The Erl-King

Source 1:
This is an adaptation of a European tale.
The characters depicted in a number of German tales/poems and ballads as a malevolent creature who haunts forests and carries off travellers to their deaths.
Character is most famous as an antagonist
Similar stories in numerous ballads in Scandinavia.
Source 2:
Christina Rossetti- Goblin market, Laura and Lizzie dangers of goblins and power of sisterly love.
Source 3:
Little Red Riding Hood
Source 4:
The Green Man motif has many variations
Pagan symbol
Source 5:
Shakespeare's Othello "O, beware, my lord, of jealousy! It is the green eyed monster which doth mock the meat it feeds on."

The Erl-King is presented by numerous descriptions. He is presented as dangerous "Erl-King will do you grievous harm". His eyes are described like "quite green, as if from too much looking at the wood" which enhances the fact of this characters wild and inhumanly nature.

The narrator is presented as a young girl who is naive and fragile "my girlish and delicious loneliness had been made into a sound", because she is alone the reader naturally assumes she is at risk, firmly because she is a woman. However in the ending of this short story the narrator has matured and became braver, by challenging the Erl-King and then murdering him and setting the other birds free which therefore shows the character's development from childish typical naive traits to a independent, strong woman.

One of Carter's symbols in this story is the birds in the cages "birdsong from cage upon cage of singing birds" the birds represent the numerous of women he has captured and imprisoned- therefore this element of the story is a clear showing, in a feminist's perspective, of a men's treatment of women in society, how they lure them in and seduce them into committing to them and then the women are forever trapped within this commitment with no longer any control over their own lives, because with this commitment they have given themselves to the man- the woman naturally and uncontrollably becomes the man's possession and property.

Carter creates allusion and uses it by linking her story to Dracula the vampire, she does this by the Erl- King biting the women "each with the crimson imprint of his love bite on their throats", as he bites the women it creates a vampire effect within this story. With Carter linking this in this increases the Gothic form within the story, and also a Fairytale form, as vampire's are fantasy creatures and violent which therefore links to the Gothic features Carter is trying to create.