Angela Carter: The Bloody Chamber & The Snow Child
Synopsis:
The story is being narrated in retrospect and begins set on a train set towards the Marquis's castle. The girl on the train is a poor nameless seventeen year old pianist just married to a Marquis and narrates the story. She begins her tale by describing the night she traveled alone to her new husband, the Marquis's palace. She lies in her train compartment, excited to be leaving her childhood behind and entering into womanhood. She imagines her mother back at her childhood apartment, putting away her girlhood belongings, and is suddenly struck by a sense of loss. She feels as though she has "in some way, ceased to be her mother's child in becoming a wife." She describes her mother as someone to look up to and is proud of all that she has done, she was adventurous, outfaced pirates, nursed a village through a plague and killed a man eating tiger. She then goes on to talk about how her father was a soldier who died and all he left were medals, a revolver and tears. She then talks of her husband who lays there in the train asleep next to her, he is much older than she is and describes him as if he always wears a mask hiding his age and facial expressions from her young self. He was married three times before to a Romanian countess, opera singer and artist's model. She talks of the opal ring that is her wedding ring which has been given to all the wife's of the family and passed down. She also talks of her choker of rubies that was a wedding gift from him it looks like blood around her throat, but seems to make him lustful.
Once she arrives at the destination of the castle she is met by the chauffeur who looks her up and down comparing her to the other wives, then meets the housekeeper who was his foster mother, her presence is chilling. She is then introduced to her own room. The piano is out of tune and they must send for a piano tuner, in the mean time she reads a book, but then her husband comes and beds her... After he is suddenly called away for business and is to leave at once, but before he leaves he gives her the keys to the castle but tells her she is allowed to do whatever she pleases, but is to not go into one room in the castle as it is his private study. Her husband leaves and she is left alone, she speaks with the piano-tuner and then calls her mother whom she misses dearly, but ends up crying on the phone to her about the gold bath tub taps. She wonders the castle and searches his office only to find a paper napkin message that was from ex-wife. Finally, she gives into her desires and goes to the forbidden room, however it is not what she expects, she uncovers her husbands darkest secretes, he has killed his three ex-wives, the opera singer lay under a white sheet he had preserved her body. The artist lay hung on the wall in skeleton form dressed in a brides dress. The Romanian Countess lay in an Iron Maiden pierced with a hundred spikes a pool of her red blood dripping from the coffin. The young girl shocked in horror drops the key in the pool of blood she picks it up and makes a run for it careful to put things back exactly where she found everything.
She tried to call her mother up but the line is dead she tried to play the piano, but the blind piano tuner (Jean-Yves) is outside listening and drops his stick, she finds comfort in his arms and tells him everything she has seen. is outside listening and drops his stick, she finds comfort in his arms and tells him everything she has seen.
Suddenly, her husband returns, the key is still bloody and she rushes to attempt to get it clean. But he is back and demands to see the keys, he knows already what she has seen and she must be punished for it, she has fallen into his trap and will be killed. First he presses the key to her head marking her with the keys shape in between her forehead. She is to be killed by decapitation and he will first chop of her head. While waiting for her death she is with the piano-tuner he comforts her and comes with her to her execution, the Marquis's is surprised but allows it and will deal with him later. However, luckily she is saved by a woman on a horse, her mother, who uses her late husbands revolver to put a bullet in the young girls husbands head. It is over. She inherited all the wealth, the castle is now a school for the blind and she started a music school in Paris, and lives with the piano-tuner, her mother past away in a state of delusion.
Once she arrives at the destination of the castle she is met by the chauffeur who looks her up and down comparing her to the other wives, then meets the housekeeper who was his foster mother, her presence is chilling. She is then introduced to her own room. The piano is out of tune and they must send for a piano tuner, in the mean time she reads a book, but then her husband comes and beds her... After he is suddenly called away for business and is to leave at once, but before he leaves he gives her the keys to the castle but tells her she is allowed to do whatever she pleases, but is to not go into one room in the castle as it is his private study. Her husband leaves and she is left alone, she speaks with the piano-tuner and then calls her mother whom she misses dearly, but ends up crying on the phone to her about the gold bath tub taps. She wonders the castle and searches his office only to find a paper napkin message that was from ex-wife. Finally, she gives into her desires and goes to the forbidden room, however it is not what she expects, she uncovers her husbands darkest secretes, he has killed his three ex-wives, the opera singer lay under a white sheet he had preserved her body. The artist lay hung on the wall in skeleton form dressed in a brides dress. The Romanian Countess lay in an Iron Maiden pierced with a hundred spikes a pool of her red blood dripping from the coffin. The young girl shocked in horror drops the key in the pool of blood she picks it up and makes a run for it careful to put things back exactly where she found everything.
She tried to call her mother up but the line is dead she tried to play the piano, but the blind piano tuner (Jean-Yves) is outside listening and drops his stick, she finds comfort in his arms and tells him everything she has seen. is outside listening and drops his stick, she finds comfort in his arms and tells him everything she has seen.
Suddenly, her husband returns, the key is still bloody and she rushes to attempt to get it clean. But he is back and demands to see the keys, he knows already what she has seen and she must be punished for it, she has fallen into his trap and will be killed. First he presses the key to her head marking her with the keys shape in between her forehead. She is to be killed by decapitation and he will first chop of her head. While waiting for her death she is with the piano-tuner he comforts her and comes with her to her execution, the Marquis's is surprised but allows it and will deal with him later. However, luckily she is saved by a woman on a horse, her mother, who uses her late husbands revolver to put a bullet in the young girls husbands head. It is over. She inherited all the wealth, the castle is now a school for the blind and she started a music school in Paris, and lives with the piano-tuner, her mother past away in a state of delusion.
Biographical Context - Author's life that influenced her writing
Angela Carter was born in 1940 and died in 1992 from lung cancer. She went to Bristol University doing English, and in 1976-8 she was a fellow in Creative Writing in Sheffield University. The Bloody Chamber was published in 1979 and won the Cheltenham Festival of Literature Award that year. The collection received much critical praise when it was released. Many critics felt that this collection was the first work in which Carter had fully established her literary voice. War had broken out in Europe and she was evacuated to Yorkshire to live with her grandmother, a working-class, domineering, feminist. It's not surprising that Carter's first years were later to have so much of an influence on her writing. Her mother was a great literary influence on her, as she devoured book after book and author after author. Her upbringing was very much based on the works of Shakespeare and great names of English literature. She spoke French and German and was interested in the philosophy of De Sade and Bataille regarding sexuality, Irigaray and De Beauvoir for feminist theory, and Genette and Barthes for ideas concerning intertextuality and analysis of texts. She was also greatly influenced by her short two-year stay in Japan, she ended up working in a bar in Tokyo and writing in her free time. She learnt what it was like to be a woman in society. She finished by travelling all over the world visiting the States, Asia and then back to Europe to try and sort out all the imagery that she said she had come into contact with over the years of travelling. She is said to have developed a darker Gothic style of writing after her divorce and trip to Japan, which could be an explanation to the dark nature of The Bloody Chamber.
Historical/Literary Context - What was happening at the time of the novel, Fit into the western canon, influences, specific literary period and conventions of movements
The Bloody Chamber begins and ends in Paris at the turn of the 20th Century. It was a time of great artistic flourishing and uncertainty for the future.The Bloody Chamber is also set during the time of the Third Republic which had commenced in 1870 when Napoleon III was overthrown, and was to last until 1940. Retrospectively, a period which is considered to have lasted from the late 19th Century until the beginning of World war one. The French Revolution with its bloodshed, was still very much a national memory in France. The old tale of Bluebeard has its roots in France, and the setting of Paris also lends a heady sense of romance and luxury which is key to the narrator's initial attraction to the Marquis.
The 19th Century had seen a huge amount of cultural change, both socially and politically, the Industrial Revolution changed the way people perceived things, with a rise in work and facilities. The values of the time had been very traditional and strict family values with religion still playing a dominant role, however by the end of this Century things had began to change making women's roles more prominent, and traditional values becoming more relaxed. Furthermore, the women's movement, with its emphasis on advocacy of equal rights, newly formed women's organizations, and the rise of a new generation of female artists, photographers, and professionals, transformed the traditional patriarchal social structure across the globe. Followed closely by the advent of World War I, these social shifts, which had been set in motion at the beginning of the century, developed further as women were propelled into the workforce, exposing them to previously male-dominated professional and political situations. By the midpoint of the twentieth century, women's activities and concerns had been recognized as a significant element of the literary, scientific, and cultural landscape of several countries, marking a revolutionary change in the social and domestic roles of women. After the Second World War, and post-colonial Britain, things were in full swing and progressing. The novel can fit in with the western literary canon because the novel explores the various changes over the twentieth century. The novel seems to pull out more traditional ideas of how a woman is perceived once she is married. For example, the narrator of the story does not have a name therefore showing how once a woman is married they become there husbands property and are seen to lack there own identity, which is a more traditional value held. However, this is changed by Angela Carter in the end as this feminist idea is brought to light as the girls savoir is her mother. Also, it is notable that many academic voices say that fairy tales might be excluded from the literary canon.
The 19th Century had seen a huge amount of cultural change, both socially and politically, the Industrial Revolution changed the way people perceived things, with a rise in work and facilities. The values of the time had been very traditional and strict family values with religion still playing a dominant role, however by the end of this Century things had began to change making women's roles more prominent, and traditional values becoming more relaxed. Furthermore, the women's movement, with its emphasis on advocacy of equal rights, newly formed women's organizations, and the rise of a new generation of female artists, photographers, and professionals, transformed the traditional patriarchal social structure across the globe. Followed closely by the advent of World War I, these social shifts, which had been set in motion at the beginning of the century, developed further as women were propelled into the workforce, exposing them to previously male-dominated professional and political situations. By the midpoint of the twentieth century, women's activities and concerns had been recognized as a significant element of the literary, scientific, and cultural landscape of several countries, marking a revolutionary change in the social and domestic roles of women. After the Second World War, and post-colonial Britain, things were in full swing and progressing. The novel can fit in with the western literary canon because the novel explores the various changes over the twentieth century. The novel seems to pull out more traditional ideas of how a woman is perceived once she is married. For example, the narrator of the story does not have a name therefore showing how once a woman is married they become there husbands property and are seen to lack there own identity, which is a more traditional value held. However, this is changed by Angela Carter in the end as this feminist idea is brought to light as the girls savoir is her mother. Also, it is notable that many academic voices say that fairy tales might be excluded from the literary canon.
Themes and issues - Novel investigates, themes that are highlighted
Virginity - The bloody chamber itself is just a room where violence and enlightenment occur together it is a place of transformation for the heroine that changes her. Bloody chambers are often connected with not only the blood of violence, but also with the blood shed when a woman loses her virginity and when she menstruates. The term bloody chamber can also refer to the vagina or womb, and Carter uses this fact to show the connection between women's sexuality and the violence they experience. Furthermore, the Marquis's sees the heroines' virginity as an invitation for corruption, as well as for violence as by taking her virginity a man spills the blood from her indeed when Marquis rapes her he is said to 'impale' her.
Pornography- Carter explores the idea of pornography and its presence in everyday life through the objectification of women. A pornographic image is created when one person is undressed and another one is not. The clothed person, who is in the position of master, seems to have power over the naked person, who is in the position of animal or slave. Carter uses a specific pornographic image in The Bloody Chamber to define this image. It is a picture by a fully-clothed man sizing up a naked woman as though she is "a lamb chop." The narrator calls this picture "most pornographic of all confrontations," which the Marquis recreates when he undresses her while remaining clothed. Later, when the heroine flips through one of the Marquis's books, she comes across a pornographic engraving called Reproof of Curiosity. However, there is a clear warning of its consequences, to the objectification of women. This is when the heroine discovers the ex-wife's corpses in the bloody chamber. She realizes that for the Marquis, erotic and violent desires are inseparable. He turns his wives from pornographic displays into elaborately-displayed corpses.
Objectifying women- Objectifying is said by Carter to be the "latent content" from fairy tales that she exposes. The Bloody Chamber shows the girl as an object to the Marquis's desire. This is from the way he dictates that she will wear the rubies on her neck like that of a dog and tells her exactly what to wear, and how to act. But most extremely he plans to turn her into a actual object - a corpse - so he can have her displayed in his bloody chamber. He not only kills his wives but he turns the chamber into a sick gallery were his fine work is displayed with there dead bodies like collectibles on a shelf, and are of more value dead rather than alive.
Mirrors- The Marquis surrounds the room with mirrors. He not only turns the heroine into a pornographic image, but one reflected twelve times. It is only when the heroine looks in the mirrors that she realizes how obviously the Marquis is objectifying her. She is also horrified when the sight of herself as pornographic image arouses her; when she understands that she enjoys being objectified, she realizes her this is the route to her own destruction and corruption.
Flowers- The flower is often used as a symbol of the vagina as well as one of idealized femininity. The room is surrounded by lily's in the beginning before she loses her virginity, however afterwards when the Marquis plans to kill her the flowers are wilted suggesting her time is up and her virginity has been taken away.
Violence and sex- To the Marquis sex is an act that is used to stain and ruin the woman rendering them useless after it happens, the act of sex is always to be followed by murder, which we see in the girls diction when she describes the loss of her virginity as an "impalement", he sees the form of sex and killing as one.
Pornography- Carter explores the idea of pornography and its presence in everyday life through the objectification of women. A pornographic image is created when one person is undressed and another one is not. The clothed person, who is in the position of master, seems to have power over the naked person, who is in the position of animal or slave. Carter uses a specific pornographic image in The Bloody Chamber to define this image. It is a picture by a fully-clothed man sizing up a naked woman as though she is "a lamb chop." The narrator calls this picture "most pornographic of all confrontations," which the Marquis recreates when he undresses her while remaining clothed. Later, when the heroine flips through one of the Marquis's books, she comes across a pornographic engraving called Reproof of Curiosity. However, there is a clear warning of its consequences, to the objectification of women. This is when the heroine discovers the ex-wife's corpses in the bloody chamber. She realizes that for the Marquis, erotic and violent desires are inseparable. He turns his wives from pornographic displays into elaborately-displayed corpses.
Objectifying women- Objectifying is said by Carter to be the "latent content" from fairy tales that she exposes. The Bloody Chamber shows the girl as an object to the Marquis's desire. This is from the way he dictates that she will wear the rubies on her neck like that of a dog and tells her exactly what to wear, and how to act. But most extremely he plans to turn her into a actual object - a corpse - so he can have her displayed in his bloody chamber. He not only kills his wives but he turns the chamber into a sick gallery were his fine work is displayed with there dead bodies like collectibles on a shelf, and are of more value dead rather than alive.
Mirrors- The Marquis surrounds the room with mirrors. He not only turns the heroine into a pornographic image, but one reflected twelve times. It is only when the heroine looks in the mirrors that she realizes how obviously the Marquis is objectifying her. She is also horrified when the sight of herself as pornographic image arouses her; when she understands that she enjoys being objectified, she realizes her this is the route to her own destruction and corruption.
Flowers- The flower is often used as a symbol of the vagina as well as one of idealized femininity. The room is surrounded by lily's in the beginning before she loses her virginity, however afterwards when the Marquis plans to kill her the flowers are wilted suggesting her time is up and her virginity has been taken away.
Violence and sex- To the Marquis sex is an act that is used to stain and ruin the woman rendering them useless after it happens, the act of sex is always to be followed by murder, which we see in the girls diction when she describes the loss of her virginity as an "impalement", he sees the form of sex and killing as one.
The Bloody Chamber is often said too be a group of traditional fairy tales with a feminist twist. However, Carter made it clear that these are in fact new stories, not re-telling's. She has written these stories with her own particular and sometimes dark vision of feminist empowerment and explores the idea of female identifications in the context of the sometimes horrible mechanisms of male fantasies.
The story in The Bloody Chamber focuses on extracting the implied content from the tale of Bluebeard. The Bloody Chamber emphasizes a woman’s new awareness of female power, her own sexuality, and her responsibility for her own fate. One of the most significant changes that Angela Carter makes in the story is its ending. In most versions, Bluebeard’s last bride is rescued by her brothers. The girl in The Bloody Chamber is instead rescued, at the last moment, by her mother. She causes her mother’s concern when they speak on the telephone. In another sense, however, she grows more like her mother as the story progresses. When she finds herself in the bloody chamber, she remarks, “Until that moment, this spoiled child did not know she had inherited nerves and a will from the mother who had defined the yellow outlaws of Indo-China.”
If the narrator discovers a new sense of women’s power, she also discovers her own sexuality. From the beginning, her relationship to her husband is shaped by his sadistic voyeuristic desires and her arousal in response to them. (The imagery of the bloody key and secret chamber symbolically emphasizes the theme of sexual discovery.) Gradually, however, she learns to distinguish between her husband’s desire and her own. Indeed, instead of seeing her body—as manifested in mirrors, images, and paintings—through her husband’s eyes, she begins a romance with the gentle piano tuner who cannot see her at all.
The ending of Carter’s story makes it clear that the narrator should accept some responsibility for her situation. The Marquis may be horrible, but she is partly to blame in their relationship because of her vanity, and own masochistic desires. The story’s last lines reveal the narrator’s sense of guilt: “No paint nor powder, no matter how thick or white, can mask that red mark on my forehead; I am glad he cannot see it—not for fear of his revulsion, since I know he sees me clearly with his heart—but, because it spares my shame.” The lines also suggest, ironically, that she still identifies with her physical appearance, that she still tries to change it, and that she still evaluates it in terms of how a man might see her.
The story in The Bloody Chamber focuses on extracting the implied content from the tale of Bluebeard. The Bloody Chamber emphasizes a woman’s new awareness of female power, her own sexuality, and her responsibility for her own fate. One of the most significant changes that Angela Carter makes in the story is its ending. In most versions, Bluebeard’s last bride is rescued by her brothers. The girl in The Bloody Chamber is instead rescued, at the last moment, by her mother. She causes her mother’s concern when they speak on the telephone. In another sense, however, she grows more like her mother as the story progresses. When she finds herself in the bloody chamber, she remarks, “Until that moment, this spoiled child did not know she had inherited nerves and a will from the mother who had defined the yellow outlaws of Indo-China.”
If the narrator discovers a new sense of women’s power, she also discovers her own sexuality. From the beginning, her relationship to her husband is shaped by his sadistic voyeuristic desires and her arousal in response to them. (The imagery of the bloody key and secret chamber symbolically emphasizes the theme of sexual discovery.) Gradually, however, she learns to distinguish between her husband’s desire and her own. Indeed, instead of seeing her body—as manifested in mirrors, images, and paintings—through her husband’s eyes, she begins a romance with the gentle piano tuner who cannot see her at all.
The ending of Carter’s story makes it clear that the narrator should accept some responsibility for her situation. The Marquis may be horrible, but she is partly to blame in their relationship because of her vanity, and own masochistic desires. The story’s last lines reveal the narrator’s sense of guilt: “No paint nor powder, no matter how thick or white, can mask that red mark on my forehead; I am glad he cannot see it—not for fear of his revulsion, since I know he sees me clearly with his heart—but, because it spares my shame.” The lines also suggest, ironically, that she still identifies with her physical appearance, that she still tries to change it, and that she still evaluates it in terms of how a man might see her.
What I think
I had never read a series of short stories like this novel all of them were so similar in the themes and ideas that were shown, but yet they were also so different in the way they were presented. They were so powerful and really made me feel what the character's felt it was like I was there with them. The Bloody Chamber really captured my attention and after reading it I was like "wow", the style in which Angela Carter writes really captures the essence of the characters to make them mysterious and plays on your emotions. I would seriously recommend this to everyone because I loved it so much.