The Bloody Chamber

The Bloody Chamber: Book Review



The Bloody Chamber: Book Review

Book Review

The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter is a work of fiction that is a collection of short stories. Thus the general field or genre to which the book belongs is Short Stories. Fantasy and magical realism is the genre to around which these short stories are woven and it aptly fits into the genre considering the mythical transformations that the short stories are composed of. The central theme that is noticed the book across the ten short stories that the book is composed of, is that almost all the short stories are inspired by either folk tales or fairy tales or in some way or other. The ability of the human nature to change and transform itself, the lack of immutability of the human nature is the belief that has derived the stories contained in The Bloody Chamber. This is the dominant point of view carrying which Carter undertook the writing of the short stories that we read today in her book. Metamorphosis has been depicted quite a few moments brilliantly by Angela Carter; illustration in 'The Courtship of Mr. Lyon' of Beast being transformed by Beauty in the end is breath taking.

When her lips touched the meathook claws, they drew back into their pads and she saw how he had always kept his fists clenched, but now, painfully, tentatively, at last began to stretch his fingers.

The intertwining story 'The Tiger's Bride' also presents an account of alteration of human nature through highlighting the transformation of Beauty by the Beast. This continues to form the central point of view across Carter's short stories in The Bloody Chamber. The fictional work of Angela Carter has been defined by Lorna Sage as fiction that 'prowl around the fringes of the ...