Peripeteia

Extract from a student essay on the presentation of female characters in the first three stories.

Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber is a groundbreaking work that reimagines classic fairy tales through a feminist lens, exploring traditional narratives around gender, power, and sexuality.

In “The Bloody Chamber”, the protagonist’s journey from being passive to having a more active sense of agency is crucial to her character development. Initially, the young girl is portrayed as passive and impressionable, shown by the aura of the Marquis and the wealth he offers. Her thoughts reveal a sense of submissiveness, “I lay awake in a tender, delicious ecstasy of excitement, my burning cheek pressed against the impeccable linen of the pillow.” The language used here emphasises how naive she is and the welcoming of the Marquis’s wealth and power. This initial submission reflects the traditional Gothic trope of the innocent heroine, yet as the story progresses, she becomes increasingly aware of the Marquis’s true nature. Her discovery of the secret room and the dead brides represents a crucial turning point, where her passivity is confronted by the horrifying reality of her situation. Although she is ultimately rescued by her mother, the protagonist’s decision to defy the Marquis and seek answers marks a shift in her character. Carter critiques the Gothic tradition by positioning the mother as the saviour, suggesting that women’s power lies in their solidarity rather than submission. This stands in contrast to Beauty’s journey in “The Courtship of Mr Lyon,” where her agency is more closely tied to her relationship with the Beast.

Beauty in “The Courtship of Mr Lyon” plays a transformative role, both for herself and for Mr Lyon, though her change is initially constrained by her role as a dutiful daughter. Her willingness to live with the Beast is driven by a sense of obligation rather than desire, positioning her as a passive character. However, her eventual decision to return to the Beast is a more assertive act, motivated by her genuine concern rather than duty. This act catalyses the Beast’s transformation, highlighting her role as an agent of change. The narrative emphasises the impact of Beauty’s choices on Mr Lyon’s transformation, noting how “the golden tones of her skin turned golden” alongside his own shift from beast to human. Unlike the narrator in “The Bloody Chamber,” who is ultimately saved by another, Beauty’s decision to return directly influences the outcome of the story. Carter draws on the traditional “Beauty and the Beast” narrative but alters it by giving Beauty a more active role in determining her fate. This portrayal differs from “The Tiger’s Bride,” where the female protagonist’s transformation is more radical and challenges human and animal boundaries.

Summary of Merja Makinen's article: Learning a new song - The Bloody Chamber and the Gothic

Colour is used to classify characters or moments, with white representing innocence(victim), black representing villainy (evil character), and red representing blood, death and horror. Horror versus terror is commonly used to divide gothic texts, with horror representing external fear/death and terror representing internal fear and the character’s worries. Gothic explores irrational concepts such as the supernatural.

The Bloody Chamber and external horror.
Gothic colours are explored in the bloody chamber through the young narrator’s white skin ( symbolising innocence), the red jewels, the fire opal and the necklace of rubies. Additionally, darkness/black is represented through the night/twilight which overlooks the majority of the story, as well as the ‘illimitable darkness’ in the chamber. The unnaturally white and waxy marquis, like the funeral lilies, convey the mask he wears for society to cover up his evilness, which is expressed through his eyes which have an ‘absolute absence of light’, this suggests the darkness of his soul.
Entrapment/imprisonment is conveyed through the medieval setting of the castle, and when the girl accepts she has ‘Lost, as the victim loses to the executioner’ and she submits to his demands to put her head on the block.

The Erl-King- internalised fear.
This story utilises terror and internal fear, because of this, following the story can be confusing and inconsistent, but this represents the inner conflicts the narrator faces. We see this especially when the narrative randomly switches between third, second and first person, and between past and present tense. Additionally, it is suggested that she has been lured to the Erl-King through his magic, so perhaps the confusing text also represents her disoriented, bewildered state. She describes the Erl-King in both attractive and ugly ways, again this reaffirms her confusion.

Re-writing the passive woman
Angela Carter challenges traditional depictions of female characters, she changes their passivity and virtue-focused narratives. Instead, Carter gives them strength and control. We can see this in ‘The Erl-King’ and ‘The Bloody Chamber’ when the women try to seduce their partners so they can kill them. They take action to protect themselves instead of submitting.

Lady of the House of Love
In this story, gender stereotypes and gothic character roles are reversed. The predator is female and the ingenuë is male.
'The Lady of the House of Love’ questions her predatory nature asking: ‘Can a bird sing only the song it knows or can it learn a new song?’. She examines her nature and her ancestors' expectations for her. (The Marquis is very different, he never questions his sadist nature. However, the control of cultural expectations is broken when the glass shatters and cuts the Lady. The two have to improvise and the predatory mouth-on-blood turns into a loving moment, the boy shows genuine care and nurtures her. Although a mundane ending, the story teaches us that no one is condemned by societal and cultural expectations.

Fairy-tale or Gothic?
Fairy tales and the Gothic have much in common, both stem from medieval oral traditions, both feature supernatural elements and have transformative resolutions. Carter references early oral versions of fairy tales in her work, that were sexually explicit and featured women who were more active and self-reliant. We can see this especially in ‘The Company of Wolves’ when phrases from the oral tale are referenced, but passivity and ingenuity are regretted.