Angela Carter’s Literary Legacy and “The Bloody Chamber”
Angela Carter: Life and Work
Angela Carter (7 May 1940 – 16 February 1992) was an English novelist and journalist, known for her feminist, magical realism, and picaresque works.
After dying of cancer, aged 51, in 1992, Angela Carter was pronounced by The Times one of the 50 best postwar British writers. Her work is regarded as fantastic or magical realism, accompanied by her naturalistic and realistic critique of female and thus male gender roles. Her style of writing is very diverse.
Carter’s Literary Style and Themes
She wrote nine novels, and although most of them are relatively short, they are crammed with an extraordinary range of ideas, themes, and images. Some of her novels include:
- Shadow Dance
- The Magic Toyshop
- Love
- etc.
She wrote three pieces of nonfiction and several collections of short stories, including The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories (1979). Although Carter’s short stories are very complex, they are rich in language and picture-evoking. Her suggestive writing explores the human mind and sexuality, in particular, from the perspective of gender issues, and examines male towards female sexual behavior and vice versa.
Carter’s style of writing is hard to define. While analyzing female and male relationships, she incorporates several techniques and styles which can be labeled as:
- Postmodern
- Feministic
- Utopian
- Subversive
- Gothic
- Mythical
- Magical
- Metaphorical
- Bizarre
- Pastiche
- Surrealistic
- Fairy tale
- Magical realism
Character Portrayal in Carter’s Fiction
Angela Carter manipulates and uses her characters to a shocking and innovative extent. They are warped and sometimes disconcerting twists on familiar characters, stories, and stereotypes, with emphasis on gender stereotypes.
Analysis of “The Bloody Chamber”
In the story “The Bloody Chamber,” the narration is first-person (so the narrator is the protagonist). Most of her other stories are third-person, suggesting she wanted her eponymous story to stand out.
Narrative Perspective and Language
She uses time-transient language to make the time period ambiguous and also relate to and amuse modern readers, e.g., “naughty monkey.”
The protagonist is initially presented as a typical weak gothic female; “my innocence… captivated him.” She is described as his “pet.” She is influenced by her mother’s strength.
Symbolism and Themes
There can also be a biblical reading, as her inability to not enter the chamber is symbolic of Eve and the apple.
Plot Summary of “The Bloody Chamber”
This story is about a teenage girl who marries an older, wealthy French Marquis, whom she does not love. When he takes her to his castle, she learns that he enjoys sadistic pornography and takes pleasure in her embarrassment. She is a talented pianist, and a young man, a blind piano tuner, hears her music and falls in love with her. The woman’s husband tells her that he must leave on a business trip and forbids her to enter one particular room while he is away. She enters the room in his absence and realizes the full extent of his perverse and murderous tendencies when she discovers the bodies of his previous wives. When the Marquis returns home, he discovers that she has entered the room and proceeds to try to add her to his collection of corpses through beheading. The brave piano tuner is willing to stay with her even though he knows he will not be able to save her. She is saved at the last moment at the end of the story by her mother, who kills the Marquis just as he is about to murder the girl. The girl, her mother, and the piano tuner go on to live together, and the girl uses her now considerable fortune to convert the castle into a school for blind children.
Narrative Techniques in Carter’s Stories
Carter uses different narratives and perspectives in order to create differing effects and responses.
In “The Bloody Chamber,” the first-person narrative creates a stronger relationship between the reader and the protagonist. This allows us to see the Marquis as a true threat, as we are privy to the reactions of the protagonist.
The Snow Child‘s use of the third-person narrative allows Carter to relay the disturbing events without any emotional attachment. The Snow Child has no voice or name, further detaching the reader and perhaps exemplifying a patriarchal society.
Gothic Elements
Gothic colours are used as a strong feature of characterization in order to enhance the gothic genre of the texts, as well as employ stereotypes.