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The Bloody Chamber : Critical Coursework

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The Bloody Chamber – Critical Coursework How does Carter represent gender and explore gender issues to create meaning in either ‘The Tiger’s Bride’, ‘The Courtship of Mr Lyon’ or ‘The Bloody Chamber’? 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. The introduction of the novella states that; {B} ‘the heroine of the title story appears to be a Justine-like sacrificial virgin in a white dress’. This is a reference to Justine Moritz, a character who is falsely executed in the novel, Frankenstein. The image of the ‘sacrificial virgin’ is important as it permits the reader to view the narrator as meek and vulnerable. Precisely what Carter wants us to believe, so that the character of the narrator and her mother can be easily juxtaposed. Her vulnerability and lack of independence permits her role as the novels damsel, while her mother is something else entirely. {B} ‘The white dress; the frail child within it’.

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