"The Bloody Chamber" by Angela Carter - With close reference to one of the tales, discuss how Carter draws upon and subverts conventions of the fairy tale
"The Bloody Chamber" by Angela Carter "With close reference to one of the tales, discuss how Carter draws upon and subverts conventions of the fairy tale" Usually fairy tales are told to children to teach them a moral lesson in life or as is mostly the case, help them tell the difference between good and bad. Angela Carter is someone known to take elements from fairy tales and turn them into well written, exciting, compelling complex dramas of a Gothic nature filled with sexual innuendo, a combination of different narrations (mainly first and third), strong heroic female characters and the evil villain - the male. "The Bloody Chamber" is a modern interpretation of the "Blue Beard" (character below) fairy tale which uses this very formula to create an exciting and dramatic story. In a nutshell both stories are about young women (in their late teens, on the verge of turning into womanhood) who marry a wealthy man and leave a life of modesty behind them. The young women are given a set of keys which allows them to explore every room in the house - except one (the 'bloody' chamber) , if that room is entered, dire consequences shall follow (death). Naturally the young women ignore the advice of their intimidating, menacing and much older husbands to enter the room and fall into the trap set up for them and like every disobedient child, they MUST be punished. With reading the
CONSIDER THE WAYS IN WHICH CARTER BLENDS ANIMAL AND HUMAN CHARACTERISTICS IN THE BLOODY CHAMBER. HOW DOES THIS CONTRIBUTE TO THE DESTINATION OF THE STORIES/COLLECTION?
CONSIDER THE WAYS IN WHICH CARTER BLENDS ANIMAL AND HUMAN CHARACTERISTICS IN 'THE BLOODY CHAMBER'. HOW DOES THIS CONTRIBUTE TO THE DESTINATION OF THE STORIES/COLLECTION? In 'The Bloody Chamber', Angela Carter uses the blurring of boundaries between animal and human qualities, usually through characters which are 'liminal beings', to overtly direct readers towards a destination concerning identity. In many of the individual stories, the concept of liminality is used to show how tortured and unsure creatures (be they animals or women) come to embrace their identity. In addition to these journeys of self-discovery in individual stories, the balance and degrees of liminality shift as the whole collection progresses, again leading to an overarching destination concerning identity, as the collection goes from a simple and negative liminality to more affirming and complex liminality. The 'simple and negative' liminality occurs in the very first story of the collection: 'The Bloody Chamber'. Here, the Marquis de Sade is portrayed as a sadistic animal (as his name suggests) parading as a connoisseur, a man of sophistication. Indeed, the female narrator identifies his bestiality before she discovers his violent sadism, with constant references to his lion-like physique ("dark leonine shape of his head", "as if all his shoes had soles of velvet", "There were pure streaks of silver in