Zusammenfassung der Ressource
"In The Bloody Chamber Angela Carter
reverses gothic traditions so that the males
become the victims instead of the females."
- THE LADY OF THE HOUSE OF LOVE
- The countess is the predator, and she is female
- she entices males
into her bedroom
where she then
devours them.
- "now she is a
woman, she
must have men"
- however she is a
victim of her past; she
has to suffer the ways
of life which her
ancestors have set up
for her (being a
vampire). This could
be a social comment
on how women's lives
are set up by how their
female ancestors act
- "except her horrible
reluctance for the role"
- "she would
like to be
human"
- The soldier, a young male, is her prey
- He is a virgin, a trait
often associated with
women in the gothic
- "The heroines of these stories are
struggling out of the straitjackets of
history and ideology and biological
essentialism"
- The women are breaking free from
society's idea of what they should be
- The mother in "The Bloody Chamber" saves her
child from the Marquis, a role which typically in
gothic and fairytale tradition would be applied to men.
- THE BLOODY CHAMBER
- The Marquis is killed at the end
of the story by the girl's mother.
- "her skirts tucked around her waist, one hand
on the reins of the rearing horse while the other
clasped my father's service revolver"
- presented in a very masculine way
- throughout the story the girl is
the victim to the Marquis; victim
to his sexual violence (despite
the fact she finds that she is
drawn to it.
- His former wives are all female
victims, murdered by the Marquis
- "there is a striking
resemblance between
the act of love and the
ministrations of a
torturer"
- the girl is treated as
though she is meat
that he has bought
- "he stripped me [...] as if
he were stripping the leaves
off an artichoke
- "my purchaser unwrapped his
bargain"
- THE ERL-KING
- The girl strangles him
at the end of the story
- He entraps young girls by turning them into
birds and caging them.
- WOLF ALICE
- The Duke, a werewolf, is hated by
the villagers and is shot at, causing
him pain and injury.
- Alice tends to his
wounds, and by
doing this,
transforms him
back to a human