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Gemma Horgan
A2 English Literature
The Bloody Chamber commentary
Carter tells the first story through the first person female narrator, who recounts her
experience of The Bloody Chamber in seven episodes
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The first two episodes establish the young bride’s arrival in the matrimonial
home, her relationship with her husband, and the contrast between her former life in
the French capital and the opulence of her new circumstances in a remote Gothic
location
...

The first short tale in the collection is associated with the French folktale of Bluebeard,
originally written by Perrault as a moral tale instructing children not to be overcurious
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The sixth and seventh episodes show the crisis moving towards its climax, where she
faces the consequences of her actions, and is ultimately rescued by her mother
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The
denouement of the narrative restores the character of the young woman through love
and personal fulfilment
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There is a feverish tone within the first paragraph, as the narrator
recalls the “delicious ecstasy” of a young seventeen year old woman, anticipating her
wedding night, with her “burning cheek” and “pounding … heart” linked to the mockery
of clichéd mechanical phallic imagery: the train’s “great pistons ceaselessly thrusting”
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There is a suggestion that the narrator has been changed by the events of th
story, though it is not made clear how much older she has become
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Her view of her
destination, “the unguessable country of marriage” is reminiscent of Hamlet’s
“undiscovered country” as Shakespeare has his prince contemplate the journey from
life to death, “from whose bourne / No traveller returns”
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Marriage is represented in the symbol of the wedding ring, and Carter’s narrator
introduces this symbol while acknowledging a “pang of loss” for her youth and
freedom
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Putting on the ring
essentially marks the end of childhood, a severing of the link with her mother, and
prepares her for the process of becoming a wife and mother herself
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Carter, without being overly didactic, positions the reader to
question the gender stereotypes present in the typical ‘rites of passage’
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Gemma Horgan
A2 English Literature
The character of the mother is established early on as “adventurous” and
“indomitable”, a “wild thing” reduced to poverty by marrying for love and being
widowed by war
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The male character is associated primarily with symbols of wealth – “gold” and a
“gigantic box”, though the mother evidently distrusts the apparent generosity of the
“wedding dress … wrapped up … like a Christmas gift” – and takes on physical form
as a “kiss” and a “rasp of beard”
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The way in which his identity is not fully revealed is
emphasised by the description of his face as a “perfectly smooth” mask
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The implication is that his
calm detachment and composure is the product of an inhuman nature
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The narrator is clearly flattered by his invitation to “join this gallery of beautiful women”
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The Marquis’s wedding gift to her is bound
with a history of cruelty and death
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The narrator glimpses,
indirectly in his reflection, the way he views her as a piece of meat
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The Marquis represents the mysterious
appealing risk and the danger of the unknown
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He is the
“richest man in France”: there is nothing more that needs to be said to make him
suspicious
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The idea that some people are born ‘noble’ and others are not is
challenged by Carter’s ideal of individual empowerment
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The
aristocratic father figure symbolises everything about patriarchal society that stops
women having control of their own lives
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The link of the Marquis to the symbol of the flower is used once again as the couple
arrive in their bedroom, which is filled with white lilies
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Carter allows her
narrator to make a political and social point linking marriage and prostitution – the
“formal disrobing of the bride, a ritual from the brothel” – which heightens our sense of
unease as the girl is “stripped” to resemble his erotic art collection
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The sadism of the Marquis is hinted during their consummation of the marriage, as he
postpones his satisfaction with no regard for his bride
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When the Marquis refers to these erotic works as “prayerbooks”,
he shows his devotion to the pursuit of sensuous pleasure: it is his religion
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When the innocent girl protests about going to bed in
“broad daylight”, the childhood reminder of the wolf is thrust into the tale: “All the better
to see you”
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The Marquis’s insistence on her wearing the ruby necklace as she is “impaled” by him
makes the connection between sex and the Marquis’s fascination with death clear
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During this unsettling scene, the narrator does not resort to coy clichés or
euphemisms
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Once the reader’s attention is taken from
the bedroom action to the “mewing gulls” flying outside the window, we have to
consider the implications about the girl’s first experience of sex
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The narrator’s detached tone continues, and the earlier suggestion that she may have
been excited by his aggressive and predatory sexuality is replaced by a dulled list
revealing no hint of pleasure on her part
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Her participation is recalled as being a merely
passive victim of his desire
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The Marquis takes possession of his property by “winning” the virginity
she had eagerly anticipated losing, and the numb narration reflects the impact of
selfish indulgence of male desire
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The Marquis’s “deathly composure” is no more than a fragile “mask” for his true
nature, broken at his climax
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Carter plays with conventions
and codes associated with love and marriage
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The
Marquis is almost demonic in his passion, perverting the supposed natural order that
the narrator seemed to expect from marriage
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Carter constructs clues for the reader through her choice of symbol and the
associations made by the narrator
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Marriage can be metaphorically seen as
the end of female independence or it can be interpreted more literally as being the
cause of death for many women through domestic violence or the perils of childbirth
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The emphasis placed on the age difference between the men and the “little girl” adds
the unpleasant association of child abuse to the reader’s understanding of the
relationship
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Carter builds on our
knowledge of the Marquis as a “connoisseur” through images of the paintings,

Gemma Horgan
A2 English Literature
powerfully depicting women as victims
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The way Carter has the Marquis
provide the female narrator with all the keys except one mirrors the relationship in
symbolic form – while his trust seems impressive, the reservation of one key adds to
the mystery and enigma codes forming his character
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The set up of the woman being allowed to possess the key – only on the condition that
she must not use it – holds a biblical allusion to the tale of Adam and Eve in the
Garden of Eden
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The female narrator, “like Eve”, can be seen as either succumbing to temptation or
resolutely pursuing forbidden knowledge
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The
older man is cruel and blasphemous; the younger man is gentle and trained in his
trade by a “good priest”
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The piano-tuner is
prevented from looking at the woman in the way that the ‘normal’ sighted man sees
her
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The metaphor of lighting up the darkness of the castle is linked to the “exhilaration” the
young bride feels at the idea of finding the Marquis’s “true nature”
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The items have
a macabre impact on the reader, being expressions of submissive desire and
fascination with death
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As the female narrator journeys to the darkest core of the Marquis’s castle to discover
his inner identity, she does not seem to be overwhelmed with fear
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The notion of being underground creates clear
connotations of the mythological underworld of the dead
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The
break in the narrative here further prolongs the denial of the moment of discovery for
the narrator and the reader
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She
discovers the embalmed body of her husband’s first wife; next the skull of his second
wife; and the still bleeding body of his third wife trapped in the “Iron Maiden”
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Carter begins the section on the chamber’s discovery with another Baudelaire
quotation equating love with torture, which is reinforced when the narrator refers to her
brief “honeymoon” experience
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While this

Gemma Horgan
A2 English Literature
is a powerful picture of torture and murderous abuse of women, Carter includes
suggestions that are more unnerving than mere violence
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Another gruesome discovery is the countess, who
enjoyed a dangerous flirtation with death, penetrated by multiple spikes
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This section of the narrative closes with a resonant Gothic touch as she slams the
“door of hell” behind her
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The end of the
narrative significantly highlights the ideas of shame and redemption, and the narrator’s
need “to keep my hands clean” is an intertextual recalling to Pontius Pilate, who was
responsible for the execution of Jesus Christ but symbolically washed his hands to
reject any personal guilt
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At one level, the chamber could be seen
as the murderous heart of man, hostile to women, a place where dark desires are
entombed and sex and death are aligned
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Taking a life is the ultimate act of power over another human being, and the
suggestion in this tale is that death is the ultimate form of submission
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Through entering the
chamber, the woman comes to understand her fate as a woman through seeing the
fate of other women – commentators have viewed this as a distorted form of the fear
of maternity associated with traditional fairy tales
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The narrator attempts to remove the evidence of
her guilt: the bloodstain on the key
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Here, blood takes on a
more ominous association with guilt and sin
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Carter’s use of the oxymorons “sombre delirium” and “guilty joy”
encapsulates the contradictory shifts in his mood
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The powerless young man stays to comfort her, although his attitude is rather less
than comforting
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However, he is willing to share her fate
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As the young bride prepares for her fate, the choice of simile for the
Marquis’s weapon, “sharp as childbirth”, emphasises the theme of maternal mortality
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His suspicion that she was not “truly blind to her own
desires” is both the fantasy and the fear of the misogynist
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As the narrator is summoned to the place of
execution, her hope of rescue appears in the distance
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While the improbable arrival of the narrator’s mother is contrived, it is entirely
appropriate for the narrative style of the fairy tale
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The young bride is naked apart from her jewellery, but “the beast” is interrupted from
harming his victim
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The “puppet master”, “the king” is amazed that he is no
longer in command of the world around him
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Carter makes
a solid allusion to the animalistic nature of the Marquis by mentioning the mother’s
ability to eliminate the threat of a “man-eating tiger” – the character is a feminist
reinvention of the hero as a maternal icon
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Carter believed that traditional fairy-tale morality could be summarised as: “Let’s not
bother our heads with the mysteries of sado-masochistic attraction
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” Carter wants to confront her readers
with the mysteries avoided by other interpretations of fairy tales

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