RUSS29500 Hunter College Vampires in Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla
Humanities
Analyze and comparethe representation of vampires in Sheridan Le Fanu’s Carmilla and Bram Stoker’s Dracula. (primary focus should be on Carmilla and Dracula, but you can include the “potential” and “fully fledged” vampires—their victims, such as the General’s niece Bertha, Laura, Lucy, and Mina—and Dracula’s sisters-brides).
Your analysis might include:
1) the vampires’ roles in the plot, narrative, and structure of these literary works;
2) the specific threats and lures these vampires represent and the implications thereof;
3) the characteristics these vampires possess (and I mean not only looks—sharp teeth or pale complexion), including their mutability, mobility, desires, sexuality, and emotions (if any), and how these characteristics reflect the dangers and fears of their time.
4) Finally, you might want to analyze whether humans are able to defeat them in the end, and if they are able to, then how (in the case of Carmilla, you might want to think about the ending that virtually “resurrects” Carmilla as Laura’s memory).
