Savagery In Maire De France's Lai Bisclavert

This essay will attempt to discuss the two gothic tales ‘Carmilla’ and ‘Dracula’ in relation to cultural contexts in which they exist as being presented to the reader through the gender behaviour and sexuality that is portrayed through the texts. Vampire stories always seem to involve some aspect of sexuality and power.

In Seven Monster Theses, Jeffery Cohen develops an idea that “monsters” are essential to society. In fact, they construct what is “normal”, “rational”, and “civilized”. Specifically, “monsters” are foundational to how we view ourselves. “Monsters” contain all the traits deemed unacceptable and odd. It can be concluded that every outlier is a “monster”. In St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, Karen Russell tells the story of a pack of wolf girls who are transitioning into young ladies. Russell delves into society’s need for conformity, gender roles, and change. The story is told from the point of view of the middle wolf girl, Claudette, and follows her on her journey from wolf to woman. In relation to Jeffery Cohen’s idea of monster culture, Claudette’s journey applies to Thesis IV “The Monster Dwells at the Gates of Difference” and part of Thesis I “The Monster’s Body is a Cultural Body”. Claudette is torn between two worlds and she has to learn how to successfully “move between the two cultures”. Through Cohen’s theses, Karen Russell uses character development and dialogue to depict the inner and outer battle of societal femininity and individualized femininity and the consequence of accepting either side. The presence of “monsters” are essential for this acceptance.

Upon first reading “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves,” it might seem like an imaginative fantasy and nothing else. The story focuses on the daughters of a pack of werewolves, and it takes place in a world where the werewolves and their daughters are nothing out of the ordinary. But upon closer examination, this is a story rooted in reality. This inventive tale parallels several real world phenomena. Karen Russell uses allegory in “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves” to objectify western society’s views of people outside of that society and of outsiders in general, and compare them to the views that people have of wild animals.

The Great Fear was a period of extreme fright and riot that became a massacre in the French Revolution. France's peasants began to hear wild rumors about the nobles who were hiring outlaws to terrorize them and overthrow the Third Estate. The peasants responded by arming themselves with pitchforks and other farm tools to defend their property. "The peasants soon became outlaws themselves." Although it seems the peasants feared those people who broke the law, they became the ones creating bigger damage such as destroying federal documents and stealing millions of private property's. Along with several deaths because of the lack of food. Thousands of Parisian women caused trouble over the rising price of bread. These big strong woman marched

Werewolves a very well-known fantasy creature, who have been depicted as vicious beasts who will turn on their best friends. In the lay “Bisclavret” the stereotypes of werewolves is no different. Marie de France redefines the werewolf in a very courageous tale of a man and his loyalty. Bisclavret was a very loyal man regardless being werewolf or not. This was shown in multiple scenarios, such as the interaction with his and wife and with the King. The O.E.D. defines loyalty as “Faithful adherence to one's promise, oath, word of honor” (def.1). Throughout the entire story Bisclavret is faithful to everyone he made an oath too. Others have to break

The women described in the Lais of Marie de France often commit traditionally sinful deeds, such as adultery, murder, and betrayal. However, with a few exceptions, the protagonists often end up living happily with their beloved for the rest of their lives. The Lais advocate for situational judgement rather than general condemnation of specific acts, which can be seen through Marie de France’s treatment of sinful heroines.

‘The Company of Wolves’ is a twisted and raw reinvention of ‘Little Red Ridding Hood’ while symbolizing female sexuality and embracing it. The wolves in the story have been described by the author as skin and bones, “so little flesh on them that you could count the starveling ribs”. Their food source has been taken away by

Almost every sin imaginable is included in this text if one were to interpret Bram Stoker’s writing to be as such. The glaring Christianity, coded sexual innuendo, and the vampire stereotype still attracts many to this novel. Despite the Victorian era’s social expectations of a woman, gluttony and lust are the two most abundant and greatly detailed sins alive in this text and usually descriptively, if not symbolically intertwined. The female characters of this novel lavishly display their sexual and physical appetites throughout the novel thus tempting the male figures. Mina and Lucy are portrayed in opposition to both each other and societal norms, in the nineteenth century and these traits are still displayed today in the twenty-first century. Voraciousness and Lust as portrayed through vampirism in Dracula details the dichotomy of Bram Stoker and of all men; which wife would a man want to have, the smart maternal plump woman or the fanciful beautiful thin woman.

In “Monster Culture”, Jeffery Cohen develops an idea that “monsters” are essential to society. In fact, they construct what is “normal”, “rational”, and “civilized”. Specifically, “monsters” are foundational to how we view ourselves. “Monsters” contain all the traits deemed unacceptable and odd. It can be concluded that every outlier is a “monster”. In St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves, Karen Russell tells the story of a pack of wolf girls who are transitioning into young ladies. Russell delves into society’s need for conformity, gender roles, and change. The story is told from the point of view of the middle wolf girl, Claudette, and follows her on her journey from wolf to woman. In relation to Jeffery Cohen’s idea of monster culture, Claudette’s journey applies to Thesis IV “The Monster Dwells at the Gates of Difference” and part of Thesis I “The Monster’s Body is a Cultural Body”. Claudette is torn between two worlds and she has to learn how to successfully “move between the two cultures”. Through Cohen’s theses, Karen Russell uses character development and dialogue to depict the inner and outer battle of societal femininity and individualized femininity and the decision of accepting either side. The presence of “monsters” are essential for this acceptance.

In contrast, there is a fear of becoming the “Other.” In Bram Stoker’s Dracula, the charismatic figure seems benevolent; however, his deceiving appearance turns out to be a creature that corrupts mankind – his attractiveness acts as a lure to display vice in people. Dracula targets virgins to become his lamias – so that innocent women

Folktales has created men as the most powerful character in most stories but that does not mean always as there’s a difference in Grandmother’s tale and Little Red Riding hood. Different genders have different expectations according to their characteristics. The Red Riding Hood and Grandmother’s tale has produced ideas such as how a girl’s life is looked upon in the past and how the male has the upper hand in most situations according to the stories. This essay will argue about how the girl’s gender played a major role in the context of the story and how the wolf is represented by a male character and why the male is not always the most powerful character in all stories and the comparison

Female power is suppressed by men in vampire literature. I will analyze the idea of women treated as inferior by men through psychoanalysis mainly based on Freudian concepts. The topics of psychoanalysis that I will be using to look at the texts are the ‘monstrous feminine’, the castration complex, and masculine instinct. The two texts that will be analyzed are the short stories ‘Carmilla’ and ‘Snow, Glass, Apples’.

In her book, “Lies that Tell the Truth: Magic Realism Seen Through Contemporary Fiction from Britain,” Anne C. Hegerfeldt discusses modern authors who display elements of magic realism in their work, Angela Carter being one of the predominant figures. “The Werewolf,” by Carter, opens with a description of the setting, familiarizing the readers of a world occupied by the supernatural. It is described as an otherwise, “normal country… their houses built of logs, dark and smoky within,” however, the people believe that, “the Devil is as real as you or I.” It’s not only the belief of the Devil, but they fear his physical form, “the Devil holds picnics in the graveyards and invites the witches.” The introduction reveals the ordinary existence of the Devil, witches, vampires, and werewolves. It has become so customary that the townspeople, “put out small votive offerings,” to please them. The narrative begins with a young girl being instructed to travel through the woods, which is knowingly inhabited by dangerous creatures, to visit her sickly grandmother, equipped only with a knife for protection. While travelling through the woods, the girl is confronted by a werewolf, but manages to defend herself by cutting off its paw. After arriving at her grandmother’s house, she drops the paw on the floor, but it has turned into the hand of her grandmother, who is then exposed of being a witch. After calling for help, nearby

This is a self-contradiction that disturbs reader’s concentration: the more detailed the story becomes, the more suspicious it gets in terms of the “how” the narrator acquired the information. What is worse, at the end of the story, the narrator emphasizes that the story is nothing but true, arousing more suspicion and contradiction since the story also contains impractical materials and cases like a werewolf and the werewolf turning back to a human-being when it wears its clothes back on, not only the excessive details that a third person narrator may not acquire in common sense.

When people think about Medieval Paris, they tend to think about the important aspects it brought into this wonderful city. The positive aspects of Paris were the new growth to the city. There were more Christian churches built, such as Notre Dame and Sainte- Chapelle. While a new University was constructed to bring new life to Paris. People were able to be educated and be religious without being held back from limitation or distances. There were many goods that were sold and had a lot of businesses throughout the city. With everything going smoothly occurring at the beginning of Paris, everyone in France or even throughout Europe wanted to be a part of a wonderful environment. This cause an increase in population throughout the city of Paris. During the middle portion of the Medieval times, it started to get rocky and people began to get frustrated with the way the government was controlling the city. There were few jobs that ‘normal’ people could have because of the increase in educated students taking them first. After a while, people who did not have a job become homeless. There were also more taxes for people that were not Parisians, which caused more people from out of the city to pay more than the people that were from Paris. Paris started to suffer from poverty issues and people would start to become homeless because of the taxes and no jobs. Crimes, started to occur in Paris from either hate from the government, wanting money, or using