Women in 'The Bloody Chamber'

The mother in ‘The Bloody Chamber’ embodies a feminist’s dream. The ‘indomitable’ woman is a figure of strength and courage; shooting ‘a man –eating tiger with her own hand”, and holding all the traits of a masculine hero. The passing down of her husband’s “antique service revolver” symbolises her possession of the power traditionally held by men. Yet she is equipped with ‘maternal telepathy’, which adds another dimension to her empowerment as it is a feminine strength, suggesting Carter is employing the notion that women may embrace their femininity whilst still retaining an advantage over men. However, her masculine qualities cannot be ignored. The windswept image is one of strength, portrayed towards the end of the novel, when she saves the damsel in distress, a role usually dominated by men. Her ‘white mane’ alludes to the image of a hunting lioness, a symbol of strength. She is the embodiment of “furious justice”.

Contradicting societies’ expectations of women again, the mother promotes choice, a luxury not enjoyed by most young females at the time. She asks her daughter “Are you sure you love him?”, offering her daughter the choice of marrying the “richest man in France”. The fact that she is concerned over the issue of love, not money, illuminates her romantic side. She is not merely concerned with using marriage as an excuse to better oneself and provide security, as many women were concerned over at the time, but suggests she believes marriage is for love, a quality admired by strong, independent women.

Another more minor female character who holds significance is the Marquis’ Grandmother. She wore her “ruby choker” as a symbol to represent her escape from the guillotine. As the action of removing a head resembles Freud’s castration theory, it may be interpreted that the Grandmother is wearing the choker in “luxurious defiance” of her femininity, that she is not just a being defined by her lack of male genitalia. She is also described as the “woman who had escaped the blade”, suggesting her role is to foreshadow the fortune of our narrator who also “escapes” the Marquis’ blade. As the “blade” connotates to fallac symbolism, the grandmother may also represent women who escape the male dominance prevalent at the time, showing feministic qualities.

The character who is void of feministic qualities however, is our narrator. She epitomises the dependant, naive female void of any strength of character of her own. Merely an object of possession, she “ceased to be her child in becoming his wife”; she is always owned by somebody else. She is condemned to be objectified by all those around her, her husband asses her as if he was “inspecting horseflesh”, and even in what should be a passionate first sexual experience, she is merely described as an “artichoke” who’s leaves need to be stripped.

Her nativity is shown through her “potential for corruption”, and her childish characteristics. Her husband calls her a “little girl”, and she repeatedly refers to her lack of maturity; “Child that I was, I giggled when she left me.” She has the tendency to place herself in fairy-tale like stories, with “castles” and “mermaidens”, suggesting she lacks a mature grip on reality and highlighting her childlike dependence. Even when about to be killed, instead of trying to escape, she merely obeys the wishes of her husband, and like an obedient dog; “descended down the spiral staircase” to meet her death. This depicts her lack of independence, and how she conforms to the traditionally seen view that women submit themselves to men, whatever the circumstance. She is the complete antitheses to her mother.