'In original Gothic, Women 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'?

Women, within early Gothic texts, were often portrayed as ‘trembling victims’; this is shown within the Character of Isabella within ‘the Castle of Otranto’, and furthered into later Gothic texts, such as Madeline in ‘the Fall of the House of Usher’. Despite this, Carter does not attempt to express the Character of either the Girl, or her Mother, in ‘the Bloody Chamber’ as a ‘trembling victim’; as both characters express traits of ‘power’ as well acceptance within the first of the short stories in her collection. Simultaneously, Carter may be expressing the Men within her short story as ‘predatory’, as the Marquis seems to prey on the societal view of female weakness as he murders his Wives, whilst Jean-Yves may be seen to exploit  the Girl when she is in her time of need – by doing this Carter may be attempting to present the relationship between Men and Women to the Reader, as from a Feminist perspective although Men appear different from the exterior, they are all ‘predatory’ in a sense when looked at in depth. Carter’s purpose of showing her Female characters as victims, despite not in an overt sense, may be an attempt to explore boundaries from her ‘modern feminist’ perspective – as she attempts to portray Women as stronger than the stock character presented in early Gothic fiction.

Carter shows the Girl within her first short story, ‘the Bloody Chamber’, as a ‘trembling victim’ in the sense that she is shown to be frightful of being left alone with the Marquis from the outset. This is suggested through the lines ‘unguessable country of marriage’, and ‘ceased to be her child in becoming his Wife’; this creates a sense of self-pity from the character as it presents her as ‘isolated’ from all she knows by becoming the Marquis wife. Carter may show her Female characters to be ‘trembling victims’ in this sense as, in the view of Wisker, she is renowned for challenging ‘gendered constructions and representations of power’; by showing the Girl as a ‘trembling victim’ Carter is in essence attempting to portray her Female stereotype as confined by social structures that are seemingly unnoticeable unless made overt through the form of literature.

Furthermore, the Girl is shown to be the ‘trembling victim’ within this first narrative of Carter’s collection as she says she is ‘forced to mimic surprise’ – this shows she is, in a sense, the victim of the patriarchal society in which she lives. It is shown that the Girl is forced to keep her place in Society, as was believed when Carter was writing the collection, as Feminism was developing ideas of how Women were portrayed in society through new forms of literature etc. that attempt to show Women as wrongfully portrayed. This point is confirmed by Carter that ‘characters become symbols’ within Gothic literature, as she may attempt to make the Girl be shown as a the binary opposite to the ‘liberated’ Woman – which may be an attempt to provoke the Female Reader as the Girl is shown to do the Man’s bidding, once this is made overt within the text Carter may expect a reaction that goes against this ideology of a patriarchal society being ‘all controlling’.

It is too shown within ‘the Bloody Chamber’ that Carter presents her Women as ‘trembling victims’ as the Marquis dead Wives are described as a ‘gallery of beautiful women” – this shows the way in which Women are objectified in the eyes of the Marquis. They may be described as a ‘gallery’ in order to show the extent of the patriarchal society in which Carter believes she lives, as the Castle is exhibited as ‘his world’, and that the Marquis is the Girl’s ‘purchaser’. It further shows the self-pity that the Girl feels, as she believes she cannot escape the Marquis ‘gallery’, or ‘world’, suggesting the Girl is deemed as helpless as she never seems to attempt to escape the Male dominated society. It is suggested by Atwood that Carter, by attempting to portray the ‘passivity’ of Women overtly, attempts to show the way in which Women must show a sense of ‘tigerishness’ in order to gain a certain amount of power within society/ life. This may be why Carter places this short story at the forefront of her collection, in an attempt to show the nature in which Women are portrayed as ‘trembling victims’ within literature in an overt way; in an attempt to show to the Reader the extent that Women are marginalised within society.

It is too suggested that the Women are shown to be ‘trembling victims’ as the Men within the text are portrayed as ‘predatory’. This is shown as the marquis conforms to the archetypal Man within Gothic fiction, as he is described as ‘leonine’, this may be symbolic of the ‘predatory’ nature that all Men have – as to create animalistic symbols suggests that, although the Women within Carters first narrative are ‘trembling victims’, they have due reason to be so as they are dominated by their Male counterparts. It is suggested by Carter that she may present her Men in this way in order to ‘provoke unease’, this is for differing reasons to the original gothic, as Dracula was used to provoke fright in an ostentatious/ unnatural way, Carter creates idea’s within her text that, although test boundaries of Gothic, create this sense of fear as they do link to inherent Human desires.

However, within ‘the Bloody Chamber’ the Mother, in contrast to her Daughter in many respects, is described as ‘indomitable’.  Carter may be attempting to challenge views on patriarchy within this suggestion, as she presents a need for Women to be ‘powerful’ within life, as she shows the Mother as a key figure through her ability to save her Daughter’s life whilst Men, such as Jean-Yves, cannot. As Carter appears to present the first tale in her collection as one of age, as it conforms to original gothic stereotypes such as the Marquis Castle, it could be proposed that the idea is to show Women as inherently strong – but confined by ideologies that have always existed, as it is suggested by Wisker that as Carter is a ‘contemporary writer’, it is her duty to ‘critique the contemporary world’.

Carter too attempts to reference her Character’s as strong, this is shown through the link created to Catherine de Medici within the short-story, this links to the idea of all tales being adaptations to the past – as Catherine de Medici is viewed as the epitome of Feminism in the sense she battled patriarchal society in order to become the Queen of France. This may create the suggestion that Carter is attempting to show her Characters as inherently strong, but that they have simply been controlled through time to believe that they have no ‘power’ – meaning that Carter attempts to link her Characters to strength through covert means; for example she uses a lack of emotional language, like ‘he kissed me and left me and died’. This suggests that all Women within original Gothic literature are truly ‘strong’, but are portrayed as the ‘trembling victim’ in order to keep up the idea of Male dominance – despite this not being the reality of life.

The statement presented may too be suggested to be untrue as the Men within ‘the Bloody Chamber’ could be viewed to be presented as not ‘predatory’. This is shown through the character of Jean-Yves, as he is blind he cannot truly control the Girl, this is shown through the line ‘lover kissed me’ – suggesting that unlike the Girl and the Marquis relationship they are on equal terms, as the Girl finds Jean-Yves as somebody who ‘loves’ her. This links to the idea of ‘the Male Gaze’; as without Jean-Yves’ look she cannot be controlled by him, meaning that they must be on equal terms. By making Jean-Yves blind, Carter subverts the gaze, as she wishes the Man to be the one who is dominated, as although he cannot see the Girl, the Girl can see him for what he is; which means that instead of being a victim, like original Gothic literature would have made her, the Girl is even if only for part of ‘the Bloody Chamber’ viewed as ‘powerful’.

Overall, within the first narrative of Carter’s collection, she does attempt to show the Marquis as ‘predatory’; but simultaneously she attempts to show her Female characters as ‘strong’, as by creating the character of Jean Yves it subverts ‘power’ to the Girl. This is uncommon within original Gothic texts, as the Female is usually portrayed as a melodramatic character that has no ‘power’ within the text – therefore Carter may be attempting to suggest the changing of Feminism throughout time, as she believes that this is the time for Women to show themselves as more dominant within society.