Carmilla Literary Analysis

Gothic literature can be recognized not just by the date of its publication, but by some of the distinguishing characteristics it contains. For example, much of gothic literature goes into extensive detail when describing the setting, especially the houses in the story. A lot of times those houses are crumbling, used as a metaphor meant to enlighten the reader as to the mental state of one or more of the characters. Other characteristics of gothic literature include the presence of a doppelganger, or an exact copy of oneself, existing and haunting their life, and vampires, who are supposedly created by improper burial, preservation powers of blood, and the transference of blood from one person to another. The domestic gothic takes household items such as toys, furniture, and kitchenware and makes them scary in some way. Sometimes instead of inanimate objects, domestic gothic literature uses people such as babysitters, nurses, and governors. The gothic as a genre represents darkness, negativity, paranoia, hysteria, delusions, morality, social transgressions and more. It tends to aim more for realism for the purpose of being able to go further into detail and provide more solid sensory details in an effort to provide a strong suspension of disbelief. In Carmilla, there are moments when the reader may notice that there’s a lack of …show more content…
In the period of time Carmilla was supposedly missing, Laura was screaming for help, pounding on Carmilla’s door, and shouting her name, before she finally had the men come and break the door open, only to worsen Laura’s distress when noticing that the bed appeared unslept