Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu's Carmilla
The Victorian era’s patriarchal ideals rooted on fear of female empowerment influenced Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu’s lesbian vampire novella, Carmilla. The social ambience created by patriarchy at the time limited women to be objects of desire to be owned and controlled by men. In hopes of defying this social construct Le Fanu creates Carmilla, a vampire who feeds on and loves other women. Her independence from and disregard for the patriarchy challenges male kinship. The novella Carmilla is an attempt to threaten patriarchal kinship, by trying to shift dominance from males to females. Yet it fails to deliver an overarching anti-patriarchal message due to a heavy presence of male dominance in the form of valuing women for their beauty, by keeping
…show more content…
He tries to remove male dominance, and place it in the hands of the women. Doing so he allows women to make their own decisions, and be independent of men. The main character, Carmilla, serves as a symbol to such idea; her role is to show a disregard to the homosocial bonds that were established by men at the time. Beginning with her abrupt arrival to Laura’s schloss, Carmilla and her mother challenge male dominance repeatedly. As Signorrotti mentions in her essay “Repossessing the Body”, the negotiation, that would determine if Carmilla stayed in the schloss, between Carmilla’s mother and Laura’s father shows the shifting dynamic of power that ensues from allowing women to negotiate with men (pg. 613). An idea that was radical at the time. While Carmilla’s mother does not explicitly state that she wants Carmilla to stay at the schloss, she manipulates Laura’s father by taking advantage of his chivalry. Because he feels that the chivalrous things to do is to take in Carmilla, without consideration of consequences, that is what he does. Signorrotti brings forth this idea in her essay, stating that the ability to exploit chivalry “exposes it as a weakness,” (pg. 616). Such is considered a weakness to men because any advantage that women have over men threatens the societal dominance they
He tries to remove male dominance, and place it in the hands of the women. Doing so he allows women to make their own decisions, and be independent of men. The main character, Carmilla, serves as a symbol to such idea; her role is to show a disregard to the homosocial bonds that were established by men at the time. Beginning with her abrupt arrival to Laura’s schloss, Carmilla and her mother challenge male dominance repeatedly. As Signorrotti mentions in her essay “Repossessing the Body”, the negotiation, that would determine if Carmilla stayed in the schloss, between Carmilla’s mother and Laura’s father shows the shifting dynamic of power that ensues from allowing women to negotiate with men (pg. 613). An idea that was radical at the time. While Carmilla’s mother does not explicitly state that she wants Carmilla to stay at the schloss, she manipulates Laura’s father by taking advantage of his chivalry. Because he feels that the chivalrous things to do is to take in Carmilla, without consideration of consequences, that is what he does. Signorrotti brings forth this idea in her essay, stating that the ability to exploit chivalry “exposes it as a weakness,” (pg. 616). Such is considered a weakness to men because any advantage that women have over men threatens the societal dominance they