‘In original Gothic, women were
often presented as trembling victims pursued by predatory males. How far is
this true of the first narrative in Angela Carter’s collection, ‘The Bloody
Chamber’?
The purpose of the Gothic
genre is often questioned and is something I find hard to define, many proclaim
that Gothic Literature was created in European and now Western (to a degree
world-wide) culture to question the basis of established certainty and
acceptance of human personality; evolving around scientific theory and
religious beliefs. Others have argued the Gothic genre was to bring to the
centre what has been marginalised for centuries; women in ‘patriarchal’
society. Does the Bloody Chamber continue
this tradition of side-lining women by characterising them around anxiety or
does she establish new-found characters and female winners of the gothic?
In The Bloody Chamber, it can easily be
argued that women are presented as 'trembling victims' at the mercy of
'predatory males'. This can be seen through the presentation of the characters:
The girl and the Marquis are both characterised by traditional gothic
conventions such as the weak willed and naïve female an example of
this being Mina from the novel Dracula as well as the controlling,
powerful male established in such novels as Wuthering Heights, with Heathcliff.
However this is easily challenged by Carters’ unique arrangement and paradoxes posed
by her characters, as a suggestion of Carter’s aim to perhaps challenge
the conventions set by original gothic literature.
The narrator/girl of the Bloody Chamber can
be seen to be a 'trembling victim' in her her young age and her simple naivety;
she refers to her own life before marriage as 'innocent and confined,'
suggesting the minute experience of the world outside her bubble with her
mother, adding to her childish innocence and yet untouched purity it seems she is the perfect prey to the Marquis as a predator who wishes to
tarnish her purity. This is strengthened by the quote, 'I was seventeen
and knew nothing of the world,' signifying one of her weaknesses; a lacking
awareness or ignorance directly provides the opportunity for her be taken
advantage of. Carter also describes her as "shuddering like a horse
before the race, yet also with a kind of fear”, demonstrating the dread this
victimisation has retrained her to one may argue.
The physical characteristics of the girl
provide another contribution to the description of a 'trembling victim,' the
archetypal feminine gothic attributes such as her strong body and 'young girls
pointed breasts,' link strongly to fragility and weakness. She is described as
'the frail child,' within her dress and this fashions her as a physically and
mentally inferior woman with readers often regarding her as immature and
childless, thus easy to exert power and dominance over.
The female protagonist similar to those in
the original gothic classics is displayed through being a possession of the
Marquis as a wife rather than being his sweetheart. This is exemplified with
the wedding gift he bestows her; 'a choker of rubies’, ‘that 'clasped around my
throat,' symbolising her fate, but also the Marquis’ ownership and control over
her, bearing that similarity to keeping a pet on its leash. It's perhaps at
that point where she understands that to live she must manipulate her husband
through the use of her body, due to the patriarchal system, as she is bound to
him and to the tie of marriage. The narrator
states the servant smiled when he saw the choker as it provided him with proof
that 'I was his masters,’ adding to this over-blossoming theme of ownership to
her husband and she is at the mercy of his movement and
decisions, contributing to her portrayal as a 'trembling victim.'
It’s apparent the narrator feels trapped
and victimised by her new marriage, evident in the description of the ‘sharp
premonition of dread,' she feels at some of the Marquis advances, she claims
for herself to 'always be lonely,' feeling exiled from the world she knew and
what surrounds her now, shown by the quotation 'into marriage, into
exile,' implying the entrapment and lack of choice. She must learn to deal with the Marquis’ ways
alone; a key theme linked to female victimisation in original gothic tales as
it signifies the lack of choice for assistance to aid her in her dangers. The
dread she feels at the Marquis is indicative of the inadequate power she has to
halt his desires, and also illustrates she doesn’t want his desires forced upon
her, as a victim of the Marquis.
Carter can also be seen as alternatively
writing to oppose the conventions of original gothic literature and has
depicted her female protagonist in this story as an antithesis to a 'trembling
victim,’ a knowledgeable and developmental character. This is shown by the
acquisition of information through the chamber intentionally hidden from her,
'I took the forbidden key,’ her growing defiance towards the demands of her
husbands and indicates the recognition of disobeying her husband and the choice
she makes. However arguably the Marquis never denied her the opportunity to
recognise what goes on behind closed doors so to speak, but attempts to deviate
her away from the discovery of the bloody chamber. However the fashion in which
the Marquis’ allows her to uncover the route of his evil is perhaps predatory
as he building up her execution, constructing fear into the narrator’s mind before
he strikes.
Towards the end of the story, the narrator
seems to have gained strength and control over her own situation perhaps due to
her 'tainted innocence', and she now differs greatly from her earlier
personality of the 'trembling victim.' Phrases like, 'fear gave me strength,'
and 'I flung back my head defiantly,' demonstrates her newfound strength and
bravery, which seemingly appears after the loss of her virginity, symbolising
perhaps a rebirth of wisdom as she is no longer so ignorant about the world of
marriage and men. Due to this she is no longer represented as the 'trembling
victim' and therefore can be said to contrast with the typical constraints of
the original gothic.
The narrator can also be seen as more of a seductress
rather than a 'trembling victim,' challenging the classic modelled perspective
of women. After the narrator has seen the "bloody chamber" filled
with the Marquis dead wives, who are ornamented in a passive, grotesque and
perverse manner, she learns the Marquis has returned home and she knows that to
stay alive she must force herself ”to be seductive" otherwise she will end
up in a similar situation to his previous wives. When the Marquis returns and she
is aware of the danger she’s in, she states that 'I forced myself to be
seductive,' indicating she now comprehends his feelings of desire and is
aware she needs to attempt to manipulate him and handle his desires, by acting
in a sexual fashion. It's perhaps at that point where she understands that to
live she must manipulate her husband through the use of her body, due to the
patriarchal system, as she is bound to him and to the tie of marriage. However
in contrast to this sexual behaviour in this story is not always domineered by
the seductress and the Marquis is described "as if he were stripping the
leaves off an Artichoke."
She then goes on to state that 'he almost
failed to resist me,’. She shows violent traits when she states, 'if
he had come to bed, I would have strangled him,' showing her obvious
'potentiality for corruption,' that she had sensed earlier on in the story.
This could contribute to the argument that she is more of a seductress than a
'trembling victim' as her intended actions are more similar to the
common 'femme fatales' seen in original gothic.
A final point that argues women are not
presented as 'trembling victims' within The Bloody Chamber is the presentation
of the mother figure. She is described as 'eagle featured, indomitable Mother,'
who had once before 'shot a man eating tiger with her own hand and still
carrying round her dead husband's "antique service revolver" in
"her reticule.” The mother is also the figure who defeats the main
predator and antagonist of 'the bloody chamber' the Marquis. Unlike the typical
original Gothic female like, Mina, the Narrator's mother is not in a state of
inaction, but action in saving her daughter and "put a single
irreproachable bullet through my husband’s head." Carter could be using
this character as a way of showing that women need not be the typical role that
they're portrayed in the original Gothic and instead they can take an active
role and similarly to this case it defeats the antagonist, who can be seen as
either a symbol of the patriarchy or as a symbol of the struggle between the
domineering classes and the struggling. She is recognised by the narrator and
thus the readership as a warrior like figure of immense strength and bravery as
she comes to her daughters rescue and kills the Marquis, which is contradictory
not only to the original Bluebeard tale, (where the damsel is saved by her
gang of heroic brothers) but also to the generic gothic forms
which depict women as powerless and simple-minded.
Carter also presents the Marquis
as an almost literal predator describing him as having leonine features, for
example the “dark leonine shape of his head" and "as if all his shoes
had soles of velvet." He seems to have 'hunted' down our Narrator, as it
begs the question why would a member of the Aristocracy marry a poor widower’s
daughter particularly after having just killed his previous wife who was a
"Romanian countess.” He is also shown in the light of a predator by how he
teases and tempts the Narrator with the ring of keys, specifically in how he
tells her not to use "the lock this single key fits" and that the
room is "at the foot of the west tower, behind the still-room",
instead of removing the key, he decides to leave it and prompt temptation.
The
Narrator also gains control over the Marquis's funds as well as Jean-Yves, this
is seen by some as Carter suggesting that women should get just as much power
of some men, as men seem to have over women in classical Gothic. It is also
arguable that Carter does not present all men as 'predatory' as which is often
done in traditional gothic literature.
Being
with Jean-Yves the blind piano-tuner, symbolically demonstrates the
unthreatening nature of men that frequently goes underplayed in the gothic,
he's forced to completely rely on the Narrator. He seems to be more naive and
innocent than the female narrator. He's also described as "he looked far
more terrified of me, than my Mother's daughter would have been of the Devil
himself", he's said to have "blind humanity." Some think Carter
does this to counter society bias towards male domination, patriarchy, so she
created a male character that is forced to rely on a female character to
survive.
To conclude whilst Carter does have elements of the
original Gothic in how she presents women as 'trembling women' and men as
'predatory, it is true though that Carter does not always follow such
settlements in 'the bloody chamber', changing and subverting the original
Gothic style, to show influences and biases inherent within society.
Although the Gothic genre typically uses stock characters based on cultural constructions, Cater disregards this Gothic structure towards the end of the narrative by deconstructing the stock character enabling her to exploit her own literary purpose as a post-modern feminist writer. This is shown through the use of the narrator’s mother becoming the "avenging angel" as she liberates herself from the conventional gender role to a female predator that hunts and kills the Marquis, "without a moment's hesitation". Originally in 'Blue Beard' (the fairy-tale the narrative is based upon) it is her brother, a male who saves the damsel in distress, but Carter may have used the mother for two purposes: the first could be to expose the uncomfortable truth of how we have been conditioned to think through the use of fairy tales from a young age, a view supported by BettleHeime, or to challenge the hegemonic ideology that has entrapped women and men in certain roles and duties within society. By making the normal marginalised and making what was marginalised normal, she is able to exploit what we know and challenge our way of thinking, making us question what we know. But a problem with 'marginalising' the centre of our 'normal values' and making the marginalised become a normal value, is that the marginalised will always become central if literary Gothic writers keep using this technique to try to shock the readers, this means that it won' have the effect on readers that it would have originally had in such culturally grounded times as the Victorian Era where readers were not so desensitised as readers today.
Good
Section from other student Elizabeth Ward:
“The Marquis revels in their suffering as he performs his ritual on the women "branding" their forehead with the "mark of Cain” It could be said that the Marquis may perform this act to mentally torture the women, to make them fear and anticipate their oncoming death which makes them subordinate. But it may also be performed to show his addiction to the feeling of dominance and power over women- by performing the same act as God he is userping the power from a feared religious figure and making himself at the same status quo. This could be Carter making a mockery of religion which capitalism is structured from, as a Marxist would believe man has used religion to force women in obedient and dominated gender roles. Or to create the imagery of a formal finality of their death, resulting in a lack of hope as they believe in the illusion that they cannot defy the power of a God”.
Throughout the narration there was an ambiguity about what happened to his wives, and Carter structurally builds the tension by increasing the prominence of the Marquis 'sick', 'twisted' and 'psychopathic traits' to the reach the climax of discovering the dead bodies of his wives ornamented in his torture chamber. The women were "strung up", "disembodied" and "denuded of flesh" highlighting how even in death the women were still his possessions, still his prey. This shows how the Marquis is a predatory male who pursues the trembling victims, but Carter takes this stock character further by showing what he enjoys doing after the persuit- stripping away any form of power they may have had and displaying them perversly in a seductive manner.
Jean-Yves displays what would be
classed as a stereotypically feminine trait- for example he is sensitive and
his "tender look" makes the narrator feel "faint". This is
Carter once again deconstructing the stock character to enable her to
challenge the dominant ideology that men should be strong and women should be
weak. A Marxist may raise the point that Jean-Yves is presented weaker than the
Marquis due to his lower class status, this could be due to Capitalism which is
a system that structurally keeps the upper and lower classes separate and
gender roles enforced which are taken originally from Religion (e.g women
cannot be priests).
Carter manipulates
the Gothic form in order to achieve a feminist perspective on a formally
patriarchal fairy-tale which is embodied in the narrators mother, the
"avenging angel" and the "lovely blind humanity" of the
piano tuner. Which, in conclusion, shows that this narrative does not wholly
present the stock characters that are used in original Gothic genre.
