Trusting Carmilla

In Le Fanu's Carmilla, Laura is drawn to Carmilla's character upon their first encounter. She begs her father to let Carmilla stay with them after Carmilla's carriage crashes saying, "Oh! papa, pray ask her to let her stay with us-it would be so delightful...(Le Fanu, 29)" Laura's first impression of Carmilla is that she is very attractive. On page 47, Laura says "she was so beautiful and so indescribably engaging". While Laura was particularly drawn to Carmilla, she also mentions that she has some feelings of repulsion. I think this links back to the beauty and charm of the Vampire, but at the same time, deep inside, Laura may be suspicious of Carmilla evoking the repulsive feelings she mentions.

On top of Carmilla's good looks, there is also a sex appeal about her. Laura describes encounters with Carmilla that sound more like encounters with a lover than with a friend. On page 56, Laura describes occassions where Carmilla would hold her hand tightly, look into her eyes, and breathe much more quickly than normal. "It was like the ardor of a lover... (Le Fanu, 56)" Vampires are known to be sexual and seductive in their behaviors and Carmilla, although she and Laura are both female, is no exception.

Vampires are also attractive to human characters because they are mysterious. Despite how close Laura and Carmilla become, Laura cannot get Carmilla to reveal much about herself. Carmilla is very mysterious in the sense that she is nocturnal, seems to disappear at night, and does not come down from her room until late in the afternoon.

I think human characters tend to trust good-looking people. Beauty, sex, and mystery are things that seem to appeal to characters in Vampire stories. It's the things we don't fully understand that makes us thirst for more. I think it is human nature for people to struggle to see beyond the surface which is why a Vampire can lure and entrap humans. In Carmilla, Laura and her father let a young. pretty, seemingly harmless girl into their home, and it wasn't until it was almost too late before they realized that evil can lie in anyone.