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Summary Bloody Chamber notes
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Bloody chamber character and theme notes
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The Bloody Chamber:Helen Simpson “the unnamed first-person heroin of The Bloody Chamber appears at first to be a
Justine-sacrificial virgin in a white dress”
Jeff Vandermeer “fairy tales clothe themselves in stereotypes and archetypes” i.e. girl in Bloody
Chamber is nameless can represent all women.
Hawthorne “the imperfect and human stain of sexual passion” the key mark
Set in castle on sea of Mont St Michael, a nod to de Sade cannibal Minski and his lake-surrounded
castle with torture chamber.
Musical daughter of tenacious mother, poor. Marquis courts her in Paris. Gives her gifts. They marry
and go to house in St Michael, isolated. He teases her sexually, she discovers pornographic books. He
gives her keys to explore house but says can’t go into one room. He leaves for business in USA. Piano
tuner comes, she explores Bloody Chamber drops keys in blood. She calls mother. She tells piano
tuner. Marquis returns, discovers she knows and decided to execute her in courtyard. Mother
arrives and saves day.
Also version of Bluebeard fairy tale (Perrault drew moral the female curiosity leads to retribution)
Powerful predators and male gaze
Virgin/ whore dichotomy
Predator/ prey dichotomy – desiring subject and desired object
Manifestations of desire
Taboo themes i.e. paedophilia and necrophilia
Sexual aggression – rape
Isolated setting – castle
Darkness and entrapment – dungeon
Macabre settings
“away from girlhood, away from white into the unguessable country of marriage” purity and
innocence thrown into foreign world of the unknown
“ceased to be her child in becoming his wife” ownership, transition, objectified
“young girls pointed breasts”
“his kiss with tongue and teeth” predatory, animalistic
“the fairy castle lay beyond the grasp of my imagination”
“I might bear an heir, our destination, my destiny”
Marquis has a “leonine head”
“after that first shock, I was forced to mimic surprise, so that he would not be disappointed”
performing, satisfying male desire.
“older than I was, much older”
His “experience” versus her “innocence” William Blake Songs of Innocence and Experience
“disturbed me” his “mask like features”
, Link to Picture of Dorain Grey Oscar Wilde “his real face, the face that truly reflected all the life he
had lived … lay underneath this mask” hidden away, disguised, deception.
Marquis had a “heavy, flesh composure”
“he seemed to me like a lily” the flower of death “cobra-head funeral lilies”
“oh he must want me”
“every bride that came to the castle wore it” how many brides
First wife = “Romanian Countess” link with Vampires, Gothic “her name – Carmilla”
Second wife = “barmaid in Paris” “flat breasts and elongated thighs”
Third wife = “sumptuous diva.”
“three different graces” classical reference
“invited me to join this gallery of beautiful women” objectified, trophies
“I thought I must truly love him” naïve
“my skin crisped at his touch” attraction vs repulsion
“my cup runneth over” Biblical quote
“everyone stared at me”
“his wedding gift clasped around my throat” “like an extraordinarily expensive slit throat”
“gesture of luxurious defiance” to norms to social expectation of the bourgeoise
“the white dress and the frail child within”
Helen Simpson “the unnamed first-person heroin of The Bloody Chamber appears at first to be a
Justine-sacrificial virgin in a white dress”
Carmilla white dress and red blood
“I saw him watching me” male gaze
John Berger “Men look at women. Women watch themselves being looked at.”
“a house wife in the market, inspecting cuts on the slab” prophetic of girl finding wives limbs in
chamber
“his sheer carnival avarice of it” (his stare)
“I saw him look at me with lust”
“the cruel necklace became me” Carter likes her female heroines to be corrupted onto transgression
“I sense in myself a potentiality for corruption”
“into marriage, into exile”
“I would always be lonely” trapped and isolated
“conspired to seduce me”
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