There is more horror than terror in Carters treatment of the Gothic Consider this view in the light of at least two stories from The Bloody Chamber.

Horror is clearly the dominating genre within the short stories as they are predominantly ludicrous stories with no possibility of realism. However we can see from this, Carter uses horror to hold a mirror to society to show its short comings. We can see this in the ‘Snow Child’ when the Count has intercourse with the dead girl, showing the monstrosities that men can commit. This does not directly affect the audience, however does horrify people. Horror proves to be less intimidating, for example in ‘The tigers Bride’ we are shown a scene where the young woman is licked clean of her flesh and she becomes the same as the beast because of her own choices. This can be perceived as a horror scene however is not associated with terror because an audience understands that this type of action can never be done to them. It is more a metaphor to show women’s strength and power which lies beneath the surface.

These aspects of horror are also used to promote the strength of women. The reason that terror is not used could be because this invokes a feeling that these situations could actually happen; in reality the possibility of women being the stronger figure or a heroine is not widely recognised as a possibility. ‘The Bloody Chamber’ is an adaptation of the story of ‘Bluebeard’ of which two brothers come to save the female married to the man, however, to create more tension in the horror we are shown a sister and a mother coming to the rescue. This would normally be seen as a typical terror story but in the period this story was written a female heroine was not seen as a possibility and would have been looked down on making this effectively a horror story. Horror is a predominant genre in the text however it is very clear that in carters treatment of the gothic she does not intend to insight either horror or terror but more to relay a message towards society as a whole. The story, ‘Erl-King’ is arguably to most fantasy based story in the text and reveals a lot more horror than terror throughout the story. One possible reason for this is to show how backwards people are, by putting the same situations of modern day life into a fantasy story. The story is about a woman who is trapped by a man who is the spirit of a forest. This could all be insinuating that men control everything, but again in the end the female prevails and becomes free. Using the gothic genre and horror instead of terror Carter is able to give a more potent message to people instead of trying to terrorise them into noticing the messages she may be trying to get across.

Overall, Carter uses Horror in the Gothic genre gives insight into clear messages she is trying to get across. She uses horror more than terror as the latter has a profound effect on the audience and may turn them away from the stories prior to receiving the full impact of what she is trying to demonstrate. Horror is a more calm and entertaining way of providing an audience with all the thrill they may be looking for without the lingering fear of realism that comes with terror in the gothic genre.