Blood Flashcards
Dracula
A tainted metaphor to reflect entrapment, loss of virginity or purity, sexually transmitted diseases which were feared at the time
It causes individuals to degenerate under the influence of forbidden desires
Reflects the fear of reverse colonisation and decline of the Empire through the mixing of blood of this aristocratic man and English women
Blood also enables Lucy to be liberated from the stereotypical female role and allows her to embrace her sexuality
TBC
The ‘bloody chamber’/womb liberates the narrator and enables her to break out of her passive role in both The Bloody Chamber, The Tiger’s Bride and ‘The Earl King’,
Therefore the mixing of blood, and perhaps racial integration is celebrated
Blood thus enables women to prosper and is a key aspect of female sexuality which is embraced throughout the text as the womb is not seen for reproductive uses only
In ‘The Earl King’, when he wishes she ‘would bear me’, the desire to return to the womb inspires the narrator for greater agency and enables herself to be reborn in the ‘black vortex of his eye’,
Which suggests that the womb is a place of rebirth for liberation, not just for baring children or to be sexualised
