Reading Journal: The Bloody Chamber

Angela Carter

Title: The Bloody Chamber
Author: Angela Carter
Publication Date: 1979
Genre: Gothic/Magical Realism

Contextual Information

All the short stories within "The Bloody Chamber" collection are new versions or retellings of traditional folk and fairy tales returned to their more brutal origins, reflecting the difficult lives of the people who first told them. Carter's writing is also massively influenced by her own involvement in the second wave feminist movement and exploration of the Marquis de Sade (origin of the word "sadist") whose 18th century writing she heavily criticised for its portrayal of women and pornography in another book published the same year: "The Sadeian Woman". In "The Bloody Chamber" Carter further develops her ideas, inverting the perspective portrayed by de Sade.Linking to this, Carter clearly draws on Gothic influences yet as with the works of de Sade she subverts the stereotypes- specifically the conventional helplessness of Gothic female protagonists. Instead of being saved, or ruined, by the powerful male figure, Carter's heroines control their own fate; red riding hood in "The Company of Wolves", for example, 'knew she was nobody's meat'.

Plot Summary

The Bloody Chamber

A young virgin bride is taken to her husband's castle and discovers a forbidden room containing the murdered corpses of his former wives. The Marquis returns, discovers her guilt and prepares to behead her but the bride's mother appears and shoots the husband. She, her daughter and the piano tuner whom the bride confided in then inherit the fortune and live happily.

Influences: Bluebeard fairy tale "Perrault", Sade's cannibal Minski with castle containing captive virgins.

The Courtship of Mr Lyon

Beauty's father seeks refuge from a snowstorm in a mysterious mansion, picking a white rose on the way out and angering the Beast who owns it. The Beast demands that Beauty comes to dinner and she stays, promised that her father's fortune will be restored. Now rich, she is allowed to leave and rejoin her father, promising to visit the Beast. But she forgets her promise and only returns as the Beast is dying. She kisses him and he becomes a man.

Influences: Beauty and The Beast

The Tiger's Bride

A Russian man gambles away his daughter to the mysterious Beast. She is taken to his mansion where he asks to see her naked and when she refuses she is locked away in a room with an automaton maid. Later, she is taken on a horse ride where the Beast himself disrobes to reveal he is a tiger. The heroine then takes off her own clothes and later goes to the Beast's room where he licks off her skin and she, too, becomes a tiger.

Influences: Beauty and The Beast

Puss in Boots
The master of cat Figaro falls in love with the young, closely-guarded wife of signor Panteleone. Figaro unites them and falls for the woman's tabby cat who trips Panteleone causing him to fall to his death. Figaro's master and the young woman have sex and marry.
Influences: Puss in Boots

The Erl-King
The heroine wanders into the woods and is seduced by Erl-King, a mysterious figure who seems to control nature. In his home are many birds in cages which the heroine discovers were once girls. She strangles Erl-King and sets them all free.
Influences: German legend "Erlkonig", Elf-King

The Snow Child
A count creates the daughter of his wishes but she pricks herself on a rose thorn and dies. He then rapes his dead daughter, melting her body.
Influences: Based on a variant of Snow White

The Lady of the House of Love
A soldier is lured into the mansion of a beautiful vampire. But as she prepares to seduce and kill him she cuts herself on some glass and he kisses her wound making her become mortal and die.
Influences: Transylvanian vampire tale

The Werewolf
A child travels through the forest to visit her grandmother but is attacked by a wolf. She cuts off its hand but when she reaches her grandmother's house she finds that it is her who is missing a hand. The grandmother is stoned to death as a witch.
Influences: Red Riding Hood

The Company of Wolves
A child travels to visit her grandmother and meets a handsome huntsman on the way. He gets to the house first, turns into a wolf and eats the grandmother. The child arrives but seduces the wolf before he can eat her too.
Influences: Red Riding Hood

Wolf-Alice
A girl, Alice, is raised by wolves. She is taken in by nuns but then given to a werewolf duke. He gets shot but Alice saves him by licking his wound clean.
Influences: Red Riding Hood

Narration

There are a variety of narrative types present across the collection which reflects the prevalent theme of metamorphosis. For example "The Bloody Chamber", "The Tiger's Bride" and "Puss-in-boots" are all narrated in first person, "The Erl-King" moves between a number of styles including 3rd person and direct address and the other tales have a 3rd person omniscient narrator.The result of this diversity is quite disorientating, particularly in "The Erl-King", which links to the close, textured description common throughout the collection. It also allows for different perspectives, for example the two retellings of Beauty and the Beast are narrated differently, yet the recurring motifs (such as the mirror) invite the reader to look back on all the stories and view them as part of a whole.

Characters

In the majority of these short stories, the main character is a young girl. She is generally a virgin, seems vulnerable, pure, fragile and at the mercy of a dominant male figure. Despite this, Carter shows a certain power in the fragility of these women, allowing her heroines to save themselves instead of either being resigned to their fate or being rescued by another dominant figure. Carter also draws out the idea of character flaws. In each of the stories, the initially dominant characters have fatal flaws such as jealousy or pride which lead to their downfall. Another interesting thing about all the characters in this collection is the way they are described. Carter's descriptions are all very dense and symbolic, her stories laced with recurring motifs which link many of the characters together. The heroines, for example, are all described with imagery of whiteness, purity, nature while the male, beastly figures are surrounded by references to fur, teeth, blood, strength. This emphasises how it was what the characters represent that is important and not who they are or what they do and look like as individuals.

Themes

Sexuality and Violence
-Influenced by the Marquis de Sade.
-Links sex and pornography with violence yet reverses the stereotypical gender power balance.

Virginity
-Exploration of the duality of the connotations of virginity- links to vulnerability,an invitation for corruption, but also to strength, as if its purity is a kind of barrier or shield.
- Most of the heroines in the stories are virgins.

Metamorphosis
-Many references to creatures which are part human, part beast or who change from one to the other.
-Represents the darker side of mythical creatures in fairy tales.

Power Balance
-Exploration of the objectification of young, vulnerable women and how this leads to sexual oppression.
-Reversal of gender roles in terms of power in some of the stories, with the heroines often taking their fate into their own hands.

Opinion and Connections

Overall, I found this collection quite shocking. The plots and imagery are all quite brutal and I felt that underneath it all you can sense a kind of anger towards society which when examining context becomes even more obvious. In a way I did enjoy it because of this, as I really loved the way that each of the characters can be looked at alone but also as part of a whole because of what they represent when grouped with similar characters. This made me feel that what I was reading wasn't just a good story but also meant something and showed something quite significant. I also found the descriptive techniques extremely engaging as the use of setting really brought the stories to life. "The Erl-King" in particular, I found, was actually most striking because of the setting- the way the forest was described with so much detail and texture. 

In terms of making connections, I identified links with a couple of different books. Firstly, Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka because of the shared theme of metamorphosis and the way that it, too, has political undertones. The main character as a beetle is treated with fear and disgust because of his transformation and this links to the way that people in society who are different, such as who have a disability, are treated differently and often with a kind of fear. I found that this idea is also present in The Bloody Chamber as when the characters are bestial or change to become so they are automatically viewed with revulsion and horror, for example the Beast in "The Courtship of Mr Lyon" or Alice in "Wolf-Alice".

Another connection that I made was with a collection of short stories by Anton Chekhov called Ward No.6 And Other Stories. Mainly focusing on "Ward No.6" itself, I feel like the use of setting to create a sense of foreboding is something that is also used in The Bloody Chamber. Moreover, the role reversal when the doctor actually becomes one of the patients in the ward (after his questioning of mental illness and the way to treat it causes him to be thought of as mentally unstable himself) is mirrored by the way that Carter's seemingly dominant male figures end up being overpowered by the heroines who seemed so weak at the start.