The Bloody Chamber, By Angela Carter - 1386 Words

As a feminist, it is almost to be expected that many of Angela Carter’s happy ever after endings will strike the reader with a bold feminist message. However, in The Bloody Chamber, this is not necessarily the case. Although there are several feminist messages in the stories’ resolutions, these messages are not always presented in the way one would expect, and not every female protagonist is presented as a feminist character. By taking the roles of typically Gothic women and toying with the presentation of female characters, many of Carter’s feminist messages are not as one would expect. The eponymous story The Bloody Chamber ends with a sense of resolution, love and happiness. The antagonist of the story is no more, and the narrator is able to live a happy and fulfilling life with Jean-Yves. Whether the ending is truly feminist, however, is open to discussion. In one respect, the actual resolution to the story is all down to the narrator’s mother, who is presented at the story’s climax as an incredibly powerful female figure. Carter uses masculine and bestial imagery to describe the mother, in a way that is not dissimilar to earlier imagery to describe the Marquis. The narrator refers to her mother’s hair as â€Å"her white mane†; just as earlier she had referenced the Marquis’s â€Å"dark mane†. The juxtaposition between light and dark here is a typical example of Gothic extremes; while the Marquis seems to represent darkness – the supernatural and evil – the mother isShow MoreRelatedThe Bloody Chamber By Angela Carter1341 Words   |  6 Pagesgaze† and the feminist theory, that help to understand the role of the women and show how they are oppressed and weak in comparison to men. Angela Carter reinforces these theories by sharing similar ideas of male dominance and female redemption in her short novel, The Bloody Chamber. Through her stories, â€Å"The Erl-King†  "The Snow Child† and â€Å"The Bloody Chamber,† Carter challenges and critiques the stereotypical gender norms of society by focusing on the representation of the female body and the way inRead MoreThe Bloody Chamber By Angela Carter1565 Words   |  7 PagesThe Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter was published in 1979, a time when distinct patriarchal roles were present, and women were treated as objects in society. Carter demonstrates these gender roles in her collection, which undoubtedly deals with dark themes of sexuality and violence. Carter does not exhibit the patriarchal representations of gender in a black and white method; rather it is quite ambiguous. This essay will argue that Carter has failed to provide a valid critique of patriarchal representationsRead MoreThe Bloody Chamber By Angela Carter866 Words   |  4 Pagesit includes anxious feelings due to the absence of connection or communication with other beings, both in the present and extending into the f uture. Some describe it as emptiness or hollowness inside of one’s being. In the narrative The Bloody Chamber (1979), Angela Carter’s characters deal with the emotion of loneliness by taking action and intervening through any circumstances. In contrast, in Zadie Smith’s Hanwell in Hell (2004) the main characters Clive and Hanwell deal with loneliness simply throughRead MoreEssay on The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter2054 Words   |  9 Pagesin Carter’s writing, particularly in her book ‘The Bloody Chamber’ which is commonly considered to be her masterwork, brimming with intertextualities and ambiguities. Some may find her work to be excessively violent or savage, perhaps even alienating. Yet others may have found this no-holds-barred approach to be exhilarating and refreshing in comparison to other authors of her time. In her re-writing of Perrault and Beaumont’s classic tales, Carter proposes a reading of several well-known stories withRead MoreAngela Carter - The bloody Chamber1283 Words   |  6 Pagesï » ¿How does Carter present the experience of the girl in The Bloody Chamber? Carter has directed the narrative mostly, although not completely, from the older woman in the text, speaking back on the past (therefore past tense) as a first person narrative. There is interjections of dialogue throughout the text, although it is mostly constructed as a written text, as if the older women is writing in a diary, but has interjections of dialogue, possibly showing her memory traveling back and replayingRead MoreCritical Analysis Of The Bloody Chamber By Angela Carter1611 Words   |  7 PagesCarter Castrates Freud: Criticism in ‘The Bloody Chamber’ of Psychoanalytic Theory While Psychoanalysis has provided many psychological breakthroughs in the field of mental health, it has also created great issue in relation to gender equality. Freud’s Psychoanalytic theory has contributed to the solidification of female oppression, and to the inferior status of women in the twentieth century. Psychoanalysis had become so intwined into the constructs of a male dominated society that it createsRead MoreAnalysis Of Angela Carter s The Bloody Chamber 1430 Words   |  6 Pagesnarrative concentrates its meaning. Sign and sense can fuse to an extent impossible to achieve among the multiplying ambiguities of an extended narrative.† – Angela Carter Angela Carter is known in the literary community for her use of fairytales and overt sexual imagery in promoting feminist platforms. At the time she wrote â€Å"The Bloody Chamber†, the Second Wave of Feminism and, subsequently, the rise of radical-libertarian feminism were crashing into the forefront of the global politics. This waveRead MoreAnalysis Of Angela Carter s The Bloody Chamber 1756 Words   |  8 PagesMost of Angela Carter’s work revolves around democratic feminism and her representation of the patriarchal roles subjugated to women. (Evangelou, 2013) ‘The Bloody Chamber’ by Angela Carter suggests many substitutions to infamous depictions of femininity. Angela Carter manipulates old-fashioned fairy tales in order to subvert conformist gender roles like submissive wives and male dominance. (Makinen, 1992) While Carter receives commendation for her work, Patricia Duncker critiques her as well, forRead MoreThe Sexual Content in Angela Carter ´ S the Bloody Chamber1684 Words   |  7 PagesThe Sexual Content in Angela Carter ´s â€Å"The Bloody Chamber† The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories, is a selection of fairytales which have been re-written by Angela Carter to place them in the modern day. Carter has taken seven fairytales whose â€Å"latent content† she says were â€Å"violently sexual†, (qtd by Robin Sheets, â€Å"Pornography Fairy Tales and Feminism† 642). The stories include a variation of classics fairytales such as â€Å"Bluebeard†, â€Å"Beauty and the Beast† and â€Å"Little Red Riding Hood† with sometimesRead MoreEssay on Gothic Conventions in The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter1367 Words   |  6 PagesGothic Conventions in The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter The Gothic is often distinguished by an atmosphere of terror, darkness, mystery, the unexplained and the transgression of boundaries. This essay will attempt to dissect how Angela Carter uses Gothic conventions in the passage taken out of her novel, The Bloody Chamber. One of the most predominant conventions manipulated here is that of a dark and mysterious atmosphere. Throughout the passage the feeling of terror prevails. This