Materialism-Marxism The Bloody Chamber and The Courtship of Mr Lyon

Materialism-Marxism The Bloody Chamber and The Courtship of Mr Lyon

1. "I swear to you, I had never been vain before I met him"

2. "My cup runnerth over. And I had on a Poiret Dress"

3. "On his arm, all eyes were upon me. The whispering crowd in the foyer parted like the red sea to let us through"

4. "There was a dress for her, too; black silk"

5. "I'm sure I want to marry him"

6. "great ancestral bed"

   • "My first opera"
     • "He was rich as Croesus"

7. "that magic place...To which, on day, I might bear an heir...my destiny"

   • "my nostrils caught a whiff of the opulent male scent of leather and spices"
   • "He had the ring ready in a leather box lined with crimson velvet"

8. "he had invited me to join this gallery of beautiful women"

   • "for the opera, I wore a sinuous shift of white muslin tied with a silk string under the breasts. And everyone stared at me"
     • "I sensed in myself a potentiality for corruption that took my breath away"
     • "This ring, the bloody bandage of rubies, the wardrobe of clothes from Poiret and Worth, his scent of Russian leather- all had conspired to seduce me so utterly that I could not say I felt a single twinge of regret"
   • "His wedding gift, clasped around my throat. A choker...like an extraordinarily precious slit throat"

9. "pauses in her chores in the mean kitchen to look out at the country road"

   • "the old car stuck fast in a rut"
   • "the only gift she wanted, no matter how the case went, how rich he might once again be"
     • "the house was plainly that of an exceedingly wealthy man"
       • "the dining room was Queen Anne, tapestried, a gem"
         • "she longed for the shabby home of her poverty. The unaccustomed luxury about her she found poignant, because it gave no pleasure to its possessor"
           • "She was learning...how to be a spoiled child"
           • "she smiled at herself in mirrors a little too often, these days"
           • "Her face was acquiring, instead of beauty, a lacquer of the invincible prettiness that characterizes certain pampered, exquisite, expensive cats"
         • "You are never at the mercy of the elements in London"
         • "her father was as good as rich again...A resplendent hotel; the opera, theatres; a whole new wardrobe for his darling, so she could step out on his arm to parties"
         • "she took off her earrings in front of the mirror; Beauty"
       • "Her bedroom contained a marvellous glass bed; she had a bathroom, with towels as thick as fleece and vials of suave unguents"
   • "perfect, Palladian house"
   • "the whole of spring drew him into its warmth"

10. "up the staircase...stumbling, ripping the hem of her dress in her haste. What a modest bedroom!"