Carmilla

considered masters of horror. “The Fall of the House of Usher,” “Masque of the Red Death,” “The Raven,” and “The Black Cat” are all well known works written by Poe. These all have the traditional horror story elements, much like “Schaulken the Painter,” “Carmilla,” and “Green Tea,” which are works written by LeFanu. While both authors excel in horror, there are components to notice when studying their works. Poe and LeFanu both show an interest in the supernatural…

barely relevant and the actions made by his character seem unimportant, very much unlike a father figure normally acts. Madame Perrodon, and Mademoiselle De Lafontaie are just female counterparts created with the sole purpose of company, specially Carmilla, who of them all influenced Laura…

When the genre of horror was first introduced, it used the mind against itself instead of gory, jump scares that only lasted for a little while. The use of death and dying is a common idea that horror writers use to achieve the thrills they want their readers to feel. Edgar Allan Poe and J.S. LeFanu are two authors who have mastered the art of using the mind against itself in their horror stories. Writing in the same era, they both use the same techniques but with differing views on how the…

statements they would say to him while thrusting it into something, unknowingly being watched by Eli. Eli is captivated by Oskar’s internal struggles and his need for vengeance. She treats him differently than she would treat prey, unlike in Carmilla where Carmilla still fed on Laura without her knowing. The voices in The Voice wanted what was best for the speaker and found that they had things in common. To quote Charles Baudelaire, “I find an ineffable joy in the taste of harsh, sour wine; I…

When presented with the Labouchere Amendment in 1885, Queen Victoria refused to sign due to the references to lesbianism saying, “Women didn’t do such things”. It’s an entertaining story and yet, it’s a myth, one that began circulating in the 1970’s (“Background: Myth on Victorian and ban on Homosexuality”), and its popularity continues since it fits with the modern idea of prudish, sexually repressed Victorians. While we don’t know Queen Victoria’s views on homosexuality, we do know she had a…

androgynous vampire named Eli. Throughout the tale, Eli both terrorizes the community and becomes a savior figure for Oskar. On the other side, the story Carmilla is about a female vampire who befriends, seduces, and essentially uses the narrator Laura. The narrative of Carmilla implies that while the narrator, Laura, in hindsight sees Carmilla as a monster; there is still a sense of tenderness at the love bond that they shared. The Picture of Dorian Gray revolves around the love triangle of two…

Gothic horror is considered to be an offshoot of literary Romanticism, because of their having many traits in common. Both are focused on emotions and commenced in the 18th century as the objection to the Enlightenment and its significance of rationality. These genres were also inspired by medieval literary works and imported its typical settings, superhuman characters and appearance of preternatural events. Spiritualism, the faith that dead people’s spirits can contact with the living, thrived…

Lucy Westenra significantly differs from the above-mentioned examples of female predators. When the reader acquaints her, she is a human being – attractive, beautiful, fairly innocent and probably superficial but certainly not evil. One gathers that she is a close friend of Mina Murrey, albeit their strikingly different attitudes toward life and love – Lucy is adored by three men and her greatest bother appears which one to choose as a husband. The affairs get truly complicated when one…

previous fictional vampires and was improved to sound more nefarious than his models. His son, Irving Stoker, also claimed that his father’s creativity was taken from his nightmares of Dracula (Bibel). Other inspirations for Dracula include The Vampyre, Carmilla, and The Land beyond the Forest:Facts, Figures and Fancies from Transylvania (Novels For Students). It is also interesting that the vampire hunters found in Stoker’s novel possessed the attitudes similar to that of the Victorian people…