Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla Analyzed Through Freud’s Psychoanalytic Criticism.
In Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla we can see Freud’s Psychoanalytic Criticism in use with Laura and Carmilla. As the story unfolds Fanu’s slowly reveals more about Carmilla and Laura and we get a better understanding of the girls secret unconscious desires and anxieties. Through Freud’s Psychoanalytic Criticism the story takes on deeper meaning, from the conscious to the unconscious. Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla explores the unresolved emotions, guilts, and ambivalences of two young girls who’s desires for each other grow fonder.
At the beginning of the story, we meet Laura, who narrates the story of her and Carmilla’s time together. In the beginning of her story she …show more content…
The unresolved emotion of fear lingers with Laura throughout the story until she meets Carmilla for the first time. After meeting Carmilla she learns that Carmilla also had a dream of her when she was a child, about six years old and what once terrified her now attracts her with her beauty and dark passionately gazing eyes. Halfway through the story we see a sense of guilt come from Carmilla as she plans to pursue her mother and leave Laura. Carmilla’s feeling of guilt arises with her affection for Laura and knows she will cause her harm in the future. As Laura’s father insists she stays Carmilla’s guilt subsides and her thirst for pleasure strengthens. Throughout the story the ambivalence between the two girls is indubitable. In the beginning both girls are terrified of each other from …show more content…
Laura who loses her mother at a young age and Carmilla who has known her mother for longer than Laura has been alive have different female role models in their life. Laura not having a real motherly figure in her life is obsessed with having female companionship, she counts the days until the general’s daughter visits and is disappointed when she finds out she’s not coming and later when she’s dead. This longing for female company that she never received as a child blinds her to the fact and makes her look the other way when Carmilla kills the local villagers. As Laura desires and relationship with Carmilla grows, she turns her cheek so many times that she doesn’t care that Carmilla is the reason why she feels ill. Carmilla being older than she looks is experienced with winning the affection of the innocence and becomes the dominant in their relation. As Carmilla feeds her desire to kill she slowly works Laura making the end feeling so much more gratifying. Carmilla knowing her intention is to kill Laura, she does it with a slow knife to bring more satisfaction. Laura is visited by Carmilla in her dreams, but these dreams are Carmilla’s reality, connecting the two to the unconscious and conscious that Freud speaks about. Laura feels, a feeling of water moving against her as she baths in the river and what she feels as pleasant in reality is draining her energy of
In Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla we can see Freud’s Psychoanalytic Criticism in use with Laura and Carmilla. As the story unfolds Fanu’s slowly reveals more about Carmilla and Laura and we get a better understanding of the girls secret unconscious desires and anxieties. Through Freud’s Psychoanalytic Criticism the story takes on deeper meaning, from the conscious to the unconscious. Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla explores the unresolved emotions, guilts, and ambivalences of two young girls who’s desires for each other grow fonder.
At the beginning of the story, we meet Laura, who narrates the story of her and Carmilla’s time together. In the beginning of her story she …show more content…
The unresolved emotion of fear lingers with Laura throughout the story until she meets Carmilla for the first time. After meeting Carmilla she learns that Carmilla also had a dream of her when she was a child, about six years old and what once terrified her now attracts her with her beauty and dark passionately gazing eyes. Halfway through the story we see a sense of guilt come from Carmilla as she plans to pursue her mother and leave Laura. Carmilla’s feeling of guilt arises with her affection for Laura and knows she will cause her harm in the future. As Laura’s father insists she stays Carmilla’s guilt subsides and her thirst for pleasure strengthens. Throughout the story the ambivalence between the two girls is indubitable. In the beginning both girls are terrified of each other from …show more content…
Laura who loses her mother at a young age and Carmilla who has known her mother for longer than Laura has been alive have different female role models in their life. Laura not having a real motherly figure in her life is obsessed with having female companionship, she counts the days until the general’s daughter visits and is disappointed when she finds out she’s not coming and later when she’s dead. This longing for female company that she never received as a child blinds her to the fact and makes her look the other way when Carmilla kills the local villagers. As Laura desires and relationship with Carmilla grows, she turns her cheek so many times that she doesn’t care that Carmilla is the reason why she feels ill. Carmilla being older than she looks is experienced with winning the affection of the innocence and becomes the dominant in their relation. As Carmilla feeds her desire to kill she slowly works Laura making the end feeling so much more gratifying. Carmilla knowing her intention is to kill Laura, she does it with a slow knife to bring more satisfaction. Laura is visited by Carmilla in her dreams, but these dreams are Carmilla’s reality, connecting the two to the unconscious and conscious that Freud speaks about. Laura feels, a feeling of water moving against her as she baths in the river and what she feels as pleasant in reality is draining her energy of