Form in 'The Bloody Chamber'

Carter uses the Gothic form in 'The Bloody Chamber'. The first convention of the Gothic mode is the use of setting to create mood and atmosphere. Firstly, the castle in which the story is set is isolated- the heroine describes it as being in 'faery solitude'. This description helps build the theme of entrapment which features in the Gothic, and also helps build the idea that the Marquis is an outsider in society, foreshadowing the discovery of his dead wives. The Marquis describes the bloody chamber as his 'enfer'- the French word for hell. By doing this, Carter is creating a tense atmosphere as it is foreshadowing what is to be found, and carries on doing this by stalling the narrative as she describes the phone call with her mother and parts of his office. The lilies that the narrator describes are often associated with death-'funereal' and 'undertakers lilies', this links into the Gothic tradition of duality. In this story, Carter is mixing life and death and this transgression and the lilies allow us to see who the Marquis truly is.

Another custom of the Gothic genre that is seen in 'The Bloody Chamber' is the dominant male. The Marquis is described as the 'eye of God' in the part where she discovers his past wives. It shows how he is always watching her, and knows what she has done. This description captures the narrators vulnerability and guilt, linking into the idea of the passive female in the Gothic, although she breaks that tradition at the end of the novel. Another example of her passivity, and the Marquis' dominance is the fact that she lives at his house, and while at his house his smell and his presence is constantly surrounds her, while at the library the narrator comments that the Marquis' smell has suddenly become more pungent. In the bloody chamber, the woman says that one of the dead wives smiled, this shows his dominance because even after his wife has died, he controls their appearance.

The use of religion in 'The Bloody Chamber' also shows how the text is typical of the Gothic genre. The Marquis says 'the little nun has found the prayerbooks' after the narrator reads her husband's pornography. This sexualises religion, and by doing so questions it by showing how religion can be twisted and used as a tool for hate and violence. Lack of religion, or the questioning of religion is typical in Gothic literature. Religious iconography features throughout the text, such as 'the trumpets of the angels of death'. The 'angels of death' is an example of duality, 'angels' are associated with heaven, but because they are associated with death the may be coming from hell.

Fairy Tales and the Existential Predicament

How might Bettelheim's ideas help us to understand the purposes of fairy tales?
Fairy tales help teach moral lessons because if evil is not presented, the child represses evil thoughts and this causes harm to the child because in his own eyes he becomes a monster, this is because he does not recognise that evil is inherent in all humans, not just himself. Characters in fairy tales allow the child to see good and evil in a way that is tangible and relatable to the person. The polarisations that are within the tales allow the child to build a stable personality, as they can identify the differences between people and then is able to make the decision on the person who he wants to be. As all fairy tales have similar stories and similar characters, it allows the child to then make their own problems simplistic and deal with them in a way that does not bring them harm.

How do Bettelheim's ideas help us to understand the purposes of the Gothic?
The good and evil that is presented in every Gothic novel, whether it is different characters representing this duality, or within a character's personality, allows the Gothic to explore moral problems in a way that is a lot more effective than other stories. In 'The Bloody Chamber', evil is seen as something that is attractive and desirable, therefore showing how when the unconscious mind is suppressed, the conscious mind seeks what is lost.

Why do you think Angela Carter mixes the fairy tale and Gothic genres in 'The Bloody Chamber'?
Angela Carter mixes these two genres because the message that they are both trying to portray are linked. They both expose good and evil in a way that is accessible to the reader, fairy tales have developed and reinvented ideas about good and evil and has made way for the Gothic genre. Carter is also exposing the 'latent content' of fairy tales, which many would say is disturbing in its very nature.

'The Erl-King'- Innovative and experimental?

'The Erl-King is the most innovative and experimental of the narratives.' How far does this quotation support the statement?

To measure how far 'The Erl-King' is innovative and experimental, we need to first define what a narrative is. A traditional narrative usually occurs in chronological order, uses the same narrative POV and the same tense. In the other narratives in ‘The Bloody Chamber’, it mostly follows this definition of a traditional narrative. If a narrative is defined as such, it is obvious that 'The Erl-King' is innovative and experimental and could even be describes as an antinarrative in comparison to the other stories in 'The Bloody Chamber'.

'The Erl-King' is innovative and experimental because of the way it deconstructs identity. The quote 'the imaginary traveller' then the change into second person 'It is easy to lose yourself in these woods' shows this. In the original sources 'Der Erlkonig' and 'Red Riding Hood', the story is in third person allowing the reader to be detached to the events in the novel. Carter changes this in her version of the fairy tale and this shows how the text is innovative by changing the narrative POV. This relates into the Gothic tradition of transgression, as the woman is both herself and not herself at the same time. Although in 'The Erl-King' this narrative variation is present, it also occurs in 'The Bloody Chamber', when the narrator is looking in the chamber she refers to herself as 'this spoiled child', therefore 'The Erl-King' is not the only story where narrative perspective changes, but it is more explicit.

The establishment of the setting in 'The Erl-King' is traditionally Gothic, and therefore either innovative or experimental. The woods are personified and seem almost human-‘the intimate perspectives of the wood’, showing how the woman is trapped by the Erl-King and by her own curiosity. The theme of entrapment and the fallen woman is also a feature in the Gothic. This is not dissimilar than in ‘The Bloody Chamber’ as it is set in a castle, and the woman herself is locked in a tower. ‘The Snow Child’ is also set in the traditional Gothic setting of winter and the whole world is ‘white’. On the other hand, ‘The Erl-King’ could be described as following the traditions of the fairy tale genre and the magic realism genre. The woods seem as though they are moving around the narrator, which connects into the magic realism genre as within the mundane setting of the woods there is a magical element. ‘The Erl-King’ consequently experiments with the idea of reality and dreams.

The generic conventions associated with the fairy tale genre are used in 'The Erl-King' because of its basis on 'Little Red Riding Hood' and this means that, in comparison with the other narratives, the text is innovative and experimental. The woods are described using the metaphor 'chinese boxes' and this connects with the fairy tale genre because of the theme of confusion and the power and nature in fairy tales. However, both 'The Bloody Chamber' and 'The Snow Child' use characters as constructs to portray a certain idea. The piano tuner and the Marquis are polar opposites, and Carter does this to show how men should be versus how men are. In 'The Snow Child', the Countess is an example of how women are trapped in a system that they unknowingly contribute to, and the snow child is used to show how innocence is destroyed by men. In fairy tales, characters are supposed o be distant, so they do not take away from the moral message of the story.

To conclude,  'The Erl King' is the most innovative and experimental of the narratives in terms of the language used. The level of description in the narrative surpasses any of the others and in 'The Erl-King' Carter fully embraces language that is like that of a fairy tale. 'The Bloody Chamber' and 'The Snow Child' are more traditionally Gothic and often follow similar conventions. Within the collection of stories, 'The Erl-King' stands out because of its poetic language and the ending that sets it apart from the other narratives by truly making the man a victim.

Sexual difference

When reading through the sexual difference handout, I was thinking about whether the idea of gender and gender roles is really a big deal. I don't mind whether a man paints his nails, or if a woman cuts her hair short, but is the problem not with individuals but with the perpetuating stereotypes that are innate within society.

The amount of movies in which men dress up like women can be seen as worrying. The idea that a man who displays any sort of femininity is seen as hilarious, therefore showing that at the foundations of society, femininity is seen as lesser than masculinity. The films itself can be seen as phallocentric. They are concerned with men becoming a woman, and how that affects them. In the film Tootsie, Dustin Hoffman plays a man who pretends to be a woman. in an interview, he says that when he was made into a woman, he asked if he could be more beautiful, and when they said that they couldn't, he went home and cried. He realised how women have to deal with society's idea of beauty, and wondered how many women he didn't talk to because he had been 'brainwashed'. This interpretation of how movies containing a cross dressing man are intrinsically harmful can be seen as too simplistic, and does not add anything to the discussion. I think the films themselves provoke bigger questions such as: Is the idea of gender being subverted in these movies? Are they disrupting essentialism at its core? If it is, is that a good thing? Can the movies then be an example of deconstructive feminism?

The equivocality of 'The Bloody Chamber' means that it can be read as an example of essentialism, or an example of deconstruction. 'The Erl-King' is a perfect example of how identity is, in its very nature, unclear and confusing. The constant changing of the narrative point of view confused me at first as I never knew whether the POV had changed, or the narrative perspective had changed, but now I think that Carter is exploring the idea that within ourselves, we can be numerous people. The narrator is looking at herself in three different ways, and these different perspectives reveal different facets of her personality. This text then can be read as a example of deconstructive feminism.

After reading 'The Courtship of Mr Lyon', I think the idea of identity is questioned again. Mr Lyon takes the physical body of a lion, but inside he is a combination of lion and man and in my opinion the story is an inner battle of what dominates him. He clearly loves Beauty, but every night he crops to the ground and licks her fingers and this example of how he is trapped both in body and mind. Beauty says that when she looked at him before, she was only looking at himself. In the class this was used as an example of how she was obsessed with herself. I disagree, I think that line is an example of how when we look at other people, we see ourselves and we can never assert our own identity because we are different things to different people.

However, my main criticism of Angela Carter is how she reduces feminism down the essentialist concept that because men are powerful, and women are therefore weak. Instead of showing that women can draw strength from themselves, the narrators in the stories draw strength from the abuses of men. It can then be said that the women in the stories have very little power at all, which is not the narrative she wants to portray. The male protagonists that she creates may be exaggerated versions of men, but in many of her stories the conflict boils down to man versus woman.

The whole obsession with identity within 'The Bloody Chamber' places itself firmly within the Gothic genre. The Gothic is obsessed with duality and ambiguity, therefore the subversion of identity and gender could be said to follow the generic conventions.

Symbolism in 'The Snow Child'

Feminist theory

• Emerged from the feminist movement movement-aims to understand nature of gender inequality by examining women's social roles.
• Developed theories in a variety of disciplines in order to respond to issues such as the social construction of gender.
• Earlier forms of feminism have been criticised for focusing on only white, straight, middle-class, educated perspectives.

Feminist activism

• Campaign for women's rights-contract law, property and voting.
• Promotes bodily integrity, autonomy and reproductive health.
• Changed societies- especially in the west.
• Mainly focused on women's issues, but inadvertently helping men in the progress.
• Feminists have worked to protect women from both domestic violence and sexual violence.

What does the Countess symbolise and how is this shown?

• 'Scarlet heels'-impratical/ colour shows anger/jealousy
• 'His wife'-possession
• 'Glittering pelts of black foxes'-dressed up to make her look better.

What does the Snow Child symbolise and how is this shown?

• 'Desire'- ambigious. It could mean that it is the child that he has always wanted, or it could be read as sexual desire.

What does the count symbolise and how is this shown?

• The count's wishes are typical of the language of fairytales.
• 'I wish I had a girl'- reinforces his sexuality, emotionless. It shows that women can never be what men want them to be. You wish for something you can't have.

Language in 'The Erl-King'

Throughout the Erl-King the narrative point of view changes throughout the story. It changes from second person ('You step between the first trees'), to first ('I walked through the wood'), then finally to third person ('She will carve off his great mane'). The change into third person narrative reminds us that Carter is writing a fairytale. The third person narration allows us to detach ourselves from the characters, so we do not emphasise with the Erl-King, merely the reader is a bystander, witnessing the events. This detachment allows us to look at the characters subjectively. The variation in the narrative point of view is subverting the idea of identity. Carter is encouraging readers to ask questions about identity, and how one person can have multiple identities. This subversion of identity removes the power that gender roles have on both women and men because if identity is ambiguous it cannot be used to oppress. These ideas that are presented then allow the text to fit into the Gothic genre because it blurs boundaries of societal norms.

The theme of ambiguity is shown in the text with the description of the Erl-King. The narrator says that his touch 'both consoles and devastates me'. This juxtaposition is significant because it associates itself with the Gothic idea of duality. Within the story, it seems as though the woman is in danger as she says 'The Erl-King will do you grievous harm', but in the end the narrator kills him. The Erl-King could also be described as one who is not harming the narrator on purpose but unknowingly hurts her. This is an example of another Gothic convention, the Byronic hero. Even though he is destructive, both the reader and the woman romanticise him. Carter may be showing how women are not weak and can fight back against their supposed oppressors but this in itself is problematic. If killing a person is the only way out of patriarchal structures, is that really freedom? Many would argue that by killing someone you are not liberating yourself but in fact saving yourself and self preservation is distinct from freedom. A criticism of the way Carter uses language is that it may advocate a reading that is too simple. Even though the narrator rescues herself, she had to be a victim in the first place. By placing a woman in a situation where she is victimised, Carter is perpetuating a stereotype herself, therefore limiting the potential impact it could have as a feminist text.

Another aspect of language that is in 'The Erl-King' is the descriptive language that is bordering on poetry and this shows that the text is Gothic as the description could fit into the idea of the sublime. At the beginning of the story, you can clearly see how the text is supposed to be a part of the fairy tale genre. The elder trees are described as 'anorexic' and the beams of light that hit the trees are 'nicotine-stained fingers', these words are associated with death and therefore the description may be foreshadowing the eventual death of the Erl-King. The language sets the story in a place that is almost ethereal, which follows the generic conventions of both the Gothic and the fairy tale; the obsession with the supernatural in the Gothic and the prominence of magic in fairy tales. At the end of the paragraph however, the description turns more sinister. The quote 'there is a haunting sense of the imminent cessation of being' explores the macabre reality of nature. This highlights how humanity lives in a dream world, when in fact reality is a lot more ominous. Carter may be commenting on how fairy tales are intrinsically damaging. By teaching children that they can trust that someone will save them, that the adult will fail to save themselves  It also follows the Gothic custom of the sense of mystery, making the reader wonder why the description has suddenly change in its tone. The description of the year 'turning in on itself' may foreshadow how in the end the Erl-King destroys himself.

How is a feminist message contained in 'The Snow Child'?