The Bloody Chamber AS Flashcards
The bloody chamber
The narrators marital bedroom is filled with lilies “the lilies I always associated with him; that are white. And stain you.”
Page 11
Imagery of lilies’ apparent purity suggests the narrators innocence and the marquis, sexual corruption
Lilies are traditionally a symbol of chastity and virtue; to the narrator, however, they ‘funereal’, associated with death.
Flowers suggest a link to the fairy tale context, eg the rose in beauty and the beast
The bloody chamber
The marquis has taken the brides virginity: “ I clung to him as though only the one who had inflicted the pain could comfort me for suffering it”
Emphasises the narrators vulnerability and dependence
Suggests the marquis’ violent subjugation of his wife
Links to the wider theme of men and women
The bloody chamber
The marquis has been “Married three times within my own brief lifetime to three different graces, now … He had invited me to join this gallery of beautiful women”
Page 5
Emphasises the narrators youth and her husbands experience
Foreshadows the marquis’s view on women and the danger he poses to them
Links to the wider theme of men and women
