The Bloody Chamber

The Bloody Chamber stories can be seen as...

• A tormented child's interpretation of fairy tales.
• A view of aristocrats lives and personalities
• Vanity will make you cruel
• Shows a woman's place in society
• People with power are corrupt

Themes:

• Death
• Love
• Power
• Wealth
• Hierarchy

Frankenstien comparative

Consider the Gothic elements and its key themes . how can they be compared to the other two texts.

Death
love
hate
supernatural
settings/ time

all include murder/love

Frankenstein and Macbeth make their own trouble and cause their own down fall where as Carters characters are all victims of circumstance.

All loose their 'innocence'/'virtue' Frankenstein was a good citizen with a relatively good life but looses everything due to his own curiosity , Macbeth was a honourable soldier with a seemingly happy relationship but also looses everything through his selfishness, weakness and greed, Carters characters live, although not very prosperous, but in would be regular lives yet are taken from this into a cruel area where their virtues are normally stolen.

Frankenstein and Macbeth die whereas Carters characters seem to all survive.

They all have super natural themes, Frankenstein brings life to the dead, Macbeth has witches and Carter includes infamous fairy tales

They are all placed in 'scary' layouts. Frankenstein has a castle Macbeth lives in a castle and Carters are mostly based in castles.

Frankenstein and Macbeth have more in common than the Bloody Chamber.

Notes

Macbeth was a good man, more interesting to study. He was a gleam of hope and now he is incharge of a horrible crime.

Macbeth learnt a lesson for us. Macbeth interprets the riddles of the witches in his own way, thinking about his decision then finally forced to do it by his wife.

it was all for nothing. Macbeth was doing it for them, himself and lady macbeth, and she has ended up dead.

woman in the play are devalued. unless they are bearing an heir like lady macduff they are hideous like the witches or isolated like lady macbeth

Notes: Key ideas

Gothic
Lust- Erotica- Sex
Anthropomorphism
Obsession
Animals
Innocence
Nature
Death
Feminism
Super natural
Flowers as Motifs

Referring to at least two Angela Carter stories, Explore how Anthropomorphism is used to enable the readers to empathise with the characters?

Timed Essay

There are many ways in which Angela Carter could be considered to ‘re-interpret’ gothic conventions. For example, some of the obvious themes of the gothic genre include death and violence; this is proven to be true in two of the many infamous novels ‘Frankenstein’ and ‘Macbeth’ as both stories include murder. This is definitely true in one of Angela Carters most profound short stories ‘The Bloody Chamber’.

A section of the novel in particular stands out to me from the rest, it is probably the most notorious part of the novel as it is when she, the main character, enters the marquis’s bloody chamber, hence the title of the book. On her travels towards said destination I personally felt as a reader very tense and fearful of where she was headed. After having been previously warned not to enter the chamber by her evil husband we as an audience know that he is obviously hiding a terrible secret, one which would be better left unknown. There is a strong sense of suspense and dread as she wanders ever closer to the forbidden room and down the ‘long and winding corridor’. ‘And still I felt no fear, no raising of the hairs on the back of the neck’, Ironically it seems that, as she herself is not afraid of her excavations, I am obliged to feel the fear for her.
Upon entering the chamber she finds various torture devices and obscurities. ‘Wheel, Rack and Iron Maiden’, inside this Iron Maiden she finds one of her husbands ex-wives. Blood pools out of the atrocity as she opens it almost as if the wife was ‘newly dead’, she has been pierced with ‘not one but by a hundred spikes’. This makes me feel not only disgust but shear horror at the thought of seeing or experiencing such a dreadful thing. I think it is apparent that gothic novels should include these themes in order for the reader to go on such a rollercoaster of emotions that inevitably bring them closer to the protagonist who is experiencing the same ordeal.

However, Angela carter also authors another short story titled’ Wolf-Alice’. I feel that although this story comes under the gothic jurisdiction it is very different to most common gothic tales thus proving exactly how capable she is of ‘re-interpreting’ gothic conventions.
For instance, most gothic stories start of relatively well, the protagonist is happy and content so you as a reader are waiting for the unfortunate events to start taking place; this once again is proven in Frankenstein. Victor is happy until the dreadful day he creates the Monster and from then on commences a terrible domino effect of disasters.
However Carters ‘Wolf-Alice’ starts off in terrible circumstances. The girl has not only been raised by wolves but her ‘foster’ parents have now been killed and she has been taken custody into the ‘human’ world. Because she cannot live in a society of mankind due to her believing she is a wolf, she is discarded to live with ‘The Duke’ a horrific man that replicates the actions of what can only be described as a ‘Were wolf’. Due to the tale starting so ‘terribly’, we as an audience can only expect things to grow happier in time which is quite out of the norm for most gothic novels as I have already said.
Another thing that is relatively different about this story compared to other stories of its kind is that once again there is a lack of fear provided. Wolf-Alice is not afraid of the terrible being that is the Duke even though he prowls the night ‘a corpse eater’ and ‘body snatcher’. I would even go as far to say that I felt pity for the Duke by the end of the story, similar to how I felt compassion for the monster in ‘Frankenstein’. I think that this is due to the fact that Alice cares for him towards the ending by ‘licking‘ his wounds once he has been injured by frightened individuals; this is quite unlike my feelings towards the Marquis at the end of the Bloody Chamber who I was more than happy to see get what he deserved.
So, after looking at the various ways Angela Carter captivates the audience and gets them involved with the story I think it is a safe presumption to say that she is very capable of creating re interpretations of the regular themes explored in gothic literature successfully. People may even go as far as to say that some of her stories are not quite what they would call ‘gothic’ due to the many forms that her themes shape, however I am comfortable in saying that, because of her dark elements of mutilation, loneliness and despair, she makes very strong and interesting concepts that are equally as interestingly played out in the beautiful language that is her writing.

The Snow Child

After reading the story for the first time I was left stumped, unaware of what to think about it. Generally the story seemed pointless and crude. However, after thinking more on the story and having a group discussion I feel that I understand my own interpretation of the story much better.
Personally I think that the girl perhaps represented everything that the wife didn’t want to be anymore or perhaps everything that the husband wanted his wife to be. It’s almost as though it could have been created to be a very brief summary of the Count and Countesses relationship. He wanted her to be something she wasn’t and in the end she wanted to change.
He desired the girl, therefore she was created. The Countess desired to kill the girl and that’s why the rose bush appeared.
The final line of the story, the wife saying ‘It bites!’ (Meaning the rose), could possibly mean ‘be careful what you wish for’. I think this because the Count and Countess both obtained what they desired but possibly at a cost.
At the end of it all, it’s as though the wife has become what she used to be, the girls death symbolizing the death of everything fake that she or her husband had wanted the Countess to become and now the husband can let go of his ‘farfetched’ desires and love his wife for what she really is, the stripped woman he felt sorry for previously in the book.

Frankenstein

Chapter 5: The Monster is created after two years of work. Victor flees from the Monster and has a nightmare about Elizabeth, she dies in the dream and turns into his mothers corpse. When he wakes the monster is at his bed side. Victor escapes the house leaving the Monster behind. He stumbles across Clerval the following day and takes him back to his house. The Monster has vanished. Frankenstein becaomes ill and has a mental break down; Henry Clerval takes care of him whilst he recovers.

Chapter 6: A letter arrives from Elizabeth. She informs him of his families concern and hopes he gets well soon. Victor gets better and things seem to be taking a good turn.

Chapter 7: Victor's younger brother William dies. He then returns home where Frankenstein discovers that it was the Monster that murdered him. He meets the monster on a dark stormy night for the first time since he had been brought to life.