The Bloody Chamber. Key quotations. Flashcards
‘The lillies I always associate with him, that are white. and stain you.’
Metaphor, discourse, purity of the young girl has dissapeared because of the Marquis. Lillies are associated with death. There is also a change in tense, it is present tense.
‘The richest man in France.’
Superlative. It suggests status and authority. She is impressed by wealth and power. Shows naivety because she is blinded by his power.
‘All the better to see you.’
Links to a fairytale villain. ‘You’ direct threat makes the reader feel apart of the story. Graphological point of isolation/vulnerablity. Allusion of red riding hood-wolf predator, animalistic.
“Tissue paper and red ribbon like a Christmas gift of crystallised fruit.”
Simile suggesting childish excitement
Sense of superficiality-swept away by pretty wrapping
Focus on superficial trimmings suggests a lack of awareness of what’s beneath.
“Teasingly caressed me, egregious, insinuating, nudging between my thighs”
Contrasts with innocence of nightdress-yet still playful lexis
Not fully aware-uncomfortable blend in the lexis between the intrusive and the intimate.
“Perfectly smooth, like a stone on a beach whose fissures have been eroded by successive tides”
Use of simile contrasts the level of experience between narrator and Marquis.
Imagery suggests the concealment surface
“Stone”-emotionless and cold
“The next day, we were married”
Graphological isolation
Sense of finality-swept to a point of commitment/no escape?
“Have the nasty pictures scared Baby?”
Interrogative=domination-syntax
Sarcastic and patronising
“Of her apparel she retains/Only her sonorous jewellery.”
Ironic-juxtaposition between beauty and violence
Allusion to the poem ‘Les Bijoux’ by Charles Baudelaire
