"In The Bloody Chamber Angela Carter reverses gothic traditions so that the males become the victims instead of the females."

"In The Bloody Chamber Angela Carter reverses gothic traditions so that the males become the victims instead of the females."

1. THE LADY OF THE HOUSE OF LOVE

   • The countess is the predator, and she is female
     • she entices males into her bedroom where she then devours them.
       • "now she is a woman, she must have men"
     • however she is a victim of her past; she has to suffer the ways of life which her ancestors have set up for her (being a vampire). This could be a social comment on how women's lives are set up by how their female ancestors act
       • "except her horrible reluctance for the role"
       • "she would like to be human"
   • The soldier, a young male, is her prey
     • He is a virgin, a trait often associated with women in the gothic

2. "The heroines of these stories are struggling out of the straitjackets of history and ideology and biological essentialism"

   • The women are breaking free from society's idea of what they should be
     • The mother in "The Bloody Chamber" saves her child from the Marquis, a role which typically in gothic and fairytale tradition would be applied to men.

3. THE BLOODY CHAMBER

   • The Marquis is killed at the end of the story by the girl's mother.
     • "her skirts tucked around her waist, one hand on the reins of the rearing horse while the other clasped my father's service revolver"
       • presented in a very masculine way
   • throughout the story the girl is the victim to the Marquis; victim to his sexual violence (despite the fact she finds that she is drawn to it.
     • His former wives are all female victims, murdered by the Marquis
     • "there is a striking resemblance between the act of love and the ministrations of a torturer"
   • the girl is treated as though she is meat that he has bought
     • "he stripped me [...] as if he were stripping the leaves off an artichoke
     • "my purchaser unwrapped his bargain"

4. THE ERL-KING

   • The girl strangles him at the end of the story
   • He entraps young girls by turning them into birds and caging them.

5. WOLF ALICE

   • The Duke, a werewolf, is hated by the villagers and is shot at, causing him pain and injury.
     • Alice tends to his wounds, and by doing this, transforms him back to a human