Carmilla, Chapter 4 summary

What happens

1. Carmilla withholds her background, while her intense embraces leave the narrator torn between attraction, fear, and disgust.
2. Her late rising, scant food, and tiring walks contrast with her lively conversation.
3. A passing funeral prompts Carmilla’s hostility toward religious singing, followed by a painful fit.
4. A wandering entertainer sells both girls protective charms and enrages Carmilla by offering to blunt her pointed tooth.
5. The father reports another mysterious illness, and Carmilla says she once suffers from the same condition.
6. Carmilla links death with lovers’ union, and the narrator overhears the doctor challenge the father’s confidence about life and death.

In this chapter

What to notice

The doctor challenges the father’s certainty without explaining his own suggestion. His caution leaves the surrounding illnesses unresolved.

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