Ana Elisa Rubio Jurez Samperio 307506461 Dra.

Aurora Pieiro Seminario de Literatura Gtica I

Ancestor and Descendant

The Lady of the House of Love, the short story written by Angela Carter is not only a mixture of fairy tales with gothic literature but it is also a wonderful blend of the classic story of The Sleeping Beauty and the novella by Sheridan le Fanu Carmilla. Le fanus work has travelled the world more than once, has being translated to many languages, adapted several times and it is one of the key texts on which the vampire myth is built; baring this background in mind it is no surprise that Carter would had choose this material for her rewritings of Perraults fairy tales. Besides the long list of gothic elements and characteristics that Carters tale has, there are clear connections specifically with Carmilla. Dealing with female vampires and gothic elements and characteristics always guides us towards le Fanus creature because it was the first universally known text which such a protagonist, and so it became the role model of lady vampires. But being one of hipotexts is not the only reason why the young and beautiful vampire of Carters tale is connected with le Fanus, In fact we can think about them as if they were

relatives, being Carmilla the ancestor of the Countess, at moments even as if they were the same literary creature. One of the first aspects that a reader will notice would be the setting: the land in which the Countess is trapped is very similar to the description of the village in Karnstein where Carmilla is finally confronted. That it is a gothic setting is evident, because of the solitude, darkness and decay with which is painted; but it is also the reflection of a first gothic scenery: the village is deserted, supposedly because of the vampiric plague that fell on its habitants, no soul has lived there in a long time and the castle of Karnstein once magnificent, is entirely in ruins. On Carters text we have this image:
At last the revenants became so troublesome the peasants abandoned the village and it fell solely into the possession of subtle and vindictive inhabitants who manifest their presences by shadows, even at midday, their shadows that have no source in anything visible;[] Now all shun the village below the chteu in which the beautiful somnambulist helplessly perpetuates her ancestral crimes. (Carter 195)

We can see the similarities in the deserted village, the destroyed castle and the inhabitants that were erase to left behind them victims transformed into the carriers of the same sickness that killed them. But also we have a similar atmosphere constructed by the constant playing with lights and shadows, which gives us a sense of darkness and menace, the same we feel in Le Fanus novella when the group of characters arrive to Karnstein land; only this time we get that feeling since the very beginning of the story. We concluded that the same habitants that were corrupted by the plague are the inhabitant shadows of Carters deserted village, the castle might be the same castle, and if the vampire cannot be the same

following Le Fanus storyline in which Carmilla is destroyed at the end; this new lady vampire can easily be her descendant. The title by which both vampires are known is also a strong connection between them. Carmillas real title is Countess of Karnstein, and Carters creature is only known as Countess or the Somnambulist. We can see how the title as well as the kingdom mentioned above has been inherited by Carmillas successor. For Carmilla this title had to be felt but not pronounced: she has the breeding, manners and behavior of a Countess but revealing her title as it is, would mean to reveal her age and nature. In contrast to the Countess in The Lady of the House of Love the title is everything; it gives her a position, a kingdom among damned creatures, a life style and a destiny, one that she is constantly fighting with through her constant reading of the Tarot cards. The title chains her to a monstrous nature, as that same title for Carmilla is the key to reveal that nature, the name is what defines both of them as vampires, with all the imaginary behind vampires. The Somnambulism is another feature that joins them. In the novella the somnambulism is the solution that Lauras father gives to the riddle of the Carmillas nocturnal escapes, it is the excuse they unconsciously use for her unnatural powers. The sickness is what allows her, even with her strange behavior, to pass as a human being. In the short story the Somnambulist is the other name with which the Countess is called. If we follow the line of comparison between the state of being a vampire and the somnambulism as sicknesses, we get to the conclusion that this is the name of the vampiric legacy that has been bestowed on the Countess.

As the story advances we meet the Countess victim: a young Englishman which beauty, naivety and virginity link him to Laura. Laura often describes with her own voice:
Now the truth is, I felt rather unaccountably towards the beautiful stranger. I did feel, as she said, "drawn towards her," but there was also something of repulsion. In this ambiguous feeling, however, the sense of attraction immensely prevailed. (Le Fanu).

Her attraction as well as her repulsion for Carmilla is reflected in the young rationalist that changes the fate of the Countess. The difference between them lies in the use of worlds that the second has to express the same emotion. He contrasts positive images that are related with incomparable beauty, with negative images that relate with dead or decay, such as scarecrow, deaths head, shipwrecked bride, whore and decay. He has the sensation of awe and amazement that Laura felt when he first saw Carmilla towards her descendant, which shares her extraordinary beauty and her un-dead features, which had been exaggerated in the Countess because she has not experience a human normal life except for a few years. Both victims are marked by the love of these vampires. Laura by the constant proves of affection and even actual declarations often made by Carmilla, in an example of a homosexual relationship and desire which transgresses all the boundaries of the time when it was published; and the rational bicyclist by the Lovers card, a crucial change in her routine that changes the Countess destiny and finally destroys the bloodline. This love is the damnation of the first one since this is the victim that she loved and the one that got away. But love is also the

salvation of the second one since she never wished to be the queen of the vampires or the last bud of the poison tree that sprang from the loins of Vlad the Impaler; that change of cards meant her freedom. The differences between Carmilla and the Countess are many but the main one is the way in which each of them ended their existence, the Countess finding the redemption that Carmilla never knew. She quitted her title by ending her existence voluntarily, instead of feeding on the only human that had made a difference for her. As Le Fanu through Laura explains: Mircalla seemed to be limited to a name which, if not her real one, should at least reproduce, without the omission or addition of a single letter, those, as we say, anagrammatically, which compose it (Le Fanu); Carmillas title was not her only chain but the letters of her name are the worst limitations of her being, from which she could never escape. Her descendant did. Carters Countess evolves and surpass her ancestor exerting her free will and becoming free by herself.