Angela Carter - The bloody Chamber
How does Carter present the experience of the girl in The Bloody Chamber?
Carter has directed the narrative mostly, although not completely, from the older woman in the text, speaking back on the past (therefore past tense) as a first person narrative. There is interjections of dialogue throughout the text, although it is mostly constructed as a written text, as if the older women is writing in a diary, but has interjections of dialogue, possibly showing her memory traveling back and replaying moments. This is shown via the narrator speaking as if she remembers them, and then refers to them, such as: ‘And, ah! His castle’, ‘And surrounded by so many mirrors!’ These interjections break up the text, and give it more a feeling of an interview than a solid written text, as if she is dictating the story to someone. Throughout the bloody chamber, there is a use of several narrative voices, although for the most part, the narrative voice is that of the older protagonist. This is mostly strongly shown in the middle of the story where extravagant, knowledgeable language is used to describe how she would have to dress up to eat dinner alone by her older voice, before it slipping into her younger self after the ellipsis, ‘to dress up in one of my Poiret extravaganzas with the jewelled turban and aigrette on my head | all alone in the baronial dining hall | at which King Mark was reputed to have fed his knights... No, I would not dress for dinner | I was not hungry enough for dinner itself | Could they leave my sandwiches and a flask of coffee in my music room?’. The young form of the protagoniust comes out when she reflects upon her virginity being taken from her husband: ‘I shivered to think of that’; through the euphemism of “that”, it shows the younger herself is disturbed by the thought of sex with her husband, whilst in latter life she is comfortable with the though of sex, describing the pornographic books the Marquis owns with crude words such as: ‘cunt’ and
Carter has directed the narrative mostly, although not completely, from the older woman in the text, speaking back on the past (therefore past tense) as a first person narrative. There is interjections of dialogue throughout the text, although it is mostly constructed as a written text, as if the older women is writing in a diary, but has interjections of dialogue, possibly showing her memory traveling back and replaying moments. This is shown via the narrator speaking as if she remembers them, and then refers to them, such as: ‘And, ah! His castle’, ‘And surrounded by so many mirrors!’ These interjections break up the text, and give it more a feeling of an interview than a solid written text, as if she is dictating the story to someone. Throughout the bloody chamber, there is a use of several narrative voices, although for the most part, the narrative voice is that of the older protagonist. This is mostly strongly shown in the middle of the story where extravagant, knowledgeable language is used to describe how she would have to dress up to eat dinner alone by her older voice, before it slipping into her younger self after the ellipsis, ‘to dress up in one of my Poiret extravaganzas with the jewelled turban and aigrette on my head | all alone in the baronial dining hall | at which King Mark was reputed to have fed his knights... No, I would not dress for dinner | I was not hungry enough for dinner itself | Could they leave my sandwiches and a flask of coffee in my music room?’. The young form of the protagoniust comes out when she reflects upon her virginity being taken from her husband: ‘I shivered to think of that’; through the euphemism of “that”, it shows the younger herself is disturbed by the thought of sex with her husband, whilst in latter life she is comfortable with the though of sex, describing the pornographic books the Marquis owns with crude words such as: ‘cunt’ and