Carmilla

Character Guide

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Laura

The novel's narrator, a lonely nineteen-year-old English girl raised in an isolated Styrian schloss by her widowed father. She recalls a childhood fright involving a beautiful visitor and, years later, welcomes a mysterious young guest into her home.

Carmilla (Also introduced under this name; later called Millarca and Mircalla)

A strikingly beautiful, languid young noblewoman left in Laura's father's care after a carriage accident near the schloss. She forms an intense, unsettling attachment to Laura and refuses to discuss her family, home, or past.

Laura's Father

A retired Austrian officer, kind but aging, who owns the castle and estate; he is protective of Laura and initially skeptical of anything supernatural.

General Spielsdorf

A neighboring nobleman and old friend of the family who writes to announce his niece Bertha's death and his intent to visit; he is consumed by grief and a desire for vengeance.

Bertha Rheinfeldt

The General's orphaned niece and ward, mentioned in his letter as having died suddenly and mysteriously before her planned visit to Laura.

Madame Perrodon

Laura's good-natured governess from Berne who has cared for her since infancy and helps oversee the household.

Mademoiselle De Lafontaine

A 'finishing governess' who teaches French and German and shares local gossip and superstitions with Laura.

The Doctor

A grave, white-haired physician sent to examine Laura after she reports strange symptoms and nighttime disturbances.

The Woodman

An old forester encountered near the ruined village of Karnstein who tells the visitors the local legend of vampires and the deserted chapel.

Baron Vordenburg

An elderly, eccentric scholar of vampire lore who joins the family later in the story, possessing old family papers relevant to the Karnstein legend.

Glossary

Schloss

German word for a castle or manor house; used throughout for Laura's family home and other noble residences.

Revenant

A being that returns from the dead to trouble the living; used as a period term essentially synonymous with vampire.

Vampire (as period folklore)

In the novel, not a fantasy trope but presented as a documented regional 'superstition' with supposed judicial case records across Central and Eastern Europe.

Patois

A regional dialect or common speech, used to describe how the old woodman speaks.

Escutcheon

A carved or painted heraldic shield bearing a family's coat of arms, found on the rediscovered tomb monument.

Majordomo

The chief steward or head servant of a large household, mentioned during the search for the missing Carmilla.

Sal volatile / Valerian

Period remedies (smelling salts and a calming herbal tincture) used to revive or soothe someone in distress.

Finishing governess

A governess specifically employed to teach refinement, languages, and social accomplishments to a young lady nearing adulthood.

Promoter of the inquiry

A legal-ecclesiastical official appointed to formally investigate and authorize proceedings such as the exhumation and vampire inquisition.

Anagrammatically

The novel's own term for the vampire's naming pattern, in which 'Carmilla' and 'Millarca' rearrange the letters of the true name 'Mircalla.'

Cortege

A ceremonial procession, used to describe the mysterious carriage and attendants that leave Carmilla at Laura's schloss.

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