Previous studies of Carmilla (1872) have recognised the active role of male characters in uncovering the vampire. However, this has only briefly been mentioned and it has not been analysed in any detail exactly how that is achieved in the narrative. Therefore, this essay aims to analyse how the text gives power to men, and how it takes that same power from women, even though women function as main characters. The purpose is to show – through a narratological and rhetorical lens – how the build-up to the moment of Carmilla’s murder is accomplished. This connects to patriarchal aspects of the novel and how men indirectly prove Laura’s unreliability as a narrator. The analysis draws on Rimmon-Kenan and Margolin’s ideas on characters and different types of characterisation elements, that help to analyse individual characters and their role in the narrative. Additionally, Phelan’s study of rhetorical theory and the role of character-character dialogue for narrative communication will be central, since dialogue in this novel is a crucial component of the text’s discourse. Lastly, Phelan and Rimmon-Kenan’s analyses of unreliable narrators will be explored, which will be pivotal to analyse Laura and how her unreliability as a narrator is manifested in the text. This study will show how the male characters in the novel are used to provide information about Carmilla’s vampirism, which in turn reveals Laura as an unreliable narrator. For a novel focused on women, the sense of patriarchy is still extremely prevalent, even within the circle of the male secondary characters, who end up being crucial for the development of the plot. Carmilla has not been the focus within scholarship recently, so with my reading I aim to renew the attention to the novel. The patriarchal aspect of the narrative is not new in itself. However, regarding how it is achieved narratologically, the essay presents a new possible reading of the novel. 

Keywords: Phelan, Rimmon-Kenan, Margolin, narratology, rhetoric, characterisation, unreliability, Carmilla, Sheridan Le Fanu