The Bloody Chamber
Encyclopedia
The Bloody Chamber is a collection of short fiction
by Angela Carter
. It was first published in the United Kingdom
in 1979
by Gollancz
and won the Cheltenham Festival Literary Prize
. All of the stories share a common theme of being closely based upon fairytales
or folk tales
. However, Angela Carter has stated:
The anthology contains ten stories: "The Bloody Chamber", "The Courtship of Mr Lyon", "The Tiger's Bride", "Puss-in-Boots", "The Erl-King", "The Snow Child", "The Lady of the House of Love", "The Werewolf", "The Company of Wolves" and "Wolf-Alice".
The tales vary greatly in length, with the novelette
"The Bloody Chamber" being "more than twice the length of any of the other stories, and more than thirty times the length of the shortest [the vignette
"The Snow Child"]."
The anthology's contents are also reprinted in Carter's Burning Your Boats
.
, whose fairy tales she had translated shortly beforehand.
)
A teenage girl marries an older, wealthy French Marquis, whom she does not love. When he takes her to his castle, she learns that he enjoys sadistic pornography and takes pleasure in her embarrassment. She is a talented pianist, and a young man, a blind piano tuner, hears her music and falls in love with her. The woman's husband tells her that he must leave on a business trip and forbids her to enter one particular room while he is away. She enters the room in his absence and realizes the full extent of his perverse and murderous tendencies when she discovers the bodies of his previous wives. When the Marquis returns home he discovers that she has entered the room and proceeds to try to add her to his collection of corpses. The brave piano tuner is willing to stay with her even though he knows he will not be able to save her. She is saved at the last moment at the end of the story by her mother, who arrives and shoots the Marquis just as he is about to murder the girl.
— the concept of the Beast as a lion-like figure is a popular one, most notably in the French film version of 1946
)
Beauty's father, after experiencing car trouble, takes advantage of a stranger's hospitality. However, his benefactor — the Beast — takes umbrage when he steals a miraculous white rose for his beloved daughter. Beauty becomes the guest of the leonine
Beast, and the Beast aids her father in getting his fortune back. Beauty later joins her father in London, where she almost forgets the Beast, causing him to wither away from heartache. When Beauty learns that he is dying, she returns, saving him. Beauty and the Beast disclose their love for one another and the Beast's humanity is revealed. They live happily ever after.
)
A woman moves in with a mysterious, masked "Milord," the Beast, after her father loses her to him in a game of cards. Milord is eventually revealed to be a tiger. In a reversal of the ending of "The Courtship of Mr Lyon", the heroine transforms at the end into a glorious tiger who is the proper mate to the Beast, who will from now on be true to his own nature and not disguise himself as a human.
)
Figaro, a cat, moves in with a rakish young man who lives a happily debauched life. They live a carefree existence, with the cat helping him to make money by cheating at cards, until the young man actually falls in love (to the cat's disgust) with a young woman kept in a tower by a miserly, older husband who treats her only as property. The cat, hoping his friend will tire of the woman if he has her, helps the young man into the bed of his sweetheart by playing tricks on the old husband and the young woman's keeper. Figaro himself finds love with the young woman's cat, and the two cats arrange the fortunes of both themselves and the young man and woman by arranging to trip the old man so that he will fall to his death.
Angela Carter had described Puss in Boots as “the Cat as Con Man... a masterpiece of cynicism... a Figaroesque valet — a servant so much the master already”.
in folklore; a sort of goblin or spirit of the woodlands)
A maiden wanders into the woods and is seduced by the sinister Erl-King, a seeming personification of the forest itself. However, she eventually realises that he plans to imprison her by turning her into a bird, which he has done with other girls. Realising the Erl-King's plan she murders him, thus keeping her freedom.
.)
A Count and Countess go riding in midwinter. The Count sees snow on the ground and wishes for a child "as white as snow". Similar wishes are made when the Count sees a hole in the snow containing a pool of blood, and a raven. As soon as he made his final wish a young woman of the exact description appears at the side of the road. The Count pays immediate attention to her, much to the chagrin of the Countess. At the Countess' command, the girl picks a rose but is pricked by a thorn and dies, after which the Count rapes her corpse
. After this, her cadaver melts into the snow, leaving nothing but a bloodstain on the snow, a black feather and the rose that she had picked.
A virginal English soldier, traveling through Romania by bicycle, finds himself in a deserted village. He comes across a mansion inhabited by a vampiress who survives by enticing young men into her bedroom and feeding on them. She intends to feed on the young soldier but his purity and virginity have a curious effect on her. When they enter her bedroom she accidentally cuts herself and the soldier kisses it better. He wakes up to find her dead. He leaves to return to his battalion.
)
A girl goes to visit her grandmother, but encounters a werewolf on the way, whose paw she cuts off with a knife. When she reaches her grandmother's house, the paw has turned into a hand with the grandmother's ring on it, and the grandmother is both delirious and missing her hand. This reveals the girl's grandmother as the werewolf, and she is stoned to death. The girl then inherits all of her grandmother's possessions.
)
A girl meets an apparently charming young man whilst wandering through the forest towards her grandmother's house. She arrives at her grandmother's home, unaware that the same young man has got there before her and killed her grandmother. The young man, who is really a wolf in disguise, instructs her to remove and burn her garments one by one as she makes remarks reminiscent of those in the classic fairy tale, such as "What big teeth you have!" When he replies, "All the better to eat you with," she laughs at him fearlessly. The story ends with "See! sweet and sound she sleeps in granny's bed, between the paws of the tender wolf."
, this tale explores the journey towards subjectivity
and self-awareness
from the perspective of a feral child
)
A feral child, whom some nuns have attempted to civilize, is left in the house of a monstrous, vampiric Duke where she does not develop the appropriate social graces. She gradually comes to realise her own identity as a young woman and even displays compassion for the Duke.
s, radio
and other collections. Only two are completely original to this collection, though many were revised or changed slightly from their previously published versions for this collection.
The stories' various origins are listed below
's short stories challenge the way women are represented in fairy tales, yet retain an air of tradition and convention through her voluptuously descriptive prose. For example, in the opening tale "The Bloody Chamber" which is a retelling of Bluebeard
, Carter plays with the conventions of canonical fairy tales; instead of the heroine being rescued by the stereotypical male hero, she is rescued by her mother.
Carter
effectively draws out the theme of feminism by contrasting traditional elements of Gothic fiction
- which usually depicted female characters as weak and helpless - with strong female protagonists. By contrasting the barren and horrific atmosphere found typically within the Gothic to the strong heroines of her story, Carter is able to create sexually liberated female characters that are set against the more traditional backdrop of the fairy tale. In doing so, Carter reinvents the outdated fairy tales and offers insight on the archetypes and stereotypes of women in these well-known and celebrated stories.
The stories deal with themes of women's roles in relationships and marriage, their sexuality, coming of age and corruption. Stories such as "The Bloody Chamber" and "The Company of Wolves" explicitly deal with the horrific or corrupting aspects of marriage and/or sex and the balance of power within such relationships. Themes of female identity are explored in the "Beauty and the Beast" stories such as "The Tiger's Bride". In one instance, Beauty: the story's heroine, is described as removing the petals from a white rose as her father gambles her away, a seeming representation of the stripping away of the false layers of her personality to find her true identity; an image that finds a mirror in the story's fantastical conclusion.
As a whole, The Bloody Chamber can be treated as a collection of short stories that speak to a bigger narrative that deals with issues of feminism and metamorphosis instead a set of individual tales. Although each particular narrative deals with a different set of characters, the 'oppressed female seeking liberation' is a common theme and concept that is explored throughout the collection. The characters seem to blend into each other and become indistinguishable from one another when recognizing this theme in the text.
The stories are updated to more modern settings. The exact time periods remains vague, but they are clearly anchored intentionally. For example, in "The Bloody Chamber" the existence of transatlantic telephone
implies a date 1930 or later. On the other hand, the mention of painters such as Gustave Moreau
and Odilon Redon
, and of fashion designer Paul Poiret
(who designs one of the heroine's gowns) all suggest a date before 1945. "The Lady of the House of Love" is clearly set on the eve of the First World War, and the young man's bicycle on which he arrives at the tradition-bound vampire's house is a symbol of the encroaching modernity which fundamentally altered European society after 1914.
(who called it a "remarkable collection") and Marina Warner (who, on its inspirational nature, said it "turned the key for [her] as a writer").
Several critical works have been published that focus on Carter's use of fairy tales in The Bloody Chamber and her other works and the anthology is also frequently taught and studied in University literature courses.
It has been used as part of the AQA
English Literature
and Edexcel English Language/Literature syllabus for A-Levels in some schools in the United Kingdom
.
in 1980
and 1982
respectively. The 1982 adaptation of "Puss in Boots" (as it was retitled) starred Andrew Sachs
in the title role. The scripts for both of these plays were published in Carter's Come Unto These Yellow Sands and later the posthumous collection The Curious Room
, which also included production notes.
film The Company of Wolves
by Neil Jordan
was based upon the werewolf stories in this collection, in particular the Little Red Riding Hood analogue "The Company of Wolves". Carter also directly contributed to the screenplay of this film, which bears close resemblance to her 1980 radio play adaptation of "The Company of Wolves." Carter's original screenplay for this film is published in The Curious Room
. Jordan and Carter also discussed producing a film adaptation of "Vampirella", the radio drama that became "The Lady of the House of Love", but this project was never realised.
band Daisy Chainsaw
adapted the story of "The Lady of the House of Love" for their 1992
music video
for "Hope Your Dreams Come True" (from the EP
of the same name and also later the album
Eleventeen
).
adaptation of "Wolf-Alice". "The Company of Wolves" is also a popular subject for adaptation by amateur/student theatre groups (e.g. by a Welsh drama college).
Short story
A short story is a work of fiction that is usually written in prose, often in narrative format. This format tends to be more pointed than longer works of fiction, such as novellas and novels. Short story definitions based on length differ somewhat, even among professional writers, in part because...
by Angela Carter
Angela Carter
Angela Carter was an English novelist and journalist, known for her feminist, magical realism, and picaresque works...
. It was first published in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
in 1979
1979 in literature
The year 1979 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-New books:*Douglas Adams - The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy*V.C...
by Gollancz
Gollancz
Gollancz often refers to the British publishing house Victor Gollancz Ltd.Gollancz, a family name originating from the Polish town Gołańcz , is mainly known as the name of a prominent British Jewish family, including:* Sir Hermann Gollancz , rabbi* Sir Israel Gollancz , scholar of...
and won the Cheltenham Festival Literary Prize
Cheltenham Prize for Literature
The Cheltenham Prize is awarded at the Cheltenham Literature Festival to the author of any book published in the relevant year which "has received less acclaim than it deserved".-Past winners:*1979 Angela Carter for The Bloody Chamber...
. All of the stories share a common theme of being closely based upon fairytales
Fairy tale
A fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features such folkloric characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. However, only a small number of the stories refer to fairies...
or folk tales
Folklore
Folklore consists of legends, music, oral history, proverbs, jokes, popular beliefs, fairy tales and customs that are the traditions of a culture, subculture, or group. It is also the set of practices through which those expressive genres are shared. The study of folklore is sometimes called...
. However, Angela Carter has stated:
The anthology contains ten stories: "The Bloody Chamber", "The Courtship of Mr Lyon", "The Tiger's Bride", "Puss-in-Boots", "The Erl-King", "The Snow Child", "The Lady of the House of Love", "The Werewolf", "The Company of Wolves" and "Wolf-Alice".
The tales vary greatly in length, with the novelette
Novelette
A novelette is a piece of short prose fiction. The distinction between a novelette and other literary forms is usually based upon word count, with a novelette being longer than a short story, but shorter than a novella...
"The Bloody Chamber" being "more than twice the length of any of the other stories, and more than thirty times the length of the shortest [the vignette
Vignette (literature)
In theatrical script writing, sketch stories, and poetry, a vignette is a short impressionistic scene that focuses on one moment or gives a trenchant impression about a character, an idea, or a setting and sometimes an object...
"The Snow Child"]."
The anthology's contents are also reprinted in Carter's Burning Your Boats
Burning Your Boats
Burning Your Boats: The Collected Short Stories is a posthumously-published collection of Angela Carter's short stories. It includes stories previously collected in her other short story collections: Fireworks: Nine Profane Pieces , The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories , Black Venus and American...
.
Story summaries
The stories within "The Bloody Chamber" are explicitly based on fairy tales. Carter was no doubt inspired by the works of author and fairytale collector Charles PerraultCharles Perrault
Charles Perrault was a French author who laid the foundations for a new literary genre, the fairy tale, with his works derived from pre-existing folk tales. The best known include Le Petit Chaperon rouge , Cendrillon , Le Chat Botté and La Barbe bleue...
, whose fairy tales she had translated shortly beforehand.
The Bloody Chamber
(based on BluebeardBluebeard
"Bluebeard" is a French literary folktale written by Charles Perrault and is one of eight tales by the author first published by Barbin in Paris in January 1697 in Histoires ou Contes du temps passé. The tale tells the story of a violent nobleman in the habit of murdering his wives and the...
)
A teenage girl marries an older, wealthy French Marquis, whom she does not love. When he takes her to his castle, she learns that he enjoys sadistic pornography and takes pleasure in her embarrassment. She is a talented pianist, and a young man, a blind piano tuner, hears her music and falls in love with her. The woman's husband tells her that he must leave on a business trip and forbids her to enter one particular room while he is away. She enters the room in his absence and realizes the full extent of his perverse and murderous tendencies when she discovers the bodies of his previous wives. When the Marquis returns home he discovers that she has entered the room and proceeds to try to add her to his collection of corpses. The brave piano tuner is willing to stay with her even though he knows he will not be able to save her. She is saved at the last moment at the end of the story by her mother, who arrives and shoots the Marquis just as he is about to murder the girl.
The Courtship of Mr Lyon
(based on Beauty and the BeastBeauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast is a traditional fairy tale. The first published version of the fairy tale was a rendition by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, published in La jeune américaine, et les contes marins in 1740...
— the concept of the Beast as a lion-like figure is a popular one, most notably in the French film version of 1946
Beauty and the Beast (1946 film)
Beauty and the Beast is a 1946 French romantic fantasy film adaptation of the traditional fairy tale of the same name, written by Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont and published in 1757 as part of a fairy tale anthology . Directed by French poet and filmmaker Jean Cocteau, the film stars Josette...
)
Beauty's father, after experiencing car trouble, takes advantage of a stranger's hospitality. However, his benefactor — the Beast — takes umbrage when he steals a miraculous white rose for his beloved daughter. Beauty becomes the guest of the leonine
Lion
The lion is one of the four big cats in the genus Panthera, and a member of the family Felidae. With some males exceeding 250 kg in weight, it is the second-largest living cat after the tiger...
Beast, and the Beast aids her father in getting his fortune back. Beauty later joins her father in London, where she almost forgets the Beast, causing him to wither away from heartache. When Beauty learns that he is dying, she returns, saving him. Beauty and the Beast disclose their love for one another and the Beast's humanity is revealed. They live happily ever after.
The Tiger's Bride
(also based on Beauty and the BeastBeauty and the Beast
Beauty and the Beast is a traditional fairy tale. The first published version of the fairy tale was a rendition by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, published in La jeune américaine, et les contes marins in 1740...
)
A woman moves in with a mysterious, masked "Milord," the Beast, after her father loses her to him in a game of cards. Milord is eventually revealed to be a tiger. In a reversal of the ending of "The Courtship of Mr Lyon", the heroine transforms at the end into a glorious tiger who is the proper mate to the Beast, who will from now on be true to his own nature and not disguise himself as a human.
Puss-in-Boots
(based on Puss in BootsPuss in Boots
'Puss' is a character in the fairy tale "The Master Cat, or Puss in Boots" by Charles Perrault. The tale was published in 1697 in his Histoires ou Contes du temps passé...
)
Figaro, a cat, moves in with a rakish young man who lives a happily debauched life. They live a carefree existence, with the cat helping him to make money by cheating at cards, until the young man actually falls in love (to the cat's disgust) with a young woman kept in a tower by a miserly, older husband who treats her only as property. The cat, hoping his friend will tire of the woman if he has her, helps the young man into the bed of his sweetheart by playing tricks on the old husband and the young woman's keeper. Figaro himself finds love with the young woman's cat, and the two cats arrange the fortunes of both themselves and the young man and woman by arranging to trip the old man so that he will fall to his death.
Angela Carter had described Puss in Boots as “the Cat as Con Man... a masterpiece of cynicism... a Figaroesque valet — a servant so much the master already”.
The Erl-King
(an adaptation of the ErlkingErlking
The Erlking is depicted in a number of German poems and ballads as a malevolent creature who haunts forests and carries off travellers to their deaths. The name is an 18th-century mistranslation of the original Danish word elverkonge, "elf-king"...
in folklore; a sort of goblin or spirit of the woodlands)
A maiden wanders into the woods and is seduced by the sinister Erl-King, a seeming personification of the forest itself. However, she eventually realises that he plans to imprison her by turning her into a bird, which he has done with other girls. Realising the Erl-King's plan she murders him, thus keeping her freedom.
The Snow Child
(based on an obscure variant of Snow WhiteSnow White
"Snow White" is a fairy tale known from many countries in Europe, the best known version being the German one collected by the Brothers Grimm...
.)
A Count and Countess go riding in midwinter. The Count sees snow on the ground and wishes for a child "as white as snow". Similar wishes are made when the Count sees a hole in the snow containing a pool of blood, and a raven. As soon as he made his final wish a young woman of the exact description appears at the side of the road. The Count pays immediate attention to her, much to the chagrin of the Countess. At the Countess' command, the girl picks a rose but is pricked by a thorn and dies, after which the Count rapes her corpse
Necrophilia
Necrophilia, also called thanatophilia or necrolagnia, is the sexual attraction to corpses,It is classified as a paraphilia by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of the American Psychiatric Association. The word is artificially derived from the ancient Greek words: νεκρός and φιλία...
. After this, her cadaver melts into the snow, leaving nothing but a bloodstain on the snow, a black feather and the rose that she had picked.
The Lady of the House of Love
(based upon a radio play called "Vampirella")A virginal English soldier, traveling through Romania by bicycle, finds himself in a deserted village. He comes across a mansion inhabited by a vampiress who survives by enticing young men into her bedroom and feeding on them. She intends to feed on the young soldier but his purity and virginity have a curious effect on her. When they enter her bedroom she accidentally cuts herself and the soldier kisses it better. He wakes up to find her dead. He leaves to return to his battalion.
The Werewolf
(based on Little Red Riding HoodLittle Red Riding Hood
Little Red Riding Hood, also known as Little Red Cap, is a French fairy tale about a young girl and a Big Bad Wolf. The story has been changed considerably in its history and subject to numerous modern adaptations and readings....
)
A girl goes to visit her grandmother, but encounters a werewolf on the way, whose paw she cuts off with a knife. When she reaches her grandmother's house, the paw has turned into a hand with the grandmother's ring on it, and the grandmother is both delirious and missing her hand. This reveals the girl's grandmother as the werewolf, and she is stoned to death. The girl then inherits all of her grandmother's possessions.
The Company of Wolves
(closer adaptation of Little Red Riding HoodLittle Red Riding Hood
Little Red Riding Hood, also known as Little Red Cap, is a French fairy tale about a young girl and a Big Bad Wolf. The story has been changed considerably in its history and subject to numerous modern adaptations and readings....
)
A girl meets an apparently charming young man whilst wandering through the forest towards her grandmother's house. She arrives at her grandmother's home, unaware that the same young man has got there before her and killed her grandmother. The young man, who is really a wolf in disguise, instructs her to remove and burn her garments one by one as she makes remarks reminiscent of those in the classic fairy tale, such as "What big teeth you have!" When he replies, "All the better to eat you with," she laughs at him fearlessly. The story ends with "See! sweet and sound she sleeps in granny's bed, between the paws of the tender wolf."
Wolf-Alice
(based on an obscure variant of Little Red Riding Hood and with reference to Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found ThereThrough the Looking-Glass
Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There is a work of literature by Lewis Carroll . It is the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland...
, this tale explores the journey towards subjectivity
Subjectivity
Subjectivity refers to the subject and his or her perspective, feelings, beliefs, and desires. In philosophy, the term is usually contrasted with objectivity.-Qualia:...
and self-awareness
Self-awareness
Self-awareness is the capacity for introspection and the ability to reconcile oneself as an individual separate from the environment and other individuals...
from the perspective of a feral child
Feral child
A feral child is a human child who has lived isolated from human contact from a very young age, and has no experience of human care, loving or social behavior, and, crucially, of human language...
)
A feral child, whom some nuns have attempted to civilize, is left in the house of a monstrous, vampiric Duke where she does not develop the appropriate social graces. She gradually comes to realise her own identity as a young woman and even displays compassion for the Duke.
Publication history
The Bloody Chamber was first published in 1979, though many of the stories within the collection are reprints from other sources, such as magazineMagazine
Magazines, periodicals, glossies or serials are publications, generally published on a regular schedule, containing a variety of articles. They are generally financed by advertising, by a purchase price, by pre-paid magazine subscriptions, or all three...
s, radio
Radio programming
Radio programming is the Broadcast programming of a Radio format or content that is organized for Commercial broadcasting and Public broadcasting radio stations....
and other collections. Only two are completely original to this collection, though many were revised or changed slightly from their previously published versions for this collection.
The stories' various origins are listed below
- "The Bloody Chamber" made its début in The Bloody Chamber.
- "The Courtship of Mr Lyon" originally appeared in the British version of Vogue magazineVogue (magazine)Vogue is a fashion and lifestyle magazine that is published monthly in 18 national and one regional edition by Condé Nast.-History:In 1892 Arthur Turnure founded Vogue as a weekly publication in the United States. When he died in 1909, Condé Montrose Nast picked up the magazine and slowly began...
. It was revised for this collection. - "The Tiger's Bride" made its début in The Bloody Chamber.
- "Puss-in-Boots" also appeared in the 1979 anthology The Straw and the Gold, edited by Emma TennantEmma TennantEmma Christina Tennant FRSL is a British novelist and editor. She is known for a postmodern approach to her fiction, which is often imbued with fantasy or magic. Several of her novels give a feminist or dreamlike twist to classic stories, such as Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr....
. - "The Erl-King" originally appeared in Bananas. It was revised for this collection.
- "The Snow Child" was originally broadcast on the BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4BBC Radio 4 is a British domestic radio station, operated and owned by the BBC, that broadcasts a wide variety of spoken-word programmes, including news, drama, comedy, science and history. It replaced the BBC Home Service in 1967. The station controller is currently Gwyneth Williams, and the...
programme Not Now, I'm Listening. It was revised for this collection. - "The Lady of the House of Love" originally appeared in print in The Iowa ReviewThe Iowa ReviewThe Iowa Review is an American literary magazine that publishes fiction, poetry, essays, and reviews.Founded in 1970, this magazine is issued three times a year, during the months of April, August, and December. Originally, it was released on a quarterly basis. This frequency of publication lasted...
. However, it was originally written as a radio playRadio dramaRadio drama is a dramatized, purely acoustic performance, broadcast on radio or published on audio media, such as tape or CD. With no visual component, radio drama depends on dialogue, music and sound effects to help the listener imagine the characters and story...
entitled Vampirella which was broadcast on BBC Radio 3BBC Radio 3BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on classical music and opera, but jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also feature. The station is the world’s most significant commissioner of new music, and its New Generation...
in 19761976 in radioThe year 1976 saw a number of significant events in radio broadcasting.-Events:*September - Fairchild Industries sells WYOO-FM and AM in Minneapolis, Minnesota...
. The story was revised from the previous printed version for this collection. - "The Werewolf" originally appeared in South-West Arts Review. It was revised for this collection.
- "The Company of Wolves" originally appeared in Bananas. It was revised for this collection.
- "Wolf-Alice" originally appeared in Stand. It was revised for this collection.
Style and themes
Angela CarterAngela Carter
Angela Carter was an English novelist and journalist, known for her feminist, magical realism, and picaresque works...
's short stories challenge the way women are represented in fairy tales, yet retain an air of tradition and convention through her voluptuously descriptive prose. For example, in the opening tale "The Bloody Chamber" which is a retelling of Bluebeard
Bluebeard
"Bluebeard" is a French literary folktale written by Charles Perrault and is one of eight tales by the author first published by Barbin in Paris in January 1697 in Histoires ou Contes du temps passé. The tale tells the story of a violent nobleman in the habit of murdering his wives and the...
, Carter plays with the conventions of canonical fairy tales; instead of the heroine being rescued by the stereotypical male hero, she is rescued by her mother.
Carter
Angela Carter
Angela Carter was an English novelist and journalist, known for her feminist, magical realism, and picaresque works...
effectively draws out the theme of feminism by contrasting traditional elements of Gothic fiction
Gothic fiction
Gothic fiction, sometimes referred to as Gothic horror, is a genre or mode of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. Gothicism's origin is attributed to English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto, subtitled "A Gothic Story"...
- which usually depicted female characters as weak and helpless - with strong female protagonists. By contrasting the barren and horrific atmosphere found typically within the Gothic to the strong heroines of her story, Carter is able to create sexually liberated female characters that are set against the more traditional backdrop of the fairy tale. In doing so, Carter reinvents the outdated fairy tales and offers insight on the archetypes and stereotypes of women in these well-known and celebrated stories.
The stories deal with themes of women's roles in relationships and marriage, their sexuality, coming of age and corruption. Stories such as "The Bloody Chamber" and "The Company of Wolves" explicitly deal with the horrific or corrupting aspects of marriage and/or sex and the balance of power within such relationships. Themes of female identity are explored in the "Beauty and the Beast" stories such as "The Tiger's Bride". In one instance, Beauty: the story's heroine, is described as removing the petals from a white rose as her father gambles her away, a seeming representation of the stripping away of the false layers of her personality to find her true identity; an image that finds a mirror in the story's fantastical conclusion.
As a whole, The Bloody Chamber can be treated as a collection of short stories that speak to a bigger narrative that deals with issues of feminism and metamorphosis instead a set of individual tales. Although each particular narrative deals with a different set of characters, the 'oppressed female seeking liberation' is a common theme and concept that is explored throughout the collection. The characters seem to blend into each other and become indistinguishable from one another when recognizing this theme in the text.
The stories are updated to more modern settings. The exact time periods remains vague, but they are clearly anchored intentionally. For example, in "The Bloody Chamber" the existence of transatlantic telephone
Timeline of the telephone
Below is a timeline of the telephone that covers many important dates in the history of the telephone.- 1844 to 1875 :* 1844: Innocenzo Manzetti first mooted the idea of a “speaking telegraph” ....
implies a date 1930 or later. On the other hand, the mention of painters such as Gustave Moreau
Gustave Moreau
Gustave Moreau was a French Symbolist painter whose main emphasis was the illustration of biblical and mythological figures. As a painter of literary ideas, Moreau appealed to the imaginations of some Symbolist writers and artists.- Biography :Moreau was born in Paris. His father, Louis Jean Marie...
and Odilon Redon
Odilon Redon
Bertrand-Jean Redon, better known as Odilon Redon was a French symbolist painter, printmaker, draughtsman and pastellist.-Life:...
, and of fashion designer Paul Poiret
Paul Poiret
Paul Poiret was a French fashion designer. His contributions to twentieth-century fashion have been likened to Picasso's contributions to twentieth-century art.-Early life and career:...
(who designs one of the heroine's gowns) all suggest a date before 1945. "The Lady of the House of Love" is clearly set on the eve of the First World War, and the young man's bicycle on which he arrives at the tradition-bound vampire's house is a symbol of the encroaching modernity which fundamentally altered European society after 1914.
Critical reception
The Bloody Chamber has received heavy praise and attention from numerous critics such as Jack ZipesJack Zipes
Jack David Zipes is an American retired Professor of German at the University of Minnesota, who has published and lectured on the subject of fairy tales, their evolution, and their social and political role in civilizing processes...
(who called it a "remarkable collection") and Marina Warner (who, on its inspirational nature, said it "turned the key for [her] as a writer").
Several critical works have been published that focus on Carter's use of fairy tales in The Bloody Chamber and her other works and the anthology is also frequently taught and studied in University literature courses.
It has been used as part of the AQA
AQA
AQA could refer to or stand for:* aqa, the ISO 639-5 for the unspecified Alacalufan languages* Any Question Answered – an SMS message service providing the answer to any question, based in London, United Kingdom....
English Literature
English literature
English literature is the literature written in the English language, including literature composed in English by writers not necessarily from England; for example, Robert Burns was Scottish, James Joyce was Irish, Joseph Conrad was Polish, Dylan Thomas was Welsh, Edgar Allan Poe was American, J....
and Edexcel English Language/Literature syllabus for A-Levels in some schools in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
.
Radio
Carter later adapted "The Company of Wolves" and "Puss-in-Boots" into radio plays which were broadcast on BBC Radio 3BBC Radio 3
BBC Radio 3 is a national radio station operated by the BBC within the United Kingdom. Its output centres on classical music and opera, but jazz, world music, drama, culture and the arts also feature. The station is the world’s most significant commissioner of new music, and its New Generation...
in 1980
1980 in radio
The year 1980 in radio involved some significant events.-Events:* 20 March - The pirate radio station Radio Caroline sinks.* 29 October - President Carter on a visit to Pittsburgh gives a nationally broadcast campaign interview to KDKA-AM of that city....
and 1982
1982 in radio
The year 1982 in radio involved some significant events.-Events:*23 July - KDKA-AM in Pittsburgh, becomes the first AM station to broadcast in Stereo sound....
respectively. The 1982 adaptation of "Puss in Boots" (as it was retitled) starred Andrew Sachs
Andrew Sachs
Andrew Sachs is a German-born British actor. He made his name on British television and is best known for his portrayals of Manuel in Fawlty Towers, a role for which he was BAFTA-nominated, and Ramsay Clegg in Coronation Street.-Early life:Sachs was born in Berlin, Germany, the son of Katharina , a...
in the title role. The scripts for both of these plays were published in Carter's Come Unto These Yellow Sands and later the posthumous collection The Curious Room
The Curious Room
The mysterious Chiken Buckt is a book collecting various plays and scripts by Angela Carter. Its full title is The Curious Room: Plays, Film Scripts and an Opera....
, which also included production notes.
Film
The 19841984 in film
-Events:* The Walt Disney Company founds Touchstone Pictures to release movies with subject matter deemed inappropriate for the Disney name.* Tri-Star Pictures, a joint venture of Columbia Pictures, HBO, and CBS, releases its first film....
film The Company of Wolves
The Company of Wolves
The Company of Wolves is a 1984 gothic fantasy-horror film directed by Neil Jordan, and starring Sarah Patterson and Angela Lansbury.The film is based on the werewolf story of the same name in Angela Carter's short story collection The Bloody Chamber...
by Neil Jordan
Neil Jordan
Neil Patrick Jordan is an Irish filmmaker and novelist. He won an Academy Award for The Crying Game.- Early life :...
was based upon the werewolf stories in this collection, in particular the Little Red Riding Hood analogue "The Company of Wolves". Carter also directly contributed to the screenplay of this film, which bears close resemblance to her 1980 radio play adaptation of "The Company of Wolves." Carter's original screenplay for this film is published in The Curious Room
The Curious Room
The mysterious Chiken Buckt is a book collecting various plays and scripts by Angela Carter. Its full title is The Curious Room: Plays, Film Scripts and an Opera....
. Jordan and Carter also discussed producing a film adaptation of "Vampirella", the radio drama that became "The Lady of the House of Love", but this project was never realised.
Music video
PunkPunk rock
Punk rock is a rock music genre that developed between 1974 and 1976 in the United States, the United Kingdom, and Australia. Rooted in garage rock and other forms of what is now known as protopunk music, punk rock bands eschewed perceived excesses of mainstream 1970s rock...
band Daisy Chainsaw
Daisy Chainsaw
Daisy Chainsaw was an English alternative rock band, active between 1989 and 1995. It originally featured KatieJane Garside as lead vocalist and lyricist on the band's early EPs and debut album, Eleventeen , before her departure in 1993...
adapted the story of "The Lady of the House of Love" for their 1992
1992 in music
This is a list of notable events in music that took place in the year 1992.-January–February:*January 11**Nirvana's Nevermind album goes to #1 in the US Billboard 200 chart, establishing the widespread popularity of the Grunge movement of the 1990s....
music video
Music video
A music video or song video is a short film integrating a song and imagery, produced for promotional or artistic purposes. Modern music videos are primarily made and used as a marketing device intended to promote the sale of music recordings...
for "Hope Your Dreams Come True" (from the EP
Extended play
An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...
of the same name and also later the album
Album
An album is a collection of recordings, released as a single package on gramophone record, cassette, compact disc, or via digital distribution. The word derives from the Latin word for list .Vinyl LP records have two sides, each comprising one half of the album...
Eleventeen
Eleventeen (Daisy Chainsaw album)
Eleventeen was the only full album recorded by UK band Daisy Chainsaw featuring Katie Jane Garside as lead vocalist.-Track listing:#"I Feel Insane" – 2:41#"You Be My Friend" – 2:52#"Dog With Sharper Teeth" – 3:05#"Hope Your Dreams Come True" – 4:46...
).
Theatre
The stories within The Bloody Chamber are a popular subject for theatrical adaptation. The story "The Bloody Chamber" has been adapted for the theatre more than once, including a performance by the "Zoo District" which was accompanied by an amateur filmAmateur film
Amateur Film is the low-budget hobbyist art of film practiced for passion and enjoyment and not for business purposes.-Organizations:The international organization for amateur film makers is UNICA ; in the United States the American Motion Picture Society , in Canada the Society of Canadian Cine...
adaptation of "Wolf-Alice". "The Company of Wolves" is also a popular subject for adaptation by amateur/student theatre groups (e.g. by a Welsh drama college).
External links
- The Bloody Chamber reviewed at Guardian Unlimited Books
- The Bloody Chamber reviewed at 'Pretty-Scary'
- Information on the contents of a special edition of "Marvels & Tales: Journal of Fairy-Tale Studies"
- The Bloody Chamber contents list ('95 edition) and the sources for the stories
- Full text of The Bloody Chamber