Carmilla: How Innocence can Kill
Carmilla:
How Innocence can Kill
Have you ever been afraid of the dark, or the boogeyman under your bed, or the monsters in your closet? Most likely when you grew older, you became less afraid because you knew they didn’t exist. But what if they did? In Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s classic 19th century novella Carmilla, Laura’s monsters are very much alive. Sadly, no amount of innocence is able to protect her from the monster that is Carmilla. As a mirror, Carmilla cast back the idea of how dangerous innocence is. If the men in Carmilla had not been shielding the women, they could have saved Bertha and Laura from their ‘affliction’, kept the many peasants from dying,
From the very beginning, Laura has been shielded by the people around her. For instance, when Laura first meets Carmilla, she is told, as many children are, that everything will be alright:
I yelled with all my might and main. Nurse, nursery-maid, housekeeper, all came running in, and hearing my story, they made light of it, soothing me all they could meanwhile. But, child as I was, I could perceive that their faces were pale with an unwonted look of anxiety, and I saw them look under the bed, and about the room, and peep under tables and pluck open cupboards. (Le Fanu 4)
Laura knows that something is up, despite how young she is, but all the adults play it off as if it were nothing. Her father even does “patting me on the shoulder, and kissing me, and telling me not to be frightened, that it was nothing but a dream and could not hurt me.” (5)
In fact, Laura actually admits,
I was one of those happy children who are studiously kept in ignorance of ghost stories, of fairy tales, and of all such lore as makes us cover up our heads when the door creeks suddenly, or the flicker of an expiring candle makes the shadow of a bed-post dance upon the wall, nearer to our faces. (3-4)
Laura was shielded multiple times in the novella. For instance, when Laura starts to feel sick, her father sent for a
How Innocence can Kill
Have you ever been afraid of the dark, or the boogeyman under your bed, or the monsters in your closet? Most likely when you grew older, you became less afraid because you knew they didn’t exist. But what if they did? In Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s classic 19th century novella Carmilla, Laura’s monsters are very much alive. Sadly, no amount of innocence is able to protect her from the monster that is Carmilla. As a mirror, Carmilla cast back the idea of how dangerous innocence is. If the men in Carmilla had not been shielding the women, they could have saved Bertha and Laura from their ‘affliction’, kept the many peasants from dying,
From the very beginning, Laura has been shielded by the people around her. For instance, when Laura first meets Carmilla, she is told, as many children are, that everything will be alright:
I yelled with all my might and main. Nurse, nursery-maid, housekeeper, all came running in, and hearing my story, they made light of it, soothing me all they could meanwhile. But, child as I was, I could perceive that their faces were pale with an unwonted look of anxiety, and I saw them look under the bed, and about the room, and peep under tables and pluck open cupboards. (Le Fanu 4)
Laura knows that something is up, despite how young she is, but all the adults play it off as if it were nothing. Her father even does “patting me on the shoulder, and kissing me, and telling me not to be frightened, that it was nothing but a dream and could not hurt me.” (5)
In fact, Laura actually admits,
I was one of those happy children who are studiously kept in ignorance of ghost stories, of fairy tales, and of all such lore as makes us cover up our heads when the door creeks suddenly, or the flicker of an expiring candle makes the shadow of a bed-post dance upon the wall, nearer to our faces. (3-4)
Laura was shielded multiple times in the novella. For instance, when Laura starts to feel sick, her father sent for a