Commentary on The Lady Of the House of Love by Angela Carter

The first 200 words of this essay...

"The Lady Of the House of Love" by Angela Carter

"The Lady of the House of Love" can be read as exploring the ideas of how women are entrapped in a certain constraint by society and depicting how females could break out of that routine. The story also explores the rational through the form of the Officer, and the irrational, explored through the vampire being that is Countess Nosferatu.

Countess Nosferatu only sucks the blood of young men, and in this sense, Carter is reversing the traditional scenario of a male vampire feeding on females and thus becomes a paradigmatic femme fatale. Instead of being a helpless victim, she is actually taking on the role of the villain in the story by taking on the role of the vampire, this can be seen as subverting the traditional gender role of a helpless female victim in the story. She seduces and murders men, much like the Count in the Bloody Chamber, obviously occupying the role of the violent aggressor. In order to feed on her male prey, "she takes them by the hand and leads them to her bedroom" where she seduces them before drinking their blood.