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The Bloody Chamber notes

Page 1: “Unguessable country of marriage” – Idea of a domain – ruled over by a king;
brings the idea of her as a subject to be ruled and therefore subordinate to the Marquis
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beggared herself for love” – Gothic idea of trying to avoid repeating
past mistakes escaping ancestral ties
The mother is set up as a heroic figure early on in the story “outfaced a junkful of
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These actions along with her legacy of “a cigar box full of
medals” and an “antique silver revolver” establish her as a masculine figure  yet she
“nursed a village through
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This duality helps
make her more than a fairytale stock character – she is not simply a woman usurping a
man’s role
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“Teasingly caressed
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“Waxen face
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He has no lines on his face which could suggest no worry or guilt
or lack of remorse Establishes him as something that can’t be fathomed, understood
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“Extinguished sigh”- almost wishing she hadn’t consented
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If he was simply a fairytale villain, he would’ve jumped at her consent but it’s
almost as if he can’t help his killings
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Opal is bad luck and fire is a masculine element as opposed to
water being considered feminine
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This is seen
as childlike and girlish emotions
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(You can also link this to the heroine’s vanity when she is away from the Beast in Tiger’s
Bride
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“A precious slit throat”- is foreshadowing
her death
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“The monocle lodged in his left eye”- shows a one-eyed chauvinistic gaze of him (look up:
the Male Gaze)
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Parallels with Jean-Yves who concentrates on her talent; he cannot see
therefore there is no male gaze
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“I caught sight of myself in the mirror
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The Marquis own this
mirror and reflects his visions upon whoever looks at it (again, the male gaze)
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*SYMBOLISM OF MIRRORS AND LENSES IS REPEATED*
See: Page 7- phallic symbolism EVERYWHERE
“I smelled the amniotic salinity of the ocean”- gives the sea feminine qualities
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)
“I have acquired a whole harem for myself”- at this point, he sounds like a Middle Eastern
prince
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Grammatically, it starts and ends with self-referential pronouns (I,
myself)
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“For myself”: excludes her from any kind
of pleasure
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Quite a bit you
could do with this
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as if he were stripping the leaves of an artichoke”- seedy and distasteful
“
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No sense of any sacred or anything loving, perhaps because it’s
not a mutual action
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It

links to the painting by Felicien Rops where the model is “bare as a lamb chop”- a piece of
meat
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Reading is meant to
broaden one’s outlook however; this doesn’t educate or develop him in any way
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Link back to that monocle,
focusing of one concentrated aspect of female sexuality
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Carter uses this language to remove any
sexual thrill
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The fig is a metaphor
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Adam and Eve were covered in fig leaves- the woman in the
painting isn’t
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The
imagery of the fig also makes her something to be consumed; she is dehumanised and
desexualised
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and it’s beyond daylight” – All the better to see you with
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Using Red Riding Hood serves as
a reminder to the dangers of the adult world; it shows the Marquis as a predator
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(Would’ve
have been great if I remembered this for the mock on sex and violence but I forgot, didn’t I)
“A dozen husbands impaled a dozen wives” (again, the mirrors) the sexual act is magnified
by the mirrors
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Carter in keen to stress the violence of the action and the heroine’s lack of action
The idea of virgins being in danger in Gothic literature- Carter subverts this
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“I seemed reborn in his unreflective eyes”- mirrors and lenses again
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“Seemed
reborn”- doubting her own true character however, in his castle with all the mirrors and
shit, this is the only view she has of herself
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”- Being told to use any key except one idea of forbidden knowledge,
being tested almost
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 Female
curiosity leads to retribution
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“This lovely prison
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There is a
paradoxical existence of the heroine- she is not in control
“Lights! More lights!”- A metaphor of bringing ‘light’ of her husband’s true nature
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Links/parallels with Macbeth here???
The heroine searching for the Marquis’ other side- this search for the real man helps draw
comparisons from Frankenstein; the search for forbidden knowledge
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It also marks the horror she will find at the centre of the
castle/centre of the Marquis
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The sea was also feminine
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“Bygones were bygones, crying over spilt milk did nobody any good
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Here we see three clichés in a row- it is deliberate
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“Absolute darkness”- A gothic tradition of the extreme and darkness
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“Instruments of mutilation”- This is where she deviates from the stock female heroine who
would expectedly ‘swoon’ or faint
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This could be seen as Carter expressing the need for
women to break out from predesigned roles
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Again we have the combination of sex and
violence
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The line from a poet also further reveals the Marquis’ interests
and what he takes from literature and art
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Unfortunately I only have
these lovely typed up sheets of notes from Adam for this story
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]

She can’t trust anyone inside the castle or even the police as everyone seems like an
extension of the Marquis’ authority
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“His forefathers had rules for 8 centuries” Carter draws
attention to the idea of the ‘weight’ of his aristocratic past
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