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.