The Kite Runner: Sample Essay on Character Analysis

Character Analysis: Rahim Khan

In The Kite Runner, Rahim Khan is the moral centre and guiding light throughout. He is the voice of reason, someone who stands out in the entire novel for his undying loyalty and honesty to Baba and his family.

We get our first glimpse of Rahim Khan when he calls Amir in Chapter One and says, “There is a way to be good again.” This gently hints at what is to happen ahead in the story, yet not giving everything away, supplying the reader with adequate suspense at the start of the novel itself. He is a man who has stood up for the right cause and is portrayed as a no-nonsense man. There also is a fatherly-aura about him, the main reason why Amir is attached to him more than his own father.

Between Rahim Khan and Amir, the former literally fills in as a second parent to the latter. When Baba ignores or fails to understand Amir, Rahim Khan is right behind with an understanding word or encouragement, so as to keep the child going. We can see this clearly when Hosseini writes, “As always, it was Rahim Khan who rescued me.”

Rahim Khan was always the one to try and bring literature to Amir’s interest, something which Amir takes up as a hobby, and eventually ends up to be his passion. Also, Amir lands up learning more about his dead mother from Khan, rather than his own father. We could also attribute the understanding of Amir’s sense of religion and ethnicity to Rahim Khan’s casual story-telling, where he drops small hints of his own dislike towards racial discrimination in Afghanistan. He once tells Amir a story of how he had fallen in love with a Hazara woman, and his family reacted strongly, even threatening him with death lest he should marry her. This fact shows that Rahim Khan had a just mind and that he looked upon Hazaras as complete equals. It complements Amir’s feelings towards Hassan, and that someone he admires shares the same views.

Rahim Khan’s character certainly does not pop up much in the middle of the story, but we feel he is present due to Amir’s rare reminiscences. Such memories keep him going in the tough life of America. Even though Rahim Khan is not related to Baba by blood, there is a certain level of comfort and understanding that they both share, and the absence of this very companion in America reflects on Baba, where for the first time in the novel, we see him place his son Amir in control of all affairs and himself takes a backseat.

Towards the end of the book, we see Rahim Khan feature in one of the most important scenes in the entire novel. He calls Amir to Pakistan, revealing very little through the telephone, yet too much. His few words are enough for Amir to understand that the time for him to confess his sins had come at last. The events of this scene largely recount what happened after Amir and Baba left Pakistan for America. Several elements like the pain of guilt, racial prejudice, striving loyalty, discord between a father-son relationship and closely-kept secrets are revealed, throwing the reader into a completely unpredicted situation.

Rahim Khan lives up to his character in this last scene of his, where he bares all to Amir and confesses that Hassan is his half-brother and that he knew of all that happened in the alley. He emotionally reveals how tough it had been for him and Amir’s dead father to keep the secret hidden away, almost lock it in a cupboard forever and throw the keys away. He admits he is ashamed, and we see how hard it is for Rahim Khan to break Baba’s trust and loyalty for one last time in his life. He is literally ready to sacrifice everything for the sake of Hassan’s son, and to prove to Amir how strong the bond of blood can be. His one last request brings out his true character and we see what a wonderful person Hosseini has brought into the novel.

Although Rahim Khan is not a character who is present throughout the story, he is one who binds everything together when the reader needs it most. He is the person who finally reveals what brotherhood really means and conveys the basic theme of love and forgiveness in the story. Even though his role in the novel is small, it remains incomplete without him.

The Kite Runner: Sample Essay

How does Hosseini tell the story in Chapter 17?

The whole of Chapter 17 is narrated by the protagonist of the story, Amir. We see that he has travelled all the way from America to meet his old friend, Rahim Khan at his current residence in Pakistan. Rahim Khan has aged and the fact that his posture seems uncomfortable for him shows the kind of physical pain he is going through. The conversation between Rahim Khan and Amir takes place in the evening, and it has been specified that “the sun was beginning to set, glittering red through the cracks of the ramshackle buildings.”It can be interpreted that the setting of the sun implies the end of a major burden in Amir’s life or how Afghanistan as a country has turned to ruins or has “cracked” at the mercy of the Taliban.

Amir again goes into flashback mode, and thinks of what he had done and what was under his control in the winter of 1975. As Rahim Khan speaks, Amir almost relives his childhood as he remembers all the people who once meant the world to him. He hears names of people he himself hasn’t uttered for years together – Hosseini says, “Time can be a greedy thing.”  Immediately, we see the regret in Amir’s eyes and how he repents the many things he could have done when he had the time, but alas, it is too late.

It is soon understood that Rahim Khan has called Amir to speak about Hassan. When he hands Amir the envelope, there is a certain desperation with which he tears it opens and stares at its contents for a whole minute. It goes to show how much Hassan means to Amir, even though he may not display his affection for him – infact, there are times when he behaves like Hassan does not exist.

Suddenly, the entire narration shifts to Hassan as Hosseini cleverly introduces a letter handwritten in Farsi. The childlike handwriting conveys the innocence filled in Hassan and how he truly is the epitome of lifelong friendship and endows forgiveness upon Amir. The Afghanistan we see through Hassan’s eyes is horrifying and crude. The letter reads, “Always the killings.” This one sentence makes the reader reflect how brave Hassan is, to have kept watch over Baba’s palatial house in the absence of Rahim Khan, when he knows the Taliban could punish him over charges of trespassing. This makes Amir look cowardly and insecure; Baba’s foreshadowing is true, that Amir has never stood up for himself, and perhaps he never will. Hassan describes his dutiful son and the health of Rahim Khan to Amir in a way that makes one feel that absolutely no time has passed since they last met. There seems to be a magical connection between Amir and Hassan, almost like brotherhood. In short, Hassan has pumped into the letter all the years of vacuum that Amir has spent in the US. At the end, Hassan says he expects Amir to visit Kabul one day – this goes to show how the theme of hope is so prevalent in the entire story, and how much depth it gives to the Amir-Hassan relationship.

The narration shifts back to Amir once the letter ends, and we see that Amir enquires about Hassan and his family. Rahim Khan says that the Taliban accused Hassan and his family to be trespassers in Baba’s house and that “he was a liar and a thief like all other Hazaras.” This one line brings back to us the rigidity that lay in the Afghani caste system and how nothing, be it wars or mayhem could change the one fact that Hazaras were an inferior caste, the irony being that Hazaras were in actuality much more courageous in comparison to Pashtuns, like Amir. Unabashedly Rahim Khan gets to the point and amidst Amir’s cries, announces that Hassan is dead. This completely unexpected twist in the story opens new arenas and dips the novel as a whole into uncertainty. Khan goes on to add how they killed Hassan’s wife Soraya on the claim of ‘self-defence’.

Later the topic of Sohrab pops up and we see how he is being cared for in an orphanage in Karteh-Seh. Rahim Khan requests Amir to go rescue Sohrab from the orphanage and bring him to a old American pair living in Peshawar, stating they had clean accommodation and that he didn’t want Sohrab to turn into just another Afghani orphan. The fact that Amir believes this to be impossible shows how his nature of selfishness has not changed and the insecurity of leaving behind his great life and budding career in the US is a sharp contrast to the late Hassan.

Amir touches a nerve when he says he is ready to pay for someone to go bring Sohrab safely to Peshawar. The instinctive man Khan is, he exclaims how material benefits have never been his interest and how it is essential that only Amir do the deed. “What I’m asking from you is to grant an old man his dying wish.” The line speaks volumes of how Rahim Khan has fought for people’s rights and the ‘right cause’ – and even death cannot stop him.

It is apparent Rahim Khan is literally pleading Amir to go save Sohrab from treacherous Afghanistan. The fact that being the writer in the room, Amir is speechless shows the fear gripped inside and his being unsure as to whether he will be able to pull off this one task.

In an attempt to convince Amir to take up this challenge, Rahim Khan bares all; Ali’s sterility and Baba’s past come thrashing down at Amir. A completely unprecedented twist and fact is brought up to the forefront. It all comes tumbling back, the realisation of how Baba had wanted Hassan’s harelip operated upon, the constant feeling of Hassan’s absence back in the US and last of all, the shame at what he had done in the winter of 1975 – he hadn’t betrayed just another Hazara boy: he had betrayed his half-brother.

Naturally, Amir’s blood boils at the fact that none of the people who knew of this secret had revealed to Hassan his true identity. Physically, Hassan died a miserable Hazara’s death, while psychologically Amir is dying the death of an ashamed brother and betrayer.

Clearly, society has played an important role in these characters lives. Hassan is denied his true identity out of fear of what others would say and the consequences have been irrepressible. Baba has actually committed the biggest sin in his own eyes – the sin of theft.

Now that the cat is out of the bag and Amir is in complete disbelief as to his life being “one big lie”, the reader wonders whether Amir will take up Rahim Khan’s challenge with a vengeance, considering Sohrab isn’t just a Hazara servant’s son; he is his own nephew.

 

The Kite Runner: Sample Essay

What is the significance of structure in 'The Kite Runner'?

‘The Kite Runner’ is a novel which stands out for its uniqueness in structure and the variation with which it uses events and other happenings to keep the reader interested until the very end. The structure follows a conventional scheme with exception of a few instances where there are time-shifts and the use of letters makes us feel we have gone back in time.

Hosseini has used a chronological time-scheme throughout the book, and jumps time only in highly significant parts of the novel. The first chapter is set in December 2001, which is the ‘present’ throughout the story. It ends at the same time, somewhere around December 2001 – this is what makes the structure of narrative in ‘The Kite Runner’ quite unusual. We then go back in time and learn of Amir, the narrator’s past and how he spent his childhood back in Kabul, Afghanistan.

As the story progresses, we reach the first dramatic climax of Hassan’s rape. For quite some time, the story concentrates on the hardships Amir and Hassan go through after that period. Later, the narrative drifts away from Afghanistan and shifts to America, where Baba and Amir gain political asylum – Ali and Hassan leave the house much earlier out of misunderstanding between Hassan and Amir. Momentarily, the plot seems to revolve around a young man’s hardship in a new land, and vaguely comes across as an immigrant story.

Much later, a call from Rahim Khan, Baba’s best friend, changes the entire plot. He requests Amir to go see him in Pakistan, as a dying man’s plea. After this, the pace picks up to such a rate that the novel almost turns into a thriller and the dramatic events do not disappoint the reader. Amir gets a chance to make up for his ‘unatoned sins’ – as Rahim Khan says, “There is a way to be good again.” The moral issues that had earlier taken a setback come back in double measure, and it is gratifying to see Amir fight the battle for redemption.

Small events such as Baba’s love for Amir and Hassan can be seen again in the form of Amir’s love for Sohrab. Hosseini has consciously crafted these events so as to make the story satisfying as a whole. Similarly, we see Hassan’s threat of turning Assef one-eyed come true when Sohrab instinctively aims for Assef’s eye with his slingshot; it almost is prophetic. The recurrence of the hare-lip; first in Hassan and then in Amir brings out the theme of suffering. ‘Smiling’ also has a large significance in this story – Hassan’s smile always conveyed joy and faith, and we see his son Sohrab smiling at the end of the story, hinting to the reader that everything after that turned out to be eventful.

Overall, the structure in ‘The Kite Runner’ has proved to be an extremely vital part of the book. Hosseini has used this to his advantage so as to make the plot more interesting and to give it the required depth at relevant points in the novel. All of this adds up to make one of the classics of its time.

 

The Great Gatsby: Sample Essay

I have been receiving requests to upload sample essays for 'The Great Gatsby' and 'The Kite Runner', so I decided to look through the remainder of my notes in the hope that I find something. Interestingly enough, I found a few essays that I hope will be helpful to you!

These are just for guidance, so please do double-check for yourself before you use these in your exam answers! These were written long ago, and I don't want to mislead anyone in case some of the information or references/quotes are wrong! :)


How does Fitzgerald tell the story in Chapter 2 of The Great Gatsby?

Fitzgerald has used a whole host of techniques have been used in the narrative of Chapter 2, such as symbolism, use of metaphors, the theme of difference in society and the introduction of new characters to the story. Also, the chapter explores the adept way in which Nick, the narrator goes about explaining Tom Buchanan and his physically driven behaviour, and how this affects his mistress at the end of the chapter.

Fitzgerald uses various metaphors at the very start of the chapter to portray the narrator’s mood and emotions at the time, such as ‘grey land’, ‘bleak dust’, ‘dimmed’, ‘paintless days’, ‘small foul river’ and ‘dismal scene’. Fitzgerald possibly uses this to reflect Nick’s mood in having to have lunch with Tom Buchanan. It portrays to the reader his dislike towards this character, or even indicating to the reader the unwanted meeting with Tom’s mistress, Myrtle Wilson. Fitzgerald perhaps uses this to interest the reader into questioning the reference to the weather and the setting at the start of the chapter in relation to Nick’s emotions and asks why does Nick feel so ‘grey’, ‘bleak’ and just generally pessimistic and negative towards this event as an introduction to Chapter 2, giving indication to the reader of the plot further on in the chapter.

Fitzgerald has once again attributed much importance to the difference in society in this chapter. The ‘Valley of Ashes’ comes across as a poor American settlement, sandwiched between New York and the two Eggs. Nick goes on to say, “Ashes take the form of houses and chimneys and rising smoke,” – this gives a picture of the real America to the reader. The pathetic state of George Wilson’s garage and his appearance convey the poverty in which the inhabitants of the Valley of Ashes lived in. Also, poor though they may be, their aspirations and desires are no less than that of an East or West Egger; given a chance, they can enjoy the life the rich are exposed to, as we see with Mrs Wilson. Her desperation to “fit in” and be one of the elite crowd reflects upon her actual life back in the garage.

Symbolism plays a major part in Chapter 2 of the story. The character of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg has been used by Fitzgerald as a medium to induce the feeling of being “watched upon” – almost as an authoritative person would do. “The eyes of Doctor T.J. Eckleburg are blue and gigantic; their retinas are one yard high. They look out of no face, but, instead, from a pair of enormous yellow spectacles which pass over a non-existent nose.” His presence may not seem obvious at first, but he plays an extremely important role – he symbolises God, who is always looking upon his mortals and what they were doing.

Another matter of significance is how Fitzgerald tells the event of Tom Buchanan hitting Myrtle. It generates shock and surprise to the reader, as such behaviour from men is considering completely inacceptable on any occasion, let alone at a well-attended party. Nick narrates, ‘Making a short deft movement, Tom Buchanan broke her nose with his open hand.’ The sentence structure is short and more like a statement rather than a long explanative description. This adds effect to the narrative, as the length of the sentence matches the sudden and unprecedented impact it has on Myrtle. Fitzgerald manipulates the surprising action by making impact on the sharpness of the short description of this, contrasting to Fitzgerald’s other descriptions to events and settings which he tells to the reader in great amounts of detail with poetic and romantic language rather than this quite simple sentence, in order to contribute in creating a great impact of horror felt by the reader of this event.

A different technique the author uses to tell the story in this chapter is that Fitzgerald matches the events with the narration. With increase in the number of drinks Nick helps himself to; his narration ceases to make sense and turns confusing in his drunken stupor. ‘I was standing beside his bed and he was sitting up between the sheets clad in his underwear, with a great portfolio in his hands. ‘Beauty and the Beast...Loneliness...Old Grocery Horse...Brook ’n Bridge...’ Then I was lying half asleep in the cold lower level of the Pennsylvania Station, staring at the morning Tribune, and waiting for the four o’clock train’ this description is quite a unique way of narrating the story, it adds to the realism of Fitzgerald’s writing and Nick’s capability of reliable narration. The reader can clearly imagine Nick’s night in their head with the sleek and thought out technique of writing.

Essay on the 'The Bloody Chamber' (Title Story)

To what extent is the titular story of ‘The Bloody Chamber’ shocking?

The short story, “The Bloody Chamber”, sees the exploration of many Gothic elements. However, one of the most resonant ones throughout the story is that of ‘shock’. There are many instances in the story that support the statement.

The marriage between a young, virginal girl, to a recently widowed old rich man comes as a shocking surprise. More interesting is the fact that they share almost no common interest – whilst the girl loves music and takes to playing at the piano whenever time permits, the Marquis amuses himself by collecting paintings and novels that deal with ritualistic eroticism. The Marquis catches his new wife peering into The Immolation of the wives of the Sultan, and we see him patronise her by saying, “My little nun has found the prayerbooks, has she?” The young girl’s ‘painful, furious bewilderment’ can be supported by Bertens’ commentary on gender stereotypes: she resembles the woman who is “cute, but essentially helpless” under the dominating nature of the ancestrally rich Marquis that she has married. The shock that reader receives to see the husband refer to his wife as “baby” or “little one” frequently differentiates the fine line between the “monster” and the humane part of the Marquis.

Secondly, the treatment of females is widely covered in “The Bloody Chamber”, and most of the time, the reader is appalled by the way in which Carter goes about the description of these scenes in the story. When the Marquis strips the young girl for the first time, we see the narrator’s ambivalent reaction to the consummation of her marriage. “Enough! No; more!” The constant references to fairytales throughout the story remind us of the helpless heroine who must succumb to the sexual wants of the man to survive in the end. The language makes many subtle references to religious and cultural beliefs (Adam and Eve, aristocratic behaviour in the eighteenth century) and the 'representations of characters' that Botting refers to make the reader wonder if it is morally right for a recently-turned widower to remarry a girl almost half his age simply because she has a "potential for corruption".  Perhaps what shocks the reader more is Carter’s bold portrayal of ‘pornographic confrontation’ in 1979 when feminism was only just being accepted; the embodiment of woman as an independent being is a theme that not only shocks but goes beyond shock in that it educates the society and those that read the story.

Most importantly, the chamber and its contents itself are one of the most shocking elements throughout “The Bloody Chamber” – the blood, corpses and immolation that Carter depicts not only induces fear in the reader, but more so blurs the boundaries between the Marquis’ constant psychological trauma between pain and pleasure. Whilst sadism (depicted in the Marquis) and the blurring of boundaries shocks the reader into believing the Marquis really is the “atrocious monster”, Carter succeeds at repulsing yet at the very same time attracting the reader to the story.

Nevertheless, some readers would go as far to say that, given “The Bloody Chamber” is based on the fairytale “Bluebeard”, it is too predictable to be shocking. The twists and turns are not that surprising, as they are likely to be expected to one who is contextually familiar with fairytales. Carter replaces the conventional male hero with the heroine’s mother, who herself is the embodiment of masculine femininity and whose “maternal telepathy” avers the tragedy. In addition to this, many feminists would argue that the purpose of “The Bloody Chamber” is not to shock, but rather to educate; educate both women and the rest of society about the dangers of the world, and what the result of naivety and desire for material wealth leads to.

Elements of the Gothic - Notes from 'The Company of Wolves' from 'The Bloody Chamber'

THE COMPANY OF WOLVES

Blurring Boundaries

Innocence and Corruption:

1.       “the ominous if brilliant look of blood on snow” – the purity of snow is tainted with blood

2.       “[the scarlet shawl] was as red as the blood she must spill” – the symbol of childhood innocence (the shawl) in the original stories now is connected to the blood that she must ‘spill’ after she consummates her relationship with the wolf

3.       “her hair looked white as the snow outside”

Man and Beast:

1.       “his torso is a man’s but his legs and genitals are a wolf’s” – transformation of the man into  a beast, where the unknown is finally revealed

Setting

Carter immediately defamiliarises the reader from the setting as it a region of “mountain and forest” and it is typically Gothic as she deals with “contemporary locations” (Smith, 2009). We can see that there is isolation, as there is “one beast and only one” which also could be interpreted as that ‘beast’ being the commander of the God-equivalent of the forest.

Narrative

In “The Company of Wolves” by Angela Carter, it is the woman who tempts the man and the man can be seen as a victim in the relationship: thereby every hint of rape as a criminal act is eliminated from the text. The story is a fable about rape. While Perrault’s girl is helplessly naive, gullible and defenceless, the Grimms added the sin of disobedience to the girl. Carter’s girl, on the other hand,
“has just started her women’s bleeding”, and this Little Red Riding Hood is fully conscious of her femininity and sexual desires. When asked for a kiss, she understands the meaning and blushes.

Violence and Fear

Lycanthropy is the belief that wolves and men have the ability to transform into one another and Carter deals with this. Wolves as “threatening figures” (Botting) are introduced as “carnivore incarnate”; they are “cunning” and “ferocious” predators; “forest assassins”. The idea of using quotes such as “so a wolf he instantly became”, and “and then no wolf at all lay in front of the hunter but the bloody trunk of a man” would instantly chill the hearts of traditional readers who lived in the “northern country” at the time in which the story is set – however, to the modern reader, this violence and fear becomes a parody and fails to affect the reader in the intended way.

 

Male/Female Roles

The Dominant Female – Little Red Riding Hood

Though the text emphasises the protagonist’s virginity, the girl seems to know how to make her virginity interrelate with the hunter’s masculinity. When the hunter transforms into a werewolf, the girl bursts out laughing. To her, he is nothing but a “handsome young one”. It is the grandmother who sees the beastliness in the werewolf, whereas to the girl, the wolf’s manliness is emphasised by his “huge genitals”.

The girl in Carter’s version voluntarily undresses herself, and tames the wolf. She successfully gains control over both their sexual desires. The image of the werewolf laying his head on the girl’s lap and her picking lice from his pelt paints the apparently in-control werewolf as a pet cat, and the image objectifies the man rather than the woman. In Perrault, virginity is to be consumed by masculinity while in Grimms, femininity is to be managed by patriarchy. However, in Carter, femininity and masculinity learn to co-exist in peace. Carter changes the role of the female from a mere victim of rape to a self-assertive being who sexually matures in this confrontation. In so doing, Carter allows the transformation of woman as a virgin to femme fatale, who tempts men into sexual intercourse.

The Passive Male – The Werewolf (Hunter)

In “The Company of Wolves”, the werewolf lets his eyes shine, slavers his desires and utters some menacing words, but he stands motionless as if at a loss for how to express his urges. In striking contrast, Little Red takes the sexual initiative herself and thus the story justifies “male myths of rape” where men can be helpless victims of temptation, too. In this, Carter perhaps goes against her initial aim, where she strengthens the negative image of womanhood, where woman as Eve the Temptress is the primary cause of original sin.

Elements of the Gothic - Notes from 'The Lady of the House of Love' from 'The Bloody Chamber'

THE LADY OF THE HOUSE OF LOVE

Confinement

The central question which lies behind the process of transformation is brought up by Carter in her short story “The Lady of the House of Love”. “Can a bird only sing the song it knows or can it learn a new song?” This is a powerful metaphor for the question of whether it is possible for women to break free of their old, rusty roles and reinvent themselves. This question is essential for Carter and her fiction.

Justice and Injustice

Gothic writers reintroduce the injustice perpetrated by a previous generation on the current generation, until the injustice is righted. Thus, sin in doubled and doubled until it is corrected.

Setting

Here the castle is the manifestation of a seemingly masculine power, but this flaunted power is shown to be illusory. Thus the castle, can act as a challenge, a test of resolve that women can triumphantly pass.

The castle represents a threatening, sexually rapacious masculine world. If the images of locked and unlocked doors within the Gothic castle often signify the sexual vulnerability of women, gender roles are reversed.

The castle seems to represent both physically and metaphorically the darkness at the heart of the Gothic. The lower regions of the castle represent fear and entrapment. The darkness of the cavern becomes a metaphor for the darkness of the mind.

Male/Female Roles

The Female Victim/Monster – Countess Nosferatu
The protagonist in “The Lady of the House of Love” has an ambiguous role: on one hand, she is a blood-thirsty vampire who murders and devours her victims, yet on the other hand, she is a typically passive and unconfident illustration of the vampire who has a “horrible reluctance for [her] role”. She is completely controlled by the expectations of her “atrocious ancestors”. She does not kill the young virgin soldier, which would have been the expected course of action by her ancestors, but decides to let him live. This is a brave decision, as it entails her own death. Countess Nosferatu manages to free herself from her puppet-status and is successful in taking an important decision for herself, symbolic of her freedom from the bird-cage by “singing a new song”. Nevertheless, she cannot make much use of her newly-won freedom, because “the end of exile is the end of being”, where the reward for freedom is death.

Elements of the Gothic - Notes from 'The Tiger's Bride' from 'The Bloody Chamber'

THE TIGER’S BRIDE

Confinement

The tiger’s purr is the sound of revolution, the sound of old conventions and traditions breaking apart: “It will all fall, everything will disintegrate.”

Diction

Carter’s Beauty is not afraid, only slightly sarcastic and analytical. Her cynicism and sarcasm responds to her father’s cynicism and folly at gambling his own daughter.

Narrative

Angela Carter’s ‘Beauty’ in ‘The Tiger’s Bride’ reveals that being a woman involves a degree of passivity and dependency on a man (in this case, the father). And although it could be argued that this dependency is almost natural, considering the man they depend on is their parent, the way the women react to the new masculine figure (the Beast) does speak about the author’s professed understanding of the relationship between genders.

Male/Female Roles

Male Role – The Beast
The beastliness of the Beast is mirrored in ‘The Tiger’s Bride’. The Beast is a tiger with “fur, paws and claws”, ferocious, ready to hunt and kill among the “gnawed and bloody bones”. But, his beastliness can also be understood as his sexuality: his desire to see Beauty naked, and the “rich, thick, wild scent” that the Beast drenches himself in (and continues to do so) after Beauty arrives at the castle are symbols of the Beast’s sexuality. He is active, independent and under control.

The Female – Beauty
Angela Carter’s Beauty does not act as a civilising agent on the Beast. She is aware of “the exact nature of his beastliness” as she aptly remembers her childhood tales of old wives’ and gossip about servants getting pregnant out of wedlock. Whilst she acknowledges her sexuality, she gradually and boldly adopts it, and allows herself to be attracted to the “beastliness” of the Beast. From the beginning, Beauty feels contempt for his appearance and demeanour “in spite of the quaint elegance of the Beast”. He also wins her at cards, is wealthy and is always with a valet, in contrast to the apparently passive and dependent Beauty. Nevertheless, it is important to note that Beauty does not tremble in front of the Beast, and rather is enraged at being traded around and literally objectified as a woman. When asked to present herself naked, she produces a “raucous guffaw” and offers to have sex with him in the manner of prostitutes; although she does it to shame the Beast, it shows that females in Carter’s world can be active, in control of their own body and expose their openness to sexuality. Whilst the Beast does not turn to human form in this version of the fairytale, Beauty is turned into a beast, where she embraces and explores her own sexuality, full of desire and sexual passion, all the attributes that Beast (and men) have had all along.

In “The Tiger’s Bride”, the female protagonist has typical puppet-type femininity. She is initially controlled by the male world – first, her father and later the Beast, the latter of which she was warned would “gobble her up”. The sight of the Beast’s “beastliness” shocks her, but only in a negative way: “I felt my breast ripped apart as I suffered a marvellous wound”. She is, nevertheless, impressed by the monster’s openness, that she shows him her naked body freely, which triggers a host of extreme feelings in her where she feels “at liberty for the first time” in her life.

Elements of the Gothic - Notes on 'The Bloody Chamber' (Title Story)

THE BLOODY CHAMBER

Blurring Boundaries

Life vs. Death:

1.       The Marquis reminds the narrator of “cobra-headed, funereal lilies” which we usually associate with death

2.       “dark, motionless eyes” that seem dead yet alive – the Marquis is a timeless man, who can control women yet cannot control his own urges

3.       “The heavy sword, sharp as childbirth, mortal” – the start and end of life are connected in this one phrase

Husband vs. Father:

1.       “fragrance that made me think of my father, how he would hug me in a warm fug of Havana”

2.       “Have the nasty pictures scared Baby?” – although this is a patronising comment from the Marquis, it could also be interpreted as his stepping into the role of a father for the narrator, which blurs boundaries between being a husband and a father

Nature and Confinement:

1.       “Sea; sand; a sky that melts into the sea – a landscape of misty pastels with a look about it of being continuously on the point of melting” – land and sea fuse together to complete block the narrator from getting away from the desolate island on which the castle is placed, i.e. she is confined

2.       “that castle, at home neither on the land nor on the water, a mysterious, amphibious place”

Past and Present:

1.       “the walls on which his ancestors in the stern regalia” – blurs boundaries between the ancestors who have given birth to this “atrocious monster”

Religion and Sex:

1.       “Off comes the skirt; and, next, the blouse of apricot which cost more than the dress I had for first communion.” Not only sheds light on narrator’s materialism, but also on her instant connection between communion and consummation of her marriage

2.       Intonation that sounds like a religious chant: “Of her apparel she retains/Only her sonorous jewellery”

3.       “My little nun has found the prayerbooks, has she?” There is a clear connection between the pious ‘nun’ and he discovery of pornography

4.       “There is a striking resemblance between the act of love and the ministrations of a torturer” – love is a predominantly Christian ideal whilst torture is against God, and diabolic

 

Appearance and Reality

“The Bloody Chamber” is the retelling of the Bluebeard story and is filled with quite a few hints making the reader question whether the young maiden bride is purely naive or not. Carter “subverts the establishment” between the Marquis and the bride in terms of gender, intention and free will. The protagonist emphasises boldly, “I’m sure I want to marry him”. She accepts it as her fortunate “destiny” and even hopes to bear an heir to that “legendary habitation”. She most definitely does not portray herself to be intimidated, shy and ignorant in the initial stages of the story. In fact, her own evil starts to compete with the evil of the Marquis when she describes the ruby choker: “A choker of rubies ... like an extraordinary precious slit throat.”

Setting

The castle seems to represent both physically and metaphorically the darkness at the heart of the Gothic. The lower regions of the castle represent fear and entrapment. The darkness of the cavern becomes a metaphor for the darkness of the mind.

The castle represents a threatening, sexually rapacious masculine world. If the images of locked and unlocked doors within the Gothic castle often signify the sexual vulnerability of women, gender roles are reversed. The castle becomes the Marquis when the narrator describes, “the dolphin taps winked at me derisively; they knew my husband had been too clever for me!”

The narrator’s mother, ‘a very magnificent horsewoman in widow’s weeds’, bursts through the gates of the castle and saves her daughter from the horror of her husband’s torture chamber. Here the castle is the manifestation of a seemingly masculine power, but this flaunted power is shown to be illusory. Thus the castle, can act as a challenge, a test of resolve that women can triumphantly pass. 

Narrative

The ending of Carter’s story is quite suggestive. The Marquis leaves a mark on her forehead and she is glad the piano-tuner cannot see it for it “spares her shame”. What it is it she is ashamed of –adultery, curiosity or tendency for corruption?

Male/Female Roles

The Mother Figure
‘The Bloody Chamber’ provides a rather different perspective on the mother figure. The female narrator’s mother is introduced to us early as ‘eagle-featured, indomitable’ and she reappears at the end of the story in the manner of the knight-errant as the saviour of her daughter.

Sex, guilt and immorality

The problematical issue in the story is not focused on the young woman’s sexual arousal, but rather that women can be as inclined as men to evil. Carter builds this idea by the introduction of pornography as a potential for corruption. Pornography, in fact, deconstructs the plight of women for Carter where the creation of female characters with evil and cunning intentions leaves no alibi for women as the victims in her collection. Another hint of evil in the story is the female potentiality for being bad. “I was not afraid of him, but of myself.” Her “rare talent for corruption” terrorises both herself and the readers as we realise that this could very well happen to any of us.

Theme of Violence in Macbeth

This is an essay on the theme of violence in Macbeth. It is a Section A (1 hr) response.

Explore the nature of violence in the play Macbeth.

William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth” revolves around the tragic downfall of the play’s protagonist, Macbeth. True to any Gothic text, the play has its fair share of violence. However, as the question states, many critics have gone ahead to say that the “violence is excessive”. There are many instances that support this statement in the play.

Most of the violence is “Macbeth” begins when Macbeth, and his wife Lady Macbeth, begin to plan the murder of then king, Duncan. It is interesting to note that Shakespeare, using his authorial intent, avoids showing much of the violence through the narrative in the play; rather, he provokes the reader’s imagination to such an extent that it terrorises them; in this respect, violence is not excessive. However, the imagery used after the murder is committed portrays a different interpretation.

“Is this a dagger I see before me?” Macbeth questions himself, before he is about to kill Duncan; it could be interpreted that whilst the dagger signifies the immoral act of murdering a king, Macbeth is truggling with the internal violence of psychological trauma. Lady Macbeth, who conforms to the stereotype of being a “dangerous seductress” (Bertens, 2000), instigates her husband into doing the “deed” with a “keen knife” when she says, “If thou durst do it, you were a man.” The psychological violence that Macbeth juggles throughout the play is contextually significant, considering that puritans despised theatre, whilst a Jacobean audience considered the result of sin was death. Macbeth’s mental conflict reflected the guilt and regret he felt in addition to the betrayal of a king who took shelter in his castle in “double trust”.

Nevertheless, once the murder is committed, Macbeth says, looking at his hands, “This is a sorry sight”. By keeping the actual murder off stage and using Macbeth as a means to demonstrate the crime, Shakespeare leaves the imagination to the audience’ however, the imagery of excessive blood may come across as comic to the modern audience. “The multitudinous seas incarnadine will turn the green one red” – the fact that Macbeth has committed a murder that would turn “great Neptune’s” green ocean red not only overdramatises the violence, but rather induces a streak of unintentional comedy in the play. In the words of critic Pete Bunten, “Gothic castle, violence and villains, clichéd and recreated by popular imitation, ceased to evoke terror or horror.”

Another instance of violence is shown when Lady Macbeth says, “Out, damned spot!” In addition to a mark of violence not easily being washed away, the Gothic element of the supernatural decreases the effect of physical violence, and instead emphasises the mental violence inflicted on Macbeth and Lady Macbeth’s soul. Macbeth calls the imaginary dagger a “false creation” and a product of the “heat-oppressed brain”. Furthermore, his guilt and remorse that results from repetitive violence causes him to say, “false face must hide what false heart doth know”. The fact that psychological trauma, as a form of violence, is shown in the play guarantees the morality of “Macbeth” and could be interpreted by critics to be genuinely expressed mental violence.

Lady Macbeth’s and Macbeth’s plan to kill the latter’s friend, Banquo, again involves physical violence. Again, the actual murder is kept offstage, but the allusions to ‘thick night” and “fateful” night convey the unshown violence of death to the audience. Macduff is another target of Macbeth’s, and his family is killed in cold blood. A messenger says, “your castle’s slaughtered!” As critic Botting says, “Gothic texts lack rationality ... reason ceases to exist.” It is therefore not surprising to see Shakespeare keep much of the action off-stage, so as to make the violence appear excessive and instead refocus on Macbeth, the protagonist of the play. Structurally, the violence and show of bravery in the first part of the play illustrates Macbeth’s heroism; however, as the play progresses, Macbeth’s attempts at violence not only become excessive but less striking in nature so as to reflect his downfall as a tragic hero.

Furthermore, Macbeth, the protagonist, exhibits a certain level of violence within his speech. Early in the play, whilst addressing his wife, his speech seems to be calm and composed; for example, when he curtly disagrees to kill Duncan, he says, “We shall proceed no further in this business.” The iambic pentameter is unbroken and suggests Macbeth’s calm as a character. However, towards the end of the play, his soliloquies and asides decrease, and his speech becomes more fragmented. It could be argued that Macbeth’s speech, that aims to inflict violence on his enemies sees an increasing change as the play progresses – however, instead of chilling the audience, it turns out to be excessive and melodramatic.

Overall, violence can be divided into two categories in Shakespeare’s Macbeth; one that is horrific, whilst one is terrific. In the words of Robert Kidd, “terror is provoked by the mind, while horror produces disgust.” Shakespeare utilises more terror than horror in the play and it could be argued that the horrific violence is more excessive while the other genuinely terrorises the audience. When lady Macbeth says, “who would have thought the old man had so much blood in him?” it chills the audience, yet fails to make as much of an impact as compared to when she says, “Thou musn’t be th’innocent flower, but the serpent under’t.” From this, it can be seen that the argument of violence being excessive or genuine boils down to how the author or playwright portrays it in the text. Shakespeare, as Kidd comments, “subverts the establishment” of the Gothic genre when presents violence in the play. On one hand, the murders of Duncan and Lady Macduff and her son do not create spine-chilling fear in the audience, while the violent intentions and conversation between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth stir up a range of emotions (terror, horror and fear).

In addition to this, one must also take into account the contextual factors of “Macbeth”. Written in the Jacobean era, Shakespeare depicts the genuine fears of the then king, James I, of political instability, and display of military might in England and Scotland. Whilst a traditional Jacobean audience may find the violence graphic and blood-curdling, the modern audience would find this antique and possibly even comic, considering murder is widely discussed topic today.

In conclusion, the physical violence in Macbeth could be said to be excessive, considering the authorial intent and portrayal of the murders as established earlier in the essay. However, one could argue that the psychological trauma and terrorising acts as a form of violence are not excessive, and are genuine in their own respect for a traditional audience.

Angela Carter

I will be posting notes on Elements of the Gothic from Angela Carter’s collection ”The Bloody Chamber” that I studied at A-Level; however, the aim of this post is to guide you through this blog, its aim, and how to use it.

This blog aims to help those who study A-Level English, or simply those that enjoy literature. On the Home Page, you will find a "Search" bar beneath the heading "TheCommunique's Notes." I request all users to make a search using that toolbar, so as to be able to retrieve old posts easily and make the blog more accessible to everyone.

I prefer the "Search" method as it would be very tiresome to glance through my Blog Archive and find the relevant page you are looking for.

For example, if you wish to search for “humane beasts in The Bloody Chamber”, please enter "humane beasts in The Bloody Chamber " in the Search bar and you should receive relevant results - it may so happen that I have not posted notes for the query relevant to you, if so, please leave a comment somewhere and I will try and help you with it as soon as possible.

Thank you very much for visiting this blog and I hope you enjoy all the posts on TheCommunique's Notes!

Christopher Marlowe

I will be posting notes on Elements of the Gothic from Marlowe’s “Doctor Faustus” that I studied at A-Level; however, the aim of this post is to guide you through this blog, its aim, and how to use it.

This blog aims to help those who study A-Level English, or simply those that enjoy literature. On the Home Page, you will find a "Search" bar beneath the heading "TheCommunique's Notes." I request all users to make a search using that toolbar, so as to be able to retrieve old posts easily and make the blog more accessible to everyone.

I prefer the "Search" method as it would be very tiresome to glance through my Blog Archive and find the relevant page you are looking for.

For example, if you wish to search for “significance of women in Dr Faustus”, please enter " significance of women in Dr Faustus" in the Search bar and you should receive relevant results - it may so happen that I have not posted notes for the query relevant to you, if so, please leave a comment somewhere and I will try and help you with it as soon as possible.

Thank you very much for visiting this blog and I hope you enjoy all the posts on TheCommunique's Notes!

William Shakespeare

I will be posting notes on Elements of the Gothic from Shakespeare's "Macbeth” that I studied at A-Level; however, the aim of this post is to guide you through this blog, its aim, and how to use it.

This blog aims to help those who study A-Level English, or simply those that enjoy literature. On the Home Page, you will find a "Search" bar beneath the heading "TheCommunique's Notes." I request all users to make a search using that toolbar, so as to be able to retrieve old posts easily and make the blog more accessible to everyone.

I prefer the "Search" method as it would be very tiresome to glance through my Blog Archive and find the relevant page you are looking for.

For example, if you wish to search for ‘violence in Macbeth', please enter "violence in Macbeth" in the Search bar and you should receive relevant results - it may so happen that I have not posted notes for the query relevant to you, if so, please leave a comment somewhere and I will try and help you with it as soon as possible.

Thank you very much for visiting this blog and I hope you enjoy all the posts on TheCommunique's Notes!