The Bloody Chamber Quotes - ‘like an extraordinarily precious slit throat’ - ‘bright as arterial blood’ - ‘faery solitude’ - ‘so many mirrors’ - ‘as if he were stripping the leaves off an artichoke’ - ‘instruments of mutilation’ - ‘the walls…gleamed as if they were sweating with fright’ - ‘an armful of the same lilies with which he had filled my bedroom’ - ‘the trumpets of the angels of death’ Characters - Heroine - ‘seventeen and knew nothing of the world’ - ‘the white-faced girl from Paris’ - ‘I was only a baby’ - Marquis - ‘dark leonine shape of his head’ - ‘opulent male scent’ - ‘dark mane’ - ‘waxen face’ Mother - ‘indomitable mother’ - ‘wild thing’ AO2 - language, form and structure and how they shape meaning - Language - Juxtaposition - ‘lascivious tenderness’ - Metaphor - the Marquis as a beast, or as God - ‘the eye of God - his eye’ - ‘Subterranean privacy’ of the chamber - likening bloody chamber to Hell - Form - Castle is a Gothic reinterpretation of the fairytale template - Reworked fairy tales - Carter called them ‘new stories’ not ‘versions’ - Short stories maximise the impact of Carter’s messages - Novelette - the slow pace of which mirrors the brief lifestyle of the heroine in her new life Structure - Long descriptive paragraphs followed by very short sentences e. g. ‘Dead as his wives. ’ - isolated simile - Longer sentences with commas increase the suspense, short sentences create a sense of fear - Ellipsis also used AO3 - connections between texts and different interpretations - Child like language - ‘Baby mustn’t play with grownups’ toys’ (see EK, COW) - Fairy tale motifs - ‘All the better to see you’ - links to fairy-tale form (see EK, LOTHOL) - References to the modern world - ‘shrilling of the telephone’ (see COML) - Aggressive male language - ‘pistons ceaselessly thrusting’ (see EK)
Gothic Features - Weather/setting - Castle is isolated, heroine sees its ‘faery solitude’ - how she chooses to view it, away from reality - Walls of the chamber ‘sweating with fright’ - as if guilty themselves - Marquis calls bloody chamber his ‘enfer’ - French word for Hell, ‘subterranean privacy’, ‘like the door of Hell’ - Carter contrasts light and dark - ‘Lights! More lights! ’ - Foreshadowing - ‘the necklace that prefigures your end’, ‘bright as arterial blood’, ‘like an extraordinarily precious slit throat’ - all foreshadow the heroine’s decapitation Heroine escapes her fate - makes her an even stronger character - Dominant males - Marquis likened to God and a lion/animal - Passive females - Heroine accepts her fate quickly - Religion - Marquis is placed in the role of God - Refers to the heroine as ‘my little nun’, pornography referred to as ‘prayer-books’ shows Marquis’ lack of religion - Bloody chamber as Hell - see setting - Supernatural - ‘as if the key itself were hurt, the bloody token stuck’ AO4 - contextual factors and how they affect the text - Angela Carter was a feminist - Published in 1979 - after the sexual revolution of the 1960s ‘Carter flirts with elements of the Gothic in many of the tales’ - S. Roberts - Same for all texts The Courtship of Mr Lyon Quotes - ‘one white, perfect rose’ - ‘there was no living person in the hall’ - ‘a lion is a lion and a man is a man’ - ‘there was an air of exhaustion… in the house’ - ‘her own image reflected there’ (in the Beast’s eyes) - ‘Fast as you can’ - ‘an attic, with a sloping roof’ - ‘the roses…were all dead’ - ‘as if, curious reversal, she frightened him’ Characters - Beauty - ‘looked as if she had been carved out of a single pearl’ ‘she smiled at herself with satisfaction’ - ‘Miss Lamb, spotless, sacrificial’ - Beast - ‘some kind of sadness in his agate eyes’ - ‘a man with an unkempt mane of hair’ - ‘he was so different from herself’ AO2 - language, form and structure and how they shape meaning - Language - Extensive imagery of snow symbolises Beauty’s purity - ‘white and unmarked as… bridal satin’ - Personification of the house - ‘the chandelier tinkled... as if emitting a pleased chuckle’ - ‘Pearl’ - pure, beautiful, valuable - Form - Reworked fairy tales - Carter called them ‘new stories’ not ‘versions’ Carter extracts ‘latent content’ - Short stories maximise the impact of Carter’s messages - Beauty and The Beast - both characters change, not just the Beast - role reversal of princess in the tower - Structure - ‘I hope he’ll be safe’ - no speech marks, highlighting Beauty’s lack of a voice AO3 - connections between texts and different interpretations - References to the modern world - ‘the snow brought down all the telephone wires’ (see BC, LOTHOL) - Fairy tale references - she reads ‘elegant French fairy tales’, ‘Fast as you can’ (see BC, EK, LOTHOL) Gothic Features - Weather/setting ‘Palladian house that seemed to hide itself shyly’ = ‘he forced himself to master his shyness’ - ‘Thin ghost of light on the verge of extinction’ - no signs of Spring at the Beast’s house - reflects what has happened to him - Bloody chamber = Beast’s attic - he is trapped and dying, claustrophobic setting - Roses die as the beast dies: ‘The roses…were all dead’ - Countryside = place of purity and femininity, town = masculine place of corruption - Foreshadowing - ‘she smiled at herself in mirrors a little too often’ - pride comes before a fall - Dominant males - no longer dominant ‘a cracked whisper of his former purr’ - ‘I am sick and I must die’ - Passive females - Objectification of women - she is called ‘Beauty’ but gets an identity at the end - ‘Mrs Lyon’ - Supernatural - Magic of the house - her father can call the garage even though the phone lines are down - ‘All the natural laws of the world were held in suspension here’ The Tiger’s Bride Quotes - ‘my father lost me to The Beast in cards’ - ‘I have lost my pearl’ - ‘the lamb must learn to run with the tigers’ Characters - Heroine - ‘always the pretty one’ - ‘Christmas rose’ - ‘no more than a king’s ransom’
AO2 - language, form and structure and how they shape meaning - Language - description of “glossy, nut-brown curls” and “rosy cheeks” is repeated to highlight the similarities between the narrator and her “clockwork twin - Structure - Heroine is given a voice unlike Beauty in COML - objectification of women in a different way - Written in the past tense but changes occasionally to the present to suggest continuity The Erl King Quotes - ‘Erl-King will do you grievous harm’ - ‘the wood swallows you up’ - ‘the stark elders have an anorexic look’ - ‘everything in the wood is exactly as it seems’ ‘easy to lose yourself’ - ‘What big eyes you have’ Characters - Erl-King - ‘an excellent housewife’ - ‘came alive from the desire of the woods’ - ‘tender butcher’ - ‘skin the rabbit, he says! ’ - ‘Eyes green as apples. Green as dead sea fruit’ AO2 - language, form and structure and how they shape meaning - Language - Oxymorons such as “the tender butcher” and “appalling succulence” highlight the narrator’s conflict - Isolated similes such as “green as dead sea fruit” add emphasis to the comparisons - Metaphor is used to link sex to drowning e. g. his ‘dress of water’ that ‘drenches’ her Structure - ‘Erl-King will do you grievous harm’ - one line paragraph to emphasise significance - Switches between tenses and points of view in order to disorient the reader, creating a Gothic sense of uncertainty, and reflecting the feelings of the protagonist AO3 - connections between texts and different interpretations - Fairy tale references - ‘What big eyes you have’ (see BC, EK) - Superstition - ‘he says the Devil spits on them at Michaelmas’ (see W, COW) - Aggressive language - ‘he could thrust me into the seed-bed’ (see BC) Gothic Features - Weather/setting Wood is personified and isolated - ‘the wood swallows you up’ - More fairy-tale than Gothic - Bloody Chamber = Erl-King’s dwelling - Idea of confinement - ‘vertical bars of a brass-coloured distillation of light’ look like bars of a prison/cage - Erl-King can tie ‘up the winds in his handkerchief’ - Dominant males - childlike, less predatory - Romantic hero, she falls in love with him - Passive females - none, she is mature and purposeful - Supernatural - ‘magic lasso of inhuman music’ - He has a ‘bird call’ - Religion - ‘he says the Devil spits on them at Michaelmas’ The Snow Child
Quotes - ‘midwinter - ‘invincible, immaculate’ - ‘the Countess hated her’ - ‘a feather…a bloodstain…and the rose’ - ‘It bites! ’ - ‘the whole world was white’ - ‘a masculine fantasy’ - Cristina Bacchilega Characters - Snow Child - ‘as white as snow’ - ‘as black as that bird’s feather’ - ‘as red as blood’ - ‘the child of his desire’ - ‘high, black, shining boots with scarlet heels’ AO2 - language, form and structure and how they shape meaning - Language - Alliteration of ‘invicible, immaculate’ exaggerates the extremity of the weather - Rose is a symbol of femininity or the vagina Snow Child bleeds, symbolising menstruation - Bite symbolises the suffering that accompanies being female - childbirth, hymen breaking, menstruation - Form - Vignette - a small, literary sketch - Structure - Written in the 3rd person but from the perspective of the Count - ‘So the girl picks a rose; pricks her finger on the thorn; bleeds; screams; falls. ’ - isolated paragraph, one sentence, uses idea of ‘three’ AO3 - connections between texts and different interpretations Gothic Features - Weather/setting - Bloody Chamber = Snow Child’s vagina - ‘White’ setting and snow symbolises purity and virginity, Dominant males - Masculine control of female identity - Count = Marquis from BC - Creates both women - Countess cannot exist without a Count - Passive females - Countess belongs to Count - she is only a Countess because of him - Price of being the Countess - subservience and a loss of identity - Neither female can exist without the Count - he gives them their power - One must die for the other to survive - Literal objectification of women - Count undresses and dresses Countess as he pleases, creates Snow Child - Incestuous rape - she was not expected to receive pleasure in having sex, she was his sexual object
The Lady of the House of Love Quotes - ‘Vous serez ma proie’ - ‘Too many roses’ - ‘Now you are at the place of annihilation’ - ‘Fee fie fo fum, I smell the blood of an Englishman’ - ‘A single kiss woke up the Sleeping Beauty in the Wood’ - ‘wisdom, death, dissolution’ - ‘chinoiserie escritoire’ - ‘this ornate and rotting place’ - ‘Can a bird…learn a new song? ’ - ‘the bicycle is the product of pure reason applied to motion’ Characters - Countess - ‘her beauty is an abnormality’ - ‘hunger always overcomes her’ - ‘white lace negligee stained a little with blood’ ‘the fangs and talons of a beast of prey’ - ‘a cave full of echoes’ - ‘the fragility of the skeleton of a moth’ - Soldier - ‘pentacle of his virginity’ - ‘youth, strength and blonde beauty’ - ‘symbol of rationality’ (bicycle) - ‘the trenches of France’ AO2 - language, form and structure and how they shape meaning - Language - Foreign words are slipped into the narrative - allows reader to enter Countess’s bilingual mind e. g. ‘chinoiserie escritoire’ meaning Chinese-style desk/cabinet - Form - Reworked fairy tales - Carter called them ‘new stories’ not ‘versions’ Short stories maximise the impact of Carter’s messages - Structure - Broken up by inset couplets of thoughts, either fairy tale villains’ famous lines, or menacing French phrases, which suggest this is the inner voice of her predatory nature - increase ambiguity - Story is divided in two - first half is present tense, second half is past tense - more fairy-tale like AO3 - connections between texts and different interpretations - References to the modern world - ‘the trenches of France’ (see BC) - Humour - ‘you will be led by hand to the Countess’s larder’ (see PIB, COW) Gothic Features Weather/setting - ‘cracked mirrors’ - the Countess does not bear a reflection - ‘Too many roses’ - roses are beautiful and dangerous like her - Bird in the cage symbolises her entrapment in her vampiric body - ‘she likes to hear it announce how it cannot escape’ - Predatory females - ‘the fangs and talons of a beast of prey’ yet she evokes sympathy as she tries to change her fate - ‘Fee Fie Fo Fum’ places her in the role of the villain, ‘Sleeping Beauty’ places her in the role of the victim - Supernatural - Soldier does not believe in supernatural: ‘this lack of imagination gives heroism to the hero’ Foreshadowing - The Tarot cards change for the first time ever The Werewolf Quotes - ‘they have cold weather, they have cold hearts’ - ‘supernumerary nipple’ - ‘Harsh, brief, poor lives. ’ - ‘she prospered’ - ‘they stone her to death’ Characters - Child - ‘good child’ - ‘coat of sheepskin’ - Wolf - ‘grizzled chops’ - ‘less brave than they seem’ AO2 - language, form and structure and how they shape meaning - Language - Very unemotional in places - ‘they stone her to death’, ‘she prospered’ - detached narrator - Tricolons emphasise repetition and simplicity of their lives - ‘harsh, brief, poor lives’ Extensive description of superstitions highlights their importance - also seen in Company of Wolves - Pathetic fallacy - ‘cold weather… cold hearts’ - setting mirrors personalities of inhabitants - Very simple language - fairy tale language, childlike, simple to understand - Structure - Isolated paragraph with one sentence - ‘Winter and cold weather. ’ AO3 - connections between texts and different interpretations - Superstition - ‘wreaths of garlic on the doors’ (see COW, EK, LOHOL) Gothic Features - Weather/setting - Pathetic fallacy - Supernatural - Superstitions - wolves, witches, devil - Foreshadowing Descriptions of superstitions at the beginning The Company of Wolves Quotes - ‘you are always in danger in the forest’ - ‘a man who vanished clear away on her wedding night’ - ‘the forest closed upon her like a pair of jaws’ - ‘they are grey as famine’ - ‘you will suffer’ - ‘we try and try’ - ‘blood on snow’ - ‘Quack, quack! went the duck’ Characters - Heroine - ‘she is an unbroken egg’ - ‘she knew she was nobody’s meat’ - ‘she has just started her woman’s bleeding’ - ‘so pretty’ - Wolf - ‘the tender wolf’ - ‘fear and flee the wolf’ AO2 - language, form and structure and how they shape meaning Language - Narrator addresses the reader - ‘you are always in danger’, ‘you will suffer’, ‘we try and try’ - Written as if to recreate the oral tradition of fairytales - ‘Quack, quack! went the duck’ - ‘hurl your Bible at him’, ‘call on Christ…but it won’t do you any good’, It is Christmas Day, the werewolves' birthday’, ‘canticles of the wolves’ - undermining religion (canticle = short song/hymn) - ‘The forest closed on her like a pair of jaws’ - isolated simile, only sentence in paragraph, highlight isolated setting - typically Gothic (see ‘Dead as his wives’ simile in BC = isolated) Fairytale - ‘What big eyes you have’, ‘All the better to see you with’ (‘All the better to see you’ = BC) - Metaphor - ‘night and forest has come into the kitchen’ - Structure - Lengthy introduction highlights importance of superstitions and wolves in the lives of the people - Opens reader’s mind to the supernatural - it is common here - No speech marks increase the strangeness of the story - also, there would be no speech marks in oral tradition AO3 - connections between texts and different interpretations - Fairy tale motifs (see BC, EK, LOTHOL) - Personification of the woods (see EK) Gothic Features Religion - ‘you must run as if the Devil were after you’ - Weather/setting - Personification of the forest ‘like a pair of jaws’, also simile, similar to EK - Night time setting - typically Gothic, increases ambiguity - Dominant male - wolf - Non-passive female - she laughs at him, ‘she knew she was nobody’s meat’ Wolf Alice Quotes - ‘the corners of his bloody chamber’ - room of clothes where Duke’s prey live - ‘it showed us what we could have been’ - ‘her pace is not our pace’ - ‘the wise child who leads them all’ Characters - Duke - ‘his eyes see only appetite’ - ‘he is white as leprosy’ Wolf Alice - ‘not wolf or woman’ AO2 - language, form and structure and how they shape meaning - Language - Carter quickly allies herself with the reader and separates Wolf-Alice - ‘her pace is not our pace’ - Religious reference to Garden of Eden - ‘wise child who leads them all’ - Duke is ‘cast into the role of the corpse-eater’ - not the whole truth? - ‘She could not put her finger on’ - finger in italics, reminds us she is human AO3 - connections between texts and different interpretations Gothic Features - Weather/setting - Duke’s castle - Gothic reinterpretation of the fairytale castle ‘Moony metamorphic weather’ - setting mirrors Duke - Presence of the moon - time, menstruation, Gothic night time, when the Duke is awake - Graveyard settings - Dominant males - Duke - not a real man, doesn’t cast a reflection, doesn’t have a soul, does have physical strength, doesn’t talk to her - ‘separate solitudes’ - Passive females - Wolf-Alice is a strong female, physically, and becomes intellectually stronger throughout the story - Supernatural - Duke is a werewolf/vampire - Superstition/religion - ‘Young husband’ fills a church with silver bullets, holy water, ‘bells, books and candles’
