 Great change of industrial movements, cultural
renovations, and scientific progress
 Women centered around the home
 Two types of women
 Working/Middle class
 Elite class
 Carmilla and Laura both represent the elite class of
women
 Carmilla utilizes her power to her advantage
 Laura stays repressed
 Carmilla is the Victimizer
 Laura is the Victim
 Carmilla over Laura
 Scene of the funeral
 Nightmare scenes
 Sucking of Laura’s blood
 Underlying themes that Laura actually dominates
Carmilla
 Laura controls one thing: love
 Keeps Carmilla in the schloss
 Carmilla locks herself in her room
 Revealing of facts and feelings
 Victorian women were trained to be sexually repressed
 Couldn’t even write about sex during the time
 Le Fanu used vampires to symbolize sex and stab at
Victorian society’s repression of sex
 Freudian theory of sexual repression
 Why did Le Fanu use women so prevalently in
“Carmilla”?
 He recognized the power of manipulation
 His marriage was in shambles
 Mother in law knew it was a bad marriage
 Wrote letters to Sheridan about its negative impact
 Sheridan felt victimized like he did something wrong after
the death of his wife
 Relates it to the oppressed groups of women
 His mother was very powerful in the communities