Carmilla is an example of a woman who loves her food way too much. Carmilla is entirely consumed by her food, even sleeping in a coffin of blood: “The limbs were perfectly flexible, the flesh elastic; and the lead coffin floated with blood, in which, seven inches deep, the body lay submerged” (Le Fanu 102). There is a unique relationship between the vampire and his victims. Food is defined in terms of victimization, distinctly separate from humanity's general meat consumption. The need for human victims makes hunting synonymous with courtship, as intense emotional bonds are established between the vampiress and her food. As the intense relationship developed between Laura and Carmilla shows, the vampire is "inclined to be fascinated with a captivating vehemence, resembling the passion of love, by particular people" (105). For Carmilla, cruelty and love are inseparable (33). Drawing blood from victims for food is a highly sexualized exchange of fluids from one body to another. The act of consumption transforms into an illicit carnal exchange between the hunter and the hunted. Immortality and eternal youth appear frequently in literature as a means of exploring fears of mortality, aging, and decadence. Carmilla is immortal in the sense that she cannot die of old age, although she can be killed by other means, as seen at the end of the novel. The undead are those who have died but retain living traits, immune to aging while retaining an animated body and mind. In Carmilla, there is a clear binary between the mortal and the immortal. Laura's illness is described as a strange melancholy, "a fairly advanced stage of the strangest illness that ever mortal suffered", thus reinforcing the dist...... middle of paper ......rmites , society remembers its own anomalies. In doing so, greater care is taken to prevent the consequences of the monstrosity. The exploration of monsters in literature and cinema therefore becomes necessary to reinforce ideals of normality (160). The attempt to subvert this monstrosity in the face of social anxieties about aging, beauty and the fear of death remains constant. The immortal and eternally beautiful monster challenges human boundaries, limitations and weaknesses of the physical body. In Le Fanu's Carmilla, the vampire is constructed as the ideal female body, invulnerable and immune to rot. The monstrous body of the vampire, capable of destabilizing normality within society, is both distorted and eternally beautiful. The Monster presents the ideal subject to compare and contrast with humanity, providing a safe space to confront and explore society's insecurities and fears..