WRITE ABOUT THE WAYS IN WHICH ANGELA CARTER USING SYMBOLISM AND OTHER LITERARY TECHNIQUES TO TELL THE STORY IN THE BLOODY CHAMBER(TM).

Write about the ways in which Angela Carter using symbolism and other literary techniques to tell the story in ‘The Bloody Chamber’.

‘The Bloody Chamber’ was published in 1979 along with nine other short stories in an anthology called ‘Burning Your Boats’. They are all of which are based on well known fairytales. Angela Carter chose to write ‘The Bloody Chamber’ based on the fairytale ‘Bluebeard’ with key plot events and characters being very similar. The story is about a young seventeen year old woman on her honeymoon with her new much older husband. Eventually, she discovers his past pleasures of murdering his previous wives when the reader understands that this is too her fate she is rescued by her mother. Carter, being recognized for her feminist, magical realism and science fiction works, used a lot of symbolism, imagery and other literary techniques to portray her views.

Symbolism is used in great use in ‘The Bloody Chamber’ to refer to abstract ideas rather than literal properties. Red for example is used in many places to connote blood. The main symbol of this is the red choker that the Marquis gives to the narrator as a wedding gift. She describes it as ‘like an extraordinary precious slit throat’, Carter uses a simile to liken the necklace between a ‘slit throat’ to foreshadow the Marquis’ desire to behead the narrator which in the reader does not know yet. The narrator describes the choker as ‘extraordinary’ because coming from a working class background she presumably has not seen many jewels; she describes the choker as ‘precious’ not just because it has a lot of rubies amongst it but furthermore, in retrospect, she is grateful for having her neck and not being beheaded. Another thing that is realated to the themed colour is the red ribbon that is tied around French revolutionary’s neck: ‘the aristos who’d escaped the guillotine had an ironic fad of tying a red ribbon round their necks at the point where the blade would have sliced it through’ .The red ribbon symbolises the Marquis marking the narrator as his possession because she likens it to the choker. In addition to it is a way to symbolize what the Marquis is going to do to her. The Marquis also requests the narrator to put the choker on while they have intercourse; “He kissed them [the rubies] before he kissed my mouth” which gives the impression that not only is he aroused by the necklace and his plan to decapitate her but cares more about the rubies and thoughts associated with them than the act of intercourse itself.

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At the beginning of the story, the narrator’s wedding dress is ‘wrapped in tissue paper and red ribbon’ Carter may have used this to connote blood and foreshadow the amount she sees in the bloody chamber. Along with association with blood, it is a colour linked with Christmas time so therefore represent that at this point in the narrative the narrator hopes to encounter a merry and happy marriage but in retrospective knows that it will not be a happy ending unlike a conventional fairytale. To the reader red may also connate love which relates to whether she loves him. A key quote that supports that she doesn’t love him as a person is when her mother asks ‘Are you sure you love him?’ and she replies ‘I’m sure I want to marry him,’ this implies strongly that she wants to marry him for his money and social status. Carter may have included this to show the dynamics of the narrator’s relationship with her mother. This shows that her mother is worried for her safety and in retrospect rightly so and/or that the relationship between mother and daughter is not strong enough for the narrator to share such intimate feelings.

Black is also used to symbolise events frequently throughout ‘The Bloody Chamber’ because it represents and therefore foreshadows death and funerals. The dress that the Marquis gave to the narrator’s mother was made out of ‘black silk’. This to give an impression of morning on the mother’s behalf because she is loosing her daughter to the Marquis and it is almost like she is loosing apart of her dead husband (“one fine day, her gallant solider never returned from the wars, leaving his wife and child a legacy of tears”). The word ‘silk’ has a soft sound consonant which makes the dress and situation of the narrator is almost sinister and slimy, this makes the reader feel at unease as well as forecasts the character of the Marquis that we later find out. It also may suggest that the Marquis has control over the narrator mother because he tells her what to wear for the wedding. Lilies play a large part in foretelling the narrator’s fate. They are also another symbol for the Marquis’ character, “strange, ominous calm of a sentient vegetable, like one of those cobra-headed funeral lilies”. The words “possessed” and “ominous” suggested that the Marquis is possessed with evil spirits and death, like the lilies, it also supports the recurring theme of magical realism in many of Carter’s narratives. The words “calm” followed by strange suggest and reinforces the Marquis’s calculating and controlled manner of character traits. Furthermore, Carter uses personification and similes to describe the Marquis like various animals. Carter has used the words “cobra” and later on “vellum” sounds like venom to signify that in retrospect the narrator feels that the Marquis has poisoned, deluded and manipulated her to get what he wants.

In contrast to black, Carter makes a lot of references to the colour white which emphasises the narrator’s virginity. A prime example of this connotation is when the Marquis takes her to the opera: “I wore a sinuous shift of white muslin tied with a silk string under the breasts.” This shows the Marquis sees the narrator as innocent and is associated is with being a virgin like a wedding dress. The string under her breast exaggerates fertility and the fact that the Marquis wants to extenuate that to everyone at the opera. These events and other that follow all clearly express how being the Marquis’ wife is very much his possession which relates to the feminist theme that Carter depicts.

Overall, Carter portrays lots of ideas using symbolisms and other literary techniques to unveil a disturbing short story with a strong feminism message.

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Heather Amos