Bloody Chamber- Critical Coursework
How does carter represent gender and explore gender issues to create meaning in The Bloody Chamber?
The Bloody Chamber can be seen as a feminist adaptation of the original fairy tale Bluebeard. Carter breaks through the traditional stereotypical gender associations that society places on women and men, usually emphasised in traditional fairy tales.
Angela Carter creates an interesting interpretation of the stigmas thrust upon gender roles within the Bloody Chamber. We see from the beginning of the text that the first person narrator creates a feminine perspective for the forthcoming events, challenging the fairy tale norm of a neutral third person narrator (traditionally a male). By doing so this creates
The Marquis is undoubtedly a very powerful man with every aspect of his character showing this. There is a dense description of his scent which we are constantly reminded of throughout “his scent of Russian leather” The narrator notes how his odour is a constant reminder of his masculinity and that his smell trails him wherever he goes “That perfume of spiced leather always betrayed him” This further emphasises his power that even his smell is an overbearing presence before he enters a room. Throughout the text we see Carter display the narrator’s vulnerability through sex and pornography when the Marquis takes the narrator’s virginity the entire passage does not give the impression of sexual pleasantry but has an aroma of death around the whole act “A dozen husbands impaled a dozen brides” Carters intention was clear in this part of the novel with Dracula references with the use of impaled we are meant to learn that the Marquis real desire is not sexual pleasure but the idea that this man loves death and pain more than the woman he’s married. The representation of the women’s virginity can be suggested that by taking away her virginity this is a subtle symbol of him taking something valuable away from her foreshadowing the taking away of her life. She is effectively now lost the only attractive
In today’s society the term “Gold digger” would be used to describe women who desire wealth and on the other hand many women are seen as being obsessed with finding love. Carter is creating a secondary discussion within the novel about the labels placed on women. Carter purposely remains in a neutral view point when discussing gender themes never enforcing ideas of gender upon readers just exploring what we already see within society. Through her narrative Carter brings forth questions of gender ideas, by making the reader query what they perceive as social norms. We have examples of this through the dynamic and empowering ending with the narrator’s mother killing the Marquis thus representing the end of patriarchy. This challenges the idea that a male character in which the traditional fairy tale Bluebeard has of a male figure saving the “the damsel in distress” The act of feminine power in the climax of the novel breaks away from all gothic traditions. Furthermore with the phallic symbol of the “father’s gun” this represent the subversion of gender roles
‘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
Which is caused by the narrator having a male perspective. The narrator does not give the women and credit or redeeming qualities. All the women follow a general stereotype. If they tried to break away from the stereotype, they would me more important and influential characters. Paquette, a chambermaid in the Baron’s castle, is described as “a pretty and obedient brunette” (5). She is identified obedient not because of her job as a chambermaid, but because she is willing to exploit her soul and body to the men around the castle. In regards to the old woman, she doesn’t even have an actual name, which does not matter since is ugly and useless. The old woman has the mindset that she is; an object; a mistake; a disgrace. That her time has passed as a beautiful useful woman. All the rape and abuse has physically affected her and she is out of luck. In fact, she is lucky if men talk to her, or even look at her without
During the Victorian Era, society had idealized expectations that all members of their culture were supposedly striving to accomplish. These conditions were partially a result of the development of middle class practices during the “industrial revolution… [which moved] men outside the home… [into] the harsh business and industrial world, [while] women were left in the relatively unvarying and sheltered environments of their homes” (Brannon 161). This division of genders created the ‘Doctrine of Two Spheres’ where men were active in the public Sphere of Influence, and women were limited to the domestic private Sphere of Influence. Both genders endured considerable pressure to conform to the idealized status of becoming either a masculine ‘English Gentleman’ or a feminine ‘True Woman’. The characteristics required women to be “passive, dependent, pure, refined, and delicate; [while] men were active, independent, coarse …strong [and intelligent]” (Brannon 162). Many children's novels utilized these gendere...
This essay explores the blurring of gender roles within Bram Stoker’s Dracula and Angela Carter’s The Lady of the House of Love, focusing on the presentation of a sexually assertive female and its threat to the patriarchal society, and the duality of the female characters as they are presented as enticing and thrilling, but also dangerous and somewhat repulsive.
The women in both Hardy’s Tess of the D’Urbervilles and Conrad’s Heart of Darkness are seemingly presented with traditional feminine qualities of inferiority, weakness, and sexual objectification. However, the power that they hold in male-female relationships, and their embodiment of traditional male roles, contests the chauvinistic views of society during Conrad and Hardy’s era. While Conrad presents powerful female characters through their influences over men, the reversal of traditional gender roles is exemplified more by Hardy’s character, Tess, yet both authors present revolutionary ideas of feminism, and enlighten readers to challenge the patriarchal views of society towards women. Both novels criticize traditional societal views towards women by the hypocrisy of Conrad’s Marlow, and Hardy’s narrator’s male gaze. Prince’s death, the rape and her arrest all happened to her whilst asleep.
The impact of taking away a character’s voice and actions results in dehumanizing that character. Within “The Reeve’s Tale”, the two women in this tale are not equals to the men of the story and are interchangeable with a few bags of corn. This is noted by the constant objectification of women and traditional gender roles that do not allow for a female voice. The dehumanization of women allow the reader to feel little to no sympathy when they are the equivalent to an object. In “The Reeve’s Tale” of The Canterbury Tales by Geoffery Chaucer, the use of fungibility, ownership, and traditional gender roles
Women show a submission to the power of men, even Blanche admits that maybe Stanley is what they need to ‘Mix with [their] blood’, whereas she treats Mitch with contempt, rolling her eyeballs when he can’t see and ridiculing him in ...
From the beginning of time woman have faced the difficult task of discovering her position in a “man’s world”. From a historical viewpoint, we can trace woman’s struggle back to Eve — the women who ate the forbidden fruit and from those actions left mankind to pay a huge price — to also the expectations of women from the beginning of time to be only confined to the domestic lifestyle of obedience. Females have been shunned from seeking higher knowledge because knowledge, as deemed by the male ego, is only for the male neurological capacity. The Bluebeard tales give life to the theory that women’s desperation for knowledge will lead them down the path to their demise. In each Bluebeard tale for example, the three wives in Angela Carter’s Bloody Chamber and the seven wives in
The Bloody Chamber is a remake of the original fairytale Bluebeard; however Angela Carter rewrites the fairy tale using her feminist views to raise issues concerning roles in relationships and marriage, sexuality and corruption. Carter challenges the classic role of the male protagonist and the female victim; she does this by changing the stereotypes of the traditional fairy tale’s males as the saviours and females as the victims. She challenges the fairy tale’s traditional sex roles when she replaces the brother of the bride for the mother as the rescuer, “one hand on the reins of the rearing horse while the other clasped my fathers service revolver” this demonstrates to the reader that women are as strong as men, even stronger and can take on a expected man’s role and make it their own therefore challenging the stereotypical gender roles of Men. In addition to this as a feminist, Carter uses anti-essentialism to present that time, power and position are the details that makes a man act like he does and a woman like she does. This is revealed through the setting, France 1790’s, were men and women were not equal. The Marquis in this story is presented as a wealthy older man who has the ability to seduce and retrieve what he wants, “his world” this emphasizes the power he maintains and it gives him ownership not only of his wealth but the young bride and even possibly the...
As a man fascinated with the role of women during the 14th Century, or most commonly known as the Middle Ages, Chaucer makes conclusive evaluations and remarks concerning how women were viewed during this time period. Determined to show that women were not weak and humble because of the male dominance surrounding them, Chaucer sets out to prove that women were a powerful and strong-willed gender. In order to defend this argument, the following characters and their tales will be examined: Griselda from the Clerk's Tale, and the Wife of Bath, narrator to the Wife of Bath's Tale. Using the role of gender within the genres of the Canterbury Tales, exploring each woman's participation in the outcomes of their tales, and comparing and contrasting these two heroines, we will find out how Chaucer broke the mold on medievalist attitudes toward women.
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.
The wife then discovers a room that is filled with the bodies of Bluebeard’s previous wives. Bluebeard returns and threatens to behead the wife, but her brothers save her and kills Bluebeard. In “The Bloody Chamber”, Carter adapts the story into a work of her own. She begins by making the star of the story the Heroine. The story is told solely in her point of view, which is not seen very often. Carter gives a voice to the voiceless, in the sense that the Heroine’s POV wouldn’t have been typically heard. Carter also makes the knight-in-shining armor the Heroine’s mother instead of Jean-Yves, who is the Heroine’s love interest after Marquis. These factors in the story change how we view this story and gives an interesting twist to the
Throughout literature, authors employ a variety of strategies to highlight the central message being conveyed to the audience. Analyzing pieces of literature through the gender critics lens accentuates what the author believes to be masculine or feminine and that society and culture determines the gender responsibility of an individual. In the classic fairytale Little Red Riding Hood, the gender strategies appear through the typical fragile women of the mother and the grandmother, the heartless and clever male wolf, and the naïve and vulnerable girl as little red riding hood.
When authors or writers rewrite classic texts, they are able to reveal important lessons to readers or make the underlying message from an original text more obvious to readers. Rewriting classic texts can also allow the writer make an original text more moderate, by doing so it makes the text more relatable to the readers and help them understand the story more clearly. This is exactly what Angela Carter did in her text, “The Company of Wolves,” Carter creates and reveals to readers a feminist point in her rewrite. Carter is criticizing the original text of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s story, “Little Red Cap.” Carter develops a female protagonist who is independent and also explores her sexuality, unlike the Grimm Brothers who creates a poorly developed damsel in distress. Carter, also does not include a typical fairytale story ending, unlike the Grimm brothers and most fairy tales which end on a happy note. By creating these kind of character developments and disregarding a typical “happily ever after” ending, Carter expresses feminist ideals and rids the stereotypical attributes a female character is usually given in fairytales. Carter is trying to show readers the importance of developing the female characters, unlike the Grimm Brothers who have much more developed male characters than female characters.
...her defiance to no longer comply with the gender constructions of society. Ibsen, therefore, criticises society’s compliance with the constructions of the culture and urges us to be more like Nora is at her epiphany. Lady Bracknell is memorable for her comically masculine traits and character. Not only does Wilde shatter our gender expectations, but ridicules the compliance of individuals in the performances that they make for society. Both plays raise questions regarding the submission of men and women to society’s presumptions and pressure regarding gender, and criticise individuals for conforming without asking questions. Each play makes us question our own performances for society and the performances of others in our lives. Nora’s realisation that she has married a construction is as unnerving now as it was to its contemporary audience because it forces us to look at our own behaviour and that of others around us, presenting us with a frightening and menacing awareness that we also may be existing in false and constructed lives.