# Carmilla — Short Fiction character guide

> Carmilla in Short Fiction by J. Sheridan Le Fanu.

**Role:** major

**Also known as:** dear Carmilla, Mademoiselle, Mademoiselle Carmilla, Millarca, the Countess Millarca, Mircalla, the Countess Mircalla, the beautiful Mircalla

**First appearance:** 0078-carmilla

## Snapshot

A languid, beautiful young noblewoman who arrives at a lonely schloss and draws her host's daughter into an intimacy that feels like both love and illness.

## Who they are

Carmilla slips into the household with the ease of someone who has always belonged there, charming Laura while refusing to explain her past or her aversion to religious rites. She vanishes from a locked room and returns with a story of wonders, her fear and her beauty equally persuasive. Her hold over Laura grows as the household's unease deepens, making her the still center of the story's gathering dread.

## In the story

### [Carmilla](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_31_se/chapters/carmilla)

The mysterious visitor who captivates and unsettles the narrator with her otherworldly charm and strange habits.

### [I: An Early Fright](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_31_se/chapters/i-an-early-fright)

The mysterious young lady who appears to the narrator as a child, lying beside her and pricking her chest.

### [II: A Guest](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_31_se/chapters/ii-a-guest)

The young lady who arrives after the carriage accident and becomes a guest at the schloss.

### [III: We Compare Notes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_31_se/chapters/iii-we-compare-notes)

The beautiful young stranger who shares a prophetic dream with the narrator; she is languid, engaging, and insists on locking her door at night.

### [IV: Her Habits—A Saunter](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_31_se/chapters/iv-her-habits-a-saunter)

Displays intense, lover-like affection and strange moods; reacts angrily to funeral hymns and shows fear of the hunchback.

### [V: A Wonderful Likeness](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_31_se/chapters/v-a-wonderful-likeness)

Listlessly observes the unpacking; her portrait is revealed as a perfect likeness; later speaks passionately to Laura in the moonlight, then suddenly faints.

### [VI: A Very Strange Agony](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_31_se/chapters/vi-a-very-strange-agony)

Carmilla speaks of a past assassination attempt, alludes to a cruel love, and displays a lack of religious practice; she continues to evade Laura's questions about her past.

### [VII: Descending](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_31_se/chapters/vii-descending)

Shares her fear of a dark figure and reliance on a charm; later vanishes from her locked room after a blood-soaked dream.

### [Search](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_31_se/chapters/viii-search)

Disappears and reappears mysteriously; claims no memory of the event; her father suggests sleepwalking.

### [IX: The Doctor](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_31_se/chapters/ix-the-doctor)

Refuses to have an attendant sleep in her room; is mentioned as a guest who will join the picnic later.

### [The Story](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_31_se/chapters/xi-the-story)

Appears as the masked young lady named Millarca, who captivates the General's ward with her beauty and charm.

### [A Petition](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_31_se/chapters/xii-a-petition)

Appears as Millarca, the mysterious young lady left in the narrator's care.

### [XIII: The Woodman](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_31_se/chapters/xiii-the-woodman)

Referred to as Millarca; her mysterious habits and the symptoms she causes in the narrator are detailed.

### [XIV: The Meeting](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_31_se/chapters/xiv-the-meeting)

Appears in the chapel, transforms when attacked by the General, and vanishes.

### [Ordeal and Execution](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_31_se/chapters/xv-ordeal-and-execution)

Identified as the vampire Countess Mircalla; her body is exhumed and destroyed.

### [Conclusion](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_31_se/chapters/xvi-conclusion)

The vampire whose image haunts the narrator; her true identity as Countess Mircalla Karnstein is revealed.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_31_se/characters/carmilla
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_31_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_31_se/characters