A Feminist Critique Of Bluebeard - 1565 Words

Tom Cox September 20, 2015 ENGL 2370 A Feminist Critique of Bluebeard In 1979, Angela Carter wrote â€Å"The Bloody Chamber,† a retelling of Charles Perrault’s famous children’s fairytale, â€Å"Bluebeard.† Like â€Å"Bluebeard,† Carter tells the story of a wealthy aristocrat with a sadistic compulsion to murder his wives. In the tale, the Marquis entices the female protagonist into entering a forbidden room. In doing so, the Marquis sentences the female protagonist to death for her apparent disobedience. However, the female protagonist escapes a certain death when she is rescued by her mother. Now, although â€Å"The Bloody Chamber† parallels â€Å"Bluebeard† in plot, they are fundamentally different from each other. Charles Perrault’s â€Å"Bluebeard† is a tale that critically highlights female ignorance, and warns against the danger of female curiosity. Above all though, Perrault attempts to highlight these female flaws to be both inherent and unchangeab le. However, using the same fundamental plot, Angela Carter rather writes about the oppressive realities of the institution of marriage. More specifically, Carter highlights the female narrator’s ignorant and romanticized notion of marriage, and its ability to manipulate her into an oppressive marriage. In doing so, Angela Carter directly refutes Charles Perrault’s notion that females are inherently flawed. Carter rather suggests that society’s distorted and ignorant perception of marriage facilitates female oppression. Therefore, Carter rootsShow MoreRelatedThe Sexual Content in Angela Carter ´S the Bloody Chamber1684 Words   |  7 Pagesthem in the modern day. Carter has taken seven fairytales whose â€Å"latent content† she says were â€Å"violently sexual†, (qtd by Robin Sheets, â€Å"Pornography Fairy Tales and Feminism† 642). The stories include a variation of classics fairytales such as â€Å"Bluebeard†, â€Å"Beauty and the Beast† and â€Å"Little Red Riding Hood† with sometimes more than one version of the same original tale, for example â€Å"Wolf-Alice† and â€Å"The Company of Wolves†. In re-writing these fairy tales Carter has given the new versions a specificallyRead MoreAnalysis Of Angela Carter s The Bloody Chamber 1756 Words   |  8 Pagesdepictions of femininity. Angela Carter manipulates old-fashioned fairy tales in order to subvert conformist gender roles like submissive wives and male dominance. (Makinen, 1992) While Carter receives commendation for her work, Patricia Duncker critiques her as well, for maintaining traditionally told tales that female relationships are doomed to rivalry and competition. Duncker basically analyses the story, ‘The Snow Child’ and then promptly states that Carter does not explore the masculine desire