29 pages • 58 minutes read
Joseph Sheridan le FanuCarmilla
Fiction | Novella | Adult | Published in 2012A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 13-16Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 13 Summary: “The Woodman”
During her stay with the General, Mircalla exhibits mysterious habits similar to those of Carmilla. She is found walking among the trees outside in the early morning “looking like a person in a trance” (81). The General thinks she is sleepwalking, but cannot explain how she finds her way out of locked rooms. At the same time, Bertha now begins to have strange symptoms similar to the ones described by Laura: she dreams of a beast at her bed, feels as though needles have pierced her throat, and is rapidly losing her health. The General now breaks off his narration, the party having reached the ruined castle of Karnstein. The General calls over a woodman that he had earlier arranged to meet, and this woodman tells of how this village of the Karnstein’s came to be deserted. He says that “revenants” were returning from their graves and killing villagers (85). A Moravian nobleman managed to kill one of the vampires and asked that he may remove the body of Mircalla, Countess Karnstein, which the villagers agree to allow. The chapter ends with the woodman saying that no one knows where the body of Mircalla is now.
Chapter 14 Summary: “The Meeting”
The General now resumes his story, wherein he consults with an old physician. This physician left him a note telling him explicitly that Bertha is “suffering from the visits of a vampire” (89). The General then stood guard over the sleeping Bertha, and witnessed a black creature approach the bed. Confronted by the General, the creature turned into Millarca, who then escaped. Bertha, however, died the very next morning. With this, the General’s story ends. Shortly thereafter, Carmilla enters the ruined castle. The General recognizes Carmilla as being the same woman as Millarca and attacks her. Once again, she escapes.
Chapter 15 Summary: “Ordeal and Execution”
At this point, a strange man named Baron Vordenburg enters the narrative. The Baron has with him a plan of the castle’s chapel and he is able to direct the General and Laura’s father to the tomb of Mircalla, Countess Karnstein. Planning to return tomorrow, the entire party leaves the castle. A priest comes to Laura’s room and performs some rites, and she is no longer vexed by Carmilla: “The disappearance of Carmilla was followed by the discontinuance of my nightly sufferings” (95). A group including Laura’s father and the General go to Mircalla/Millarca/Carmilla’s tomb and destroy her body by driving a stake through her chest, beheading her and burning everything. Laura says that “that territory has never since been plagued by the visits of a vampire.” (96).
Chapter 16 Summary: “Conclusion”
In the final chapter, Carmilla relates that Baron Vordenburg was an expert on vampires, having devoted a great amount of study to the subject. She tells of how she learned from him that vampires often are “prone to be fascinated with an engrossing vehemence, resembling the passion of love, by particular persons” (98). Laura also reveals that the Baron had access to the journals of the Moravian nobleman who had hidden Mircalla’s corpse. It turns out that this nobleman was a lover of Mircalla, and was not Moravian, but Styrian, and is Baron Vordenburg’s ancestor. This ancestor had hidden her body in an effort to protect the vampire Mircalla from being destroyed. At the close of the novella, Laura discloses that she often still has “reverie[s]” relating to Carmilla (100).
Chapters 13-16 Analysis
Baron Vordenburg, an expert in vampirism, is the one who solves the problem of Carmilla’s vampiric activity. Despite being the one to essentially cure Laura of her incipient vampirism, Laura nevertheless looks on the Baron askance. She calls himstrange-looking and devotes a particularly large portion of her narrative to descriptions of the strangeness of his looks and demeanor. While the General is effusive in his gratitude towards the Baron, Laura herself never thanks him, nor does she ever express relief over being saved from death or from becoming a vampire. At some level, Laura remains under the sway of Carmilla’s influence all the way to the end of her narrative. Though Carmilla has been destroyed according to the Baron’s prescriptions, Carmilla still “returns to the memory” of Laura. Carmilla, whether she be real or a fiction of Laura’s psyche, may actually live on yet, with Laura “fancying [she] heard the light step of Carmilla at the drawing room door” (100). Combined with the fact that Laura has died sometime between the composition of her narration and the composition of the prologue, it may be doubted if Laura was actually ever cured of her condition. Carmilla, whose destruction was not actually witnessed by Laura, may have lived on beyond the end of the novel’s storyline, either as an actual vampire or as a construction of Laura’s disturbed psyche.
