Abstract

Angela Carter – The Bloody Chamber – some of the short stories

Agression and opression – The fusion of fairy tales and strong social criticism

The short stories of Angela Carter in The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories are perhaps
most frequently being referred to as a feminist re-writing of fairy tales.1 Carter creates a
fusion of traditional fairy tale motives and a rather radical feminist opinion, builds up fictional
words based on patriarchal cultural stereotypes and generates great tension from conflicting
ideas.2 Some critics argue (I ll find who) that Carter by adopting this conservative and binary
world provided by the fairy tales is already a restriction for expanding any feminist ideas,
however others claim her using the ”traditional” framework of a tale is intentionally ironic. 3
Thesis – Angela Carter succeeds in presenting feminist ideologies even through the scheme of
the traditional fairy tales that provide a binary patriarchal world. Illustrating the argument in
extracts from short stories, such as the Blood Chamber
– something like this but I am not sure yet. I want to focus on the aspect of violence and
ownership over women in the short stories, to support my arguments, but I really haven’t
figured it all out yet.

More stories make it more advanced and professional

• Angela Carter achieves to create an outstanding piece of her artwork, by revisiting the
well-known fairy tales, whilst expressing important feminist ideas. In the critical
discourse (ref), there are some opposing views, on wether Carter succeeds in writing
short stories focusing on feminist ideas, while keeping the patrciarchal system,
tradition in the fairy tale structure.

1 https://www.jstor.org/stable/1395125?searchText=angela+carter+the+bloody+chamber&searchUri=
%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dangela%2Bcarter%2Bthe%2Bbloody%2Bchamber%2B%26so
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%3A2d398ccfecd01e66ce020043824947ed&seq=2 page3
2 https://www.jstor.org/stable/1395125?searchText=angela+carter+the+bloody+chamber&searchUri=
%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dangela%2Bcarter%2Bthe%2Bbloody%2Bchamber%2B%26so
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%3A2d398ccfecd01e66ce020043824947ed&seq=2
3 https://www.jstor.org/stable/1395125?searchText=angela+carter+the+bloody+chamber&searchUri=
%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dangela%2Bcarter%2Bthe%2Bbloody%2Bchamber%2B%26so
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%3A2d398ccfecd01e66ce020043824947ed&seq=2 idk which page
Angela Carter – The Stories of the Bloody Chamber

Abstract
Intro – thesis
1 The Bloody Chamber
2 The Earl King
3 The Tigers Bride
Conclusion

The short stories of Angela Carter in The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories are
perhaps most frequently being referred to as a feminist re-writing of fairy tales. However,
critics also noted an opposing opinion, stating that Carter, by keeping the traditional folk/
fairy tale motives, supports the narrative of a patriarchal world, and never really achieves to
be considered as an important piece of feminist literature. This essay intends to illustrate that
The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories provide a traditional binary patriarchal world as the
elemental enviroment, nevertheless, they succeed to communicate feminist ideas through the
narrative of the protagonist women, which is constantly evolving from a rather conformist
starting point to the realization of systematic oppression of women.

The Bloody Chamber

This is the very first story in the collection of the Bloody Chamber, the origins of the fairy tale
can be recognized in the French folk-tale, Bluebeard. The events of the storyline follow a
young girl, who tells about her experience of marrying a mysterious, wealthy, older powerful
man, as an autodigetic narrator. Her narrative clearly mirrors the expectations the patriarchal
society has towards women. 'Are you sure you love him?' 'I'm sure I want to marry him,' I said. – is
one of the first instances of explicitly stating, that the main point of getting married is not love, but
rather the secure path a woman can choose in life. The narrator describes herself multiple times as
pure, or childlike, supporting this symbolistic visionary with her husband requiring her to wear white
clothes, and by pondering over the concept of virginity and also in the description of the first night of
their marriage. To understand why does the way this young girl talks about her own body, and
sexuality, it is best to introduce a widely known feminist expression, the male gaze. 4 The male gaze,
4 https://www.jstor.org/stable/2928465?searchText=the+male+gaze&searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch
%3FQuery%3Dthe%2Bmale%2Bgaze%26so
is supposed to contain all the attributes that in the mainstream media are excepted and supported as
the requirements of being a woman. (some quote prob from the text, saying that those attributes are
again, thin, childlike, white, submissive, obeying etc)

The submissive nature of the narrator turns radically

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