The Bloody Chamber - quotes - complete Flashcards
1
Q
Give a quote to show the narrator is innocent
A
‘I knew nothing of the world’
2
Q
the white dress the narrator wears has a s__ s___ - what does this show
A
silk string
She is wrapped up like a present
3
Q
what did the narrator wear before she married
A
faded handme downs - making her look childish and young
4
Q
give 2 descriptors of the Marquis as like a lion/predator/animal
A
‘dark mane’, ‘dark leonine shape of his head’
5
Q
What do the Marquis’ eyes look like
A
absence of light
6
Q
how is the Marquis described as inscrutable
A
His face like a ‘mask’
7
Q
give a phrase describing the opera singer wife
A
the narrator describes witnessing her singing Tristan und Isolde when the narrator saw her first opera with her father - the wife burned with ‘white hot passion’
8
Q
what 2 things does Merja ___say in 1992 about TBC
A
Makinen-
notes how some critics argue that carter reproduces male pornography and isn’t successful in transforming the fairy tales into feminist ones
However, she instead argues that the reader needs to appreciate Carter’s attack on gender stereotypes, and the intention behind the stories in order to enjoy the empowerment of them
9
Q
Give 2 things Kari E ___
A
Lokke says the bloody chamber explores violence, exploitation and loneliness in male-female relationships
○ Lokke says carter builds suspense and tension (a feature of both horror and erotic fiction)
10
Q
What did Patricia ___say in 1984 about TBC
A
Duncker
Carter didnt effectively subvert the ideologies of the fairy tales which were ‘too complex and pervasive to avoid’, meaning carter was forced to include the ideas and values of traditional fairy tales
11
Q
what does Carter say she was interested in when writing TBC
A
gothic tales, cruel tales, tales of wonder, tales of terror…[dealing with]the imagery of the unconscious’
12
Q
What does Carter say about virtue and passivity in the Sadeian woman
A
passivity is not an intrinsically virtuous state, even - in fact especially - in women
13
Q
what does carter say about Justine and demanding respect in TSW?
A
Justine believes ‘her beauty and virtue are in themselves qualities which demand respect’, and that for the young, beautiful, virgin girl therefore, ‘her expectation of reverence ensures her passivity’
14
Q
In Bluebeard retelling by Carter, what is the narrator consumed by, causing her to enter the bloody chamber
A
‘Temptation’ and ‘curiosity’
15
Q
What are the two morals of carter’s retelling of Bluebeard
A
Curiosity is the most fleeting of pleasures; the moment it is satisfied, it ceases to exist and it always proves very, very expensive’
And
No modern husband would dare to be half so terrible, nor to demand of his wife such an impossible thing as to stifle her curiosity. Be he ever so quarrelsome or jealous, he’ll toe the line as soon as she tells him to…whatever colour his beard might be, it’s easy to see which of the two is the master’
16
Q
Who wrote Bluebeard
A
Perrault
17
Q
what does the narrator do with jean-yves at the end of the novel specifically
A
‘Set up house’
18
Q
Clarissa ___ argues what about the drama of the fairy tales
A
‘Call on all aspects of the fairy tale to represent the drama within a single woman’s psyche’
19
Q
what does Clarissa ___ say about the characters in TBC
A
they are aspects of teh narrators psyche as she progresses through the bildungsroman:
- the marquis is ‘her unconscious murderous masculinity, her sadistic animus’
- JeanYves is the ‘more sensitive masculine archetype’
20
Q
How does the Marquis symbolise the patriarchy and its enduring power
A
he is the ‘richest man in France’ so he has aristocratic power
And he lives in what Yves calls the ‘castle of murder’ (there are folkloric tales of his ancestors’ misdeeds)
21
Q
Experiencing the male gaze awakens the narrator to what
A
her own sexuality/the erotic
22
Q
How does th Marquis seduce the narrator
A
material luxury, wealth and gifts
23
Q
what does Clarissa ___say about the cellar, dungeon and cave symbols
A
Estes
The cellar, dungeon, and cave symbols are all related…they are the ancient initiatory environs…(places where a woman goes to) break taboos to find the truth…travail triumphs by banishing, transforming or exterminating the assassin of the psyche’
24
Q
How does TBC show how the Marquis’ masculinity forces women to be terminally passive
A
the embalming of the 3 women
25
what does estes say the narrator is saved by
her ability to ‘integrate an aspect of her shadow’ (witnessing the Marquis’ evil sadism and not shying away from it)
- although i think she does shy away from it, as she doesn’t call him out on it and eventually represses the memory without actually dealing with/sanitising the chamber)
26
how is the ending socialist
it is a socialist vision of equality and sharing/criticism of capitalism
27
does estes think the ending his happy or sad and why
happy - it is a better version of the heterosexual relationship, and the ‘castle of murder’ becomes a place for good 9school for the blind)
28
what does estes say the narrator is able to finally live at the end of TBC
an ‘authentic life’ (i dont a free, i think her life is a shadow of what it once was and she mourns the loss of her old life with teh marquis)
29
what does estes argue the novel shows women
‘a way to reclaim their autonomy’ ( i dont agree as the narrator does very little actively and autonomously)
30
give the quote showing Angela carter expressing her wish that her stories are read as moral allegories
she puts everything in to be ‘read the way allegory was intended to be read’
31
what does the white satin nightdress do between the narrator’s legs
‘nudging between my thighs’
Slipping over her ‘Young girl’s pointed breasts’
32
the opal ring is a symbol for what
‘bad luck’
33
what is the ruby choker described as
a ‘slit throat’
34
What is the history of the ruby choker
(it was his grandmothers and attached to the French Revolution - which happened because of the revolt of peasants against the abuse of the aristocracy. This highlights the upper and lower class relationship/the theme of the aristocracy). He gives her this choker to wear
35
What is the wedding ring
the opal ring
36
what opera does the Marquis take her to see
tristan and isolde
37
give a quote about corruption
i sensed in myself a potentiality for corruption
38
give a quote suggesting the narrator has been corrupted by the marquis
Jean-Yves - ‘to see him, in his lovely, blind humanity, seemed to hurt me’
39
What shape is the stain on her forehead
‘heart shaped;
40
give a reading of the text that paints the narrator as eve
Narrator is like Eve, being tricked by the Marquis (the devil) into temptation
○ She is banished from Eden (his Eden - his castle)
§ She is bound to spend the rest of her life separated from Eden, pleasure and the idyllic beauty of the castle
41
Give 2 ways the story begins in a state of transition
the narrator is on a train going to her husbands castle to marry him
Moving between girlhood to womanhood -on the precipice of maturity
42
Carter presents the states of girlhood and marriage using ___and ___ which is similar to Dracula how
positions and settings
Dracula also uses gothic settings like Dracula’s castle as symbolic of the id of harker?
43
what does the narrator describe marriage as and what does this link to
bridal triumph
- This links to the internalisation of sexism within women, and of feminine ideals, which carter ironizes
44
How does the narrator feel the marquis’ desire for her?
Like a form of ‘gravity’ rather than ‘violence’
- this could link to the patriarchy
45
Marrying the narrator, what does the marquis invite her to do
join his ‘gallery of beautiful women’
46
How can we tell the narrator is naturally passionate
she describes the opera as having ‘voluptuous chords’ which carry ‘deathly passion’
47
How does the Marquis look at the narrator
like a ‘connoisseur inspecting horseflesh’
48
After seeing the way the marquis looks at her, what does the narrator sense in herself
a ‘potentiality for corruption’
49
what does the narrator describe the luxuries the marquis gifts her before marriage
like a ‘child’s toy’ on a ‘string’ drawing her away from her family/the rest of the world
50
how big is the marquis?
‘Huge’
51
what does teh ocean smell like
the ‘amniotic salinity of the ocean’
52
the Marquis makes the narrator what
vain
53
whose painting is in the narrators bedroom
saint Cecilia
54
What is the marquis stripping the narrator compared to
stripping her like an ‘artichoke’
55
what does the narrator compare the Marquis stripping her to (not vegetable imagery)
a ‘monocled lecher’ examine a ‘child’ who is ‘bare as a lamb chop’
56
what is the Marquis’ flesh described as being like
lilies ‘that are white. And stain you’
57
give a quote showing the narrator’s arousal at teh idea of sex with the Marquis
‘I shivered to think of that’
58
What is the pornographic image that the narrator finds called
‘re proof of curiosity’
59
give a quote that shows the narrator is not as innocent as she seems
‘cunt’ and ‘man in a black mask fingered with his free hand his prick’
60
what does the marquis say when he finds her with the porn
‘my little nun has found the prayer books’ and
‘Baby mustn't play with grownups' toys until she's learned how to handle them'
61
What confirms to us that the narrator isn’t innocent in the way we immediately assume
‘I was innocent but not naive’
62
how does the narrator describe sex
‘a dozen husbands impaled a dozen brides’
63
what does the marquis say which links to the wolf stories about having sex in broad daylight
‘all the better to see you’
64
what does the word ‘impaled’ to describe sex link to
‘vlad the impaled’ - an inspiration vampires for Dracula
65
what are they woken by after orgasm and why is this significant
‘insistent shrilling of the telephone' which is strangely banal, and potentially indicates Carter trying to demystify the sex act, removing it from a place of sacredness so that it cannot be sacrilege for women to express themselves as sexual beings
66
During sex, the narrator thinks (but isn’t sure) she sees the marquis face what
‘without its mask’
67
How deos the narrator describe the loss of her virginity
i had been infinitely dishevelled by the loss of my virginity
68
what does the ruby necklace do during sex
’bit into my neck’
69
How does the Marquis describe the bloody chamber
‘my enfer’ (his hell/punishmnet)
70
give 3 possible reasons the narrator is tempted to enter the bloody chamber
curiosity, coveting his power, to better understand him
71
keys are ___symbolism (according to___)
phallic Freud
72
what kind of paintings does the marquis have and why
Old paintings of naked women - showing the enduring nature of the patriarchy
73
the marquis has many tasteful objects of __culture, displaying what
high
Wealth/aristocracy
74
the narrators potentiality for corruption is ‘rare’ suggesting what
he has picked her because he senses her sexual desire bubbling below the surface
75
what about the bloody chamber does the Marquis value
it is a place where he can ‘ savour the rare pleasure of imagining myself wifeless'
76
How does the narrator describe her desire for the marquis
‘queasy craving’ for his ‘caresses’
77
how is the curiosity of the nature described
‘my dark newborn curiosity’
78
despite being sexually attracted to the marquis she is __by him
‘disgusted’
79
the narrator is not comfortable with the luxurious items she is given/wears - what does this show
didactic reminder of the sin of sexual curiosity, as she is truly at home in the familiar, ordinary clothes and is uncomfortable with the material vanity of finery (which he influences her into)
80
What type of mouth does the piano turner have
a ‘gentle mouth’
81
what does the narrator say abut the piano tuner
‘I dismissed him’
82
give a quote showing the narrator reverting to childishness
’child that i was, i giggled when she left me’
83
what does she say when she decides to go for th e bloody chamber showing her intention
‘I was determined now, to search…for evidence of my husband’s true nature’
84
give 3 similarities between all the wives
- high status
- sophisticated and smart
- represent high culture
- all have the potentiality for corruption/sexuality
85
What is the nature of the letter from the first wife
it says ‘until’ on a score of liebestod
- could be sexual innuendo
86
what is the nature of the letter from the second wife i
the letter describes a wish for him to ‘make me yours completely’
87
What does the letter from the third wife contain
it is a joke about all people in Transylvania being vampiric ‘descendants of Dracula’
It says ‘the supreme and unique pleasure of love is the certainty that one is doing evil’
88
what is the third wife called
Camilla - the name of an early gothic vampire novel
89
how does the narrator pick up the key that is forbidden (to the TBC)
she drops the keys and picks up the naughty one - this could be fate - ‘as luck or ill fortune had it’
90
what does the narrator say about the act of love
‘there is a striking resemblance between the act of love and the ministrations of a torturer’
91
as the narrator enters the bloody chamber, what does Carter say about her
‘the spoiled child did not know she had inherited nerves and an iron will from the mother’
92
What are the tapestries towards the bloody chamber showing
the Rape of the Sabines - where women were stolen and raped
93
what 3 things could the bloody chamber symbolise
The tunnel is dark, warm red like a womb
- it could be hell (she descends into it)
- is she in his brain - and this is his real self?
94
What does the quote about knives and the key to the bloody chamber showing (give the quote as well)
The key slides into the lock ‘as easily as hot knife into butter’
- This is strange, as it is usually the butter that is warm and the knife which is normal temperature
- Perhaps it shows the danger is the key opening the room (the hot knife which could burn you) rather than the room itself (compared, innocuously, to butter)
95
Before she enters the bloody chamber why does she hesitate?
she thinks about seeing ‘a little of his soul’
96
Before she enters the bloody chamber she is ‘____ ____’ showing what
subtly tainted
She isn’t fully corrupted by teh sex act, it is only a ‘taint’ rather than a rupturing of innocence
Perhaps this also could be used as evidence against the idea that the story is a lesson in the sin of curiosity and sexuality, and instead in passivity in the face of clear evil (a sin which she commits after witnessing the bloody chamber by not shooting him herself out of rage at his immorality?)
97
What is a similarity between Dracula and TBC in terms of the bloody chamber aspect
Harker also goes on a journey through tunnels to find something disgusting
98
How is the first wife killed and why
strangled
- as she is a singer
She is surrounded by lilies nad lying under a linen sheet
99
how is the second wife killed?
Hung and then her flesh is removed (her beauty was her special quality and it is removed)
He also hangs her like a painting
100
How is the 3rd wife killed
she is impaled on spikes (like a vampire)
She is newly dead
101
give a similarity between the deaths of all the wives
they are all carefully calculated and like exhibits
102
who does the narrator say the room is for?
Unimaginable lovers whose embraces were annihilation
103
what kind of reek does the room have
a ‘sacerdotal reek’ (priestly reek)
104
What does the narrator say she loses when she sees the first dead wife
‘a garment of that innocence of mine for which he had lusted fell away’ - important as shows her sin is not her sexuality
105
how does the narrator compare the marquis to god
‘the eye of God - his eye’
106
Give a quote showing the bloody chamber is hell
the door closes ‘like the door of hell’
107
give 5 key features of saint Cecilia
- she is a virgin martyr
- patron of musicians
- killed with a sword in the neck - linked to wearing the ruby choker
108
Give a quote connecting music and maths /rationality
Music has ‘the harmonious rationality of its sublime mathematics‘
- perhaps showing the music has some power against him due to its rationality
109
Give a quote showing the narrator scaring Yves
She notes how Jean-Yves seems more scared of her than ‘my mother’s daughter would have been of the devil himself’ - she splits herself up into this new, stronger version of herself and her past self which is more aligned with her heritage? But him being terrified of her is ridiculous, because he cant see her, or see the change in her to strength
110
What does the narrator call Yves suggesting she doesn’t truly love him
A ‘boy’
111
when Yves hugs her what does she feel
‘strength flow into me from his touch’ - could agree with the less feminist interpretation that men have to give women power
112
what is the reason the blood seems to stay on the key
it seems ‘ as if the key itself were hurt’
113
give a quote showing the marquis expected the narrator to fall into temptation
‘I had behaved exactly according to his desires; had he not bought me so that i should do so?’
Also In fact, the harder she tries to scrub off the blood the more ‘vivid’ the stain becomes - this is reminiscent of a Chinese finger trap - and suggests therefore that the key was a trap that the Marquis knew she would fall into.
114
Give a quote showing the narrator being strong with Yves but then subverting that strength with submissive language
Yves asks to stay with her when she meets the Marquis, but she tells him not to with an ‘edge of steel’ in her voice
She says ‘I knew I must meet my lord alone’
115
How does the narrator try to save herself
She tries to seduce him, and she makes herself ‘pliant as a plant that begs to be trampled underfoot’, although stating that she would have strangled him’ if he had submitted to her seduction
116
What does she compare the knowledge of the bloody chamber to
‘the secret of pandora’s box’
117
give a quote suggesting she was fated to disobey the marquis
- Summarising her victimhood she compares him to God and says (‘I had played a game in which’) ‘every move was governed by a destiny as oppressive and omnipotent as himself, since that destiny was himself; and I had lost’
- She calls their interaction a ‘charade of innocence and vice’
- She proclaims herself ‘Lost, as the victim loses to the executioner’
118
How does the narrator describe the presence of the marquis
having a ‘chthonic gravity’
119
Give a quote showing the narrator pitying the marquis
’the atrocious loneliness of that monster!’
120
the stain on the key starts as a heart and becomes what
‘the heart on a playing card’
121
the narrator notes how the marking with the key is the mark of what
‘the mark of Cain’
122
what does the marquis ask the narrator to prepare herself for before execution
‘martyrdom’
123
How does the narrator describe teh dress she is going to wear for her execution
The costume of a victim of an ‘auto da fe’ (the burning of heretics in an inquisition)
124
give a quote directly comparing the narrator to Eve
‘Like Eve’
125
How does the narrator get with Yves
she suddenly starts calling him her ‘lover’ ,and then he kisses her
126
what is the Marquis executing her with And give a quote about it
The Marquis’ sword which he is about to execute her with was his great grandfather’s sword which he surrendered to the Republic in the French Revolution - perhaps the Marquis is trying to right this wrong he feels by murdering a peasant who took his grandfather’s sword with that same sword?
She describes the sword as ‘sharp as childbirth, mortal’
127
what does the marquis call her before trying to kill her (2 things)
‘blind to her own desires’ and a ‘whore’
128
what is the mother called as she arrives to save her daughter
an ‘avenging Angel’
129
how is it described when the narrator bares her neck to him
like a ‘young plant’
130
what is a quote about the marquis being in control
‘puppet master’
And
‘The king, aghast, witnesses the revolt of his pawns’
131
When the mother kills the marquis the sentence is filled with mentions of __, ___ and __ but teh conspicuously absent character is who
my mother, my father and my husband
The narrator herself
132
What is the first line of the final paragraph
we lead a quiet life
133
at the end the narrator is mourning what
- She seems to be mourning the glamour and sexual excitement of her life with the Marquis to an extent
○ This is not quite a fairy tale happy ending
134
How is the ending potentially adhering to the gothic structure
○ She settles down with a nice man and conforms to convention and is ashamed of her curiosity
○ This could adhere to the gothic structure
135
How could this be a radical feminist ending
○ She doesn’t get the fairy tale reward, and limits the fairy tale happy ending because the character never truly achieves her heroic purpose because she is too passive. She is still saved by her mother, and doesn’t save herself. This is why she isn’t quite happy.
This would adhere to the structure of the twisted fairy tale
136
What could show the narrators unconscious desire still bubbling under the surface
By the end, the three characters (the narrator, Jean-Yves and the mother) can only 'sometimes' afford to see the opera
- The narrator's continued fascination with the opera could show her unconscious desire still bubbling under the surface, and finding its expression solely through the scopophilic satisfaction of witnessing operatic passion
137
What is a quote supporting the narrator mourning the loss of the marquis
She notes how she hopes the children in the school for the blind are ’not haunted by any sad ghosts, looking for, crying for, the husband who will never return to the bloody chamber’
This perhaps is a description of her own experiences (why would the children cry for the husband after all?)
138
Give a quote showing the fairy tale happy ending being subverted
- The fairy tale ending is undercut, and this is highlighted by carter’s comment: ‘now here I was, scarcely a penny richer, widowed at seventeen in the most dubious circumstances and busily engaged in setting up house with a piano tuner’
139
What is the final line
‘it spares my shame’ (Yves being blind and thus unable to see her mark of cain which she cant hide)
140
give A quote supporting the idea that Yves and the narrator are a good couple
Yves ‘sees me clearly with his heart’
141
what ar ethe two elements of the dual textual structure
the gothic and the fairy tale
142
what is the gothic reading of the ending
the narrator is punished for the transgression fo curiosity and sexuality
143
what is the fairy tale reading of the ending
the narrator is rewarded for her passivity (playing the role of the conventional female heroine in the fairy tale form), with marriage to a nice man and with riches
○
144
Why do niether the gothic or fairy tale readings fully work
§ The fairy tale is subverted by the mother saving her daughter, and by the narrator giving money away to charity. Therefore the traditional form of the fairy tale can’t map fully onto the story, it must be twisted
§ The gothic reading is more plausible but is again subverted by the fact that the narrator doesn’t fulfil the Bildungsroman journey, as she eventually returns in a cyclical way to her beginning with little obvious development to her character (she is still poor, and still not quite content, possibly yearning for something more)
145
What do you think is the most plausible reading
○ Instead, I think the most plausible reading is one informed by Carter’s own writing in the Sadeian Woman and Bluebeard. She says in the Sadeian woman that passivity is not a virtue in women, and says the moral of Bluebeard is ‘he’ll toe the line as soon as she tells him to’. She is punished for her passivity with a passive life, where the rewards of the fairy tale are subverted: she gives the money away, marries someone she isn’t sexually attracted to, doesn’t live in the castle
- There is further evidence for this in the fact that she views him as being ‘omnipotent’ and akin to ‘destiny’. He is a version of God for her
146
How is the castle liminal
it is sometimes an island and sometimes a peninsula
147
the narrator describes the marquis castle as the ___castle but Yves describes it as the castle of ___
faery
Murder
148
give 3 possible interpretations of the mirrors in the bedroom
- It is surrounded by mirrors - which could be reminiscent of Versailles? Or they could be an element of the uncanny by multiplying the self in reflections, dividing and divorcing these elements of the self until the self becomes confused and disorientated? Or it could show the universality of the narrator's experience, being reflected in so many mirrors?
149
