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.