Carter’s short stories offer a myriad of tales that actively
subvert, a gothic tradition, or distort the original fairytales from which they
have been adapted, as Carter suggested she attempted to “put new wine into old
bottles, especially if the new wine made the old bottles explode”. It could be
argued Carter distorts such relationships to highlight how many familial
relationships are anything but fairytale. However, it could be argued by
extracting the “latent content” from the original tales she has exposed the
sinister nature of these fairytale relationships. Many of her characters and
relationships are exaggerated or distorted beyond reality; so much so they
become symbols, influenced by feminism Carter perhaps tries to demonstrate the
exploitative nature of many family relationships, especially for women. It
could be disputed she in fact paints a realistic picture of family relations in
a patriarchal society, as the imposition of patriarchy have caused loving,
mutually beneficial family relations to distort, it is perhaps with her
sinister somewhat shocking reflections that we are able to see this reality.
One of her most sinister relations that could be argued as a
pure distortion is that between Grandmother and Granddaughter in “The Werewolf”.
This intergenerational relationship is distorted beyond reality perhaps to
highlight capacity of females to be predators or have “tigerish” qualities
rather than the commonly thought “lamb”. Through an extradiegetic narrator we
see the villagers foolish reliance on superstition and their beliefs in
“witches”, the mocking tone “oh, sinister!” leads readers to assume the
villagers are gullible, this is particularly important at the end of the story.
The young girl after realising her grandmother is a “werewolf” initiates her
own grandmothers lynching and claims possession of her grandmother’s home. The
monosyllabic last line of the story is perhaps the most sinister “now the child
lives in her grandmother’s house, she prospered”, having witnessed her own
grandmother’s execution the childs lack of emotion and remorse suggest that
perhaps she has orchestrated her grandmother’s lynching, playing upon the
villagers gullible minds in order to gain property. This chilling end to the
story perhaps suggests the child is in fact the wolf in sheep’s clothing
“sheepskin coat” suggesting her predatory nature and a complete distortion of a
family relationship. The use of third person narrator not only reveals this
orchestration but creates distance between the two characters further
highlighting Carter’s sinister distortion as this relationship is completely
devoid of love or nurture.
However, it could be argued Carter actually projects a
realistic image of family relationships in her depiction of husband and wife in
The Bloody Chamber. In a patriarchal society power lies with the husband, the
power distribution in this tale very much conforms to this as the Marquis is
the dominant male who exerts his power over his young bride “who knew nothing
of the world” sexually and financially. Whilst this relationship is perhaps
realistic to an extent, it is a sinister one as the Marquis wishes to add
another wife to his gruesome display of objectified females in his bloody
exhibition chamber. However, whilst Carter does not necessarily distort this
relationship she does not advocate it, she subtly condemns this power distribution
through violent and repulsive imagery. During the consummation of the marriage
Carter portrays the sexual experience as both violent and one that is done to
the young girl rather than one she is part of “a dozen husbands impaled a dozen
brides”. The use of “impaled” projects a particularly sinister and harmful
image whilst coupled with “kiss with tongue and teeth in it and a rasp of
beard” is particularly repulsive. The violent imagery and protagonists
revelations of the former brides could suggest Carter’s fairytale moral message
of this tale is that patriarchal marriage for women is a death sentence, as she
suggested “to be the object of desire is to be defined in the passive case, to
exist in the passive case is to die in the passive case- that is to be
killed”. In highlighting a realistic
example of marriage and family relations yet portraying it as unattractive, undesirable
and ultimately harmful she reveals the sinister nature of family relationships.
Father figures in Carter’s tales could be argued to be
distorted to the extent they are not fully-fleshed, believable characters but
rather symbolic of patriarchy. Carter displays father-daughter relationships
with contempt, for example in The Tigers Bride, the protagonist is gambled away
by her father to a potentially dangerous Beast “my father lost me to the
beast”. Rather than a protective father figure we may expect in reality and in
fairytales, this father objectifies his daughter seeing her as a “possession”
to pawn off to accrue wealth. Carter similarly
uses the symbol of the mirror to reinforce the notion of a sinister
relationship, the girl sees her father’s image in the mirror before her own,
this could suggest she is merely an extension of him lacking an identity
exclusive to him. Her objectification causes her harm which is further shown
through the symbol of a rose upon which she pricks her finger “he gets his rose
all smeared in blood”, the blood perhaps symbolising the detrimental effect of
objectification exchanged to her father as he is the cause. Carter’s richly
symbolic text and distortion of a father figure suggests that he is just that,
a figure, he perhaps symbolises the sinister, harmful and exploitative nature
of patriarchy which is not isolated to between sexual relationships but platonic,
family relationships.
Whilst Carter distorts father-daughter relationships to
emphasise the sinister side of family relationships she conversely portrays a
realistic mother-daughter relationship in the Bloody Chamber devoid of
distortion and lacking sinister attributes. The protagonists “eagle-feature,
indomitable” mother and her have a loving relationship, interestingly lacking a
father, that is perhaps a realistic portrayal. Her mother, in the end of the
story is her saviour, acting upon maternal instinct suggesting almost a
telepathic, intimate relationship between the two as her mother instinctually
felt her daughter was in danger. However, whilst this is possibly the only
loving relationship in the collection it is not completely free of sinister
aspects however depicted subtly by Carter. The protagonists family is “poor”
and in marrying the Marquis she will experience social and financial elevation,
this is possibly part of his power over her, in leaving her mother to go into
the “unguessable country of marriage” she “ceased to her daughter in becoming
his wife”. The use of the possessive determiners “hers” and “his” it suggests
the daughter is exchanged like a commodity similarly to the Tigers Bride,
moving from one owner to another perhaps highlighting the family environment is
one of perpetual objectification for women. Despite arguably not distorting
this relationship, Carter still manages to portray some sinister elements of
family relationships.
Family relationships are a preoccupation in both fairytales
and Carter’s tales, often fairytales highlight the need to move away and find
an identity exclusive to the family as similarly Carter perhaps portrays the
negative side of family relationships. Carter distorts family relationships to
become sinister, particularly that in the Werewolf. However, whilst she
distorts some it could be argued she portrays relationships between females and
males within the family arena realistically, albeit a little exaggerated.
Perhaps family relationships do have sinister qualities that are not merely
part of Carter’s gothic tales but part of reality.
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