Survival Instinct

Hey everyone!

Sorry I was so late in my Inca Mummy Girl post!

So, I want to take this time to ponder the villainhood of our two lovely ladies, the Inca Princess "Ampada" and Carmilla. Though there are many differences between how they are portrayed, Ampada and Carmilla, at heart, want the same thing: to stay alive. Ampada we view as the more human of the two, as we see her budding relationship with Xander and her inner turmoil over having to kill to stay alive. Carmilla, on the other hand, has more of a mystique about her, as she maintains the anonymity of her murky past, keeps odd habits, and goes through bouts of suspicious "illness" and hysteria. But Carmilla, too, seems to be enchanted by Laura as Ampada is by Xander, and both have an unwillingness to take them as victims - Ampada pulls away from Xander's kiss for fear of hurting him, and Carmilla draws out her stay with Laura, confessing her affections and seemingly unable to strike the final blow that she does the General's niece. Therefore, we see them to be capable of at least some kind of love.

What, then, is the driving force behind their violent actions? What makes them the villains that are portrayed to us? Life. The thing that Carmilla and Ampada both crave is life - though have unfortunate ways of obtaining it. Their motives are not ones of malice; they both act on their survival instincts through the biological (or magical) mechanism that is provided for them. Can we really blame them for wanting to stay alive, if even at the expense of others? We can't all be expected to die gracefully, knowing that there is a way to stop it - if you were in a situation where you had to kill to survive, would you?

And just to give a nod to the Byers article, I'd like to comment on "the body problem," (174). Byers mentions the conflict between the show's feminist message and its conformity to media-inflicted body and beauty stereotypes. This made me wonder about the certain personality traits that we assign purely based on aesthetic appearance. In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, it is evident that beauty isn't really an indicator of anything at all. People often attribute beauty with sinister qualities because it acts as a lure; and yet go on to attribute it with goodness because it is representative of innocence. This contradictory nature of beauty in the gothic (and everywhere else) shows that you can't judge characters based on their descriptions or depictions; "the performance of these bodies" must also be the only factor that is taken into account (175). Appearances can be deceiving - especially in the Gothic.

And, just to add another character into the mix:

http://www.online-literature.com/coleridge/655/

This links to Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Christabel," which is a gothic poem that follows nearly the same plot as "Carmilla." It's long, but a quick read, and super cool. I recommend it!

<3