The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter Literature & Language Essay

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The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter
Angela Carter's story perfectly depicts the complex nature of femininity. In her story, the narrator is an innocent but worldly seeking girl who lives with her mother. As she narrates, "I was seventeen and knew nothing of the world; my Marquis had been married before, more than once" (Carter 4). It is in such statements that one begins to understand how the narrator views the Marquis. When she and the Marquis start living together, she suddenly realizes that he has lost interest in her. It is at this point that feminine capability becomes apparent in the narrator. Despite her being too submissive to the Marquis, she finds a way of ridding herself of him. She chooses another young man, and as we can see, he is a blind piano player. This shows the narrator's realization that she can take control of whom she chooses to be with, and in particular, how less he will be able to control her.
The main character’s mother in the story is one of strength and compassion. It is known that a mother-daughter relationship does not often work well. But, in Carter's story, the heroine's mother does not seek to deny her daughter the love of a mother. Instead, she is seen as encouraging and uplifting in every part of the heroine's life. The heroine's mother adds to the story's depiction of femininity because she is a strong woman. As told by the narrator, "My eagle-featured, indomitable mother; what other student at the Conservatoire could boast that her mother had outfaced a junkful of Chinese pirates" (Carter 2). This is just part of the language the narrator uses to describe her mother. She is, therefore, a woman with a strong feminine character. As told by the narrator, she also "nursed a village through a visitation of the plague" (Carter 2). So, it is possible to conclude that the heroine looked up to her mother.
The strong maternal bond between the mother and daughter is evident throughout the story. As read in the tale, "one fine day, her gallant soldier never returned from the wars, leaving the wife and child a legacy of tears that never quite dried" (Carter 2). This part of the story plays a crucial role in emphasizing the bond that the narrator and her mother have. Through the loss of a husband and father, the two learned to depend on each other. This same maternal bond is a good depiction of the relationships women share. Women have always handled their issues by talking to their fellow women. By creating strong friendships, they seek to pass the time and talk about the problems and successes in their lives. By sharing each other's life stories, they learn to support each other at a time of need.
When the heroine gives up a career in music to get married, her potential is wasted. Her departure from music does not sadden her. She seems delighted to be ...