Angela Carter, the Snow Child Symbolism Essay
Some readers may suggest that ‘The Snow Child’ is a simple one dimensional Gothic narrative, whilst others might argue that it is a complex allegory.
What is your response to the text?
Carter expresses many aspects of the gothic genre in her short story ‘The Snow Child’. However the play doesn’t merely consist of gothic themes such as the supernatural, incest or the sublime, like many critics may suggest, but relies on an allegory which by definition can make the narrative much more than what is perceived as being ‘one dimensional’ “Carter says of her stories in ‘The Bloody Chamber’ that allegory is intended1, but also that she keeps ‘an entertaining surface2’ , that you ‘Don’t have to read them as a system of signification if you don’t want to3’” It incorporates values of intertextuality, Freudian theory, untypical genre conventions, absurd genre roles and explores the fine line of where paternal desire becomes much more than that.
The gothic elements of the story make the narrative appear one dimensional as these are foregrounded and apply an “Entertaining surface”4 which the audience have the benefit of. The protagonists of the narrative are suggested as being particularly gothic in their appearance.
“He wrapped in the glittering pelts of black foxes; and she wore high, black, shining boots with scarlet heels, and spurs.”5 This makes the characters appear malevolent in depiction, even more so when juxtaposed with “the child of his desire.”6 The ‘black foxes’ not only is suggestive of the cunning nature of the character but the colour black connotes death, foreshadowing coming events. The Countess appears even more malicious than the count, “she on a black”7 mare, insinuating the colour black symbolising death again, in conjunction with the “scarlet heels” the colour red also symbolises death, and blood, but also can imply compassion, for whom we can assume is the Count. The characters aren’t the only gothic features of the narrative. Symbols of
What is your response to the text?
Carter expresses many aspects of the gothic genre in her short story ‘The Snow Child’. However the play doesn’t merely consist of gothic themes such as the supernatural, incest or the sublime, like many critics may suggest, but relies on an allegory which by definition can make the narrative much more than what is perceived as being ‘one dimensional’ “Carter says of her stories in ‘The Bloody Chamber’ that allegory is intended1, but also that she keeps ‘an entertaining surface2’ , that you ‘Don’t have to read them as a system of signification if you don’t want to3’” It incorporates values of intertextuality, Freudian theory, untypical genre conventions, absurd genre roles and explores the fine line of where paternal desire becomes much more than that.
The gothic elements of the story make the narrative appear one dimensional as these are foregrounded and apply an “Entertaining surface”4 which the audience have the benefit of. The protagonists of the narrative are suggested as being particularly gothic in their appearance.
“He wrapped in the glittering pelts of black foxes; and she wore high, black, shining boots with scarlet heels, and spurs.”5 This makes the characters appear malevolent in depiction, even more so when juxtaposed with “the child of his desire.”6 The ‘black foxes’ not only is suggestive of the cunning nature of the character but the colour black connotes death, foreshadowing coming events. The Countess appears even more malicious than the count, “she on a black”7 mare, insinuating the colour black symbolising death again, in conjunction with the “scarlet heels” the colour red also symbolises death, and blood, but also can imply compassion, for whom we can assume is the Count. The characters aren’t the only gothic features of the narrative. Symbols of
Bibliography: Angela Carter, “The Bloody Chamber”, The Snow Child ROWE, K. E. “Feminism and Fairy-Tales”. Women Studies, n. 6, p. 237, 1978-79. PALMER, P. “From ‘Coded Mannequin’ to Bird Woman: Angela Carter’s Magic Flight”. In: ROE, Sue (ed). Women Reading Women’s Writing. New York: St Martin’s Press, 1987. p. 179-205 SIEGEL, C. “Postmodern Women Novelists Review Victorian Male Masochism”. Genders, n. 11, p. 1-16, 1991. Sigmund Freud, Interpretation of Dreams (1899), On the Universal Tendency to Debasement in the Sphere of Love and Three Essays on the Theory of Sexuality, 1977 Ray Cluely, Emagazine and author: Published in the emagazine subscription website September 2009