About Motifs in Victorian Literature

The two main motifs that occur in Victorian literature are “shadows of the past” and “demon lover”. The term “shadows of the past” often refers to a vampire who possesses outdated values that are oppressive to society. Such a vampire is usually depicted as being old, yet preying on the young. This vampire may also be symbolic of an aristocratic exploiter. The phrase “demon lover” typically suggests a vampire embodying passions that are morally unacceptable. This vampire tends to be portrayed as a corrupt seducer who preys on the innocent, and is often recognized as an attractive seducer (Carmilla, slide 2).

Carmilla’s character encapsulates these motifs since it is revealed in the story that she preyed upon young women, visiting them at night to drink their blood. Generally, these girls would die within three weeks. Carmilla also portrayed romantic interest towards Laura, who was repulsed by it, yet felt somewhat captivated by the attention and found it difficult to reject Carmilla. This act of Carmilla stirs up sexual desires in Laura, which in their society, women aren’t supposed to express. Therefore, Carmilla’s demonstration of passion is regarded as taboo in their community.

The vampire role in the story is seen as a threat to the social structure because Carmilla does not adhere to societal expectations for women’s behavior. Carmilla expresses intense romantic feelings towards Laura which itself is a taboo in their society. It is believed that unmarried women must abstain from sexual activity, and Carmilla is seen as challenging this norm through her explicit behaviour towards Laura (Carmilla, slide 5). She communicates sentiments to Laura that provoke sexual desires, countering the societal belief that women do not experience such feelings. Thus, Carmilla’s actions challenge social norms, asserting that both she and Laura do indeed experience sexual passion. Furthermore, societal norms dictate a relationship between a man and a woman, not among two women. Hence, such romantic feelings are viewed as inappropriate. Carmilla also exhibits affection by holding Laura’s hand in a lover’s manner and kissing her. Despite Laura’s initial embarrassment, she finds Carmilla’s attention gratifying.

Laura’s character can be perceived as liminal and unsocialized due to her innocence and lack of exposure to societal events, such as balls. Throughout the story, Laura seems to be caught between adolescence and adulthood. Her innocence is highlighted by her isolation, with no mother, an absent father, and little contact with others (Carmilla, slide 13). She even underscores the solitude of her life saying, “I was one of the happy children who are studiously kept in ignorance of ghost stories, of fairy tales.” Due to her isolation, she missed out on typical childhood experiences and had limited social interaction. Never having experienced romance, Laura feels a sense of yearning and maintain her innocence.

The missing roles that Carmilla fills for Laura are mother, friend, and lover. Carmilla manages to invert the role of the mother, representing an inadequate mother figure. Instead of nourishing her victims, Carmilla drains them, a perverse form of nursing (Carmilla, slide 21). She also subverts the lover role, primarily because she is a woman, not a man. Despite Carmilla’s ability to fill a void in Laura’s life, Laura harbors doubts. She speculates whether Carmilla might be a man in disguise. If Carmilla were indeed a male, this behaviour would be more acceptable. Otherwise, her role as a lover breaches societal norms. Carmilla inverts the friend role as well, her intentions far from innocent. As the story progresses, we realize Carmilla is a vampire exploiting Laura to her advantage. Willing to destroy Laura for her own needs, Carmilla smugly admits her selfishness, uttering, “you will think me cruel, very selfish; the more ardent, the more selfish.” (6). Carmilla’s actions contradict the principles of selfless friendship.

LeFanu describes Laura’s sexual awakening as a gentle fading into mortality. When Laura’s sexual desires awaken, she muses “…Dim thoughts of death began to open, and an idea that I was slowly sinking took genteel, and somehow, not unwelcome possession of me. If it was sad, the tone of mind which was induced was also sweet. Whatever it might be, my soul acquiesced in it.” (7). This loss of innocence is depicted negatively in the Victorian context, where innocence is exalted. I believe the writer likens the loss of innocence to death, as it devalues a woman in societal norms. A loss of innocence is personified as death, the death of a girl’s purity. A highly sexual woman, on the other hand, is stigmatized and perceived as primitive.

In the novel, Carmilla is revealed to be more than coincidentally connected to Millarca. It turns out she is not merely a vampire but the same vampire as Millarca. Both are different incarnations of Countess Karnstein who died many years ago. As Laura states in Chapter 15, it becomes difficult to deny the existence of vampires given the overwhelming evidence: “If human testimony, taken with every care and solemnity, judicially, before commissions innumerable, each consisting of many members, all chosen for integrity and intelligence…it is difficult to deny, or even to doubt the existence of such a phenomenon as the Vampire.”

The novel portrays a distinct relationship between Carmilla and Laura, suggesting Carmilla as Laura’s second self. Carmilla seems to be a manifestation of the needs Laura encountered during her transitional phase. Like Laura, Carmilla was abandoned by her mother and mentions seeing Laura in her dreams. This duality serves as a representation of a divided self, where Carmilla embodies Laura’s internal struggles.

I believe that the novel is hostile to female sexuality because in the novel Laura’s coming of age is seen as death in the sense that she’s losing her innocence. This expression seems to be a depiction of the male anxiety that was occurring at the time. In the novel Carmilla is also killed by patriarchs because they are angered by her violation of innocence. But Laura is considered saved from sexual awakening but we still continue to see that she feels repressed. Laura is still kept in isolation and none of her feelings are taken into consideration throughout the killing of Carmilla.

The vampiric love of Carmilla can be seen as an abusive relationship because Carmilla objectifies others. She treats other humans as if there objects that can be used up so that she can fulfill her needs. There are many attitudes that are objectifying such as instrumentality, denial of autonomy, inertness, fungibility, violability, ownership, and denial of subjectivity. One of objectifying attitudes that Carmilla portrays is ownership because she tells Laura in chapter 4 “you are mine, you shall be mine, and you and I are one forever”. Carmilla treats Laura as if she is not allowed to have an opinion or other choice. By doing this she is claiming Laura as if she is property which isn’t something that occurs in a healthy relationships. Relationships are not supposed to be one sided and they certainly shouldn’t be dangerous. But Carmilla’s love is cruel because she attacks young women to recycle the her own feeling of assassination by an impassioned lover. Carmilla even talks about cruel love in chapter 6 saying “Cruel love—strange love, that would have taken my life. Love will have its sacrifices. No sacrifice without blood.” Her view of love is very skewed and isn’t selfless love, but instead destructive. She believes that to love people need to suffer because love can be cruel. This view of love causes Carmilla to be unable to see the destruction that her love has.

During the Victorian Era in Britain there were a couple of sociophobics at the time. Some of the sociophobics was reversion to the primitive, being ignorant, returning to tyranny, having enslaved citizens, immortality, being selfish, and devolution. In the novel Dracula represents some of these sociophobics because he is able to draft civilization and is able to overcome freedom. The evil that he causes in the novel is also able to overcome the good. Dracula also has the ability to overcome evolution.

Dracula’s allusion to Huns and Vikings is significant because Dracula is seen as the barbarian of the past who invaded civilizations so that he could conquer them. Attila the Hun was known as the king of the Huns and was able to invade Europe. He is known for being one of the most successful invaders (Dracula, Slide 36). Vikings, also known as Berserkers, were known for being destructive. They were strong warriors with great courage. Berserkers equate to both Viking shape-shifters and shifters. Dracula was viewed as possessing these characteristics (Dracula, Slide 37). Another trait that characterizes Dracula is his lack of technology use. His forms of transportation throughout the books consist of boats and carriages, symbolizing the past. On the other hand, the vampire hunters employ science as their source. They use tools like blood transfusions and give lectures on hypnosis as examples of the power of science (Dracula, Slide 42).

The concept of Atavism also reflects Dracula. Atavism is the tendency to revert to ancestral traits, but in a biological sense. Dracula mirrors this as he can revert to animalism, demonstrating abilities such as shape-shifting, telepathic control of animals, and inhuman movements. Dracula is also classified as a “criminal type” and being atavistic. In the book, it’s mentioned that Nordau and Lombroso would agree with this classification. Lombroso, due to his anthropological criminology, would believe this because he asserts that any features reminiscent of lower animals indicate people who are destined to be criminals. Dracula exhibits these traits as he has a beaky nose, is hairy but beardless, has bushy eyebrows, long canine teeth, and pointed ears. Nordau would concur due to Dracula’s prehensile feet. He believes that any contamination by atavistic vampires will lead to degeneracy. Degeneracy is the loss of qualities deemed normal in a species. Nordau claims that this can only occur when living an immortal lifestyle. The vampire has the ability to attack the body and control the mind of its prey. This capacity to cause degeneracy in others is why Nordau would concur in classifying Dracula as the criminal type.

In the book, Dracula has Lucy and Mina as victims, but these two victims symbolize the ideals of Victorian femininity. In the Victorian era, Lucy is viewed as being redeemed as a polluted bride by symbolic marriage. Although Lucy is innocent like Mina, she is more sexualized and is not afraid to display comfort from being desired. She has desires that are troublesome to men because women are not supposed to have sexual desires. Mina is seen as the ideal woman being saved by the violence of men. Lucy is pure, innocent, and possesses Christian faith; qualities of an ideal woman in the Victorian era. On the other hand, the female vampires in the novel contradict the ideal of femininity in the Victorian era. The female vampires are highly sexual women, perceived as animalistic in the Victorian era. The female vampires are described as gazing with passionate satisfaction, exuding pleasurable relaxation, and flirting with the opposite sex. These were behaviors women were not supposed to display. Women were expected to remain pure and innocent, ideally virgins until marriage.

Jonathan ends up having an encounter with Dracula’s wives that significantly affects his character. A man’s duty is to resist the temptations of immoral women. Failure to do so would see him succumb to degeneracy and become less of a man. Jonathan gives in to the animalism of Dracula’s wives, thereby emasculating himself. He becomes thin, pale, and weak-looking. However, Jonathan manages to regain his masculinity when he assumes the role of a hunter/fighter. Jonathan starts focusing his masculine virtues on battling evil. His encounter with Dracula also drastically changes his character. Jonathan, once a naive individual before meeting Dracula, emerges from the encounter as a brave and strong person. When Jonathan first meets Dracula, he thinks little of him, but then begins to notice that Dracula is not human. His concern escalates when Dracula attempts to drink Jonathan’s blood after he cuts himself while shaving.

The ideal of masculinity and manhood serves as a bulwark against evil, as men are expected to protect women. They bear the responsibility for rectifying any societal imbalances. This mindset is evident when it is mentioned that a man’s blood is the best thing for women. The women who are turned into vampires abandon their societal role, creating an imbalance the men are required to remedy. They even suggest that Lucy would be better off dead if she fails to abide by society’s rules. Dracula is ultimately defeated as the men manage to cleanse Castle Dracula by killing the three female vampires. The men use their masculinity to eliminate the women who are deviating from the norms of femininity, thereby restoring balance in society.

In the book Dracula, there are many struggles that occur between good and evil. One of the struggles seen is Christianity vs. black magic. Christianity is seen as good while black magic and things like superstitions are considered bad. Jonathan, for example, does not heed the warnings that the townspeople give him when he’s heading to Count Dracula’s castle. The townspeople give Jonathan Christian symbols, as they were believed to ward off the undead. Dracula, on the other hand, has dealt with black magic. Count Dracula’s family is known for having had dealings with malicious forces. He also attended a school where black magic was taught. Another struggle that occurred was purity vs. promiscuity. Purity is viewed as being good, while promiscuity is viewed as evil—especially when females are sexualized. An example of this is when Jonathan woke up to three female vampires in his room. He felt a desire for them but also knew it wasn’t right, as something about them left him uneasy.

Lucy, at first sharing an image of purity because she is sweet and pure, is desired by many but not sexualized until she becomes a vampire. When the evil vampire taints her, she turns adamant and cruel. However, the novel does offer some solutions to the problem of evil. One of the solutions proposed is to see suffering as having meaning. There is hope that they will win because God is watching over them. Another solution is that suffering occurs because faith is being tested. They believe that keeping their faith in God will help them get through the suffering. The last solution involves fighting the evil because it’s a mission that has been given to them. They believe that God has chosen them as an instrument to fight the evil. These solutions are seen when the men defeat evil by saving the women in their society. The things put in jeopardy when evil was occurring were a loss of freedom, degeneracy, and atavism. Evil is something that is alluring, so having a strong willpower is necessary to tame the beast within. The good ends up winning, but many are harmed in the process of defeating evil. Although this struggle does occur, we learn that good ultimately defeats evil.

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