The Bloody Chamber Angela Carter Analysis

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In my analysis of ‘The Bloody Chamber’ by Angela Carter, I have decided to analyze hw role-reversal plays a large part in this story. The POV is set in first person, with the Heroine as the narrator. The story is told through her eyes and she is believed to be a reliable source because she clearly outlines unfortunate events that happen to her, such as the mark of shame on her forehead of the blood-stained key. I believe for many that Carter may have wanted her story to defy the cultural norm of fairytales where the female character always needs to be saved from a situation- this typically places female characters in roles that make them seem fragile, weak, and helpless. Carter uses her writing to give a voice to the female character as well …show more content…

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 …show more content…

Her worse fears came true after she saw what was behind the doors of the forbidden room. The worst thing imaginable would be that her new husband was either abusive or a murderer and the latter seems to have been Carter’s choice for the Heroine. The Heroine realizes that her innocence has been taken from her from Marquis and she will now find herself in the same fate as the previous wives. “Nothing in my life of family love and music had prepared me for these grown-up games and yet these were clues to his self that showed me, at least, how much he had been loved, even if they did not reveal any good reason for it. But I wanted to know still more; and, as I closed the office door and locked it, the means to discover more fell in my way.” (Page 15). The Heroine herself admits that her experiences before her marriage to Marquis could not have prepared her for what she may find in the chamber or find out about Marquis. Her referral to “grown-up games’ in itself proves that even the Heroine believes that she may have been a little naïve going into this marriage and that she is not ready for the total package that may come with her new

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