'Nothing about her is human
except that she is not a wolf; it is
as if the fur she thought she
wore had melted into her fur and
become a part of it, although it
does not exist.'
Wolf-Alice inhabits the liminal space
between the human and the beastly
Sense of otherness as she belongs to neither world
Carter describes that she is 'human manquée not beast plus'
Thus perhaps the implication that this is what humans are
themselves, we should somewhat alter the definition of humanity
to incorporate a small level of beastliness?
In this way, our exterior wold reflect our interior (much like
the fur becoming a part of her), and fit with Carter's views
on materialism
'In order to be something
over any sustained length of
time, it is necessary to be it.'
Removing the liminal
space between
interior and exterior
will empower men
and women?
Her duality
'She inhabits only the present tense... the world of
sensual immediacy as without hope as it is without
despair.'
Much like killing the
grandmother in The Werewolf,
reflects the idea (revenance) of
not letting the past control our
present
Eg females not trying to disown their past
treatment/ patriarchy, but move on from it and be empowered
'She would be the bud of flesh in the kind
lion's mouth: but how can the bitten apple
flesh out its scar again?'
Biblical reference with idea of Eve as fallen
woman- yet in contrast wolf-alice lives in
present and thus is not fallen
Portraying female's burden of
patriarchy that they endure
even today
'She...crouched,
trembled, urinated,
defecated- reverted
entirely, it would
seem, to her natural
state.'
Beastliness is natural to
her before she is
preconditioned by society
Shows the effect of
society on humans
(referencing the
burial of her rags) 'it
was not
fastidiousness but
shame that made her
do so.'
L'enfant sauvage
A person with
naive
undisciplined
behaviour due
to youth or
inexperience
Implied liminal space
between childhood
and adulthood-
puberty
Rationality vs wild behaviour
The Duke
'The Duke is sere as old
paper; his dry skin
rustles against the bed
sheets... his legs scabbed
with old scars...'
Unlike other
Beasts/ male
protagonists
(marquis for
example) there is
nothing attractive
about him at all
Thus the character's concluding
equality highlights Carter's
desire for males to be liberated
from the constraints of
patriarchy also
Once patriarchy is no longer
important, there is no longer need
for males to fulfil its stereotypes
also
Thus, in terms of the book's structure,
this shows progression as the concluding
story
The story ends with
'the face of the Duke.'
'His eyes see only appetite.'
'These eyes open to devour
the world in which he sees,
nowhere a reflection of
himself; he passed through
the mirror and now,
henceforward, lives as if
upon the other side of
things.'
The idea that him
and Alice are
doppelgängers
Both inhabit a liminal space of
otherness, neither human nor
beast.
Symbolism
The mirror
'The rational glass, the
master of the visible.'
Carter regarded materialism as the
only way to view the world
'So images, however deceptive they might
be, are important in knowing who we are
and what we are becoming.'
Links to a dozen mirrors on the
ceiling of the Marquis bedroom
Yet the mirrors that, in The Bloody Chamber, fragment
the image of the female protagonist, making her passive
subject, have the opposite effect in Wolf-Alice
'...yet her relation with the mirror
was now far more intimate since she
knew she saw herself within it.'
She becomes active subject when realising that the
mirror reflects herself and accepting her true
nature, females empowered by accepting the
horror of their beastly natures
Quote about learning to
run with the lions
This story and entire
book should act as a
mirror to its reader?
'We secluded her in
animal privacy out of fear
of her imperfection
because it showed us what
we might have been.'
Elements of the uncanny as it
reflects 'disguised and distorted
yet inalienable images of our own
repressed desire.'
Form and structure
Easy to compare to
BC and show the
progression of
Carter's viewpoint
Generally 3rd
person form-
fairytales etc
At one point shifts to the female protagonist's perspective?
(referencing the Duke) 'poor wounded
thing... locked half and half between such
strange states, an aborted transformation,
an incomplete mystery.'
Setting
The duke's mansion
his bedroom is like 'the interior of
an Iberian butcher's shop...'
'a gloomy mansion'
'that exiled place'
Something which should be
powerful and impressive and yet
is underwhelming