essay questions

'In original Gothic, Woman were often presented as trembling victims pursued by predatory males.'
How far is this true of the first narrative in Angela Carter's collection, 'The Bloody Chamber'? 45 marks

Women were traditionally seen as a 'trembling victim' in the original Gothic as Isabella in 'The Castle of Ortranto.' Carter follows this tradition in her first story in The Bloody Chamber, as the woman is the 'Trembling victim and the predatory male, her husband, The Marquis.
The Woman is presented as a trembling victim though her characteristic of her personality. One element of her personality is that she is weak and passive, doing everything the Marquis says, so he can do what he wants, she just complies saying 'And I had to be content with that' as she repeatedly complies with what he want which nearly results in her death, if her mother hadn't saved her showing elements of the traditional Gothic literature. As traditional women would be weak and passive, as well as doing what they were told, Gothic literature has the obsession with the past and how we can learn from the past, along with the idea that we should live our lives like this.Carter using the element of the possible death due to the Woman weak and passiveness could end up with there death, so Carter might be criticising the ideas of the original Gothic.
Carter exaggerates the idea of the characters innocents , which the character tell it to the reader in a retrospective narrative 'I was seventeen and knew nothing of the world'  her innocent unfortunately leads to her down fall of her near death, Carter uses this to highlight what women are like and how they don't understand the dark heart inside everyone.



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