A2 English Literature thread!

I did 'The Bloody Chamber' as a presentation last year... I might still remember some of my notes. It might not be that great, but if you need help, let me know...

I thought I already quoted you? Yes please do post it here, thanks. rep on offer

Just looking over it, it's really quite bad... it was a year ago though


BTW, this was done at the end of the year when we finished all our set texts, and our teacher just wanted to fill up the time. I was the last person to do the presentation and I just really cba so it's not that great.


Main themes:
• Coming of age
o From the beginning, the seventeen-year-old protagonist describes in her own words the story’s movement from her mother’s hearth to her husband’s castle. The train ride at the beginning of the story may be viewed as a symbol of this transition. Throughout the narrative, the narrator refers to herself as a child. As evidence of the child in her, for her first formal dinner at the castle, she orders avocado, shrimp, and ice cream. Though she is a child in many ways, her situation is that of an adult.
• Moral corruption:
o The mark she bears on her forehead at the end of the story signifies her moral corruption, which was initiated in the consummation of her marriage. The loss of her virginity, symbolised by the bloodstained sheets, along with the scar on her forehead, indicate the corrupting knowledge — sexual and moral — that the Marquis offers her. In recognition of this fact, the narrator blushes “to think he might have chosen me, because, in my innocence, he sensed a rare talent for corruption.” However, her corruption is largely brought about by her own curiosity. Having been warned not to enter the tower in which she found the dead wives, her decision to do so indicates that she needed no help from her husband to initiate her fall from grace. Upon the return of the Marquis, she is faced with the possibility of her own death. At this point, she realises that she “must pay the price for her new knowledge.”
• Sex:
o The narrator’s descent into moral corruption parallels her sexual initiation. After the consummation of her marriage on her first night at the castle, which she uses the word “impale” to describe, she finds a “dark newborn curiosity” stirring in her. This curiosity is fueled by the pornographic books she finds in the library, the contents of which “make her gasp.” This curiosity also leads her to the torture chamber, where the connection between sex and death is made explicit, for the third wife has been killed by being impaled by the sharp spikes of the Iron Maiden.
• Objectification and victimisation of women:
o In the social world of “The Bloody Chamber,” women are born into the position of the passive victim and men are the aggressive victimizers: the marquis impales and his wives are impaled. The marquis chooses the narrator because of her vulnerability, her poverty, and fragility. For him, she resembles the martyr St. Cecilia, and she is to be martyred by him. But the Marquis does not count on the warrior-mother, who breaks the cycle of victimization perpetuated within the castle.
o The Marquis makes her into a pornographic image by undressing her while remaining dressed, he dictates that she always wear her collar of rubies like a dog, and most extremely, he plans to turn her into a literal object - a corpse - to display in his bloody chamber. The Marquis does not only kill his wives; he makes elaborate displays of their dead bodies as though they are collectibles.
• Gender roles:
o Carter subverts the generic gender roles through her feminist re-telling of the Bluebeard myth: she substitutes the mother for the brothers of the bride as the rescuer. This switch calls to attention the stereotypes of the traditional fairy tale’s male-as-saviour and female-as-victim roles. A woman is the hero this time instead of a white knight. And instead of relying on the evil mother/stepmother motif common to fairy tales, the bride’s mother wants only what is best for her daughter. In addition, Carter adds the unusual character of Jean-Ives, a man who comforts and empathizes with the female protagonist, but does not save her.
• Atavism vs. divinity:
o The husband’s moral corruption is indicated by imagery that compares him to an animal. He is described as heavy, “fleshy,” his features “leonine,” and his hair a “mane.” When “the beast waver in his stroke” and is shot in the end, he becomes another version of the tiger slain by the mother in her girlhood. The Marquis is also figured as the godhead of his enclosed world because he determines the destiny of its inhabitants. Upon her discovery by the Marquis, the narrator 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.” The mother’s intervention, “like a miracle,” delivers a deadly blow to this “man as god,” as well as to the figure of “man as beast.”
• The female hero
o Reminiscent of the later Gothic novels which illustrate women as being able to overcome adversity, the mother of the Bride is able to save her daughter in a way that is typical of earlier Gothic male protagonists.
• Explained supernatural?
o Immediately after reading that the horseman turns out to be the mother and she saves her daughter, the reader is left feeling that this rescue was very random. It is explained with a simple statement that the mother and daughter share a strong bond. This does explain the rescue but it does still leave the reader a little confused.


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I actually love you.

Just looking over it, it's really quite bad... it was a year ago though


BTW, this was done at the end of the year when we finished all our set texts, and our teacher just wanted to fill up the time. I was the last person to do the presentation and I just really cba so it's not that great.


Main themes:
• Coming of age
o From the beginning, the seventeen-year-old protagonist describes in her own words the story’s movement from her mother’s hearth to her husband’s castle. The train ride at the beginning of the story may be viewed as a symbol of this transition. Throughout the narrative, the narrator refers to herself as a child. As evidence of the child in her, for her first formal dinner at the castle, she orders avocado, shrimp, and ice cream. Though she is a child in many ways, her situation is that of an adult.
• Moral corruption:
o The mark she bears on her forehead at the end of the story signifies her moral corruption, which was initiated in the consummation of her marriage. The loss of her virginity, symbolised by the bloodstained sheets, along with the scar on her forehead, indicate the corrupting knowledge — sexual and moral — that the Marquis offers her. In recognition of this fact, the narrator blushes “to think he might have chosen me, because, in my innocence, he sensed a rare talent for corruption.” However, her corruption is largely brought about by her own curiosity. Having been warned not to enter the tower in which she found the dead wives, her decision to do so indicates that she needed no help from her husband to initiate her fall from grace. Upon the return of the Marquis, she is faced with the possibility of her own death. At this point, she realises that she “must pay the price for her new knowledge.”
• Sex:
o The narrator’s descent into moral corruption parallels her sexual initiation. After the consummation of her marriage on her first night at the castle, which she uses the word “impale” to describe, she finds a “dark newborn curiosity” stirring in her. This curiosity is fueled by the pornographic books she finds in the library, the contents of which “make her gasp.” This curiosity also leads her to the torture chamber, where the connection between sex and death is made explicit, for the third wife has been killed by being impaled by the sharp spikes of the Iron Maiden.
• Objectification and victimisation of women:
o In the social world of “The Bloody Chamber,” women are born into the position of the passive victim and men are the aggressive victimizers: the marquis impales and his wives are impaled. The marquis chooses the narrator because of her vulnerability, her poverty, and fragility. For him, she resembles the martyr St. Cecilia, and she is to be martyred by him. But the Marquis does not count on the warrior-mother, who breaks the cycle of victimization perpetuated within the castle.
o The Marquis makes her into a pornographic image by undressing her while remaining dressed, he dictates that she always wear her collar of rubies like a dog, and most extremely, he plans to turn her into a literal object - a corpse - to display in his bloody chamber. The Marquis does not only kill his wives; he makes elaborate displays of their dead bodies as though they are collectibles.
• Gender roles:
o Carter subverts the generic gender roles through her feminist re-telling of the Bluebeard myth: she substitutes the mother for the brothers of the bride as the rescuer. This switch calls to attention the stereotypes of the traditional fairy tale’s male-as-saviour and female-as-victim roles. A woman is the hero this time instead of a white knight. And instead of relying on the evil mother/stepmother motif common to fairy tales, the bride’s mother wants only what is best for her daughter. In addition, Carter adds the unusual character of Jean-Ives, a man who comforts and empathizes with the female protagonist, but does not save her.
• Atavism vs. divinity:
o The husband’s moral corruption is indicated by imagery that compares him to an animal. He is described as heavy, “fleshy,” his features “leonine,” and his hair a “mane.” When “the beast waver in his stroke” and is shot in the end, he becomes another version of the tiger slain by the mother in her girlhood. The Marquis is also figured as the godhead of his enclosed world because he determines the destiny of its inhabitants. Upon her discovery by the Marquis, the narrator 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.” The mother’s intervention, “like a miracle,” delivers a deadly blow to this “man as god,” as well as to the figure of “man as beast.”
• The female hero
o Reminiscent of the later Gothic novels which illustrate women as being able to overcome adversity, the mother of the Bride is able to save her daughter in a way that is typical of earlier Gothic male protagonists.
• Explained supernatural?
o Immediately after reading that the horseman turns out to be the mother and she saves her daughter, the reader is left feeling that this rescue was very random. It is explained with a simple statement that the mother and daughter share a strong bond. This does explain the rescue but it does still leave the reader a little confused.


______________________________________________________