Last lesson we discussed Rosie King...erm...I mean the Erl King. Darn it. I've started yet another blog post with yet another bad joke. Sorry...again. I'll get on with it now.
Yes, we read the poem 'Der Erlkonig' and spoke about the origins of the Erl-King story and myth. The fact that there is a history to the Erl-King myth is, perhaps, one of the reasons it works well within Carter's collection of stories as the idea of old tales handed down through generations, folklore and myths is key to both the gothic and fairytale genres. The fact that the old stories have been heard before in other forms adds to the mysticism and history...The Erl King seems to be a figure, like Bluebeard, that is synonymous with the gothic genre and is an inspiration for many novels, stories e.t.c...Bluebeard, for example, is referenced both in The Bloody Chamber and in the Phantom of the Opera.
I've finished reading the Phantom of the Opera now and although I'll try not to waffle on about it as it's not one of our texts, it does link quite well with the story of the Erl King. Just as in the Erl King, the open setting of the forest is made to feel claustrophobic and like a trap ('the woods enclose and enclose again', 'you are no longer in the open air; the wood swallows you up'), this is how Raoul and the Persian are tortured in Phantom...the torture chamber is hexagonal in shape with mirrors on the six walls and the image of a forest (and then a desert) are reflected onto the walls - rather than being a physical torture chamber (as the bloody chamber is), the torture is psychological (Raoul and the Persian are driven mad by the 'forest effect' as they are tricked into believing they're in a wide expanse when they're actually trapped...ok, I probably haven't explained it that well but what I'm trying to say is that the torture chamber links in with the other gothic texts we've studied...the fact torture is psychological links with all the other texts, the fact that the open-exapanse-yet-trapped feeling ties in with the Earl King and the mirrors in the torture chamber can be linked to the mirrors in the Marquis' bedroom in 'The Bloody Chamber'...which opens up a new meaning with regard to the Marquis' bedroom...another torture chamber of sorts. Also, in Dracula, Jonathan's description of the winding Transylvanian mountains (the Carpathians?) encorporates description of the landscape and mountains trapping and engulfing. The idea of being trapped psychologically as well as physically seems key to the gothic genre.
We discussed the gothic and fairytale elements of the original Erl-King poem and then analysed the narrative style of Carter's version. We spoke about the interesting switches that take place between 1st, 2nd and 3rd person narrative...with readers being drawn in through use of second person, giving a timeless and fairytale theme to the tale. An interesting point that was addressed during discussion of the poem was the fact that the child and the adult's views on the Earl King myth differed...the imaginative child believed whereas the father did not (initially)...again, as in Dracula, thi is a display of the typically gothic logic vs. mysticism argument and the 'The Erl King' adds a new dimension to this by suggested children are more inclined to accept the unexplained and the mystical than adults. This is, perhaps, why Carter's gothic/fairytale combination works so well as both genres are reliant on the reader's imaginination and suspension of disbelief - something which is addressed in Carter's The Erl King when it is said that the yound girl was 'trapped in her own illusion'...in reading and buying into gothic tales and fairytales, one could argue that the reader is 'trapping themself in their own illusion' by believing in the mystical world...the fear, again, is psychological. It's all the mind.....wooooo. I think I'll leave it there for now...I'm sorry if this blog hasn't made any sense...I've just been thinking as I go.
Wednesday, 31 March 2010
Monday, 29 March 2010
The Snow Child
This is my second blog of the day but I've just been informed we've got to blog on certain things to do with 'The Snow Child'...but as I wasn't in last lesson this will be more of a blag than a blog. Bad, bad joke, I know. I'm ashamed.
Anyway...
What the Woman is Wearing
The Count's wife wears 'the glittering pelts of black foxes', 'high, black shining boots with scarlet heels, and spurrs'...although the 'pelts of black foxes' would be considered glamorous and a show of wealth, it is ultimately a dead animal which, as symbols go, isn't exactly cheery. I've done a bit of research on what foxes, specifically black foxes symbolise and discovered black foxes are apparently synonymous with good luck - although foxes in general (in the West) are synonymous with cunning or slyness - in the East they symbolise longeivity and transformation and in Christianity they're associated with hersey, injustice, greed and lust. The 'scarlet heels' can also be linked to the idea of the scarlet woman - and the fact that the woman might only be wearing the items listed is a bit erm...scarlet woman-esque in itself. Hang on...it also says she's wearing gloves and a diamond brooch.
What Happens to What the Woman is Wearing?
The clothes the Count's wife is wearing fly off and clothe the naked girl (e.g. the pelts) However she drops her own glove and throws her own diamond brooch into the pond...maybe it's because she cares more about getting rid of the girl than she does about her clothes that they decide to fly off?! I don't know.
The Count's Wishes and Inspirations
The Count wishes for a girl as red as blood, black as the raven's feather and white as snow. With the 'white as snow' comes connotations of purity and innocence, whereas the 'red as blood' could be seen to symbolise a loss or corruption of innocence. The raven, too, is seen to symbolise death and combined these symbols seem to imply the Count wants a girl who is innocent but as an underlying darkness so can be corrupted. The attraction of the male figure to innocence seems a key theme within a lot of gothic texts...going back to the whole Madonna/Whore theory - the girl in The Blood Chamber, Mina and Lucy e.t.c. The Count specifies a 'girl' also which implies innocence but also, I think, may contrast with his wife...maybe the 'Midwinter' referred to at the start of the story is a reference to the Count's wife and as in Rossetti's 'Winter: My Secret', the 'Midwinter' could be symbolic of the stage of the woman's life...middle age plus...maybe the Count specifies a 'girl' as he wants a female younger than his wife. When I first read the story, I interpreted 'girl' as the Count wanting a daughter at first...though it soon became apparent that wasn't the case. Or at least I hope it wasn't. Moving swiftly on...yes, I first linked the Count's wife to the 'Midwinter' mentioned as, in a way, unlike the young girl, she is 'invinsible' and 'immaculate'. She's invincible in that she survives (unlike the girl) and, in terms of 'immaculate', one could make links with the idea of immaculate conception...which ties in with the Madonna/Whore concept as well as the idea of the girl as a daughter...maybe that's taking it a bit too far though...
Conclusion
To my mind the 'It bites!' line is an expression of the woman's pain at accepting a 'gift' from her husband, though she knows she's not what he wants. Also the 'It bites!' can be linked to the cold 'Midwinter' and if interpreted in the way I mentioned previously (it being symbolic of the 'Midwinter' of the woman's life), it could mean that the 'Midwinter' of the woman's life 'bites' as it's a harsh, cruel time...her husband's more interesting in strange naked girls that mysteriously appear. The more I think about it though, the more I'm convinced the girl is actually symbolic of a daughter...a daughter that the woman perhaps can't give to the Count as she's reaching the 'Midwinter' of her life?! I'm not sure...although it would make what the Count does to the girl rather worrying. Maybe the whole 'weeping, the Count got of his horse...' bit is about the pain that comes with the loss of a child...maybe not. Oh, I don't know. There are certainly a lot of symbols in there...and they're all rather ambiguous so...who knows what it really means? Angela Carter, presumably.
All in all, it's a rather sinister story and although one of the shortest, has the most points for speculation. Even if the girl isn't a daughter...the whole thing's still a teeeeny bit odd...what with the necrophilia and all...
Anyway...
What the Woman is Wearing
The Count's wife wears 'the glittering pelts of black foxes', 'high, black shining boots with scarlet heels, and spurrs'...although the 'pelts of black foxes' would be considered glamorous and a show of wealth, it is ultimately a dead animal which, as symbols go, isn't exactly cheery. I've done a bit of research on what foxes, specifically black foxes symbolise and discovered black foxes are apparently synonymous with good luck - although foxes in general (in the West) are synonymous with cunning or slyness - in the East they symbolise longeivity and transformation and in Christianity they're associated with hersey, injustice, greed and lust. The 'scarlet heels' can also be linked to the idea of the scarlet woman - and the fact that the woman might only be wearing the items listed is a bit erm...scarlet woman-esque in itself. Hang on...it also says she's wearing gloves and a diamond brooch.
What Happens to What the Woman is Wearing?
The clothes the Count's wife is wearing fly off and clothe the naked girl (e.g. the pelts) However she drops her own glove and throws her own diamond brooch into the pond...maybe it's because she cares more about getting rid of the girl than she does about her clothes that they decide to fly off?! I don't know.
The Count's Wishes and Inspirations
The Count wishes for a girl as red as blood, black as the raven's feather and white as snow. With the 'white as snow' comes connotations of purity and innocence, whereas the 'red as blood' could be seen to symbolise a loss or corruption of innocence. The raven, too, is seen to symbolise death and combined these symbols seem to imply the Count wants a girl who is innocent but as an underlying darkness so can be corrupted. The attraction of the male figure to innocence seems a key theme within a lot of gothic texts...going back to the whole Madonna/Whore theory - the girl in The Blood Chamber, Mina and Lucy e.t.c. The Count specifies a 'girl' also which implies innocence but also, I think, may contrast with his wife...maybe the 'Midwinter' referred to at the start of the story is a reference to the Count's wife and as in Rossetti's 'Winter: My Secret', the 'Midwinter' could be symbolic of the stage of the woman's life...middle age plus...maybe the Count specifies a 'girl' as he wants a female younger than his wife. When I first read the story, I interpreted 'girl' as the Count wanting a daughter at first...though it soon became apparent that wasn't the case. Or at least I hope it wasn't. Moving swiftly on...yes, I first linked the Count's wife to the 'Midwinter' mentioned as, in a way, unlike the young girl, she is 'invinsible' and 'immaculate'. She's invincible in that she survives (unlike the girl) and, in terms of 'immaculate', one could make links with the idea of immaculate conception...which ties in with the Madonna/Whore concept as well as the idea of the girl as a daughter...maybe that's taking it a bit too far though...
Conclusion
To my mind the 'It bites!' line is an expression of the woman's pain at accepting a 'gift' from her husband, though she knows she's not what he wants. Also the 'It bites!' can be linked to the cold 'Midwinter' and if interpreted in the way I mentioned previously (it being symbolic of the 'Midwinter' of the woman's life), it could mean that the 'Midwinter' of the woman's life 'bites' as it's a harsh, cruel time...her husband's more interesting in strange naked girls that mysteriously appear. The more I think about it though, the more I'm convinced the girl is actually symbolic of a daughter...a daughter that the woman perhaps can't give to the Count as she's reaching the 'Midwinter' of her life?! I'm not sure...although it would make what the Count does to the girl rather worrying. Maybe the whole 'weeping, the Count got of his horse...' bit is about the pain that comes with the loss of a child...maybe not. Oh, I don't know. There are certainly a lot of symbols in there...and they're all rather ambiguous so...who knows what it really means? Angela Carter, presumably.
All in all, it's a rather sinister story and although one of the shortest, has the most points for speculation. Even if the girl isn't a daughter...the whole thing's still a teeeeny bit odd...what with the necrophilia and all...
'Puss in Boots', 'The Phantom of the Opera' and 'The Woman in White'
I missed one of our 'Puss in Boots' lessons but I'm just going to blog about my initial thoughts...we discussed how the characters in 'Puss in Boots' correlate with the Italian Theatre characters we'd researched...it seems that Figaro was the 'Harlequin' of the piece...poor and hungry (he scrounges for food 'I'd pilfer the market for breakfast') yet proud ('impeccable hygenic integrity'), he uses the fact he is dismissed by others (the fact that he's a cat) to outwit...(helps his Master to woo his 'love'). I think the charcater of Figaro is a very interesting one as in some ways he is an archetypal fairytale character (a cat...that talks) but in other ways dismisses the fairytale nonsense (almost mocks his Master for his romantic endevours, calling him a 'lovelorn loon'). I also thought that, if Figaro is the 'Harlequin', Tabby might be 'Columbina'...Harlequin's 'companion' who helps him in his tasks and has more character and 'pepper' than the other lovers (Figaro's master's lover). Also, there's Signor Pantelone 'the old man was a fool and a miser' (Pantaloon) and in true fairytale style '[the] hag turns out to be the biggest snag'.
I've also been trying to get a bit more clued up on gothic texts and conventions and have been reading Gaston Leroux's 'The Phantom of the Opera' and Wilkie Collins' 'The Woman in White' - just as we were talking about the set characters in Italian theatre (and in fairytales, to an extent), it seems there are certain characters that most gothic texts have...the 'monster' male who is attracted by beauty and innocence (Dracula, The Marquis, The Phantom, Percival Glyde), a 'beauty' (Beauty, Mina, Lucy, Christine Daae, Anne), the beauty's dying or vulnerable guardian (In 'Phantom', Christine's adopted mother is on her deathbed, in 'Dracula', Lucy's mother is dying, in 'The Woman in White', Laura Fairlie's uncle is old and frail, in 'The Courtship of Mr Lyon', Beauty's father is quite weak...characters in the gothic tales seem to act in certain ways and do certain things for the sake of the old/dying relatives e.g. no-one tells Lucy's mother about the danger Lucy's in, Beauty stays with the Beast for the sake of her father...emphasizes the 'goodness' of the characters and heightens drama...imminent death!) and there's (sometimes) the antithesis of the 'monster male' in a male version of the 'Beauty'...(Raoul, the Piano Tuner, Walter) - occasionally, the male version of the 'Beauty', however, is found within the monster...as in The Courtship of Mr Lyon.
In addition, thinking about the different gothic texts, I found that the love/hate conflict that we discussed with regard to 'The Bloody Chamber' (curiosity/disgust, sex/death e.t.c.) runs through the entire gothic genre and The Phantom of the Opera sort of embodies this...The Phantom is obsessed with Christine - one of the reasons being that in terms of physical appearance, she's the exact opposite of him...but alongside the obsessive love for and admiration of Christine's beauty and innocence runs a hatred and deep-seated envy...If he can't have Christine, he'd rather her die or have all she cares about destroyed than she be someone else's...there's a fine line between love and hate in The Phantom of the Opera and in many gothic texts...to quote the musical (here I go again...) of The Phantom of the Opera 'Fear can turn to love, you'll learn to see, to find, the man behind the monster - this repulsive carcass who seems a beast but secretly dreams of beauty'). The other conflicts we've discussed in class that I've found to feature in The Phantom and The Woman in White are...the asleep/awake conflict (in The Woman in White, Count Fosco and Percival Glyde cover up the fact they've imprisoned Laura in an asylum by saying she fell to her death while sleepwalking...similar to Lucy in Dracula....also, in Phantom, Christine hears the voice of the 'Angel of Music' in her sleep) - there's also the dead/alive conflict (is the Phantom dead or alive? He is known as the 'Opera Ghost'...similarly, Anne in WiW is mistaken for a ghost)...maddness (Both Laura and Anne are imprisoned in asylums in WiW and those who can hear the voice of the Phantom are considered mad initially).
That's all for now...
I've also been trying to get a bit more clued up on gothic texts and conventions and have been reading Gaston Leroux's 'The Phantom of the Opera' and Wilkie Collins' 'The Woman in White' - just as we were talking about the set characters in Italian theatre (and in fairytales, to an extent), it seems there are certain characters that most gothic texts have...the 'monster' male who is attracted by beauty and innocence (Dracula, The Marquis, The Phantom, Percival Glyde), a 'beauty' (Beauty, Mina, Lucy, Christine Daae, Anne), the beauty's dying or vulnerable guardian (In 'Phantom', Christine's adopted mother is on her deathbed, in 'Dracula', Lucy's mother is dying, in 'The Woman in White', Laura Fairlie's uncle is old and frail, in 'The Courtship of Mr Lyon', Beauty's father is quite weak...characters in the gothic tales seem to act in certain ways and do certain things for the sake of the old/dying relatives e.g. no-one tells Lucy's mother about the danger Lucy's in, Beauty stays with the Beast for the sake of her father...emphasizes the 'goodness' of the characters and heightens drama...imminent death!) and there's (sometimes) the antithesis of the 'monster male' in a male version of the 'Beauty'...(Raoul, the Piano Tuner, Walter) - occasionally, the male version of the 'Beauty', however, is found within the monster...as in The Courtship of Mr Lyon.
In addition, thinking about the different gothic texts, I found that the love/hate conflict that we discussed with regard to 'The Bloody Chamber' (curiosity/disgust, sex/death e.t.c.) runs through the entire gothic genre and The Phantom of the Opera sort of embodies this...The Phantom is obsessed with Christine - one of the reasons being that in terms of physical appearance, she's the exact opposite of him...but alongside the obsessive love for and admiration of Christine's beauty and innocence runs a hatred and deep-seated envy...If he can't have Christine, he'd rather her die or have all she cares about destroyed than she be someone else's...there's a fine line between love and hate in The Phantom of the Opera and in many gothic texts...to quote the musical (here I go again...) of The Phantom of the Opera 'Fear can turn to love, you'll learn to see, to find, the man behind the monster - this repulsive carcass who seems a beast but secretly dreams of beauty'). The other conflicts we've discussed in class that I've found to feature in The Phantom and The Woman in White are...the asleep/awake conflict (in The Woman in White, Count Fosco and Percival Glyde cover up the fact they've imprisoned Laura in an asylum by saying she fell to her death while sleepwalking...similar to Lucy in Dracula....also, in Phantom, Christine hears the voice of the 'Angel of Music' in her sleep) - there's also the dead/alive conflict (is the Phantom dead or alive? He is known as the 'Opera Ghost'...similarly, Anne in WiW is mistaken for a ghost)...maddness (Both Laura and Anne are imprisoned in asylums in WiW and those who can hear the voice of the Phantom are considered mad initially).
That's all for now...
Monday, 22 March 2010
Lions and Tigers and Bears! Oh My!
Ok...so there have only been lions and tigers up to now but I couldn't pass up on the opportunity to quote the Wizard of Oz. Since I last blogged, we've read both 'The Courtship of Mr Lyon' and 'The Tiger's Bride' - I missed the first lesson in which we discussed and read the latter but I'm going to use everyone's Wunderbar (That's wunderbar with a capital 'W' Emma!!! Satisfied?! Hmmmm?!) blogs to catch up. Anyway...I'll start with 'The Tiger's Bride' as that's relatively fresh in my mind...Mr Francis asked us to ponder why Carter made the decision at the end of the story to revert the idea of the beauty/beast transformation and I think this decision could be rooted in Carter's feminist agenda (or at least her aim to promote gender equality) - rather than the story being about the 'beauty' (woman) learning to love the 'beast' (man), I felt that The Tiger's Bride was concerned with the 'beauty' learning to accept and perhaps love the 'beast' inside herself - in other words, learning from the Beast (who literally takes off his mask), to metaphorically take off her own mask and face up to her real self, regardless of how horrific or gruesome it may be. I got the impression that, rather than 'The Courtship of Mr Lyon', The Tiger's Bride was about self-discovery and acceptance rather than a story in which someone changes in order to 'match-up' with someone else. To this end, even though we spoke of how 'The Courtship of Mr Lyon' is a fairly straight-forward fairytale, it could be argued that 'The Tiger's Bride' with all its strange concepts and symbols has a more positive end message. The fact that, as a class, we came to the conclusion that 'The Courtship of Mr Lyon' was a quite traditional fairystory with a narrative and message not dissimilar to others we'd heard in the past, I think, says quite a lot about the fairytale genre and Carter's purpose in retelling the 'Beauty and the Beast' tale twice. As is the nature of the gothic genre, it seems to me as if Carter could be trying to present something to us that we are certain and sure of (the 'traditional' fairytale of 'The Courtship of Mr Lyon') before showing us how that concept is somehow odd or wrong, leaving us to question and feel less secure about it. At first reading, I imagine most people expected the 'Beast' to turn into a 'Beauty' at the end of 'The Tiger's Bride'...but why? This is, I think, what Carter is trying to get us to think about by placing the two re-tellings/re-workings together - why do the fairytales we have all grown up with teach that 'Beasts' should change in order to be with 'Beauties'? In 'The Courtship of Mr Lyon', the Lion changing back into human form is seen almost as a reward to Beauty for seeing the good within him while he was a Beast, whereas, in 'The Tiger's Bride', it is as if the woman changes into a 'Beast', not for the Beast, but for herself. It is implied that the Beast in 'Mr Lyon' is trapped in a world of magic in which he doesn't belong - a man trapped within a Lion, whereas, in 'Tiger's Bride' there are no hints towards there being a 'Beast' behind the Beauty until the very end.
I'm sorry I've just got one jumbo paragraph but the main point I'm trying to make is that maybe Carter placed the two re-tellings together in order to lead the reader to question the expectations of and morals within 'traditional' fairytales - getting us to question, as the gothic genre often does, which morals are the most positive. Just a thought.
I'm sorry I've just got one jumbo paragraph but the main point I'm trying to make is that maybe Carter placed the two re-tellings together in order to lead the reader to question the expectations of and morals within 'traditional' fairytales - getting us to question, as the gothic genre often does, which morals are the most positive. Just a thought.
Monday, 8 March 2010
Finishing 'The Bloody Chamber'
Just a quick blog post today as I don't have that much to report. Last lesson, we finished reading 'The Bloody Chamber' (the story, not the entire text) and began questioning Carter's purpose in writing such a story - or rather retelling such a story. We discussed the protagonist's 'shame' as spoken of in the last line and wondered whether this shame was on account of her having allowed what happened to happen for so long or because she almost went along with the Marquis' rituals or because she wasn't strong like her mother. Interestingly, it seems the supposed 'role model' in the moral story is the mother who, unlike in the majority of fairytales, is the saviour as opposed to the 'wicked' character. It seems Carter is presenting the mother in The Bloody Chamber as the feminist figure, left to fend for herself and bring up her daughter alone, while the protagonist represents the 'normal girl' who learns from experience to adopt more feminist principles. The story isn't left on an entirely positive note as the last thing mentioned is the shame and the stain. The stain seems representative of the shame and the narrator's desire to hide the stain seems to reflect the need in human nature to create a facade to block out the bag things. Just as the bloody chamber is spoken of being 'sealed', it seems the bad things are hidden and are lurking but are, however, not destroyed. It's almost as if saying that, like the narrator, women have put up with male dominance for too long - it's important to note that Carter doesn't criticise men completely as the Piano Tuner is seen at the end of the story to be setting up home with the narrator - as was commented on in the lesson, however, the piano tuner is very boyish and almost feminine and submissive to the extent that the narrator can dominate him - to start off with, he literally does work for her. As explored in my piano tuner essay he does have some very positive qualities and influences on the narrator.
The fairytale-esque jump in terms of time scheme at the end of the story allows for the moral of the text to be brought in - with a nice fairytale-like rounding off of the 'happily ever after' (as mentioned previously, it's not so happy though!) The fairytale-esque jump also reminds readers of the fairytale nature and encourages readers to embrace the exaggerated nature of the story and the events rather than taking them too seriously or literally. We spoke also in the lesson about which bits of the story were people's favourites and least favourite moments. The least favourite moments seemed to be the moments in which suspension of disbelief was key - for example, the 'maternal telepathy' being the reason behind the mother's visit - prepared for a fight, shotgun in hand. Some elements of the story are somewhat far-fetched and ridiculous but, embracing the fairytale nature, one can respect the fact that it's rooted in human nature and real life but is exaggerated, as is the norm in the telling of fairytales, for entertainment purposes.
Also - here's a YouTube link to a kind of whizz-through-version of 'Into the Woods', the Sondheim musical centred around fairytales I referred to in my last post...note the wishes at the start...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsFx5835Qrg
The fairytale-esque jump in terms of time scheme at the end of the story allows for the moral of the text to be brought in - with a nice fairytale-like rounding off of the 'happily ever after' (as mentioned previously, it's not so happy though!) The fairytale-esque jump also reminds readers of the fairytale nature and encourages readers to embrace the exaggerated nature of the story and the events rather than taking them too seriously or literally. We spoke also in the lesson about which bits of the story were people's favourites and least favourite moments. The least favourite moments seemed to be the moments in which suspension of disbelief was key - for example, the 'maternal telepathy' being the reason behind the mother's visit - prepared for a fight, shotgun in hand. Some elements of the story are somewhat far-fetched and ridiculous but, embracing the fairytale nature, one can respect the fact that it's rooted in human nature and real life but is exaggerated, as is the norm in the telling of fairytales, for entertainment purposes.
Also - here's a YouTube link to a kind of whizz-through-version of 'Into the Woods', the Sondheim musical centred around fairytales I referred to in my last post...note the wishes at the start...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KsFx5835Qrg
Wednesday, 3 March 2010
The Bloody Chamber
I haven't been blogging as much as I usually do lately as I've been using the pieces of work we've been set e.g. essays and posters as my thought-processing time instead - so...I'm just going to blog about what we've been studying over the last few lessons in order to track our progress in terms of our study of 'The Bloody Chamber'.
Continuing on from the themes of gender and the genre of gothic tales and fairytales I spoke of in my last blog, we've been looking at The Bloody Chamber with regard to its context and how it fulfils our expectations of a fairytale/gothic story. The more we look into Carter's work, the more I understand how clever it is - how cleverly the fairytale/gothic genres are merged in order to give a comment on society.
Over the past few lessons we've looked into the roles of the males in the text - how the piano tuner contrasts with the Marquis. As we wrote essays on this, I won't go into too much detail but the main things I got from this were...how Carter splits her characters between being 'real people' and 'mystical creations' - almost the same as with Dracula...'normal' people thrown into the midst of a mythical creature - in The Bloody Chamber, we spoke about how the narrator might be representative of the 'normal woman' trapped in a fairytale/gothic world. Continuing on with this idea - there are elements of the human and the mythical/gothic/symbolic within each character, I find...with the narrator's dicovery of the 'bloody chamber' signifying the discovery of the mythical, over-the-top fairytale-esque side to her husband.
Linking in with this, we wrote essays on what, in our opinion, the bloody chamber symbolises. In my essay, I spoke about different interpretations but, the main thing I got from the exercise was a greater understanding of the text's feminist themes - 'the bloody chamber' as a symbol, for example, can be interpreted as a reference to the confinement of marriage and the death of a woman when she becomes a wife. As I said before, I won't go into detail about other theories I spoke of as I addressed them in my essay but, again, exploring the symbolism within the text makes me appreciate the intelligence behind it more and more. The metaphors and symbolism withinn the piece are somewhat expected - as figurative language and exaggeration through meatphor is a key trait of fairytales.
When we researched into fairytales and the themes associated with them, I discovered a darkness and harsh reality common to them all. In almost all fairytales, there is an element of fear, moral heart and a comment on human nature. The 'wants', 'needs' and 'dreams' of many fairytale characters that lead them most of the time to danger link in with gothic themes and ideas quite naturally. In researching 'symbolists' (I researched Munch), the subject of supressed desire and dark desire were addressed once again (as seen Dracula with his need to drink blood) - One of Munch's paintings in particular, I thought, spoke volumes and linked remarkably well to 'the bloody chamber' and the themes at the heart of it...one of his paintings, 'Love and Pain' (I'll try to attach a picture) links with the close relationship between love and hate as addressed in The Bloody Chamber and Dracula...the painting, often mistakenly referred to as 'The Vampire' shows a man and woman with an intentionally ambiguous relationship - it is unknown as to whether the picture shows an embrace, a bite or an attack. In many ways Munch's work (particularly 'Love and Pain' as it links so well to the story of Dracula and the implied goings on in 'the bloody chamber') epitomises the gothic themes and dark-fairytale themes of hidden 'wants' and 'desires' - the beast within people - the hidden brutality and darkness. I'm really enjoying seeing how the fairytale and gothic genres overlap and link so well.
We've gone on to talk about 'strong women' also which relates to the more overtly feminist messages...for example, the role of the mother as opposed to the more subtle, metaphorical nods to the theories. I can't quite work out whether 'The Bloody Chamber' works so well because it is the polar opposite of a fairytale (e.g. threat of motherhood reverted so mother is saviour - piano tuner is passive') or whether it works so well because it embraces the harsh realities explored through both the gothic genre and fairytales through expert merging of life and mystical elements - exaggerated version of life.
Just a final point as well...when we were told to research fairytales at the start of our study of the text, my mind instantly jumped to the Stephen Sondheim musical 'Into The Woods' - if anyone's interested, the musical links many fairytale stories and characters by keeping the 'needs' and 'wants' I spoke of earlier at the heart of the story - the musical encompasses all the typical traits of fairytales - emphasizing the idea that acting on great 'wants' and 'hidden desires' often leads to trouble as people will do anything, go into the darkness and 'Into the Woods' in order to find happiness. Essentially, everyone (and fairytale characters) are looking to find happiness...but sometimes, as fairytales tell, in the quest for happiness, if you're willing to do anything - you'll probably end up a) turning into a monster b) getting a stake through the heart/being shot by a crazy 'strong woman' mother/having your body ripped apart by devils. Cheery or what?!
Continuing on from the themes of gender and the genre of gothic tales and fairytales I spoke of in my last blog, we've been looking at The Bloody Chamber with regard to its context and how it fulfils our expectations of a fairytale/gothic story. The more we look into Carter's work, the more I understand how clever it is - how cleverly the fairytale/gothic genres are merged in order to give a comment on society.
Over the past few lessons we've looked into the roles of the males in the text - how the piano tuner contrasts with the Marquis. As we wrote essays on this, I won't go into too much detail but the main things I got from this were...how Carter splits her characters between being 'real people' and 'mystical creations' - almost the same as with Dracula...'normal' people thrown into the midst of a mythical creature - in The Bloody Chamber, we spoke about how the narrator might be representative of the 'normal woman' trapped in a fairytale/gothic world. Continuing on with this idea - there are elements of the human and the mythical/gothic/symbolic within each character, I find...with the narrator's dicovery of the 'bloody chamber' signifying the discovery of the mythical, over-the-top fairytale-esque side to her husband.
Linking in with this, we wrote essays on what, in our opinion, the bloody chamber symbolises. In my essay, I spoke about different interpretations but, the main thing I got from the exercise was a greater understanding of the text's feminist themes - 'the bloody chamber' as a symbol, for example, can be interpreted as a reference to the confinement of marriage and the death of a woman when she becomes a wife. As I said before, I won't go into detail about other theories I spoke of as I addressed them in my essay but, again, exploring the symbolism within the text makes me appreciate the intelligence behind it more and more. The metaphors and symbolism withinn the piece are somewhat expected - as figurative language and exaggeration through meatphor is a key trait of fairytales.
When we researched into fairytales and the themes associated with them, I discovered a darkness and harsh reality common to them all. In almost all fairytales, there is an element of fear, moral heart and a comment on human nature. The 'wants', 'needs' and 'dreams' of many fairytale characters that lead them most of the time to danger link in with gothic themes and ideas quite naturally. In researching 'symbolists' (I researched Munch), the subject of supressed desire and dark desire were addressed once again (as seen Dracula with his need to drink blood) - One of Munch's paintings in particular, I thought, spoke volumes and linked remarkably well to 'the bloody chamber' and the themes at the heart of it...one of his paintings, 'Love and Pain' (I'll try to attach a picture) links with the close relationship between love and hate as addressed in The Bloody Chamber and Dracula...the painting, often mistakenly referred to as 'The Vampire' shows a man and woman with an intentionally ambiguous relationship - it is unknown as to whether the picture shows an embrace, a bite or an attack. In many ways Munch's work (particularly 'Love and Pain' as it links so well to the story of Dracula and the implied goings on in 'the bloody chamber') epitomises the gothic themes and dark-fairytale themes of hidden 'wants' and 'desires' - the beast within people - the hidden brutality and darkness. I'm really enjoying seeing how the fairytale and gothic genres overlap and link so well.
We've gone on to talk about 'strong women' also which relates to the more overtly feminist messages...for example, the role of the mother as opposed to the more subtle, metaphorical nods to the theories. I can't quite work out whether 'The Bloody Chamber' works so well because it is the polar opposite of a fairytale (e.g. threat of motherhood reverted so mother is saviour - piano tuner is passive') or whether it works so well because it embraces the harsh realities explored through both the gothic genre and fairytales through expert merging of life and mystical elements - exaggerated version of life.
Just a final point as well...when we were told to research fairytales at the start of our study of the text, my mind instantly jumped to the Stephen Sondheim musical 'Into The Woods' - if anyone's interested, the musical links many fairytale stories and characters by keeping the 'needs' and 'wants' I spoke of earlier at the heart of the story - the musical encompasses all the typical traits of fairytales - emphasizing the idea that acting on great 'wants' and 'hidden desires' often leads to trouble as people will do anything, go into the darkness and 'Into the Woods' in order to find happiness. Essentially, everyone (and fairytale characters) are looking to find happiness...but sometimes, as fairytales tell, in the quest for happiness, if you're willing to do anything - you'll probably end up a) turning into a monster b) getting a stake through the heart/being shot by a crazy 'strong woman' mother/having your body ripped apart by devils. Cheery or what?!
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