Analysis Of Angela Carter 's ' The Bloody Chamber '

Over the past 200 years sexual liberation and freedom have become topics of discussions prevalent within western culture and society. With the recent exploration of sexuality a new concept of sexual and gender identity has emerged and is being analyzed in various fields of study. The ideology behind what defines gender and how society explains sex beyond biology has changed at a rapid pace. In response various attempts to create specific and catch all definitions of growing gender and sexual minorities has been on going. This has resulted in the concept of gender becoming a multi- layered shifting hypothesis to which society is adapting. Since the 19th-century, philosophers and theorists have continued to scrutinize gender beyond biological and social interpretation. Margaret Atwood 's The Handmaid 's Tale captures the limitations and social implications forced upon a set gender based on societal expectations. Gender is a social construct that limits the individual to the restrictions and traditions of a society, or if it’s an individually formed self-identification of sex and sexuality that is formed autonomously. Evidence of gender establishment can be seen within literary works and supported by various schools of gender and sexuality theory.

Another component of the story’s allure is the role in it that the concept of narrative accrual plays. Narrative accrual refers to the collection of smaller narratives to form a longer one, such as with history, culture, and autobiographies (Bruner, 18-20). One of the most significant manifestations of

To study the gender issues in The Bloody Chamber we have to first look at the motivations behind the writings. Carter’s feminist agenda creates the feminist tones in this novel which are overtly represented. An excerpt from an English anthology writes on the feminist switch of focus, {A} ‘from attacking male versions of the world to exploring the nature of the female world and outlook, and reconstructing the lost or supressed records of female experience’. This is what Angela Carter explores in her novels. The Courtship of Mr Lyon is a reconstruction of a traditional patriarchal story to highlight female independence.

Envision a realm, filled with genderless inhabitants. A realm of pure bliss, where there is no such thing as “mankind and all beings are [biologically] equal. Now imagine an opposite realm, a realm in which Andrea Dworkin resided. Advocate turned author turned agitator. Andrea Dworkin was a heterodox feminist vanguard who paved a path of her own to support this women’s crusade. Defiant, confrontational and arguably offensive, she immersed herself into the tacit realm of patriarchy, seeking to enlighten and expose the sinister sexual methodologies of man that preserve the role of women as besmirched objects of male indulgence and exploitation. Her ideas and concepts of such is best expressed in Dworkin’s two earliest novels; Pornography: Men Possessing Women [1981] and Intercourse [1987]. Consecutively loved and loathed, Dworkin’s has exerted an important impact on the means and degree of male dominated sexuality and female oppression.

In both Goblin Market and “The Bloody Chamber”, women face objectification as pornographic objects whose solitary purpose is to be a man’s appealing possession. Evidently, the objectification of women impacted the way each author constructed their texts. Feminist movements aiming to undermine these rigid female and male roles are prominent in the time period of both literary works. Both Christina Rossetti and Angela Carter use strange worlds to differentiate from the typical fairy tale’s predictable conclusion and instead make a statement through the use of a female heroine. Both literary works contrast the archetypal idea that a man must always be the savior

The author, Margaret Atwood demonstrates the theme that in a violent isolated world, feminism is despised by the offended society, the inhuman treatment that women received may lead to physical and psychological perils; conversely, one’s firm belief could embody hope and reveal a precise future. Atwood uses irony to impart the theme. Significantly, the protagonist Offred feels she increasingly losing control of her body as “ an instrument, of pleasure” (Atwood 84). But the infinite emptiness inside her can never swap out the

Original fairy tales such as Perrault’s ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ or De Beaumont’s ‘Beauty and The Beast’ depict women as both socially and physically inferior – they reflect a hegemonic patriarchal social structure that restricted female voice and independence in order to maintain the status quo. In ‘The Bloody Chamber’ Angela Carter effectively draws out the theme of feminism by contrasting traditional elements of the fairy-tale genre and Gothic fiction – which usually depict female characters as weak and helpless – with strong female protagonists. This provides Carter the ability to create sexually liberated female

Sexuality has an inherent connection to human nature. Yet, even in regards to something so natural, societies throughout times have imposed expectations and gender roles upon it. Ultimately, these come to oppress women, and confine them within the limits that the world has set for them. However, society is constantly evolving, and within the past 200 years, the role of women has changed. These changes in society can be seen within the intricacies of literature in each era. Specifically, through analyzing The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, one can observe the dynamics of society in regards to the role of women through the lens of the theme of sexuality. In both novels, the confinement and oppression of women can be visibly seen as a result of these gender roles. Yet, from the time The Scarlet Letter was published to the time The Bell Jar was written, the place of women in society ultimately changed as well. Hence when evaluating the gender roles that are derived from sexuality, the difference between the portrayals of women’s oppression in each novel becomes apparent, and shows how the subjugation of women has evolved. The guiding question of this investigation is to what extent does the theme of sexuality reflect the expectations for women in society at the time each novel was written. The essay will explore how the literary elements that form each novel demonstrate each author’s independent vision which questions the

Presenting literature to the public that is meant to be a commentary on social or political issues, masked under the guise of entertaining and fictional, is a tool implemented by authors and activists for centuries. While not all satire is as overt as Jonathan Swift’s suggestion that we eat the babies, it does not diminish the eyebrow raising suggestions that are conveyed once the meaning has been discovered. In Aphra Behn’s The History of the Nun and Eliza Haywood’s Fantomina, the established expectations of the female role within society are brought into question then directly rejected. These expectations establish that women should be deferential to men, morally unblemished, and virtuous at all times. Men, however, are not held to these expectations in the same way. The masculine roles assumed by Isabella and Fantomina demonstrate a private rebellion against the established patriarchal society as it warns against the under-estimation of women and proves that women exist independently.

A woman in the Victorian era was good for few things – marriage being of the upmost importance. When married, a woman needed to pure of sexual experiences and desires, for only men had sexual needs to be fulfilled. If a woman were “ruined,” or not a virgin, she was unmarriageable. Few outlets were available unmarried women to survive, and many of them turned to prostitution. We shall see the image of a ruined woman presented by Christina Rossetti in “The Goblin Market,” and find the conflicting images of a prostitute in D. G. Rossetti’s “Jenny” and Thomas Hardy’s “The Ruined Maid.”

In the story of The Bloody Chamber, Angela Carter attacks the conventional gender roles of women. The conventional Gothic plot revolves around pursuit. A young heroine’s virtuous virginity, purity and innocence is sexually threatened. Thus, what Carter does in “The Bloody Chamber” is redefine female desire and sexuality which are rendered passive and repressed through traditional Gothic texts. Where the mother exemplifies the heroic woman, the “girl” is the traditional damsel in distress. Maria Makinen’s assessment of Carters feminine characters is both truthful and incorrect. Carter uses traditional female stereotypes as well as her unique women to make a contrast between these perceptions of women.

In Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar and Alice Munro’s Lives of Girls and Women, Esther and Del try to take control of their sexuality and their sexual lives. These two female protagonists attempt to gain sexual confidence by quietly rejecting the societal images of women. They are able to seduce men and pilot their own sexual lives. These women are also able to ignore the popular beliefs about marriage and motherhood, thus freeing them from the traditional, restrictive female sexual roles. By rejecting the popular notions of womanhood, sexuality, and marriage, Esther and Del become the mistresses of their sexuality and sexual

Judith Butler’s essay, “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory” calls for a new way to view sex and gender. Butler argues that “gender identity is a performative accomplishment compelled by social sanction and taboo”. In this case, gender is not constituted by what one is, but rather what one does; the performative acts constitute gender. In other words, gender is not the starting place; it is an identity repeatedly constructed throughout time. Butler is trying to show us a feminist perspective of sex and gender. She attempts to follow Beauvoir’s path in a fight against society norms.

This book features a collection of Judith Butler’s essays and her primary intention with this collection is to “focus on the question of what it might mean to undo restrictive normative conceptions of sexual and gendered life” (12). These essays look at the construction of gender and the way certain conceptions of it are normalized and reproduced in potentially harmful and limiting ways. Butler uses a feminist poststructural framework to critique the normalizing/marginalizing views of gender that exist because the “terms that make up one’s own gender are, from the start, out-side oneself, beyond oneself in a sociality that has no single author (and that radically

Lastly, “femininity” refers to behavioural activities or interests that are assigned to the female sex, such as cleaning and cooking (Beauvoir, 617). Although many critics have read her text and become confused due to her stylistic choice to fuse her voice with the voices of famous men, it can be said that the text ultimately leads the reader to begin to question what society sees as a woman (Zerilli, 1-2). Despite Beauvoir’s The Second Sex appearing to recognize the oppression of women throughout the world without giving an actual solution, I will argue that Beauvoir’s evaluation of each “natural” aspect of female oppression allows readers to recognize that the only thing holding themselves back as a woman is society’s unnatural definition of their body, relation to men, and personal freedoms. Of course, when it comes to one's freedom, it is difficult to obtain when your body feels like a