connection between a growing sense of Irish Anglican political and social displacement and a turn to writing gothic fiction” (Killeen 2014, 47). This theme of displacement can be examined in Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla and by exploring the text whilst also taking into account the context of the time we can reveal Le Fanu’s use of displacing the events of nineteenth century Ireland and instead replacing them with an eastern European vampire tale in order to portray the political events of the time through forms of “displacement and projection”

(Ferris, 105).

In exploring the theme of displacement in Carmilla it could be argued that the story’s setting, Styria is simply a displaced version of Ireland, implying that the descriptions of the settings and locations of the novel are in fact comments on nineteenth century Ireland. Laura describes Styria as a “lonely and primitive place, where everything is so marvellously cheap” (Le Fanu, 4). This could be a metaphor for the financial opportunities Ireland offered to the protestant gentry through land and property and the wealth protestant landlords found there and the description is almost third world, describing a “primitive” country and perhaps reflecting a stereotypical nineteenth century view of Ireland. There is also reference to Laura living in a castle, which is arguably symbolic of the big house era in Ireland, and a sense of issues of ancestry, inheritance and legacy in the novel which follows W.J McCormack’s argument that “one of the most common plot devices in the Irish gothic is disputed inheritance, and that this reflects the unease of the Protestant landed gentry, particularly as to the legitimacy of their tenure” (cited in Kilfeather, 91)

Le Fanu’s gothic tale of Vampirism, it has been pointed out by Robinson, is similar to the 1885 Punch cartoon which depicted Irish Nationalist, Charles Stewart Parnell as a vampire who “hovers menacingly over a recumbent figure of Ireland- Hibernia” (Robinson 172.). This personification of abstract political concepts or even nations as figures of young women was a common satirical method at the time used in both media and literature such as Magnan’s Dark Rosaleen. It could be argued that Le Fanu displaces political concepts and religions, instead using the symbols of women as well with his portrayal of both Laura and Carmilla. If we examine the possible evidence in the novel of displacement of Irish Catholics and the Anglo-Irish to Carmilla and Laura it could be argued that Le Fanu is mirroring the popular satirical illustrations of his day in publications such as Punch. The concept of Laura and Camilla as satirical symbols is reinforced in the fact that their physical appearances are described in more detail than the other characters in the novel.

The pure and young Laura, raised in relative isolation and with the Protestant religion, could arguably be viewed as representing nineteenth century Anglo-Irish Protestants as a way to “articulate their feeling of increasing marginalisation as the nineteenth century progressed and more and more power was transferred to Irish Catholics” (Killeen, 101). Le Fanu displaces the Irish Protestant increasing feelings of marginalisation from colonial Britain and replaces it with Laura who lives in a “very lonely place” (Le Fanu, 5) and feels similar seclusion. This loneliness, Killeen argues, leaves Laura vulnerable to attack (Killeen, 105) and this may be reflective of the vulnerability of Irish Protestants to attack from their new Catholic counterparts.
Further allusions to the Anglo-Irish is the “desire to retain English ethnicity and English identity” (Killeen, 102) exemplified by Laura’s English father and his efforts to preserve the family’s English identity by encouraging the speaking of English daily “partly from patriotic motives” (Le Fanu, 6).This joint Anglo-Styrian identity of Laura’s family may reflect the joint Anglo-Irish identity of Irish Protestants. In this sense, Le Fanu displaces the combined identity of the class to which he belonged (Killeen, 101) and instead gives Laura an Eastern European joint identity.
Caught in between- the joint nature of Laura’s national identity portrays a sense that she is caught between nationalities just as Irish Protestants (Killeen, 107).

Similarly, Carmilla is caught in between the states of living and dead, “the features, though a hundred and fifty years had passed since her funeral, were tinted with the warmth of life” (Le Fanu, 92). This reoccurring theme of emotional, physical and mental limbo could be another example of Le Fanu’s use of displacement regarding the state of ‘in between’ felt by many Irish Protestants at the time. This Anglo-Irish aristocracy felt both in between Irish and English with regards to national identity and also felt caught in between the transition of changing times which brought with it an increase of power for Irish Catholics such as in municipal government (Killeen 2014 , 47), causing unease for the Anglo-Irish

gentry.
Towards the end of the book, after she has been bitten, Laura begins to fade away and the life source seems to drain from her; “an idea that I was slowly sinking took gentle, and somehow, not welcome, possession of me” (Le Fanu, 50). Here Le Fanu may be implying a connection to the “slipping away” (Killeen 2014, 47) or dwindling of power away from Irish Protestants and towards the new emerging Catholic middle class.

The character of Carmilla is portrayed in a very different sense to Laura and she seems to pose a deadly and monstrous threat to Laura’s well-being. Here Le Fanu may be employing the character of Carmilla as a personification of the threat posed by increasing Irish Catholic power to the Anglo-Irish way of life enjoyed by the landed Protestant gentry.
Carmilla is a member of the undead, she continually rises from the dead even after over a hundred years and Killeen describes her as “a remnant of the past come back to destroy the present” (Killeen, 104). This concept of a resurrection from the grave could be a reference by Le Fanu to the Irish Catholic aristocracy which appeared to rise from the dead during the nineteenth century after being displaced from Ireland during the Williamite wars (Killeen, 105) and the fact that a portrait of Carmilla from 1698 is mentioned in the novel seems to be a direct reference to this displacement, further arguing that Carmilla is a symbol of the resurrected Irish Catholic gentry (Hansen, 56)
Carmilla is portrayed as almost hunting her victims; she prowls the countryside carrying out attacks in order to feed.

This may be reflective of violent attacks carried out by Irish nationalists during the Fenian rising of 1867 and the increasing level of agrarian unrest and riots that followed the foundation of the Irish National Land League (Clark, 420) and so here there may be further evidence for Le Fanu’s use of the theme of displacement.

Killeen argues that Carmilla’s inability to walk far without feeling weak is Le Fanu’s displacement of the Irish Famine and suggests that Carmilla is a continuation of a tendency to portray the Irish Famine through the images of starving and weakened women (Killeen, 108). This suggestion that Carmilla symbolises a Catholic Irish population haunted by the famine is further implied if we take in to account the fact that Carmilla never seems to eat in the novel; “she would then take one cup of chocolate, but eat nothing” (Le Fanu, 31).

The reoccurring motif of dreams, nightmares and visions could also arguably be Le Fanu’s incorporatin of the theme of displacement in the novel. The use of dreams “collapses distinction between reality and fantasy” (Hansen, 53) and Carmilla’s appearance in Laura’s dreams implies a reference to Irish Nationalist ideology lulling the Irish people “in to dreams of Nationalist independence from England” (Robinson,

172).

Some reasons why Le Fanu may have used such displacement throughout Carmilla and not simply have the story be about Ireland are offered by Foster, who claims that the theme of displacement and the Irish gothic genre grew from “escapism motivated by the threat of a takeover by the Catholic middle class” (cited in Merritt, 649) and also by Walsh, who writes “displacement (or dislocation) is a characteristic of Gothic fiction as a method to avoid criticism or condemnation for discussing taboo or potentially treasonous subjects” (Walsh, 3). Taking these statements in to account, it is possible that Le Fanu used the setting of Styria and the characters of Laura and Carmilla as a means of writing about political and social conflicts and anxieties that were very much still on going at the time of writing. It is perhaps also possible that Le Fanu employed the theme of displacement in order for the novel to appeal to a mass audience. However in examining the details of Carmilla there is no doubt that many aspects of the novel seem to mirror that of nineteenth century Ireland, particularly its political climate at the time. From exploring the novel it would seem then that there is some truth to Hansen’s claim that Le Fanu’s work is “an allegory of the basic Anglo-Irish colonial dynamic” (Hansen, 53) and that La Fanu skilfully employs the theme of displacement in Carmilla with many political implications.