Carmilla Online Artifact

I really enjoyed this novel--I couldn't stop reading! I hope my online artifact suits the requirements, and moreso I hope you understand where I'm coming from on my points in my essay and enjoy it!

Morgan Thoma
English 263: The Irish Novel Tradition
February 23rd, 2010

Carmilla: This is Certainly No Twilight!

Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu is mostly known for his riveting ghost stories and chilling tales. However, he is also known for his vampire novella, Carmilla. It isn’t as well-known or “famous” as Dracula may be, but it is just as unsettling as one can picture a novel about vampires being. I personally found Carmilla to be a very enjoyable novel; easy to read, easy to comprehend, and easy to get into. Nowadays vampires have become all the rage in pop culture, but it’s always interesting to see how the ‘documenting’ of vampires in literary works came about.

Carmilla was published in 1872, during the Victorian Era (1837-1901.) A story about a young girl being more than just admired by a beautiful vampire, Carmilla raises references to many things like the Irish Famine, the Act of Union of 1800, and, of course, homosexuality. After searching around on the internet for a good youtube video or website about this novella, I finally found a site that had a few good points and references in relation to the Irish Famine and Carmilla. This site, http://literaryservice.com/darkecho/horroronline/irish_vampire.html was helpful in pointing out certain relations between the book and history, which I then researched further. The website however also referenced its points from Richard Davenport-Hines in Gothic: Four Hundred Years of Excess, Horror, Evil and Ruin. This book was not available for free online, so I could not read it, but I read a few things that it contained and it definitely had relation to this era, but more of a broader definition of Gothic, and didn’t pertain specifically to this novel. But back to the website, it states that the “ruined village” described in the book really bears a resemblance to the effect of the Great Famine of Ireland; the aftermath being lives lost and emigration from the country—depopulation. The whole atmosphere in the novel seemed quite surprising to me. I mean, first I noticed that right away in the beginning Laura mentions the nearest house to her (castle, if you may) is quite far away.

“The nearest inhabited schloss of any historic associations, is that of old General Spielsdorf, nearly twenty miles away to the right.” Chapter One.

See, I figured that there would be a higher population. She also adds after describing the ruined village:

“Respecting the cause of the desertion of this striking and melancholy spot, there is a legend which I shall relate to you another time.”

This is what I see as referencing the famine. Laura also notes that not many people live with her and her father in their castle, also possibly due to the famine. Laura’s loneliness is key in the novel, illustrating that not many people live in the country she’s in that are her age. Also, Carmilla is set in an Austrian setting, not Ireland, but one can come to find that even still, Carmilla is referring to Ireland and its history throughout the novel.

Another reference mentioned on the website was that of the Karnstein family—Carmilla’s family. The website says, “The extinct "proud family of Karnstein" is a parallel for the extinction of much of the Irish peerage after the Act of Union of 1800. After 1800, no new Irish peerage could be created without the extinction of three old ones, thus the aristocracy was "only able to regenerate by a sort of legalistic vampirism." Carmilla, an undead member of the otherwise defunct Karnsteins, "[l]ike the Irish peerage...needs extinctions to revive." The three young women who expire in the story equate with the "three Irish peerages required before a new one can come alive."

This quote basically says it all, and although this is through the perspective of somebody else reading this story, it’s relevant and makes sense and I have to agree with it.

I also noticed something in the beginning of the novel that isn’t noted on the website. While Laura and her father are out taking their evening walk, after meeting up with Madame Perrodon and Mademoiselle De Lafontaine, she takes note of the pure beauty of “Austria.”

“We sat down on a rude bench, under a group of magnificent lime trees. The sun was setting with all its melancholy splendour behind the sylvan horizon, and the stream that flows beside our home, and passes under the steep old bridge I have mentioned, wound through many a group of noble trees, almost at our feet, reflecting in its current the fading crimson of the sky.”

“Over the sward and low grounds a thin film of mist was stealing like smoke, marking the distances with a transparent veil; and here and there we could see the river faintly flashing in the moonlight.

No softer, sweeter scene could be imagined. The news I had just heard made it melancholy; but nothing could disturb its character of profound serenity, and the enchanted glory and vagueness of the prospect.”

This reminds me of the “calm after the storm.” When a big thunderstorm passes through an area, many people find that there is beauty in the aftermath. In other words, there have been great hardships that Ireland has had to deal with. After the famine, a lot of people moved out of the country if they survived, and some people stayed. But no matter what, the beauty still stayed in the country. After the “storm,” people still found things to be appreciative for, and I think that’s what Laura is describing in this scene, and maybe the point the author wants to make. Or maybe the author is painting a picture of beauty and trying to say that even though a place is beautiful, it still has parts about it that aren’t. Either way, Carmilla definitely relates to Irish history, and was a very enjoyable novel to read.

Works Cited:

“History of Ireland, 1800 - 1877: The Act of Union, Emancipation and the Great Famine.” WesleyJohnston.com. Web. 22 Feb. 2010.

http://www.wesleyjohnston.com/users/ireland/past/history/18001877.html

Guran, Paula. “As Irish As The Vampire?” (Feb 2000). Literaryservice.com. Web. 22 Feb. 2010.

http://literaryservice.com/darkecho/horroronline/irish_vampire.html

Blackface Minstrelsy--Castle Rackrent Cont.

The continuation of Castle Rackrent marches on…

In response to the question: What is the connection Egenolf is making between minstrelsy and “blackface” and Edgeworth’s use of an Irish “dialect” in her novel? Can you point to places in the novel where you see this kind of performance on the part of Thady Quirk?

Egenolf writes, “Edgeworth’s blackface performance as Thady attempts to reinscribe a system of benevolent patronage in Ireland.” This is basically saying that through her character of Thady, she tries to reintroduce a compassionate support of Ireland, through blackface. This is done through Thady’s personality of the “foolishly loyal servant.” Egenolf also says that Thady’s ‘personality’ was used to “sugarcoat” and ease, in a way, the ways of the native Irish and the “horrors they had committed” during the rebellion of 1798. Though I took a liking to Thady’s character right off the bat, Egenolf comments that the late trend is to view Thady as “less innocent than he first appears.” See, I viewed him that way after I read into the story a bit more. Egenolf seems to have a very strong opinion that Edgeworth was trying to “tone down” the reality of what happened in Ireland during this period, when in reality she knew exactly what was going on. She was trying to make a different situation out of it, using a fictional novel to differ from real life. This is where blackface minstrelsy comes into play: it’s basically the same concept that she was doing except this occurred in parts of America.

Black minstrelsy “toned down” slavery and racism in America by having white people tell the tales of the African Americans themselves. They used costume make-up for transforming into the American slave (black face make-up, overly exaggerated lips) and put on performances which showed them “making history their own story.” In my opinion, it’s almost exactly what Egenolf claims Edgeworth to be doing in her own Castle Rackrent. Egenolf writes, “In England’s oldest colony, Ireland, dialect and language were, of course, the markers of difference, and these become the means of Edgeworth’s performance in Castle Rackrent.” When she says the ‘markers of the difference,’ she means to point out that although black minstrelsy allows a performer to ‘play the part’ of many different ethnic roles without a change of makeup, the only main difference between distinguishing the characters was through dialect.

Thady describes the scene between Sir Kit and his Lady what seemed to me as nonchalant. I may be wrong, but in my eyes he definitely ‘toned down’ the whole situation between Sir Kit and locking his Lady up. He also mentions that they still held conversations and he still cared about her though she was locked away because of pure embarrassment. I don’t know about anyone else, but if that situation happened in real life I’m sure it would not go so perfectly. Maybe perfect isn’t the best word, maybe ‘smoothly’ would be better. It’s hard to imagine that that would have actually happened in history. Perhaps I took it the wrong way, but throughout the whole story I have to agree with Egenolf: Maria Edgeworth definitely uses blackface minstrelsy in Castle Rackrent.

Castle Rackrent

First off, I want to say ask...did anyone else find it hard to focus while reading this type of text?

Maybe it's just me, but I thought that along with all the commas, pausing, and 'terms' that this novel was quite difficult to read (I used the online version.) However, it was quite interesting and very satirical, which made it more enjoyable.

I would have to say that I definitely appreciate the Glossary at the end of the story because without it I would be quite confused. Nonetheless I will still try to convey what I got from the novel.

From my knowledge prior to reading this, I knew almost nothing about Ireland (besides the whole potato famine) and its customs. I googled the terms Ascendancy (though at first I only got results for a video game and rock band album), 1798 uprising, and the Act of Union 1800 as suggested and found that it helped a bit towards my understanding of what exactly was going on in the time period that this novel was written in.

Frankly I enjoyed the character of Thady Quirk, and thought that his character told the lives of the Rackrent owners through an eccentric perspective which leaves me to wonder if the people of Ireland to this day live up to some of the things he described. Maria Edgeworth did a fantastic job of creating a likeable character and keeping up a personality throughout the novel. Little things she wrote, such as Thady's narrative line, "One of the three ladies showed his letters to her brother, and claimed his promises, whilst another did the same. I don't mention names." I found that to be quite charming to be put into a narrative--it gives him personality.

One scene that I found quite humorous in this novel (besides the drunk Sir Patrick) was between Thady, Sir Kit, and his bride when they are walking the morning after they came to the castle. His bride finally speaks but all she has to say are questions that are quite common-sense questions but expose her ignorance leaving Sir Kit somewhat embarrassed even though Thady shows no response to it, save his position. I also find it both sad and quite comical that Sir Kit puts up with it all just for his bride's wealth. Talk about gold digging. However when she doesn't pull through, he finds her worthless and bothersome and locks her up which brings a picture to mind of a princess locked away in a tower. Perhaps those fairy tales are based on real events! At least, this is how I look at it.

The final outcome of the story, however, is quite ironic. With the castle being owned by four generations of different ‘Sirs,’ it shifts to being owned by the son of a long-time serving Thady. The process in which this happens though isn’t just and though it may seem like it had been a long-time coming, I am not a fan of using conniving towards getting what you want. But that’s how a lot of things work in the world, so I guess I can’t blame Jason for being so witty.

I hope what I got out of this is at least somewhat similar to what everyone else got out of it.