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.