There are many themes within the short story "The Bloody Chamber" by Angela Carter, one of which being, as stated in the title, the theme of bloody chambers. This is the room where violence occurs drastically; "Absolute darkness. And, about me, the instruments of mutilation" and also, almost ironically, the room where the narrator, the heroine, changes immensely. It is ironic that this is the room where the narrator changes because, her fate from discovering this was to die because she is weak-willed and presumed a "fragile woman", which she was at this time, but from discovering the chamber and the corpses her bravery grew unexpectedly- the Marquis' original plan was for her to discover his secret and become even weaker and defenceless
Following on from this, another major theme is virginity. A woman's virginity is connected with the opinion of purity and innocence which instantly attracts a man, however in "The Bloody Chamber" although the virginity of the heroine attracts the Marquis, it attracts him because it's a sign of weakness and an instant invitation to corruption for him and also an invitation to violence and destruction, not because it is an attractive trait which he admires and desires for a woman for the right reasons. This is because by taking a woman's virginity a man will therefore make her bleed and spill her blood, for example when the Marquis rapes the heroine he is described as impaling her "A dozen husbands impaled a dozen brides while the mewing gulls swung on invisible trapezes in the empty air outside".
Objectification of women is also a major theme within this short story, this is because the Marquis transforms the heroine into a pornographic image for his personal gain and demands she always wears her collar of rubies, indicating that she is like a pet to him and he is her master "He made me put on my choker, the family heirloom of one woman had escaped the blade." In a more extreme point of view, the Marquis quite literally plans to make her an actual object of his possession; a corpse in his bloody chamber- another addition to his display of brides within it.
Lastly, 'mirrors' are a key theme to "The Bloody Chamber", this is because the heroine sees herself within the mirrors and sees herself as a pornographic image which oddly and disturbingly arouses her which immediately leads her to the realisation of her complicity in her own destruction "I caught sight of myself in the mirror. And I saw myself, suddenly, as he saw me, my pale face, the way the muscles in my neck stuck out like thin wire. I saw how much that cruel necklace became me. And, for the first time in my innocent and confined life, I sensed in myself a potentiality for corruption that took my breath away"- the way she understands in that moment how much that cruel necklace defines her and her response of pitiful arousal and excitement of this enhances the immaturity and naivety traits of this young girl- and how this almost murders her.
Katie. This is a good post where you cover a lot of issues, debates and themes. To help focus your writing and argument try the 5+5 = 1 method.
ReplyDeleteTake these four paragraphs and see if you can sum up your points in 5 sentences, then take those sentences and see if you could sum up each sentence in just one word. Then look at those 5 words and see if there is a term or theme which unifies them all.
I think there is one key theme which links all your points above and that one theme is also a key part of gothic literature. If you are able to connect all your points to that key term/theme suddently you'll hit AO1, AO3 and AO4. Then all you need simply do is include quotations (which you do above) and you've produced a piece of writing which hits all the AO's.
Take a little care with some of your sentences, for example "violence occurs drastically" doesn't really make sense, "sadistic, sexual violence occurs" would be a better sentence as it links to not only your point on The Bloody Chamber it self but also your point about sex, objectification and control.
Any questions just ask.