Description
Luella Miller is an unsettling and unusual short story in which anyone who helps the mysterious Luella slowly becomes pale, lifeless, and ultimately dies. In this gothic, feminist tale, “Luella Miller” (1902) by Mary Wilkins Freeman presents a chilling vampire story without ever explicitly naming a vampire, leaving readers to uncover the truth through inference, symbolism, and character behavior.
Originally published in the December 1902 issue of Everybody’s Magazine and later included in Freeman’s collection The Wind in the Rose-bush and Other Stories of the Supernatural, this story blends psychological horror, social commentary, and gothic suspense. Students are challenged to analyze how Freeman builds fear and meaning through suggestion rather than spectacle, making this text ideal for close reading and literary analysis.
In this lesson, students begin with before-reading discussion questions that activate prior knowledge and introduce key ideas related to dependence, power, and gender roles. As they read, students work with academic vocabulary using a graphic organizer and respond to reading comprehension and literary analysis questions that require textual evidence and inferencing. After reading, students complete a chronological order timeline to trace the story’s structure and a summarizing strategy that reinforces understanding of plot and theme.
Complete answer keys are included to support instruction and assessment. Student activities are provided in both editable Word document format and print-ready PDF, while answer keys and the full text of “Luella Miller” are included in PDF format.
This resource is an excellent fit for gothic literature units, feminist literature studies, or supernatural short story collections in middle school or high school ELA classrooms. Luella Miller consistently sparks discussion about power, dependence, gender expectations, and moral responsibility, making it a memorable and thought-provoking addition to your curriculum.