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.
Try and think also about how women and men are presented in this tale Amy. Why are the trapped women birds? Why is the Erl King described like to Wolf in little red riding hood? Why do the birds transform back into women after the Erl King dies.
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