The Bloody Chamber

The Bloody Chamber

Introduction

In Angela Carter's 'The Bloody Chamber', the bloody chamber is the chamber of marquis that represents death and torture. The bloody chamber has a symbolic purpose in it. It is that room in which violence and enlightenment occurs at the same time. It is a place of revolution for the heroine that changes her for ever. Bloody chambers are not only associated with blood through violence but also refers to the blood that is shed when a woman loses her virginity and when she menstruates. It is also associated with a woman's vagina and her womb and the writer uses this fact to give importance to the relation between a woman's sexuality and the violence that they have to go through. (Carter, 1993)

When the heroine finds out about the chamber, she places herself in danger of being killed by her husband and at the same time gets the idea about how she could help herself and not die. The special key of that blood chamber is actually the key to her selfhood. When she realizes what will happen to her now that she has been inside the blood chamber, she knows that she has embraced with this life, a life of objectification and suppression that will lead to her death. (Carter, 1993)

Discussion

The story, 'The bloody Chamber is based on the legend of bluebeard. The writer has conserved the main plot of the legend and Marquis is playing the role of Bluebeard in this story that murders his wives and then keeps their dead bodies or corpses in a secret chamber. Just like Bluebeard, marquis also attracts each of his new wives to go on and explore the prohibited chamber and when they get to know about his secret, he kills them. In the story, the position of the heroine is that of suppression and ignorance. Her sole reason for marrying the Marquis was for money and position because as she herself was a peasant, she knew should would never is able to get those for herself. As she talks to her mother about it that she is not sure about her love for him but "sure [she wants] to marry him." She does clarify that although her desire to marry him is real, but this desires me only truly for the position and the wealth that she would get from this man. (Moore, 2007)

When she goes on to say that at the time when he took her virginity, he kissed the rubies around her neck first and then her mouth, this makes it clear that for Marquis, his wealth is more important for him than his wife. As a matter of fact, he likes his wives more as dead and as objects, rather than when they are alive. (Carter, 1993)

Although she is excited about her marriage to marquis, but her statements tell us that she is scared of her husband and does not really trust him. She says that he is beast like and plant like, very ...