The Lady of the House of Love- Critical Extract

'In Gothic fiction, Angela Carter wrote in 1974, 'characters and events are exaggerated beyond reality, to become symbols, ideas, passions...style will tend to become ornate and unnatural- and thus operate against the perennial human desire (especially to Britain) to believe the word as fact...(the Gothic) retains a singular moral function- that of provoking unease.' 
Christopher Frayling, 'Introduction', in Gothic Reader- A Critical Anthology

This extract furthers our interpretation that Carter has created her characters to shock and cause the reader unease by giving her characters extreme mannerisms to make the reader feel uncomfortable. After all, the Gothic is an exploration of the supernatural, the unnatural, something that the reader is not comfortable with because it is the unknown. The reader also feels uncomfortable when they realise that the characters and events are an embodiment of a bigger debate, such as feminism.

Carter argues the Gothic deliberately portrays something unnatural, to 'operate against' the human desire to believe everything we read. This means that we can questions the fairy tales that we were told as children, linking to Bruno Bettelheim's 'Fairy Tales and The Existential Predicament'.

Carter's portrayal of a young girl stuck in the role of a vampire 'provokes unease' in the reader, as we sympathise with 'the maiden', an unnaturally beautiful young girl, cursed by her family's heritage, forced into a role which isolates her from the rest of society.

In what ways is this a Gothic tale?

Angela Carter's 'The Tiger's Bride' is a subverted version of 'Beauty and the Beast' and it includes many different gothic elements. For example the description of the setting in the story includes gothic language, 'how starveling, how bereft the dead season of this spurious Eden in which all the fruit was blighted by cold'. When the girl is heading towards the Beast's 'palazzo', Carter has described the journey and the surroundings as being bereft, the 'Eden' is a religious allegory that is described as being false, this therefore could create a sense of fear in the girl because the setting is not comforting.
When the girl is inside that Beast's 'palazzo' she sees 'suites of vaulted chambers', the place is in no way inviting.

Another Gothic element that Carter has used in The Tiger's Bride is the supernatural. The beast, for instance, 'wears a mask with a man's face painted' on it. This shows that the beast is not human and he has tried to create a way to compensate for that by wearing a mask that covers his face. In addition to this, the supernatural is portrayed when the Servant to the Beast tells the girl that 'nothing human lives here', implying that the Beast is not human and that he himself may not be human as well.

Carter blurs the role of humans and animals. The Beast is seen as having human characteristics, such as the ability to speak, and understand what other humans are saying to him, yet his actual body is a tiger. This is also shown again in the line 'the Beast had given his horses the use of the dining room'. When the girl walks into the 'palazzo' this is what she sees and it is incongruous because under normal circumstances horses would be kept outside because they are animals but because the lines between human and animal have been blurred this can be viewed as normal.

The Gothic element of class is also explored by Carter in The Tiger's Bride, the girl adresses the Beast as 'Master' or 'milord'. This shows that even though she is there against her will she is still speaking to him with respect.

Carter includes the Gothic elements of fear and horror in The Tiger's Bride, such as the fear that is created in the girl's father when he realises that he is going to lose his daughter to the Beast. However, her father grief can be seen as insincere and he only wants to gain the girls forgiveness so he can soothe his guilty conscience, 'My tear-beslobbered father wants a rose to show that I forgive him. In the same sentence Carter is able to create some horror in the story because as the girl gives her father the rose, 'I prick my finger and so he gets his rose all smeared with blood'. The pure, white rose has been tainted with her blood.

The Erl King is the most innovative and experimental

“The Erl King’ is the most innovative and experimental of the narratives.’ How far does this quotation support the statement? 
‘The woods enclose and then enclose again, like a system of Chinese boxes opening one into another; the intimate perspectives of the wood changed endlessly around the interloper, the imaginary traveller walking towards an invented distance that perpetually receded before me. It is easy to lose yourself in these woods.’

The Erl King can be described as the most innovative and experimental of the narratives in The Bloody Chamber, and this is supported by the quotation because the narrative perspective in The Erl King is the most unusual out of all the stories in The Bloody Chamber. The narrative perspective changes so quickly that Carter has created a sense of confusion within the reader. 1st, 2nd and 3rd person are all used, this is a contrast to the other stories in The Bloody Chamber, for example The Bloody Chamber is written fully in third person without a change in the narrative perspective. This shows Carter's experimentation with different aspects of narrative.

The Erl King can also be described as innovative because Carter has incorporated many different intertextual references but has created her own story around them. The fairy tale that The Erl King is based on is Little Red Riding Hood. The Erl King himself is supposed to embody the wolf in the fairy tale and the girl is supposed to be Red Riding Hood, however at the end of the story Carter uses a twist that portrays her views as feminist, the girl does not become the 'victim', she kills the Erl King instead, going against the original story therefore creating a new one. Other intertextual references in The Erl King are drawn from old German poems and ballads, where the main character was a malevolent creature who haunts forests and carries off travellers to their deaths. However, Carter's use of intertextual references could be seen as unoriginal and not innovative because she has not created her own ideas

Another way in whichThe Erl King can be seen as innovative in The Bloody Chamber is Carter's deep description of the forest and it's environment. 'It struck the wood with nicotine stained fingers','the woods enclose and then enclose again', Carter uses two pages to fully describe the forest, this is different to other stories in The Bloody Chamber, such as The Snow Child, which has little description about the surroundings because they are so minimalistic.

In conclusion, The Erl King can be described as innovative and experimental because Carter has tried to develop different ideas to try and tell her own version of the Erl King story.

When and where is the story set?

When and where is the story set? Why might this be?

In Angela Carter's The Erl King, the setting is a very important part of the story. The reader knows this because the first two pages are dedicated to describing the setting, 'there is no way through the wood anymore, this wood has reverted to its original privacy.' Carter's description of the woods creates a threatening and dreary scene, however a lone, young girl is unfazed by the threatening woods, 'A young girl will go into the woods as trustingly as Red Riding Hood', she enters them without hesitation.

The forest setting represents a place away from civilisation and its influences for the narrator, this means that she is able to show different aspects of her personality and Carter has portrayed this by changing the narrative perspective. It implies that the narrator is telling the story, but she is also somewhat like an outsider looking in on her own story and learning from it.

Angela Carter's use of colour in The Erl King are dull and give a sense of death, which is unusual because a forest is expected to be full of bright colours and life, 'a sky hunkered with grey clouds', 'it struck the wood with nicotine stained fingers',Carter has created a typically Gothic setting.

Another aspect of the setting that Carter has developed into a Gothic theme is the wildlife in the forest. The Erl King keeps birds in cages in his house, 'cage upon cage of singing birds', creating the Gothic theme of entrapment, birds which are usually free animals trapped inside without escape.

What do you consider to be the key themes of this short story?

What do you consider to be the key themes of this short story? Does the story have one or more messages for the reader? If so, what might these be?

The Erl King

There are many Gothic themes in The Erl King, one of those themes is entrapment, 'the woods enclose', 'cage upon cage of singing birds'. Angela Carter develops the feeling of entrapment because the narrator never leaves the woods, the birds are trapped in the cages just as the narrator is trapped in the woods. Carter also creates a feeling of claustrophobia, 'once you are inside it, you must stay there until it lets you out again'. This personifies the forest and shows how much power it has over an innocent girl all alone.

Another key theme of The Erl King is the supernatural. The girl in the story is drawn to the Erl King even though she knows that he could do her 'grievous harm', and it could be said that the supernatural element of the story is what draws the girl to the Erl King despite what the consequences could be. It has also been said that the supernatural element means that the story is received better by society because it shows that the events in the story are not real.

Romance is another key theme in the short story of The Erl King, 'When I realised what the Erl King meant to do to me, I was shaken with a terrible fear and I did not know what to do for I loved him with all my heart and yet I had no wish to join the whistling congregation he kept in his cages.' The girl in the story has to choose between her love for the Erl King and her fear of him doing to her what he has done to all of the other women that have entered the woods. In this short story Carter shows that a woman can be strong and make her decisions because at the end of the short story the girl decides that she is going to kill the Erl King, 'I shall take two handfuls of his rustling hair...I shall strangle him with them.' She wants to keep her own life and in order to do this she decides she needs to kill the Erl King.

The Erl King Notes

The Erl King

-An adaptation of a European tale.
-A character depicted in a number of German poems and ballads as a malevolent creature who haunts forests and carries off travellers to their deaths.

-The character is most famous as the antagonist in Gothe's poem Der Erlkonig.

-Emily Dickingson- 'Light is sufficient unto itself1, 'perfect transparency must be impenetrable.' This is also the opening line of The Erl King.
-There are references to Little Red Riding Hood.

The Green Man motif has many variations. Found in many cultures around the world, the Green Man is the personification of nature.

Shakespeare's Othello, 'O, beware, my lord, of jealousy! It is the green eyed monster'. The Erl King's eyes are described as 'quite green'.

-The Garden of Eden- It is possible to interpret the green apple's of the Erl King's eyes with the traditional symbol of temptation in the Garden of Eden. This means that the Erl King becomes identified with temptation and original sin to the reader.

Choose one setting Carter uses and discuss how it is significant in the telling of the story.

Choose one setting Carter uses and discuss how it is significant in the telling of the story.

In The Snow Child, Angela Carter sets the short story in 'midwinter', it is a cold time of year, and coldness is used a lot in the Gothic genre to create an uncomfortable atmosphere for the characters and it also disorientates the reader because the snowy barren landscape creates a feeling of isolation as there are no other things for the reader to focus on. Carter describes 'midwinter' as 'invincible. immaculate', these words can be put into the theme of the sublime and create a picture of an untouched powerful landscape covered in white snow, 'the whole world was white'. The white of the snow symbolises the purity and virginity of the girl that the Count creates, the reader knows that the girl is innocent and that the Count corrupts her.

The Count's three wishes, 'I wish I had a girl...', reflect his surroundings, 'as white as snow', it is the Count that is wishing for a child and not the Countess which is incongruous because it goes against what society would expect, normally it would be the woman wishing for a child. The Countess is riding next to the Count in this white frosty scenery, however she is wearing 'pelts of black foxes; and she wore high, black, shining boots with scarlet heels.' The Countess is a dark figure in this otherwise snow-covered countryside and it could show that because she has already been corrupted by the Count she has lost her purity and he no longer has any interest in her and that is why he longs for a new young girl to come along, and it is the reason why the Countess dresses provocatively to try and seduce him. 

In the middle of this 'immaculate' setting, in the snow there is a hole filled with blood, Carter could have used this to symbolise women and where children come from, where the snow child came from, it is a mark in the otherwise clear landscape. When the Count has taken the girl's virginity and she melts away, all that is left of her is 'a feather a bird might have dropped; a bloodstain...and the rose she had pulled off the bush.' The things left over from the snow child are the final symbols of her corruption, and Carter has shown how easily women can be corrupted by men, it is another blotch in the unmarred setting.

The Snow Child Notes

The Snow Child Notes

Key terms: Allegory- A story that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one.
Defiled- Connected to necrophilia.

The Gothic
-A fondness for the symbols of darkness and light- literally and metaphorically.
-A significant use of setting.
-The creation of unknown as a narrative priority.
-A fascination with the influence of the past.
-A different between male and female roles which themselves often follow particular conventions.
-A blurring of reality and fantasy, being awake and dreaming with the tales.
-A tendency for certain psychological traits to occur within the main character.

Form
-The Bloody Chamber is made up of short stories, which maximise the impact of the stories' messages.
-The Snow Child is the shortest of the stories and is written as a vignette, the shortness of which makes it poignant and increases its impact to disturb the reader.

Context
-Many of the stories can be linked to wider feminist messages. (For example, the image of the bloody chamber in the story of that name could be seen as a representation of the spiritual or physical death of the woman through childbirth and marriage). Angela Carter was herself a feminist.
-The metamorphoses in the stories also seem to be criticising society's imposition of gender roles through patriarchy.

Setting
-'Midwinter'- cold, 'immaculate', 'this hole is filled with blood', 'whole world was white'.
-Out of the hole filled with blood comes a child.
-The setting disorientates the reader, also implies a place that represents purity and virginity.

How does Carter use symbolism within the story?
-Feminist theory aims to understand the nature of gender inequality. Some earlier forms of feminism have been criticised for taking into  account only white, middle class, educated perspectives.
-Feminist activists campaogn for women's rights such as voting and equal pay. Because feminism seeks gender equality, some feminists argue that men are also harmed by sexism and gender rolls. The Count's ideal woman in The Snow Child is a young, white girl.

Countess
-"The Count and his wife"- Implies that she is not her own person, she is his possession.
-"High, black, shining boots with scarlet heels and spurs"- She is wearing provocative clothing to try and seduce her husband. She is always looking for the Count's approval.
-The Countess can have everything but the thing she wants.

Snow Child
-The Snow Child is the Count's version of the ideal 'woman' (in reality she is not a woman she is a child)- white, naked and a young girl, "there she stood".
-The use of the colour white symbolises the girl's purity and emphasises how the Count corrupts her.

Count
-He is not described in detail, the reader is not told what he looks like or the clothes that he is wearing, whereas the women in the story have what they are wearing (or not wearing) described in detail.
-The Count can be seen as greedy because he already has a wife and he is saying that he wants more, "I wish I had...".
-"I wish I a girl..."- this is repeated three times in the story. It is showing that he wants instant gratification.

How does Carter create her characters?

How does Carter create her characters? Choose one character we have not discussed in class and explain how this character is presented.

In Angela Carter's 'The Bloody Chamber' she is retelling the old, French literary folktale of Bluebeard. In Carter's version the heroine is saved by her mother, unlike Bluebeard, where the heroine is saved by her brothers. The narrators’ mother goes against all social conventions for a female of that time, she has fought pirates, shot tigers and 'had gladly, scandalously, defiantly beggared herself for love.' The narrator ignored the example that her mother set by marrying for money and social status instead of love.

Carter has portrayed the character of the heroine's mother as an 'indomitable' woman who is independent enough to make her own decisions. An example of this would be that she was the 'daughter of a rich tea planter' but she married for love to a man who was significantly poorer than she was. Her daughter mocks her for insisting on carrying around her dead husband's pistol, which is ironic because it is ultimately the thing that saves her life. 

However, once the protagonist has entered the bloody chamber her feelings towards her mother's temperament change, 'this spoilt child did not know she had inherited nerves and a will from the mother who had defied the yellow outlaws of Indo-China.' The narrator no longer mocks her mother, she is driven forward by her 'spirit' and obtains a new attitude. When the narrator finally embraces the example her mother has tried to set she 'walks as firmly as I had done in my mother's house'. Her mother has helped her escape from the corner that her husband has placed her in.

Carter ends The Bloody Chamber with a show of fearlessness from the protagonist’s mother, she does not flinch in the face of danger. It is not a clichéd ending to a fairy tale where a knight in shining armour comes to rescue the girl, it is her mother accompanied with an old pistol.

In conclusion Angela Carter has created a character that becomes an unlikely hero in a story of a world dominated by men.