Carmilla gets killed by the Baron while sleeping in her coffin. The coffin is full of blood, which was referenced in the web series, but in an entirely different way. This is how the scene is depicted in the novella:
"The grave of the Countess Mircalla was opened; and the General and my father recognized each his perfidious and beautiful guest, in the face now disclosed to view. The features, though a hundred and fifty years had passed since her funeral, were tinted with the warmth of life. Her eyes were open; no cadaverous smell exhaled from the coffin. The two medical men, one officially present, the other on the part of the promoter of the inquiry, attested the marvellous fact that there was a faint but appreciable respiration, and a corresponding action of the heart. The limbs were perfectly flexible, the flesh elastic; and the leaden coffin floated with blood, in which to a depth of seven inches, the body lay immersed. Here then, were all the admitted signs and proofs of vampirism. The body, therefore, in accordance with the ancient practice, was raised, and a sharp stake driven through the heart of the vampire, who uttered a piercing shriek at the moment, in all respects such as might escape from a living person in the last agony. Then the head was struck off, and a torrent of blood flowed from the severed neck. The body and head was next placed on a pile of wood, and reduced to ashes, which were thrown upon the river and borne away…"
So, you could say I was pretty disappointed with the ending.
Nothing else in the end is really worth mentioning - just a typical, slightly boring resolution. It reminds me of Scooby Doo, when they yank off the mask and then explain everything about what’s happened; the motives, how they did it, yada yada yada.
Instead, I want to hit on a few things I noticed throughout the novella but never brought up.
First of all, I thought it was very interesting that the word “beautiful” is used 34 times in the ninety-seven page book, and out of those 34, it was used about or by Carmilla 32 times, and that’s not including the synonyms of the word.
Also, we’re not always certain of Laura’s age when she’s writing this. We see from the prologue that she’s re-accounting this ten years later in a letter, but throughout the novel that number changes. There’s been a lot of speculation as to why this is so, but personally, I think that Le Fanu was trying to show how negatively Laura’s mind was affected by Carmilla. Honestly, it makes me question whether or not she’s a reliable narrator.
The last thing I want to hit on before wrapping this up is the reason she’s writing all of this in the first place. Carmilla was originally published in a collection of five short stories by Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu called In a Glass Darkly. The stories, which belong to the gothic horror and mystery genres, are presented as selections from the posthumous papers of the occult detective Dr. Martin Hesselius. Laura’s letter is being written to Dr. Hesselius, as stated in the prologue.
This is the prologue, which is connected to the rest of the stories of In a Glass Darkly and cannot be understood when read without reading the preceding stories:
"Upon a paper attached to the Narrative which follows, Doctor Hesselius has written a rather elaborate note, which he accompanies with a reference to his Essay on the strange subject which the MS. illuminates.
This mysterious subject he treats, in that Essay, with his usual learning and acumen, and with remarkable directness and condensation. It will form but one volume of the series of that extraordinary man’s collected papers.
As I publish the case, in this volume, simply to interest the “laity,” I shall forestall the intelligent lady, who relates it, in nothing; and after due consideration, I have determined, therefore, to abstain from presenting any precis of the learned Doctor’s reasoning, or extract from his statement on a subject which he describes as “involving, not improbably, some of the profoundest arcana of our dual existence, and its intermediates.”
I was anxious on discovering this paper, to reopen the correspondence commenced by Doctor Hesselius, so many years before, with a person so clever and careful as his informant seems to have been. Much to my regret, however, I found that she had died in the interval.
She, probably, could have added little to the Narrative which she communicates in the following pages, with, so far as I can pronounce, such conscientious particularity.”
This explains the format of Laura’s narration as well as the slightly abrupt ending.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book. Although the ending was kind of disappointing, the rest of it was really good and i can’t wait to dig even deeper with the next portion of the project.
