Carmilla is an example of a woman who loves her food too much. Carmilla consumes herself entirely by food, even sleeping in a coffin of blood: “The limbs were perfectly flexible, the flesh elastic; and the lead coffin floated full of blood, in which the body lay immersed to a depth of seven inches” (Le Fanu 102). There is a unique relationship between the vampire and his victims. Food is defined in terms of victimhood, clearly separated from humanity's general consumption of meat. The need for human victims makes hunting synonymous with courtship, as intense emotional connections are established between the vampiress and her food. As seen in the intense relationship developed between Laura and Carmilla, the vampire is “prone to be fascinated with a compelling vehemence, akin to the passion of love, by particular people” (105). For Carmilla, cruelty and love are inseparable (33). The taking of victims' blood for sustenance is a highly sexualized exchange of fluids from one body to another. The act of consumption turns into an illicit carnal exchange between the hunter and the prey. Immortality and eternal youth often appear in literature as a means of exploring fears of mortality, aging, and decay. 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 are dead but retain living traits, immune to aging while maintaining an animate body and mind. In Carmilla there is a clear binary between mortal and immortal. Laura's illness is described as a strange melancholy, "a rather advanced stage of the strangest disease from which any mortal has ever suffered", accentuating the distance... in the midst of... paper cities, society is reminded of its own anomalies. In this way, greater attention is paid to preventing the consequences of the monstrosity. Exploring monsters in literature and cinema, therefore, becomes necessary to reinforce ideals of normality (160). The attempt to subvert this monstrosity, the social anxieties of aging, beauty and the fear of death remains constant. The immortal and eternally beautiful monster challenges human boundaries, the limits and weaknesses of the physical body. In Le Fanu's Carmilla, the vampire is constructed as the ideal female body, invulnerable and immune to decay. The monstrous body of the vampire, capable of destabilizing normality within society, is both deformed and eternally beautiful. The monster represents the ideal subject with which to confront and contrast with the human race, providing a safe space to face and explore society's insecurities and fears.