The Liminal and Women

Women within the gothic and perhaps within society could be argued to have a liminal existence, not only does the liminal exist between a woman’s two stages of life, innocence and experience, girlhood and marriage but due to deep seated patriarchal objectification women are never truly seen as humans but rather two halves, one an object of sexual desire and one of an inferior human likened to a beast or animal in the Tiger’s Bride “not beast nor women were equipped with…souls”, never truly seen as active participants of society and thus remain outside of it.  Due to their inferior place within society they perhaps have a liminal experience, never being seen or acknowledged as a satisfying whole. This could be symbolised by Carter’s fascination with liminal beings not “casting a reflection” in mirrors. The Lady of the House of Love ceases to cast a reflection due to being between life and death, , “sleeping and waking”, vampire and human, “sleeping beauty” and predator, victim and vixen similarly it could be argued the protagonist in the Tiger’s Bride also does not cast a reflection but rather sees her greedy opportunist father in her mirror. This could suggest in a patriarchal society she is merely an extension of her father and thus not seen as a full individual, she perhaps ceases to cast her own reflection as she exists in this liminal state as she’s not perceived by men as fully human, that is a product of objectification of being another “possession” of his and herself.

Liminality could also be symbolised through Carter’s motif of wedding dresses and her frequent use of the term “bride”. Bride could be seen to be the liminal stage between girlhood and “the unguessable country of marriage”, innocence and experience ceasing to “be her daughter in becoming his wife” not only does this suggest a movement from the family home to the matrimonial home but could suggest that she is exchanged as a commodity from early adolescence as the possessive determiners “hers” and “his” suggest she is merely a possession. The Lady in the House of Love wears an “antique bridal gown”, whilst Wolf-Alice adorns a wedding dress that interestingly doubled as a funeral garment, but perhaps the most explicit example of this liminal state is exemplified in the Bloody Chamber. The protagonist sees herself in the mirror in “the white dress, the frail child within it and the flashing crimson jewels round my throat”, Carter perhaps suggests she exists between two states, one of innocence “white…child” and one of experience “crimson”,  however here it could be argued experience or marriage is a sinister “country” as the crimson jewels or ruby choker perhaps symbolise the Marquis possession of her similar to a dog collar and perhaps his sadistic wish to murder her to add her to his collection of female objects or “corpses” in his bloody exhibition “chamber”.

 This link between death and being a bride could suggest that for women, within a patriarchal society, marriage is a death sentence. However, despite Carter’s gothic fascination with death and allusion to the guillotine, she may not be suggesting marriage is literally a death sentence but rather it leads to the death of a females own identity and the death of liberty. For example, Carter perhaps portrays marriage as an oppressive arena “pretty wedding ring around her neck” and one of objectification in which womens identity is constructed by the male gaze “a dozen husbands impaled a dozen brides”. Carter suggest that 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”, she perhaps suggests marriage or transgressing this liminal state into marriage is a death sentence for a females independence, the very use of “impale” suggests the harm her husband will inflict upon her whilst the use of “a dozen” could highlight that this is a universal experience for women. Perhaps it is better to exist in this liminal state than cross over into passivity.

Many of Carter’s characters are virgins “unbroken” eggs, whilst this perhaps is typically a condition of a female victim within the gothic, Carter’s male character in the Lady of the House of Love is similarly a virgin and virginity seems to offer her characters some strength and safety. Perhaps Carter is suggesting ignorance truly is bliss, without the knowledge or experience of sex her characters are unaware of the brutality of sex in a patriarchal and gothic world dominated by men in which sex is a male pleasure done to the female very much in Marquis de sade’s works, rather than mutually pleasurable or collaborative. The disassociated phrase “a dozen husbands impaled a dozen brides” could act as an example of this as the protagonist is wounded by her husband’s somewhat rape of her. However, Carter does not wish to perpetuate this narrow idea of sex as merely pleasurable for the eater not the eaten but wishes to exemplify and subsequently subvert this notion through her gothic tales. In the Company of Wolves, Carter’s virginal girl does not accept being anyone’s “meat” and rather instigates sexual intercourse with the wolf, in expressing and embracing her sexuality she is safe from harm, as Carter suggests in the Tiger’s Bride “his appetite need not be my extinction”. She is not subservient or passively accepts the social construct of female masochism and passivity devoid of sexual awareness but rather embraces her sexuality and thus her individuality.  In not falling to being prey, as virginal victims have classically done so in gothic tales, she is neither the eater nor the eaten, instead of being the “lamb chop” she has learnt to “run with the tigers”

Lady Macbeth also could be seen to exist in a liminal state, however hers is a state between genders. Unlike Macbeth who perhaps exists in a liminal state between good and evil, neither inherently one nor the other, Lady Macbeth through her duplicitous language “twice done and then done double” and counselling in deception “look like th’innocent flower but be the serpent under’t” is arguably evil. Not only does she share similarities with the witches as they too speak of equivocation and duplicity “double double toil and trouble” and are suggested to be the “devil”, she also manipulates Macbeth into murder. However, she still resides in a liminal existence, much like the witches she “should be” a woman, yet her rationality, tenacity and brutality forbid audiences to interpret that she is, she has many powerful, masculine qualities and yet she is a woman.  She calls upon “murdering ministers” to “unsex” her and discards her gender thus through the supernatural places herself in this liminal state. Her liminality strengthens her connection to the Witches, who like Lady Macbeth pose a threat to Jacobean audiences. The very taboo subject of a powerful woman and women who’s behaviour is not categorically feminine suggest a new type of woman and perhaps a transgression of the norm, a highly terrifying concept for a predominantly Christian and patriarchal society. However, it could be argued the witches and Lady Macbeth are very typical of the male perception and somewhat religious perception of women, as they both corrupt Macbeth in his allegiance to his King, they are the evil that cause man to fall from “grace”.