Examine how Angela Carter presents and explores ideas about aging in 'Wise Children'
Examine how Angela Carter presents and explores ideas about aging in 'Wise Children' Dora and Nora are both 75 years old in the novel and have had many experiences in their lives. These experiences are described throughout the novel. The idea of aging is apparent from the beginning, as Angela Carter informs the readers of Dora's age in the first chapter. The cyclical style of the novel is set on their birthday and the events looked back on are revolved around this day. In chapter 3, Dora and Nora take a rip to the cinema to watch a film they starred in when they were younger. This part of the novel shows Dora look back at herself and often shows signs of regret and often she seems fed up with life. 'I sometimes wonder why we go on living' (112). Dora states, 'you only miss an institution like a Joe Lyons teashop when it's gone'. With this statement, Carter may have intended it to have more than one meaning. One meaning, could be what it says, that Dora misses the Joe Lyons teashops, but another meaning could be the teashop is a metaphor for her life: you only miss it when it's gone. This tone is regretful and hints that she wishes she were still young. They are recognized at the cinema by two men as 'the Chance sisters'. The tone changes in this section from regretful to cheerful as they are recognised as the 'pretty girls' they were in the film. The character Tiffany in
Commenton Angela Carter's stories
Commenton Angela Carter's stories Angela Carter subverts the convention of fairy tales, myths, fables, legends......using sensual and pellucid language without losing the elusive power of the original tales, but also through her use of imageries, significantly, imageries of sexuality, beast, color, and metaphors. She deftly subverts The Little Red Riding Hood to The Company of Wolves by twisting the end to be more creative, the girl survives at the end, but still without losing the original. In The Snow Child, she takes the convention of a Countess from the myths and legends to show the evil of a Countess by linking her to a black and cold image. She skillfully links the imageries of the same connotations together, referring to the same sense and idea metaphorically, which creates a unity, coherent passage. In The Snow Child, the 'immaculate' midwinter, 'fresh snow' on the snow already fallen, 'the whole world was white', and the image of the girl is 'as white as snow', all give the sense of purity. Metaphors and similes are used to create a more vivid picture, such as in The Company of Wolves, 'his nipples are ripe and dark as poison fruit', which is also a sexual imagery. Past tense is chiefly used; present, present participles are used for motions, in dialogue, and for effects to create the immediateness and live. At the beginning of The Bloody Chamber, 'burning
Discuss the portrayal of the child in "the Erl King" and "the Werewolf"
Josh Ruegger Discuss the portrayal of the child in "the Erl King" and "the Werewolf" Carter Explores "young girls sexual hunger and the lure of the wild"a in both "the Erl King" and "the Werewolf". Young girls are both seduce and seduced; both prey and predator, as illustrated through the medium of subverted fairy tales that Carter adopts. Fitting patriarchal norms, the folkloric genre often portrays young passive women as protagonists. This is not so in Carters retelling where the females we meet are empowered by their femininity and desire. If we look at the social context of these stories this becomes significant. The text was written in the 1970s a time when women were challenging their roles, and as well known feminist writer this heavily influences Carter. This is further emphasized in Carter's work by taking characters that a reader is already familiar with and changing both the aspects of their personality and accordingly their role in the story. This shocks the reader into paying attention and allows them to appreciate the childish heroines, and the female psyche they represent, in a different light. Carter is concerned with the male desire for sexual innocence and this is portrayed in the stories through the young protagonists. Youth is often seen to equate to purity and this assumption is made by the reader in the opening of both stories, particularly through
What purpose does p125 have to the novel Wise Children?
Why has Carter included this extract in her novel? What purpose does it have in the novel as a whole? p125 I think that Carter has included this extract in her novel because it serves to highlight many of the key themes of this book, and, although it seems to describe only a very small part of the novel, it actually addresses several of the ideas which are fundamental to the plot. Wise Children is a novel which whole-heartedly embraces the carnivalesque, the refrain 'Oh what a joy it is to dance and sing!' and Perry's numerous outrageous magic tricks are just some of the many examples which can be found littered throughout the book and this extract is not without its share either. Youth and age are brought together in paragraph three as Dora reflects upon her younger self, the idea of the carnival very much embraces the cycle of life, which is marvelously evoked by Mikhail Bakhtin's image of the laughing hag, heavily pregnant yet close to death. And, although youth and age are heavily contrasted throughout the book, in this instance they are united by the 'celluloid' - they are able to relive their youthful selves over and over. Carter's use of The Dream bridges the gap between reality and the many examples of magical realism throughout Wise Children, it is a 'vehicle for insinuating the supernatural or paranormal into normal reality'. This is a into the extract with the
Discuss how two of Carter's tales fit in to the tradition of fairy and folk tales
Discuss how two of Carter's tales fit in to the tradition of fairy and folk tales In Angela Carters 'The Bloody Chamber' she interweaves various aspects of retold fairytales and folk tales. Consequently as people may recognise this and have knowledge about these certain fairytales it will manipulate the way in which they think about the adaptation of these stories and the different outcomes possible. Carter therefore plays upon peoples expectations and changes the way in which things happen to what should be expected. The tale 'The Company Of Wolves' is relating to the original fairytale of 'Little Red Riding Hood'. However unlike 'Little Red Riding Hood' where the young girl is defenceless and vulnerable in 'The Company Of Wolves' the girl can look after herself and is wholly competent in fending for herself. In the adaptation of 'The Tiger's Bride' the story has connotations from 'The Beauty and the Beast', as to how the Beast will die after the last petal of the rose falls. Throughout the 'The Company Of Wolves' Carter makes it fairly lucid and clear that men can be very powerful beings, 'her father might forbid her, if her were home'. Thus reinstating that fact that the girl's father has some form of power over her. However the use of the modal verb 'might' accompanied by the ending of the sentence gives the reader the impression that the girl is not scared of her
A CRITIQUE OF 'THE SNOW CHILD', TAKEN FROM ANGELA CARTER'S 'THE BLOODY CHAMBER'.
Alex Norwood A CRITIQUE OF 'THE SNOW CHILD', TAKEN FROM ANGELA CARTER'S 'THE BLOODY CHAMBER'. Throughout 'The Bloody Chamber', Angela Carter takes the highly successful conventions that belong to once innocent fairy tales, and rips them unremorsefully from their seemingly sound foundations to create a variety of dark, seductive, sensual stories, altering the landscapes beyond all recognition and rewarding the heroines with the freedom of speech thus giving them license to grab hold of the reigns of the story. The Snow Child is one such story by Carter, where connotations seen in fairytales such as 'Sleeping Beauty' and 'Little Red Riding Hood' are in evidence and are fused together accompanied by the emergence of feminism to the foreground of the story, numerous examples of rich and highly effective and evocative symbolism and a certain element of sexuality. In essence, The Snow Child tells of a Count and his Countess who are riding on horseback when the Count suddenly expresses his desire for a girl with 'skin as white as snow', 'lips as red as blood' and 'hair as black as a raven'. She then materialises before their very eyes, after which, the Count lifts her up, and sits her in front of him on his saddle. The jealousy oozes from the Countess, who after seeing this, has only one train of thought - how can she rid herself of The Snow Child? The Countess's place is
Compare and contrast the “Just So Stories” of Rudyard Kipling with “The Bloody Chambers and other stories” by Angela Carter.
Compare and contrast the "Just So Stories" of Rudyard Kipling with "The Bloody Chambers and other stories" by Angela Carter. Rudyard Kiplings' short stories are very much like fable stories whereas Angela Carters' short stories are more like fairy stories. There are many reasons for what I have just said. Rudyard Kiplings' stories are like fables because all the stories have a lot of involvement with animals. In most of his stories the titles are associated with animals and a way they have evolved. For example: "How the leopard got its spots." In this case, "the leopard" is the animal and "How it got its spots" is the way the animal has evolved. Also, fables tend to have a moral and the majority of Kiplings' stories have one. His stories are also short, silly, witty and clever. For Example: In "The Elephant's Child," it is quite silly how the crocodile pulls the elephants' trunk and it stretches and then the elephant sits there for three days with his trunk tied up. I think this is very unrealistic. This is another comparison to a fable. Rudyard Kiplings' stories are so similar to those of Angela Carters' because they both use the idea of anthropomorphism but the two authors use the method very differently indeed. In Rudyard Kiplings' stories he creates the animals to inherit human qualities such as speech. For example: In "The Elephants child" the elephant uses human
The story "The Company of Wolves" written by Angela Carter taunts the reader's imagination by elaborating on their idea and point of view of gender roles.
The story "The Company of Wolves" written by Angela Carter taunts the reader's imagination by elaborating on their idea and point of view of gender roles. Angela Carter's characters portray these roles very similar to the way modern day Americans view gender roles. Males and females are both Collection of grown-up fairy tales. I first read this book in college and it has become one of my all-time favourites. In this collection of short stories, Angela Carter takes the fairytales, nursery rhymes, and the images and themes they contain and perverts/illuminates them. What is most striking about this collection is Carters writing style. Her language is simultaneously poetic and profane. The stories are heavy with her purple language, which is what makes them so satisfying to read. In additon to the exquisite language, Carters re-telling of classic tales such as "Snow White," "Red Riding Hood," "Puss in Boots," etc., never fails to pay off. Carter creates a world in which Red Riding hood is the savvy hunter, not the innocent hunted. These stories make us focus on the overly simplistic (and often slanted) messages we were taught as children when these tales were first presented to us. In particular, Carter makes us question what fairytales have taught us about gender roles, marriage, and sex. For a trip into the fantasic that will make you laugh and make you really THINK, read
There is a rich and compelling force of the writing of Angela Carter, which effectively suspends our disbelief in her subject matter. Discuss.
. 2. There is a rich and compelling force of the writing of Angela Carter, which effectively suspends our disbelief in her subject matter. Discuss. Carter was a notable promoter of magic realism, who added into it Gothic themes, violence, and eroticism. She utilized throughout her work the language and characteristic motifs of the fantasy genre. Her work represents a successful combination of post-modern literary theories and feminist politics. Within the captivating short stories in "The Bloody Chamber", Carter talks bout masculinity and femininity and the way society looks at it. She is able to combine the two together very well through fairy tales and using it as a way to explore the female identity. Carter is seen by many as "attempting to recapture the lost lands of her sex, and as writing, for herself and her fellows, a kind of archaeology of the female psyche, in which the fairy tales of the little girl, the Romances of the teenager, and then the sharper tones of the young adult, are scrutinised with the cold eye of the boudoir philosopher". In "The Bloody Chamber", Angela Carter reworks some of the West's best-known fairy-tales, transforming them with "brilliantly baroque imagery" and from a perspective that owes almost as much to Freud as it does to feminism. Some readers of Angela Carter's "The Bloody Chamber" have seen its narrator-protagonist as a passive
James Thurber's story, "The Little Girl and the Wolf".
James Thurber's story, "The Little Girl and the Wolf" starts off with, "One afternoon a big wolf waited in a dark forest for a little girl to come along carrying a basket of food to her grandmother." (Elements of Literature, p.203) This first sentence tells us quite clearly that neither the situation nor the little girl are very safe; in other words, something terrible is waiting to happen. The little girl comes along and runs into the wolf, who asks her for directions to her grandmother's house. After receiving the directions the wolf takes off. Although it's not mentioned in the story, the reader automatically knows that the wolf is headed for the grandmother's house, and that even more danger awaits the little girl. The little girl reaches her grandmother's house sometime later and walks in. She notices someone in the bed and quite calmy and humorously (or possibly even sarcastically) comes to the conclusion that the person in the bed is not her grandmother. Without any emotion or expression she pulls a gun out of her basket and kills the wolf. The story ends with the moral: "It is not so easy to fool little girls nowadays as it used to be." (Elements of Literature, p. 203) This may be true enough to justify the unusual change of events in the story. At the beginning of James Thurbur's other story, "The Princess and the Tin Box", the princess's beauty and