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"Carmilla"

CAROL A. SENF (ESSAY DATE 1987)

SOURCE: Senf, Carol A. "Women and Power in 'Carmilla.'" Gothic New Series 2 (1987): 25-33.

In the following essay, Senf considers the characterization of women as both victims and victimizers in "Carmilla."

Although Joseph Sheridan LeFanu (1814–1873) wrote eighteen books and numerous short stories, he is remembered today primarily as a writer of Gothic tales, such as Uncle Silas and "Carmilla." In "Carmilla," the most overtly supernatural of these Gothic tales, the title character is actually a centuries old vampire, who—unlike Charlotte Brontë's Bertha Mason or George Eliot's Bulstrode, characters who resemble the vampire—literally returns from the grave and sustains her unnatural existence by drinking human blood. Despite the presence of the supernatural in "Carmilla," however, LeFanu uses the vampire motif...

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1. Introduction
2. Principal Works
3. Primary Sources
   1. Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu (Story Date December 1871–March 1872)
4. General Commentary
   1. T. W. Rolleston (Review Date 26 February 1887)
   2. Victor Sage (Essay Date 2004)
5. Title Commentary
   1. "Carmilla"
   2. Robert F. Geary (Essay Date 1999)
6. Further Reading