Book Review of The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angea Carter

649 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: The bloody chamber angela carter analysis

Angela Carter’s ” The Bloody Chamber And Other Stories” is a collection of short stories written in the style of traditional fairy tales. The thrust of these stories is the objectification of women. Carter uses the fairy tale style as a way of exploring female power, desire and sexuality and adeptly uses the fantasy framework to explore feminist ideas.
Throughout these stories, young females are portrayed as passive beings in the beginning of the stories but it becomes clear in each that passivity is not celebrated in women.
The first of these stories, “The Bloody Chamber” is based on the Bluebeard tale in which his wife is forbidden from entering a particular room in the castle and when she does discovers the dead bodies of his former wives. In this story, the Marquis finds out that his wife has entered the room and decides to kill her but with the help of her mother and the blind piano tuner the Marquis is killed and the heroine inherits all of his money. She gives the estate away and lives the rest of her life with her mother and the blind piano tuner.
The next stories are cat tails, the first two of which are based on Beauty and The Beast. The third is called ” Puss-in-Boots”, a very funny piece with the cat as narrator. Following that there are three stories what are thematically similar in that lovers are portrayed as lethal partners and sex leads to death. Finally the last three stories are werewolf stories loosely based on the tale of Little Red Riding Hood.
Transformation is a common these in all of these stories. In fact these stories act as reminders that human beings can change. In “The Courtship of Mr. Lyon” or “The Tiger’s Bride” the heroine struggles to experience herself as an individual instead of an ob...

... middle of paper ...

...ses, as a symbol of purity but also as a way of reflecting the dangers of objectification. Pricking of the finger on a rose thorn, for example, acts as a reminder that objectification hurts.
Through the fairy tale genre Carter is able to present violence, power and sexuality in a way that makes them feel like a normal part of existence. Within the fantasy, those characteristics are not questioned. They are accepted as part of the story.
Overall, in these fairy tales Carter succeeds in delivering a feminist message and provides a counter argument for the moral message of traditional fairy tales in which young women were encouraged to remain obedient and pure. Unlike in earlier fairy tales, in these stories it is the straying from the path that results in transformation and releases women from the subjugation that women over history have been subjected to.

Show More
Related

  • Isolation In Rebecca And The Bloody Chamber

    340 Words  | 1 Pages

    ‘Rebecca’ and ‘The Bloody Chamber’ convey the gothic theme of isolation by employing the embodiment of dominant male characters. The femme fatal persona in ‘Rebecca’ creates a stigma about how Mrs de Winter should act. The Fairy-tale form causes development of female power and causes a sense of resilience throughout the collection of short stories. The use of controversial issues of feminine empowerment exercises the idea that women should have more power within heterosexual relationships. There are several Gothic conventions within both texts, for example setting is vital because the authors use immense, reclusive places like Manderly and the Castles causing physical entrapment for the feminine roles. Violent characteristics from Maxim and

    Read More

  • Comparing Fay Weldon's The Life And Love Of A She-Devil

    2210 Words  | 5 Pages

    Fairytales. Fairytales, having been around for centuries, are sending all kinds of important moral messages from being a child to facing the ‘beautiful’ world of adulthood. Fairytales surround us; almost as if they are haunting us and are presented in many books that we would never think could be an option. But what classifies a fairy tale or makes a fairytale? Fay Weldon’s classic feminist tale The Life and Love of A She-Devil is a strong candidate of an icily adult fairytale. This is a tale of how one woman, a mother and a normal housewife, is abandoned by her pig of a husband and replaced. The revengeful based novel shows many attributes on how it classifies as a post-modern fairytale. The scornful woman, Ruth is a very beastly and jealous woman who seeks revenge from her “lovely” husband Bobbo.

    Read More

  • Charles Perrault's Blue Beard

    1063 Words  | 3 Pages

    Bluebeard, a fairytale by Perrault, is about an affluent man who is known and revered on account of his despicable blue beard. Even though he has had several wives, their whereabouts are a source of mystery. As such, Bluebeard purposes to persuade one of his neighbor’s daughters to take his hand in marriage. Eventually, his efforts pay off and he ends up tying the knot with one of his neighbor`s daughters. After some time has passed in their marital union, Bluebeard announces to his wife that he must set off on an important journey. Before commencing on his journey, he gives the castle`s keys to his wife and the liberty of having access to all the rooms apart from a single room. However, his wife overwhelmed with curiosity goes against her husband`s instructions. As soon as she opens the door to the forbidden chamber, she stumbles upon the sight of the corpses of Bluebeard`s previous wives dangling on the wall. The horrific sight baffles her and she ends up dropping the key on the floor that is doused in blood. Her attempts to clean the stained key are futile. Circumstantially, Bluebeard makes a surprise return to his castle to find his shaken wife. He then discovers his wife`s unforgiveable mistake and purposes to kill her. Just as Bluebeard is about to strike down his wife, her brothers come to her rescue and kill Bluebeard. Being his closest heir, Bluebeard`s wife inherits his entire property and every one lives happily ever after (as is always the case in most fairytales).

    Read More

  • Passive Women in Chaucer's Canterbury Tales?

    1476 Words  | 3 Pages

    It is seen even in the first tale told – The Knight’s Tale – that the women portrayed within it are not passive at all, but, as previously stated, manage to persuade the males in charge to help them or do what they feel should be done. In the tale itself, the weeping of women is seen twice, and both times their weeping influences the men’s actions.

    Read More

  • Women in Homer's Odyssey, Joyce's Ulysses and Walcott's Omeros

    1686 Words  | 4 Pages

    This essay explores the role of women in Homer's Odyssey, James Joyce's Ulysses (1922) and Derrick Walcott's Omeros (1990), epics written in very different historical periods.  Common to all three epics are women as the transforming figure in a man's life, both in the capacity of a harlot and as wife.

    Read More

  • Angela Carter’s The Bood Chamber

    1761 Words  | 4 Pages

    In Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber, the theme of transformation appears throughout the short story cycle. The hero/heroine’s virginity acts as a source of strength that protects them from harm. Their lack of fear also saves them from death. Virginity acts as power of potentia, either literally or symbolically and results in a release of an observed transformative power. The bloody chamber serves a different symbolic purpose of transformation for Beauty in “The Courtship of Mr Lyon”, the heroine in “The Tiger’s Bride” and the Countess in “The Lady of the House of Love”. Each of these characters will embark on a journey that questions their selfhood in circumstances that are presented to them and ultimately each will go through a transformation involving maturation of the self, love, loss or magic.

    Read More

  • Gender Roles in Angela Carter's The Company of Wolves

    812 Words  | 2 Pages

    In her transformation of the well-known fable "Little Red Riding Hood," Angela Carter plays upon the reader's familiarity. By echoing elements of the allegory intended to scare and thus caution young girls, she evokes preconceptions and stereotypes about gender roles. In the traditional tale, Red sticks to "the path," but needs to be rescued from the threatening wolf by a hunter or "woodsman." Carter retells the story with a modern perspective on women. By using fantasy metaphorically and hyperbolically, she can poignantly convey her unorthodox and underlying messages.

    Read More

  • The Bloody Chamber

    944 Words  | 2 Pages

    Angela Carter was a writer in the 1970s during the third wave of feminism that influenced and encouraged personal and social views in her writing. This is demonstrated through her own interpretation of fairy tales in The Bloody Chamber. She combines realism and fantasy to create ‘magic realism’ whilst also challenging conventions of stereotypical gender roles.

    Read More

  • Feminism in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

    1061 Words  | 3 Pages

    In total, the female characters are always victimized because of their qualities and gender. In conclusion, by destroying the female characters, Mary Shelly alludes to the idea that women are always in victimized positions in society. In conclusion, most of the female characters are often isolated, victimized and ultimately killed by the male characters. Furthermore, it is rather ironic how Mary Shelly, the daughter Mary Wollestonecraft who wrote the Vindication of the Right of Women chooses to portray women. In this novel, the female characters are the exact opposite of the male characters; they are passive, weak and extremely limited.

    Read More

  • A Two Tale Comparison

    1449 Words  | 3 Pages

    Thinking back to our childhood, we all remember hearing many kinds of fairy tales. Some of them inspired us others confused us, and most of them taught us valuable lessons. Through out centuries tales and stories have been used as a valuable tool to pass on our culture to new generations. There is a strong belief that these fairy tales mirror and influence society. All cultures interpret tales in their own unique way. They add and subtract various aspects of the tale to fit the needs of their particular society. The same tale in the United States is different from the tale told in Asia. A good example of tale evolution can be seen in one of the most famous tales ever told which is “Cinderella”. As a professor of women’s history Karol Kelley points out in her essay Pretty Woman: A Modern Cinderella “There are some 700 versions of Cinderella”.This fairy tale as many others has been changing for many years, and in recent years Cinderella has come under some criticism for its depiction of women’s roles in society.

    Read More

  • Objectification Of Women In The Bloody Chamber By Angela Carter

    1450 Words  | 3 Pages

    Angela Carter’s “The Bloody Chamber,” is a visually intricate and feminist text; this feminism is portrayed through gender roles. The narrator is a young child who transitions into a woman searching for identity, and her husband’s masculine power defines it. In other words, this short story depicts gender roles and personal identity through the use of objectification of women. The deeper meaning behind the roles the men and women have may reflect Carter’s deconstruction of gender norms. The narrator enables the deconstruction by acting as a link; she conjoins two opposing ideas, like masculinity and femininity. These two opposing ideas create the deconstruction of gender norms that Carter elaborates on throughout her short story.

    Read More

  • Feminism and Fairy Tales

    1259 Words  | 3 Pages

    In a society unbridled with double standards and set views about women, one may wonder the origins of such beliefs. It might come as a surprise that these ideals and standards are embedded and have been for centuries in the beloved fairy tales we enjoyed reading as kids. In her analytical essay, “To Spin a Yarn: The Female Voice in Folklore and Fairy Tales”, Karen Rowe argues that fairy tales present “cultural norms which exalt passivity, dependency, and self-sacrifice as a female’s cardinal virtues.” Rowe presents an excellent point, which can be supported by versions of the cult classics, “Cinderella” and “Snow White”. Charles Perrault’s “ The Little Glass Slipper” and the Brothers Grimm’s “ Snow White” exemplify the beliefs that females are supposed to be docile, dependent on the male persona and willing to sacrifice themselves. In many cases, when strong female characters are presented they are always contradicting in these characteristics, thus labeled as villainous. Such is the case of the Cinderella’s stepsisters in Perrault’s “Cinderella” and the stepmother in the Brothers Grimm’s “Snow White.” These female characters face judgment and disapproval when they commit the same acts as male characters. With such messages rooted in our beloved fairy tales it is no wonder that society is rampant with these ideals about women and disapprove of women when they try to break free of this mold.

    Read More

  • Sleeping Beauty: Feminist Critics

    1097 Words  | 3 Pages

    ...present powerful characters, while females represent unimportant characters. Unaware of the influence of society’s perception of the importance of sexes, literature and culture go unchanged. Although fairytales such as Sleeping Beauty produce charming entertainment for children, their remains a didactic message that lays hidden beneath the surface; teaching future generations to be submissive to the inequalities of their gender. Feminist critic the works of former literature, highlighting sexual discriminations, and broadcasting their own versions of former works, that paints a composite image of women’s oppression (Feminist Theory and Criticism). Women of the twenty-first century serge forward investigating, and highlighting the inequalities of their race in effort to organize a better social life for women of the future (Feminist Theory and Criticism).

    Read More

  • Tigers Bride

    853 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Carter’s “Tiger’s Bride” masculinity plays a bigger role than femininity does and showed in many ways. The father of the narrator in this story gambles his daughter on a deck of cards to the Beast. He has a very bad gambling addiction and when he loses his daughter, he then becomes concerned. He does not have his priorities straight because he was willing to gamble his own daughter. This shows society how females are just objects in a male’s life and that they value them close to nothing. He only becomes concerned after he loses his daughter and then says the line about how she is his pearl … He shows no fatherly characteristics, he cared more about other things then his own family. He also shows how the only women in his life, since the mother is absent that he has possession over her. He owns her therefore he was allowed to put her up when he was gambling. He shows his lack of caring and loving his daughter. This demonstrates to society ho...

    Read More

  • Intertwined Themes of Margaret Atwood's Dancing Girls

    2149 Words  | 5 Pages

    Each story focuses on a different female character and explores her thoughts and her reactions to her social environment. Throughout the collection of stories there are a number of underlying themes that reveal Atwood's insight and understanding of why men and women are different. These themes include the questionable definitions of femininity proposed in society, the idea of escapism through fantasy and the conflict that exists between men and women.

    Read More

More about Book Review of The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by Angea Carter

Open Document