A Female Vampire Older Than Dracula. Who is Carmilla?

A Female Vampire Older Than Dracula. Who is Carmilla?

“Vampire Fairy Demon” by Japanese artist Takato Yamamoto

“You are mine, you shall be mine, you and I are one for ever.”

“Dear Carmilla,

I now know that perhaps this is not your real name. However, it is the name you told me to call you, so from now on, that is the name I will use. Please, if it bothers you in any way, just let me know, and I will stop.

You are gone. I still haven’t quite gotten used to your absence. After all, you and I, we were good company for each other. You were so beautiful. Now that I can no longer see you, I keep your portrait in my room, hoping to look into your dark eyes once again.

If you ever think of me, which I believe you do after everything that happened, I cannot bring myself to believe that what we had was merely something. It was everything.

We were good together. I still feel as though you are with me, just a few steps behind me in the garden, or in the next room, ready to come back after breakfast as you always did. I became so used to having you by my side that now I feel completely alone without you.

Please come back. I will always be here.

Your dear lover, Laura”

(This letter is completely fictional and written by me.)

Being one of the finest examples of Gothic literature, Carmilla has always held its place as one of the greatest influences on vampire fiction. It is one of the earliest queer vampire novels, even though it was never intended to be read that way when it was written. It is undeniably queer, but it presents queerness through a deeply homophobic lens. Sheridan Le Fanu portrays same-sex desire as predatory, deviant, and monstrous.

Well… what a waste.

As time has passed, however, readers have come to see it as a vampire romance.

So why isn’t Carmilla, a female vampire, as popular as Dracula, even though Carmilla is older and essentially laid the foundation for many of the themes that later defined vampire fiction? It is also widely believed to have inspired Dracula. As far as we know, Bram Stoker never visited the places where many of these vampire legends originated. Instead, he read local folklore and earlier writers before creating Dracula, which eventually became the ultimate vampire story and inspired countless books, films, and television adaptations.

Let me tell you something. During the years I worked as an English teacher, I made my students read Dracula, and they were genuinely shocked by the dynamic between Dracula and Jonathan Harker. They kept asking me what was actually happening inside that castle because they genuinely couldn’t tell whether Dracula wanted to kill Jonathan or kiss him.

Honestly, fair question.

So, is this simply a recurring trait of vampire fiction? Is there always something romantic, perhaps even sexual, between a vampire and their victim?

Something is obviously happening. It makes sense, in a strange way, that you would become attached to someone whose blood you drink. This isn’t Twilight, a bloodthirsty wolf isn’t in love with a helpless sheep, but come on… there is definitely something there.

Maybe blood-drinking simply gave writers an excuse. They could always say, “He’s not in love with him. He’s just a vampire. He has to feed.”

Sure.

Carmilla is about a woman who falls in love with another woman, or at least, that’s what I’m going to call it. Whether you can actually call it love is another discussion entirely, but for the sake of this article, we will.

The two of them are wonderful together. They spend so much time in each other’s company, growing closer and closer. Eventually, however, Carmilla has to feed, and she uses Laura for that, leaving her weak, ill, and haunted by terrifying dreams.

Yet Carmilla is incredibly gentle with her. She comforts Laura, stands by her, touches her with remarkable tenderness, and whispers words that sound unmistakably like those of a lover.

Another thing that keeps coming back to my mind is that Laura had already seen Carmilla in her dreams when she was a child. I would have loved a second book explaining all those little details because I ended up making up stories in my own head to fill the gaps. Were they destined to meet? Why is there a portrait of Carmilla in Laura’s home?

Please… I need answers.

I find it beautiful that a story written with such homophobic intentions, one that was meant to portray same-sex love and intimacy as frightening and unnatural, has, over time, become something completely different.

What once seemed monstrous to readers has become, for many of us, nothing more than a love story with a touch of Gothic horror and dark romance.