YMMV / Carmilla

• Alternative Character Interpretation:
  • Carmilla: A decadent, parasitic serial killer? Or an example of female empowerment and independence in a male-dominated society? Or just a lonely vampire looking for Love? Or a decadent, parasitic serial killer who became the mask and was torn between her love for Laura and her hunger for her blood?
  • Laura: Is her affection for Carmilla that of a friend, a lover, or asexually romantic? Is she naturally depressed due to the understandably lonely castle she's lived in all her life? An emotionally and physically repressed teenage girl that clings to any affection she can find? Did Carmilla's death save her, or did she just lose the only friend/lover that might understand her? Was she too traumatized by Carmilla's depredations to fully recover even after Carmilla's death? The ending is bleak enough that it's not out of the question she's quietly crossed the Despair Event Horizon.
  • Is Laura really Oblivious to Love? She's rather naïve for her age and was extremely sheltered growing up, and it's not like anyone would ever talk about homosexuality in polite circles at the time, so it's plausible she genuinely doesn't get that Carmilla has romantic feelings for her, either because she doesn't think her friend would be capable of that, or because she doesn't even know it's possible for women to have romantic feelings for other women. On the other hand, her own conflicting feelings towards Carmilla and her responses to her advances could be interpreted as her knowing more than she lets on, but is ignoring the obvious, possibly to give Carmilla "the benefit of the doubt." (Bear in mind, if Laura does know about homosexuality, it's highly unlikely she would've heard anything positive, given the period.) She could also be ignoring it so she won't hurt Carmilla's feelings... or so she can avoid her own. The fact that Laura is telling this story to a male doctor also adds another possibility: she's playing dumb about Carmilla's lesbianism to avoid scrutiny and judgement—after all, there's no way naïve, innocent Laura could be gay, she doesn't even know what that is!
  • Alternatively, Carmilla declares her love for Laura numerous times, who in turn rejects it. Laura also says she is at once attracted to Carmilla's company but repulsed by her advances. Is this because Laura is genuinely uninterested in women, or is it because of her own uncertainty and insecurity in a society that stigmatizes same sex relationships? Or is her desire for Carmilla's friendship due to some glamour or spell?
  • Notably, at the time the book as written and set, which was prior to the popularization and association between female homosexuality within Victorian society and both the idea of it as a definitive "sin", as well certain behaviors being inherently romantic, Carmilla's way of acting with Laura isn't actually all that uncommon among young, extremely close women of the time and of their social standing, which would explain why Laura's father never bats an eye at their behavior until after Carmilla is revealed to be a vampire and would have been why there was even a question of if she was attracted to Laura in the first place in Le Fanu's day, even as a fig leaf. That Carmilla feels an attraction to her is almost unquestionable, but by the standards of the time she was actually behaving akin to a man who comes off as just very, very close with say, one of his sports teammates. It very well may have flown entirely over Laura's head.
• Draco in Leather Pants: Carmilla, big time, as her more ardent fans tend to ignore or play down the fact that she murders multiple women during the course of the novel, has almost certainly done so many, many times over the course of her unlife, and has been stalking and draining the life out of a vulnerable young woman whom she claims to love.
• Fair for Its Day: Unlike many, many examples of Gothic literature, the Sapphic subtext here is completely intentional. While the Lesbian Vampire is killed by story's end, she's not entirely evil. She has her own set of morals that boil down to a bleak For Happiness mindset, wasn't made a vampire by choice, questions and tries to justify her existence, and even after she's dead, the protagonist still mourns Carmilla rather than hating her.
• Fridge Horror: A vampire's victims almost always become vampires themselves. While it's unclear if Laura counts, Bertha and the peasant women of Styria might be roaming around, perpetuating Carmilla's circle of vampirism.
• It Was His Sled: Pop-cultural osmosis is the reason that most readers know The Reveal already when they start reading Carmilla. Even without any knowledge of the book, it's still obvious in the first dozen pages that Carmilla's more than a peculiar girl.
• Les Yay: To the point where it's practically text rather than subtext. At one point, a blushing Carmilla kisses Laura on the mouth and cheeks multiple times while proclaiming that she loves her, to which the narrator feels strangely feverish and lightheaded. Ostensibly it's from loss of blood and the vampiress's presence, but it's a paper thin justification at best for the sake of the time.
• Magnificent Bitch: "Carmilla" herself, real name Mircalla Karnstein, is the pleasant friend of heroine Laura. Having been forcibly turned centuries ago, Carmilla is one of the last vampires of Styria and befriends her prey before inevitably feeding on them to death. Despite this, Carmilla seems to truly and deeply care for Laura, winning her and her family over even as she preys on those nearby, all while Carmilla expounds on her beliefs over the nature of life, love and death with nothing short of melancholy eloquence.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • The horror is kept at a pretty subtle level, and Le Fanu relies more on building tension than on moments of outright shock, but there are some genuine "don't read this when you're alone at night" moments, most of them involving Carmilla's visits to Laura's room at night. — The perfidy, brashness and manipulative skill with which the vampires gain the trust of their unsuspecting victims instills not a little horror of the psychological kind.
  • The nobleman who had been in love with Carmilla while she was alive wrote a paper saying that if a vampire is killed, a Fate Worse than Death awaits them. It was one of the main factors that drove him to hide her tomb. The fact that he never elaborates on what he meant by worse than death only makes it worse.
• Slow-Paced Beginning: Nicely averted for a change. Compared with most 19th century Gothic fiction, it doesn't take hundreds of pages to get to the meat of the story, unlike its more famous successor. While flowery, the prose is a bit more straightforward and the book itself clocks in at less than 200 pages.
• Unintentionally Sympathetic: Carmilla was intended by the author to be villainous and her attraction to Laura unnatural; however, modern readers may find her more nuanced and sympathetic due to the various, subsequent interpretations of her character and a more open mindset in regards to homosexuality as a whole.

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