Short Fiction · Chapter
IV: Her Habits—A Saunter explained
The narrator describes Carmilla's strange and passionate behavior, oscillating between intense embraces and languid indifference.
What happens
The narrator describes Carmilla's strange and passionate behavior, oscillating between intense embraces and languid indifference. During a walk, a funeral procession passes, and Carmilla reacts with anger and a hysterical fit, revealing her aversion to death and religious rites. Later, a hunchbacked figure visits, and Carmilla shows fear. The chapter ends with the doctor discussing mysterious illnesses with the narrator's father, hinting at supernatural causes.
Themes in this chapter
Supernatural and the Uncanny
Carmilla's strange behavior, her aversion to religious rites, and the mysterious illness suggest a supernatural presence.
Love and Sacrifice
Carmilla's passionate declarations and possessive love for the narrator blur the line between affection and obsession.
Faith and Skepticism
The narrator's father rationalizes the deaths as superstition, while Carmilla questions religious beliefs, and the doctor hints at deeper mysteries.
Characters to notice
- Carmilla
Displays intense, lover-like affection and strange moods; reacts angrily to funeral hymns and shows fear of the hunchback.
- Una
The narrator who is both drawn to and repelled by Carmilla's behavior; observes Carmilla's reactions and discusses the local illnesses.
- Doctor Robertson
Visits to discuss the mysterious illness affecting local peasants; hints at supernatural explanations.
Key passages
“You are mine, you shall be mine, you and I are one forever.”
Carmilla declares an eternal, possessive union with the narrator.
Highlights Carmilla's intense and unnatural attachment.
“Don't you perceive how discordant that is?”
Carmilla criticizes the funeral hymn as jarring and unpleasant.
Shows Carmilla's aversion to death and religious ceremony.
“I am so afraid of fancying I see such things; I think it would be as bad as reality.”
Carmilla expresses fear that imagining supernatural horrors would be as terrifying as experiencing them.
Reveals Carmilla's vulnerability and the power of suggestion.