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.



Points I think are not relevant
What I find waffle
Quote
Points I think are relevant     
Question references 

The Lady Of The House Of Love presentation of the male charater and interpretations

Pages 111-112
How is the young man presented ?
He is present in a very stereotypically innocent way, which through out this collection of stories has always been how the women are described.

Page 111- 112
what is the significance of the bicycle?

Page 113
What might be the significance of  'he gratefully washed his feet and hands' in the village fountain?


Page 114
'Curiouser and curiouser'
What does this suggest about the young man ? which other character/s are you reminded of ?

It suggest the man is innocent as it links to the child's tale of Alice and Wonderland showing the young nature of the man, and highlighting his innocence.

Page 116
The crone is described as bringing the young man to 'Juliet's tomb.' What is the significance of this intertextual references ?
 it a reference to Romeo and Juliet, it's significant as it symbolises that their relationship as being doomed, and suggests that it will end in death for both characters.

Page 117
'What a grisly picture of a capering skeleton! He covered it up with a happier one - of two younger lovers smiling at one another ...' 
How is the young man presented here? what might Cater's purpose be ?

Page 119
'Can a bird only sing the song it knows or can it learn a new song'
'One kiss, however, and only one, woke up the sleeping beauty'

Carter makes significant use of repetition in this story. Why might this be ? what is the significance of the example above, both of which are repeated in the course of the narrative?

Page 123
'And so he puts his mouth to the wound. his will kiss it better for her, as her mother, had she lived, would have done'
What is the significance of this quotation?

Page 125
'When he returned from the mess that evening, the heavy fragrance of Count Nosferatu's roses drifted down the stone corridor of the barracks to greet him, and his spartan quarters brimmed with the reeling odour of a glowing, velvet,monstrous flower whose petals had regained all their former bloom and elasticity, their corrupt, brilliant, baleful splendour.
Next day, his regiment embarked for France.'
How might we interpret this ending ?

Overall, how would you explain Carter's presentation of the Lady and the Soldier in this narrative ?

Consider the following quotation. How does it develop your own ideas about this narrative? 
The heroines of these stories are struggling out of the straitjackets of history and ideology and biological essentialism. 'There's a story in the bloody chamber called The Lady Of The House Of Love' , said Carter, ' Part of which derives from a movie version   the I saw of a story by Dostoevsky. And in the movie.... the woman, who is very passive person and is very much in distress, asks herself questions, 'Can a bird sing only the song it knows, or can learn a new song ?' have we got the capacity at all of singing new songs? It's very important that if we haven't, we might as well stop now.

Overall analysis of The Courtship Of Mr Lyon and The Tiger's Bride

Task 1

Define -

Androgynous; partly male and partly female in appearance; of indeterminate sex.
Annihilation; complete destruction or obliteration.
Exigencies; an urgent need or demand

What is Bourgeois art ?

It's not a what but a who, it is Louise Bourgeois, who was a French-American sculptor and artist. Born on the 25th December 1911 in Paris, France. She was the child of Josephine Faurlaux and Louis Bourgeois. 

It is believed that the inspiration to her work comes from her childhood experiences, in which she was very aware of her fathers affairs, also her sculptors are link to the dominant power the men had in the times she was growing up.

Some of her works included the Destruction of the Father, this was created in 1974 and is said to be 'a biographical and a psychological exploration of the power dominance of father and his offspring. The piece is a flesh-toned installation in a soft and womb-like room. Made of plaster, latex, wood, fabric, and red light, Destruction of the Father was the first piece in which she used soft materials on a large scale. Upon entering the installation, the viewer stands in the aftermath of a crime. Set in a stylized dining room (with the dual impact of a bedroom), the abstract blob-like children of an overbearing father have rebelled, murdered, and eaten him'
She is said to have many themes that run though her work 'One theme of Bourgeois's work is that of childhood trauma and hidden emotion. After Louise's mother became sick with influenza Louise's father began having affairs with other women, most notably with Sadie, Louise's English tutor. Louise was extremely watchful and aware of the situation. This was the beginning of the artists' engagement with double standards related to gender and sexuality, which was expressed in much of her work. She recalls her father saying "I love you" repeatedly to her mother, despite infidelity. "He was the wolf, and she was the rational hare, forgiving and accepting him as he was." Page text.^[30] Her 1993 work "Cell: You Better Grow Up", part of her "Cell" series, speaks directly to Louise's childhood trauma and the insecurity that surrounded her. 2002's "Give or Take" is defined by hidden emotion, representing the intense dilemma that people face throughout their lives as they attempt to balance the actions of giving and taking. This dilemma is not only represented by the shape of the sculpture, but also the heaviness of the material this piece is made of.

Architecture and memory are important components of Bourgeois' work. In numerous interviews, Louise describes architecture as a visual expression of memory, or memory as a type of architecture. The memory which is featured in much of her work is an invented memory - about the death or exorcism of her father. The imagined memory is interwoven with her real memories including; living across from a slaughterhouse, visiting her father at the front and her father's affair. To Louise her father represented injury and war, aggrandizement of himself and belittlement of others and most importantly a man who represented betrayal. Page text.^[30] Her 1993 work "Cell (Three White Marble Spheres)" speaks to fear and captivity. The mirrors within the present an altered and distorted reality.

Sexuality is undoubtedly one of the most important themes in the work of Louise Bourgeois. The link between sexuality and fragility or insecurity is also powerful. It has been argued that this stems from her childhood memories and her father's affairs. 1952's "Spiral Woman" combines Louise's focus on female sexuality and torture. The flexing leg and arm muscles indicate that the Spiral Woman is still above though she is being suffocated and hung. 1995's "In and Out" uses cold metal materials to link sexuality with anger and perhaps even captivity.'

Task 2

5 sentences 

1. Fairytale contain the parameters of dominance and obedience, women under male dominance and the patriarchal system.

2. Cater use binary opposites in the tale of beauty and the beast, an example being beauty and the beast.

3. The deconstruction masculine and feminine as social gender construction 

4. Carter exposes the sexist and stereotyped traditional construction of femininity.

5. The soul is view as masculine and the body as feminine.

5 words 

1. Patriarchal

2. Binary Opposites 

3. Deconstruction

4. Sexist

5. Masculine/ feminine 

One key phrase or idea 

Cater uses binary opposites to show the patriarchal and sexist society, as well as deconstruction the ideas of masculinity and femininity.

100 word summary

Carter texts contain the ideas of masculinity and femininity, gender stereotypes and a patriarchal ideology, this is also interwoven in to the classic fairy tales in which we tell to children.  

100 word task

The 'Erl-King' is the most innovative and experimental of the narrative?

The Gothic tale of the 'Erl-king' is innovative and experimental as it uses the normal sweet, innocent woman, in a very masculine way 'his hair falls over my knee' and the dark, brooding, nature loving man in a very feminine way ' he is an excellent housewife' this shows the Gothic element  of blurring of the genders. Which is the first time it appears in this collection of texts, making it very experimental and innovative as when the text was written these idea's were not talked about so this text was seen as new and experimental. 

the tigers bride powerpoint

Task 1

Andrea Mantegna

- born in 1431 in Isola di Carturo, Italy, and died on 13th September 1506 Italy.
He was n artist, whom was a apprentice of Francesco Squarcione,
He has been linked with the aesthetic movement.

Giulio Romana

Born in 1499 in Rome, died on 1st November 1546 in Mantua
He was an Italian painter and architecture, and was the student of Raphael.

In the 16th century he travelled to France and he took the Italian way of painting.

The wedding of Cupid and Psyche

Benvenuto Cellini 

Born on the 3rd November 1500 in Florence, Died on 13th February 1571 in Florence.
He is an Italian, sculptor and solider

Task 2

Assuage; make (an unpleasant feeling) less intense
Awry;away from the usual or expected course; amiss.
Axium; a self-evident truth that requires no proof.
Capisco (translate); Understand
Ciliate; a single-celled animal of a large and diverse phylum distinguished by the possession of cilia or ciliary structures.
Civet; a slender nocturnal carnivorous mammal with a barred and spotted coat and well-developed anal scent glands, native to Africa and Asia.
Desnuda (translate); Nude 
Excoriating; damage or remove part of the surface of (the skin).
Expostulating; express strong disapproval or disagreement.
Eyrie; a large nest of an eagle or other bird of prey, built high in a tree or on a cliff.
Gavotte; a medium-paced French dance, popular in the 18th century.
Gracile (of a hominid species) of slender build. (of a person) attractively slender or thin.
Megalomaniac; a person who has an obsessive desire for power.
Metaphysical; relating to metaphysics.
Minuet; a slow, stately ballroom dance for two in triple time, popular especially in the 18th century.
Molto agitato (translate) 
Nascent; (especially of a process or organization) just coming into existence and beginning to display signs of future potential.
Obsequiousness : marked by or exhibiting a fawning attentiveness.
Ostler,a man employed to look after the horses of people staying at an inn.
Patina; a green or brown film on the surface of bronze or similar metals, produced by oxidation over a long period.
Preternatural; beyond what is normal or natural.
Profligate; recklessly extravagant or wasteful in the use of resources. 
Settecento; the 18th cent. as a period in Italian art and literature
Shagreen; sharkskin used as a decorative material or, due to its natural rough surface of pointed scales, as an abrasive.
Simian relating to or affecting apes or monkeys.
Simulacra; an image or representation of someone or something.
Soubrette, a minor female role in a comedy, typically that of a pert maidservant.
Spar; a thick, strong pole such as is used for a mast or yard on a ship.
Spurious, not being what it purports to be; false or fake.
Tantivy, a rapid gallop or ride.
Tintinnabulation, a ringing or tinkling sound.
Viscera; the internal organs in the main cavities of the body, especially those in the abdomen, e.g. the intestines.

Task 3

Question 1

The devil's picture books is a book on how to play cards.

Question 2

The language Carter uses when the narrator calls him 'milord' is a very sarcastic language as she does not consider him to e in charge of her.

Question 3

The white roes in this collection of stories symbolic of, the white being symbolic of purity and innocents, and the rose being use to symbolise humanity and romance. Its used more than once to show how to view something in different ways, highlighting how the fairy tales can be seen in different ways.
Question 4
the significance of using the verb 'Fleeced' is that is give an animal idea of a sheep.
Question 5
the fairy tale the 'gobbled up' comes from The Little Red Riding Hood, 

Questions for the courtship of Mr Lyons

6. How is the Father represented by Carter? What values does he stand for and how far do they contribute to the development of the plot?
The father is represented in a negative way as he is seen to thieve and gamble all the money he had away 'restore his fortunes' showing that he has very little sense of morals, as he gambled all the money he had for him and his daughter away. However the theft he did with a positive motivation behind it, for his daughter, 'one white rose' it is considered to be a nice thing as he has hurt her with having to make her work and push them to a lower class.


9. Look closely at the description of the Beast, and analyse the linguistic techniques used. these should include the use of repetition, adjectives, nouns, verbs, and imagery. what effect does the description have on the reader ? how do you feel about the Beast, and what has made you feel like this?

It is shown in alliteration of G
- flow of the sentence building a flow and understand of the character

tasks from the powerpoint

Task 1 Define these words

•      Leonine: or resembling a lion or lions.
•      Fugue: - Music: a contrapuntal composition in which a short melody or phrase (the subject) is introduced by one part and successively taken up by others and developed by interweaving the parts.
- Psychiatry: to loose awareness of ones identity
•      Rococo: denoting furniture or architecture characterized by an elaborately ornamental late baroque style of decoration prevalent in 18th-century continental Europe, with asymmetrical patterns involving motifs and scroll work
•      Minimalist is a person who advocates or practices minimalism..
•      Chamber music : music a small group of instruments, one played by one person
•      Florid
 - Psychological disease.
- Red or flushed complexion.- intricate or elaborate 

Task 2 Research in to Angela Carter

- Born 7^th may 1940 
- Died 16 February 1992 - she was born in Eastbourne, but as a child was evacuated to London (south London)- the link to Jane Eyre is that she started to write a sequel in which it follows Jane step-daughter Adele, however she died before writing this only the synopsis survived
-  The genres Angela Carter wrote in was quite a few including romance, Gothic and also write fairytale.
 - in the Times “the 50 greatest British writers since 1945” she was ranked 10^th
 - some of her influences include Chaucer, Shakespeare, Lawrence, Wordsworth, Blake, Coleridge, Mansfield, Woolf, Dickens, Keats, Stoker, Carrol.

Task 3

 Charles Perrault was alive 12 January 1628 – 16 May 1703
The Perrault is famous for inventing the modern way of writing fairy tales.
 His most famous books were Cinderella and The Little Red Riding Hood, these were both published in a book called The Tales Of Mother Goose and was published in 1901. 
He used the ideas of Folk tale  and the idea of the tales that were already around.
8 stories were published in this collections of fairy tales.

The Brothers Grimm fairy tales were published from around 1812 to 1857, in Germany.
There was around 86 to 200 stories ever written by them.They were influnced by many people some being  Brentano, von Arnim and there own family life.
Task 4

Charles Baudlaire was born in April 9, 1821  and died in August 31, 1867, he lived and worked in Paris in France.Charles Baudlaire was unlike his predecessors as he touched on many different themes such as death, sacred and profane love, metamorphosis, melancholy, the corruption of the city, lost innocence, the oppressiveness of living, and wine.
however he was a lot like the romantics because he believed in the same that, they did and said "art must create beauty from even the most depraved or “non-poetic” situations."
His most famous book was The Flowers Of Evil which he wrote in France in 1857.
The themes in the collection that got called criticise were the themes of death and sex.
two interesting fact were that his book were taken down by law for being different and that he was acquaintances wit Edgar Allen Poe.

Task 5

Marquis de Sade wrote books such as Justine, or the Misfortunes of Virtue; Juliette; The 120 Days of Sodom; and Philosophy in the Bedroom.
He was interested in a very different kind of way, that involves a lot of pain

task 6 AO4 research

Mark of Cain is a biblical reference, he was the first born of Adam and Eve, he also killed his brother.Mark in Hebrew is a sign of a bad omen or warning..
Adam and Eve sow the idea of gaining knowledge that one shouldn't have, like the woman in The Bloody Chamber she has a choice and in both they disobey the man.

task 7 define words

aesthete: A person who has an appreciation to art and beauty 
aigrette: a headdress consisting of a white egret's feather or other decoration such as a spray of gems.
avarice: extreme greed for wealth or material gain.
baroque: -relating to or denoting a style of European architecture, music, and art of the 17th and 18th centuries that followed Mannerism and is characterized by ornate detail. 
-highly ornate and extravagant in style.
bier: a movable frame on which a coffin or a corpse is placed before burial or cremation or on which they are carried to the grave.
billets-doux: a love letter.
carillon: a set of bells played using a keyboard or by an automatic mechanism similar to a piano roll.
carnel: relating to physical, especially sexual, needs and activities.

catafalque:​a decorated wooden framework supporting the coffin of a distinguished person during a funeral or while lying in state.

chthonic: relating to or inhabiting the underworld.

dolorous:feeling or expressing great sorrow or distress.

eldritch: ​weird and sinister or ghostly.

enfer (translate the French): ​Les Enfers is a municipality in the district of Franches-Montagnes in the canton of Jura in Switzerland.

gourmand :​ a person who enjoys eating and often eats too much. (Glutton)

immolated ​: killed or offer as a sacrifice, especially by burning.

importunate: ​persistent, especially to the point of annoyance.

interdiction ​:To forbid or debar, especially authoritatively

jinn ​:an intelligent spirit of lower rank than the angels, able to appear in human and animal forms and to possess humans.

lisle ​: a fine, cotton thread used especially for stockings.

loge ​:a private box in a theatre.

loquacity: ​the quality of talking a great deal; talkativeness.

lustratory :​ceremonial washing or other rite of purification

missal ​: a book containing the texts used in the Catholic Mass throughout the year.

nacreous: ​of or pertaining to nacre.

parure ​: a set of jewels intended to be worn together.

rictus ​: a fixed grimace or grin.

sacerdotal: ​relating to priests or the priesthood.

sadomasochistic :​ the derivation of pleasure from the infliction of physical or mental pain either on others or on oneself.

sardonic ​:grimly mocking or cynical.

trousseau: ​the clothes, linen, and other belongings collected by a bride for her marriage.

vellum ​:fine parchment made originally from the skin of a calf.

vicuna ​:a wild relative of the llama, inhabiting mountainous regions of South America and valued for its fine silky wool.

viscera ​:the internal organs in the main cavities of the body, especially those in the abdomen, e.g. the intestines.

voluptuary: a person devoted to luxury and sensual pleasure.

Task 8 basic questions

1. Carter describes the ruby choker in a materialistic way, 'luxurious defiance' this being very symbolic of the upper class and the wealth they have, how they can put rubies on a ribbon to make them stand out and trying to be better in every way than the lower class as the just had 'Red ribbons' to rebel against the same people. it seems now completely unnecessary, however it show how the upper classes wanted to have power over the lower class. Thus Cater shows this through showing this materialistic side to the upper class, that they could just throw there money around

2.The narrator describing herself as 'exiled' once married shows how she really feels about marriage that it was an isolated place, which show the elements of Gothic on it (the idea of isolation.) It also shows how she maybe did not want to marry and live on her own, she is used to living with her mother in a family orientated life now she lives with her husband (the Marquis), and he isn't always around as he goes too work in different cities.

3.  The girl feels as thought she has more power due to the fact that she has been given all the keys to the house, which make her feel in control when she actually isn't as there is one room that she is not allowed in (The Bloody chamber.) 'key after key, a key' for her she feels for once in her life control, which women in the time the book was written didn't have any.

4.the usual hero structure has altered as the person that you expected to save her doesn't (Jean Yves) also it is typically the male character that saves the damsel, however in the end it turns out to be the females mother that saves her which is against typical hero structure.

5. The dukes view on women is that the =y are weak and a possession to have, that a man can do anything he want to her. which is how most men in the time this text was written felt, however we see this as wrong.



Task 9 Developed questions

1. this part of the text is very uncomfortable to read, as in both our time and the original reader ship, as it is something that is normal talked about in society, 'He closed my leg like a book' it show that there is no feeling in the way both the character where feeling.

2.Her? how she feels on the inside the pain that he truly cause to her.

3.white, innocents and purity of her. black contrasted to the darkness in one's self. purple, has really no effect, well none on me at least. pink, innocent, sweetness childlike. red, dark, blood, danger, death.


4.That phrase comes from the little red riding hood, it used to show the dark messages that people miss in the traditional messages and highlight the particular one of little red riding hood showing how it has a dark more sister meaning.

5. Cater uses may in-textual reference through out the book to show us that the fairy tales aren't what you think and make the audience feel wrong reading these tales to there children, even thought many have,  also it make you think on what society is really about and the amount of subliminal message we pick up.


Task 10 More Complex

1. Clothing is use through out the text of the Bloody chamber so to highlight key idea's, some meaning symbols for other things. The key item of clothing is the 'Ruby choker' that the girl where this symbolise many thing for instance, the foreshadowing of her near death in which he tries to cut her head off in the place she wears the chocker, also it symbolic of him treating her like a pet, his possession as he has a collar around her neck, he an control her. the White dress she wears is also symbolic of her innocents and purity that she has.

Task 11 Magical Realism

Magic realism or magical realism is a genre where magic elements are a natural part in an otherwise mundane, realistic environment.It is most commonly used as a literary genre. it is link with the aesthetic movement