The Princess Bride And The Bloody Chamber

Often written for children, traditional fairytales are fictitious works with magical qualities. However, “The Bloody Chamber” by Angela Carter and The Princess Bride by William Goldman, are no traditional fairytales. Although both poses the fictitious qualities and traits of traditional fairytales, neither work can be considered as being written for children. The use of violence in sex, pornographic imagery, and the objectification of women show that the stories are intended for mature readers.

Throughout the story, Carter presents the idea that violence and sex are connected together. Not only would these topics be considered taboo for children individually, the fact that Carter uses the two hand in hand amplifies the reasoning behind why
this story is not suitable for children. This entanglement, of violence and sex, is shown when Carter states, “I saw him watching me … with the assessing eye of a connoisseur inspecting horseflesh.” (11). Carter gives a predatory aspect to The Marquis’ as he observes the narrator and compares her to meat. It indicates he has a “carnal” desire to consume her, representing both a violent and sexual connotation. Further evidence of this connection is clearly presented through a quote from the Marquis’ favorite poet “There is a striking resemblance between the act of love and he ministrations of a torturer" (27). As the “favorite poet” of the Marquis’, this quote reflects the beliefs of the Marquis’ himself. To him, the act of sex is very similar, if not the same, as the act of violence. This implies that the Marquis gets equal pleasure from violence, as he does from sex. These examples serve as an important indication as to why “The Bloody Chamber” is inappropriate for children, as the connection being created helps advocate violence, and will instill this dark idea in their young minds.
Another reason behind Carter’s intended audience to be mature readers is due to the exploration of pornographic imagery. Pornography is known to be harmful for children, as the graphic material often dehumanizes women, and can form false ideas about healthy relations. Hence, when Carter depicts the painting of a naked woman, and clothed man in, “He in his London tailoring; she, bare as a lamb chop. Most pornographic of all confrontations.” (15), it demonstrates that the man has more power over the woman. Furthermore, the relationships shown in pornography are usually extreme, and although that is known to mature readers, children will treat the following image from Carter as normal, “the girl with tears hanging on her cheeks like stuck pearls, her cunt a split fig below the great globes of her buttocks on which the knotted tails of the cat were about to descend, while a man in a black mask fingered with his free hand his prick” (16). Not only is the aforementioned dominance of man over woman shown again, this time violence is added and shows the man gaining pleasure at the woman’s pain and suffering. As children are susceptible to new notions, it is important that they stay away from this sort of content as it may lead to future problems.

Unlike “The Bloody Chamber”, where Carter’s use of extreme and graphic content serve as why the story is not suitable for children, Goldman has a more subtle reasoning.
Goldman, through negligence, objectifies women based on their appearances. Goldman introduces the sole major female character through an outline of the rankings of the most beautiful women, as is evident by, “Buttercup at this time was nowhere near that high, being barely in the top twenty” (42). This introduction, creates the implication that a woman’s only importance is her beauty, and as stated previously children are easily susceptible to these false notions, and based on them form wrong ideas of women. Although, Goldman shows evidence of Buttercup, the major female character, wanting to be valued for more when Goldman states “Enough about my beauty.” Buttercup said. “Everybody always talks about how beautiful I am. I’ve got a mind, Westley. Talk about that” (196). However, this is drowned out by the rest of the characters, and Goldman, who refer only to Buttercup’s appearance. This objectification of women based on their beauty has no consequences in the story. Due to this, children who are encountering this for the first time will believe that it is okay, when mature individuals understand that this is not the case as they would be previously exposed to such
topics.

Sex and violence, pornography, and dehumanization of women are more than enough aspects that make a story inappropriate for child readers. Nonetheless, both “The Bloody Chamber”, and The Princess Bride contain many more reasons as to why neither is suitable for children. Although, both stories still contain the qualities and traits of many fairytales, it is due to these previous reasons that a suitable audience would be adolescents and young adults.