Carmilla: Chapter 6 Summary & Analysis

 Laura and Carmilla return to the schloss, Carmilla seeming to have returned to her normal self. They are joined by Madame Perrodon and Mademoiselle De Lafontaine to play cards. Laura’s father also joins them. He asks Carmilla if she’s heard from her mother, and she tells him she hasn’t. However, she has been thinking about leaving the schloss to follow after her mother, as she has already caused them too much trouble.

To Laura’s relief, her father insists that he won’t allow Carmilla to leave, as he has promised to take care of her until her mother returns. He wishes to protect her and she thanks him for his hospitality, telling them that she has never been so happy as she has been living with him and Laura.

Laura accompanies Carmilla to her room, and they talk as she prepares for bed. Laura asks if she will ever fully confide in her, but Carmilla doesn’t answer. When pushed, she tells Laura that she is not ready to tell her story yet, as when she does Laura will realize how cruel and selfish Carmilla is. Selfishness and self-interest she remarks, is the true nature of love. Carmilla does tell Laura about a ball she attended when she was younger, and how that night she had been wounded in her breast and nearly died. She calls it the result of a cruel love, and says that love must have sacrifices.

Carmilla grows tired, and Laura bids her goodnight. Once she has left, Laura wonders if Carmilla ever says her prayers, as she has never seen her do so and she has never joined in the family prayers. She would have doubted that Carmilla was religious if she hadn’t once revealed that she had been baptized.

Laura returns to her room, where she has adopted Carmilla’s practice of locking her door at night. That night she dreams that she is lying in bed in her room when a sooty-black animal resembling a cat appears. It paces around her room before jumping onto her bed, and Laura feels a stinging pain like two needles digging into her breast. She wakes up, screaming, and sees a female figure standing at the foot of the bed. The figure is wearing a dark loose dress with hair past the shoulders. Laura watches the figure, terrified, as it, without moving, inches closer to the door before exiting the room. Once the figure is gone, Laura is able to breathe, and she thinks it might have been Carmilla playing a trick on her. Upon inspecting the door, however, she finds that it’s still locked. Horrified, she returns to bed and lays there frozen until morning.