The Bloody Chamber Notes
The Bloody Chamber
Quotes
- ‘like an extraordinarily precious slit throat’
- ‘bright as arterial blood’
- ‘faery solitude’
- ‘so many mirrors’
- ‘as if he were stripping the leaves off an artichoke’
- ‘instruments of mutilation’
- ‘the walls…gleamed as if they were sweating with fright’
- ‘an armful of the same lilies with which he had filled my bedroom’
- ‘the trumpets of the angels of death’
Characters
- Heroine
- ‘seventeen and knew nothing of the world’
- ‘the white-faced girl from Paris’
- ‘I was only a baby’
- Marquis
- ‘dark leonine shape of his head’
- ‘opulent male scent’
- ‘dark mane’
- ‘waxen face’
- Mother
- ‘indomitable mother’
- ‘wild thing’
AO2 - language, form and structure and how they shape meaning
- Language
- Juxtaposition - ‘lascivious tenderness’
- Metaphor - the Marquis as a beast, or as God - ‘the eye of God - his eye’
- ‘Subterranean privacy’ of the chamber - likening bloody chamber to Hell
- Form
- Castle is a Gothic reinterpretation of the fairytale template
- Reworked fairy tales - Carter called them ‘new stories’ not ‘versions’
- Short stories maximise the impact of Carter’s messages
- Novelette - the slow pace of which mirrors the brief lifestyle of the heroine in her new life
- Structure
- Long descriptive paragraphs followed by very short sentences e.g. ‘Dead as his wives.’ - isolated simile
- Longer sentences with commas increase the suspense, short sentences create a sense of fear
- Ellipsis also used
AO3 - connections between texts and different interpretations
- Child like language - ‘Baby mustn’t play with grownups’ toys’ (see EK, COW)
- Fairy tale motifs - ‘All the better to see you’ - links to fairy-tale form (see EK,
Quotes
- ‘like an extraordinarily precious slit throat’
- ‘bright as arterial blood’
- ‘faery solitude’
- ‘so many mirrors’
- ‘as if he were stripping the leaves off an artichoke’
- ‘instruments of mutilation’
- ‘the walls…gleamed as if they were sweating with fright’
- ‘an armful of the same lilies with which he had filled my bedroom’
- ‘the trumpets of the angels of death’
Characters
- Heroine
- ‘seventeen and knew nothing of the world’
- ‘the white-faced girl from Paris’
- ‘I was only a baby’
- Marquis
- ‘dark leonine shape of his head’
- ‘opulent male scent’
- ‘dark mane’
- ‘waxen face’
- Mother
- ‘indomitable mother’
- ‘wild thing’
AO2 - language, form and structure and how they shape meaning
- Language
- Juxtaposition - ‘lascivious tenderness’
- Metaphor - the Marquis as a beast, or as God - ‘the eye of God - his eye’
- ‘Subterranean privacy’ of the chamber - likening bloody chamber to Hell
- Form
- Castle is a Gothic reinterpretation of the fairytale template
- Reworked fairy tales - Carter called them ‘new stories’ not ‘versions’
- Short stories maximise the impact of Carter’s messages
- Novelette - the slow pace of which mirrors the brief lifestyle of the heroine in her new life
- Structure
- Long descriptive paragraphs followed by very short sentences e.g. ‘Dead as his wives.’ - isolated simile
- Longer sentences with commas increase the suspense, short sentences create a sense of fear
- Ellipsis also used
AO3 - connections between texts and different interpretations
- Child like language - ‘Baby mustn’t play with grownups’ toys’ (see EK, COW)
- Fairy tale motifs - ‘All the better to see you’ - links to fairy-tale form (see EK,