Consider how and to what purpose Angela Carter uses a folk story in any two or three short stories from "The Bloody Chamber"
The purpose of this essay is to explore how Angela Carter uses the stories in "The Bloody Chamber" to make comment on feminism by using well known folk and fairy stories which are almost always male dominated. Although Angela Carter has said "My intention was not to do 'versions' or, as the American version of the book said, horribly, 'adult' fairy tales, but to extract the latent content from the traditional stories and to use it as the beginnings of new stories." (#1)
Having said that, it appears there are more similarities than just in the beginning of the stories.
If we consider "The Bloody Chamber" which is based on the folk story "The Blue Beard" taken from Charles Perrault's "Tales of Past Times" published in 1729. There are many similarities between the two stories; Firstly in Angela Carter's story there is the Marquis, who like Blue Beard is incredibly wealthy, and has been married several times, with the wives disappearing in unusual circumstances. The male characters both give their new wives the keys to the household, making sure to point to the key to the forbidden room that they must not under any circumstances enter.
Angela Carter has brought the story forward in time. So it is modern, but not so far that it is contempory. It is set in post revolutionary France, circa 1890; she has done this so as to choose an age where great wealth is available to a very small minority. Even though the story itself is obviously gothic fiction, having used the first person narrative it seems that the whole thing is a memory of the narrator, which makes it seem real.
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Quality of writing
Spelling is generally adequate, with a few minor errors. The essay as a whole does not flow particularly well, largely due to the poor use of grammar. One example is the phrase, “So it is modern, but not so far that it is contempory.” The word “contemporary” is spelt wrong and the writer begins a sentence with the connective “so”. This is consistent throughout and makes the entire essay seem disjointed and generally poorly written. Regardless of the content of an essay, poor spelling and grammar immediately give an impression of a poorly written essay overall.
Level of analysis
Level of analysis - The writer uses stylistic devices to structure the essay, which is good as it makes it easy to follow as a reader. There is a good use of context throughout (such as the references to the French revolution and the guillotine). The level and range of analysis is good up to a point; the writer interprets some quotes as symbolism and engages with the text as representative of wider ideas. However, this could go further. The points are not quote-driven and quotations are few and far between – to improve, the writer could use quotes from the text to form points, rather than the other way round. This would show that the writer has not plucked their ideas out of thin air, but have extrapolated from the text. Also, sometimes the writer makes serious assumptions, the largest being “the story itself is obviously gothic fiction”. Although the question of how Gothic the text is is not relevant to the question, the writer could have phrased it better, such as: “some believe the text to be Gothic due to...”. Indeed, the very use of folk tales makes 'The Bloody Chamber' Gothic as Carter breaks the boundaries of folk stories and transgresses. This could have made up an integral part of the essay. In terms of evaluation, the consideration of different perspectives (such as a feminist viewpoint) clearly show the writer thinking from different viewpoints. There could have been more explicit deliberation over which perspective is most relevant, or to what extent folk tales had an impact on the text. The conclusion is extremely poor; no overall judgement has been reached and the essay finishes on a piece of analysis rather than a gathering together of points made. A sound conclusion could have been formed from evaluation: are folk tales important in the text? Why? How does Carter generally bring this to the forefront?
Response to question
The essay begins well, with the writer clearly setting out the purpose of the essay. The next few paragraphs clearly link the texts back to folk tales. However, occasionally this turns into 'similarities between 'The Bloody Chamber' and folk tales'. The question is asking how Carter uses folk tales – for instance, the essay could have explored how, in using folk tales as a template, Carter plays with and subverts readers' expectations. Instead the writer either directly compares folk tales and 'The Bloody Chamber', or drifts off into analysis which has little to do with folk tales. Although the paragraphs on magical realism and symbolism are analytically sound, there is no attempt to link these back to folk tales. Here, the writer does not answer the set question at all.
Quality of writing
Spelling is generally adequate, with a few minor errors. The essay as a whole does not flow particularly well, largely due to the poor use of grammar. One example is the phrase, “So it is modern, but not so far that it is contempory.” The word “contemporary” is spelt wrong and the writer begins a sentence with the connective “so”. This is consistent throughout and makes the entire essay seem disjointed and generally poorly written. Regardless of the content of an essay, poor spelling and grammar immediately give an impression of a poorly written essay overall.
Level of analysis
The writer uses stylistic devices to structure the essay, which is good as it makes it easy to follow as a reader. There is a good use of context throughout (such as the references to the French revolution and the guillotine). The level and range of analysis is good up to a point; the writer interprets some quotes as symbolism and engages with the text as representative of wider ideas. However, this could go further. The points are not quote-driven and quotations are few and far between – to improve, the writer could use quotes from the text to form points, rather than the other way round. This would show that the writer has not plucked their ideas out of thin air, but have extrapolated from the text. Also, sometimes the writer makes serious assumptions, the largest being “the story itself is obviously gothic fiction”. Although the question of how Gothic the text is is not relevant to the question, the writer could have phrased it better, such as: “some believe the text to be Gothic due to...”. Indeed, the very use of folk tales makes 'The Bloody Chamber' Gothic as Carter breaks the boundaries of folk stories and transgresses. This could have made up an integral part of the essay. In terms of evaluation, the consideration of different perspectives (such as a feminist viewpoint) clearly show the writer thinking from different viewpoints. There could have been more explicit deliberation over which perspective is most relevant, or to what extent folk tales had an impact on the text. The conclusion is extremely poor; no overall judgement has been reached and the essay finishes on a piece of analysis rather than a gathering together of points made. A sound conclusion could have been formed from evaluation: are folk tales important in the text? Why? How does Carter generally bring this to the forefront?
Response to question
The essay begins well, with the writer clearly setting out the purpose of the essay. The next few paragraphs clearly link the texts back to folk tales. However, occasionally this turns into 'similarities between 'The Bloody Chamber' and folk tales'. The question is asking how Carter uses folk tales – for instance, the essay could have explored how, in using folk tales as a template, Carter plays with and subverts readers' expectations. Instead the writer either directly compares folk tales and 'The Bloody Chamber', or drifts off into analysis which has little to do with folk tales. Although the paragraphs on magical realism and symbolism are analytically sound, there is no attempt to link these back to folk tales. Here, the writer does not answer the set question at all.
