Mademoiselle De Lafontaine

Mademoiselle De Lafontaine is one of the two governesses who reside at the schloss with Laura and her father, serving as a finishing governess and adding a layer of intellectual and mystical commentary to the household's daily life. Her presence, alongside the more maternal Madame Perrodon, completes the small domestic circle that surrounds Laura, and her particular temperament and beliefs mark her as a distinct voice within the narrative.

Identity and Role

Mademoiselle De Lafontaine is described as a "finishing governess," a role that involves instructing young ladies in the social graces and accomplishments. She speaks French and German, contributing to the multilingual Babel of the household, which also includes Madame Perrodon's French and broken English, and Laura and her father's deliberate use of English. Her father was a German, and in right of this heritage, she assumes a psychological, metaphysical, and somewhat mystical disposition. This intellectual bent sets her apart from the more practical and sentimental Madame Perrodon, and she is characterized by a vivacious and talkative nature, often engaging in animated dialogue.

Supernatural Speculation and the Moon

Mademoiselle De Lafontaine's most significant contribution to the story occurs on the evening of Carmilla's arrival, when she delivers a lengthy discourse on the moon's influence. She declares that when the moon shines with an intense light, it indicates a special spiritual activity, and that its effect on such a night is manifold, acting on dreams, lunacy, and nervous people, and having marvelous physical influences connected with life. To illustrate her point, she relates a story about her cousin, a merchant ship's mate, who, after taking a nap on deck with his face in the moonlight, woke from a dream of an old woman clawing his cheek to find his features horribly drawn to one side, a disfigurement from which he never fully recovered. She then describes the current night's moon as full of "idyllic and magnetic influence," and observes how the windows of the schloss flash and twinkle with silvery splendor, as if unseen hands had lit the rooms to receive fairy guests. This speech, delivered just before the carriage accident that brings Carmilla to the schloss, establishes a mood of supernatural expectation and directly foreshadows the dream-like, physically invasive attacks that Laura will later suffer.

Reaction to the Supernatural and the Search

Mademoiselle De Lafontaine's character is further revealed through her reactions to the strange events that follow. When Laura confides her terrifying dream of a sooty-black animal and the subsequent apparition, Mademoiselle laughs, treating the story with a skepticism that contrasts with Madame Perrodon's visible anxiety. However, she is also the one who introduces the local legend that the lime tree walk behind Carmilla's bedroom window is haunted, citing the testimony of a servant named Martin who claims to have seen a female figure there twice before sunrise. This casual mention of a haunting, though dismissed by Madame Perrodon, adds another layer of eerie coincidence to the unfolding mystery. Later, during the frantic search for the vanished Carmilla, Mademoiselle is one of the first to respond to Laura's screams, and she is present throughout the night's confusion, participating in the futile attempts to find the missing guest. Her initial skepticism gives way to active involvement in the crisis, though her role remains that of a secondary, observant participant rather than a central actor in the resolution.

Narrative Significance

Mademoiselle De Lafontaine serves as a narrative device that amplifies the Gothic atmosphere and provides a pseudo-scientific, metaphysical framework for the supernatural elements. Her theories about the moon and her casual mention of local ghost stories prime the reader for the intrusion of the uncanny into the otherwise rational world of the schloss. While she does not drive the plot, her voice contributes to the story's texture, offering a contrast to the more grounded perspectives of Laura and her father, and her presence helps to populate the isolated household with distinct personalities, making the intrusion of the vampire all the more disruptive to this established, if eccentric, domestic order.