The Bloody Chamber By Angela Carter By Abby Hayes

Key Facts About The Book Written in 1967-1978 and published in 1979 Set in a fairy-tale version of Europe Literary period: Contemporary British Literature, Feminist Fiction Genre is gothic fiction, magical realism short story sequence. The full title is The Bloody Chamber and Other Tales Point Of View: First, second and third person varied throughout the stories.

Context In the late Sixties and early Seventies, it wasn’t enough to rebel, and young writers and artists were dreaming of reshaping the world in the image of their desires. Based on the legend of Bluebeard. Carter preserves the legend's plot, casting the Marquis in the role of Bluebeard, who kills his wives and stores their corpses in a secret chamber. Like Bluebeard, the Marquise entices each new wife to explore the forbidden chamber and then kills her once she has discovered his secret. The stories of The Bloody Chamber take place in a vague, mythical past, but at the same time some are linked to concrete historical events of the 20th century and all have a “modern” tone. “The Lady of the House of Love” references World War I, and takes place in a more “innocent” Europe before the war begins. Carter’s writings have been seen as part of the feminist movement in Britain, as she subverts the ancient fairy tales to give her female protagonists more agency and sympathy

Plot In “The Bloody Chamber” the heroine, a young pianist, marries a rich Marquis who had three earlier wives. The heroine moves to the Marquis’ castle, where she loses her virginity and finds a collection of sadistic pornography. The Marquis then gets a business call and leaves, entrusting his keys to the heroine and only forbidding her from one room. He leaves and the heroine uses the forbidden key, which leads to a torture chamber containing the bodies of the Marquis’ three previous wives. The heroine tells a young piano tuner what she saw and then the Marquis returns. The Marquis learns what the heroine did and prepares to behead her. Just as he swings his sword the heroine’s mother appears and shoots the Marquis. The heroine inherits the Marquis’ fortune and she, her mother, and the piano tuner live happily together.

Quotes And Reviews Quote from Angela Carter“affect men much more than women” Quote from Judy Berman who wrote an article for Flavorwire on the 29th of May 2015, titled In the era of the Easy Feminist Fairy-Tale Remix, Angela Carter’s ‘The Bloody Chamber’ Is More Vital Than Ever. “She can’t help but speak volumes about the social expectations and psychological pressures that govern women, men, and the interactions between the genders.” News article from The Scotsman, titled Marina Warner on why Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber still bites. She says that, “it directly inspired by Charles Perrault’s fairy tales of 1697: his “Barbebleue” shapes Angela Carter’s retelling, as she lingers voluptuously on its sexual inferences, and springs a happy surprise in a masterly comic twist on the traditional happy ending”

Links To A Doll’s House The Bloody Chamber links with A Doll’s House because of the ways that one of the female character in The Bloody Chamber is completely objectified and controlled by her husband. Just like the characters Nora and Torvald in A Doll’s House. Also both of the female characters in the books start of as a weak individual and end up as stronger and more independent women the more that the stories develop.