The Bloody Chamber summaries

Question 1

The Werewolf

Answer 1

• magical realism - presence of werewolf, villagers’ superstition
  themes: - discrimination, bestial portrayal of wolves ‘grizzling chops’

Question 2

Pupils of their eyes

Answer 2

Fatten on darkness

• seed in sin manachaic imagery
• feed and thrive on darkness - succeed in our fears = danger

Question 3

She stands in the

Answer 3

Pentacle of her own virginity
Pentacle- superstition, she is bound by fear
TCOW

Question 4

The company of wolves

Answer 4

Depicts the savage wolf- embodiment for our fear - “you” 2nd person narrative = accusing of our own fears of outsiders

Question 5

TCOW

Your smell

Answer 5

Of meat

Predatory depiction

Question 6

Gothic context

Answer 6

Cold weather coincides typical features of gothic lit: supernatural, dark, cold.
Carter subverts these ideals with subversion of female damsel in distress

Question 7

Recurring motifs

Answer 7

Grizzled chops - TW, TCOW predatory depiction
Cold winter - subversion of gothic
Cutting off paws -
TW: to symbolise power
TCOW: “as a trophy” humans are not only violent but cruel - egotistical

Question 8

Femeninity message

Answer 8

It is through embracing their bestial or lustful nature’s that many of her female character become enlightened- grandmother is fused with the wolf to be the feared, same with WA where it is her animal teachings that lead her away from what makes our society inhumane

Question 9

You are in Always in danger

They are as unkind

Answer 9

In the forest, where no people are

As plague
TCOW
Irony towards our fears should be ourselves- shown through just bands violence whether wolf or not

Question 10

FEMINISM

TCOW macaroni woman

Answer 10

Bitten in her own kitchen- read to represent predatory male - it is the confinement’s to stereotypical duties of a female that hurt her

Question 11

Irony of TCOW
By contradicting past views
The wolf may be

TW wolves are less brave

Answer 11

More than he seems
Vs TW
Than they seem

Question 12

Masculinity

Answer 12

TCOW
The wolf in a trap shifts back into a man
As if Clothes made the man - predatory nature is a weapon

Question 13

pity for outsiders

Appetites

Answer 13

Mourning their own irremediable appetites TCOW
Duke- he sees only appetite
Pity their condition

Question 14

Wives are a mobile for violence/ our perception of danger

I wish I were a wolf

Answer 14

Again to teach this whore a lesson - then attacks her children
If wolf = danger tcow tale of a man born with wolf genitals “he has a wolfs heart” - male power /danger is held in their infection of the pentacle of virginity/ sex

Question 15

Overarching meaning of wolf
Townspeople feared her
The eyes alone

Answer 15

Title given to the feared

• wolf alice- townspeople “feared her imperfection because it showed them what they might have been” vs wolves accepted her “because they knew she was an imperfect wolf”
• TCOW - the frailness of the line dividing man and wolf -“as if clothes made the man”, husband into wolf to kill children , “the eyes alone unchanged by metamorphosis” = the predatory nature is innate “carnivore incarnate” the form of wolf is just a label

Question 16

She has her

Answer 16

Bible for company
Tcow
No match for a wolf - mocks superstition

Question 17

She stands and moves

Answer 17

Within the invisible pentacle of her own virginity

Pentacle- symbol of protection against daemons historically

Question 18

Now call on Christ

Answer 18

And all the angels I heaven to protect you but it won’t do any good
Superstition