Angela Carter's 'The Company Of Wolves'

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Angela Carter’s 1984 short fiction story, The Company of Wolves is set in the region of mountain and forest during the winter. She wrote four stories according to the mountain where all characters are in. Those stories become one big story. She uses that type of imagery to shows various characters and plots. Wolves are always mentioned in all four stories. A hunter kills a wolf for protection of the town. A witch cursed the cheating groom’s girl with miserly howling of wolves. A man angrily turns into wolf when he finds out his fiancé get married to another man and have children. It also retells the story of Little Red Riding Hood. The Company of Wolves is more gothic and darker. I assume Carter wants to warn young girls to beware of attractive …show more content…

Carter’s last story is different from Little Red Riding Hood because she turns the Girl into strong-minded and independent character than what the original folktale had. Rather than reacting to the wolf with fear, the Girl shows courage and confidence. Carter says, “The girl burst out laughing; she knew she was nobody’s meat.” This reaction shows the brave Carter put into a character of the Girl that is different from female characters that need protecting. Rather than show a woodsman, Carter makes sure to point out that the Girl that she can defend herself without a man’s help. She also makes sure to point out that the Girl is a virgin with “an unbroken egg; she is a sealed vessel; she has inside her a magic space the entrance to which is shut tight with a plug of membrane”. But, the ending show that the Girl who are so willing to give in to the werewolf “in a savage marriage ceremony.” The ending is interpreted as Girl’s virginity is actually special except to herself. It’s not any man’s decision to tell her whether it’s for her to give it up or not, it’s her decision alone. In the end, she allows the werewolf to take it. Carter challenges the original viewpoint of women and virginity by introducing the Girl that gives into sex easy, beginning with “she freely gave the kiss she owed him.” The Girl changes to be a woman who considers her own body to do with what she

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