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Thesis
BUT LOVE IS ALWAYS SELFISH
University of West Florida
Master of Arts (MA), University of West Florida
2014
Abstract
J's. Le Fanu's Carmilla is a vampire tale that expresses the anxieties of both the men and women of the Victorian period. The female vampire, Carmilla, functions both as a representative of women's growing discontent with their allocated gender role and men's anxiety-ridden response. Carmilla, as a female vampire, draws particular attention to the state of the Victorian wife under pre-1882 marriage law. Deprived of both legal identity and property, like the female vampire, a married woman is both dead and alive. Examined in connection with "the angel in the house" idealized image of womanhood and Irish socioeconomic and political change, the novella proposes a reexamination of marriage and the ideology that surrounds it. As Carmilla usurps the role of the Victorian husband, she reveals the potential for this ideology surrounding women and marriage to become a monstrous disease that goes beyond the exploitation of women to become a destructive force for men and women alike.
Details
- Title
- BUT LOVE IS ALWAYS SELFISH
- Resource Type
- Thesis
- Publisher
- University of West Florida
- Format
- text
- Copyright
- http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC-EDU/1.0/
- Identifiers
- 99380090749406600
- Academic Unit
- English
- Language
- English
- Awarding Institution
- University of West Florida; Master of Arts (MA)
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), University of West Florida