Not only does Angela Carter subvert the ending and many of the gender roles in “The Bloody chamber”, but she also experiments boldly with the traditional fairytale narrative style by employing many startling writing techniques.
The story is written in first person and is in interior monologue concentrating on personal detail. Use of flashbacks like “And I remember I tenderly imagined how, at this very moment my mother would be moving slowly”, give the story a base to build the rest of the story upon. There is a hidden sign of horror behind “choke of rubies” as the story is set in France around the time of the French revolution when many people were beheaded which relates to choking. Also this shows the dread of blue beards character. Dramatic action is showed when “The whizz of that heavy sword.” Whizz is an anglo-saxon word and creates a more visual look at the sword by describing its action. It is narrated in a short sentence followed by a long sentence of more in depth action. When blue beard say’s “all the better to see you with” the writer is using intertextuality from the fairy tale little red riding hood and comparing him to a wolf.
The dialogue later establishes a patronising tone when she suspects something suspicious about his nature and his mysterious ways. Blood, Violence, Death, Virginity are all topics in the story and also are related to the colour red which itself relates to danger and are blue beards favourite past times. There is a pattern of adverbs “gladly, scandalously, defiantly” which is a trimodel function. The tense changes “I remember” this shows she is looking back on her life as that’s all she can really do while she waits her new found fiancee. Pronouns at the
beginning of paragraphs are signalling she is looking back and remembering
There are quite a lot of simple sentences in one part of the story and they are placed there to just push the story along. “let it ring” is a minor sentence that increases action and pace for the story to develop. Also exclamations add to suspense and tension. When she is alone and finds there is no one to talk to she says “nevertheless” which through the following long sentence reveals she has other shenanigans to attend to.
There is a pattern of three “I lay in bed. I longed for him. He disgusted me”, which shows her confusion over blue beard and how he effects her psycologically. Instead of her being innocent she seems to enjoy the pain and sex morein of the courtship of Mr Lyon. The pace is quickened when she is left alone and sets out to find Mr Lyons dark secrets. But a gap appears in the story because the pace has reached its height and must be slowed for the happy ending to start and end the story.
Angela Carter takes your average typical fairytale and turns it upside down. By adding horror and tension in a twisted manner. The story is altered from its original fairy tale to fit her feministic writing and scary tone. Her stories are very experimental and cleverly written to suit a more adult audience and to perhaps stand out in amongst all the other fairytale writers. I think she does successgully create an outrageous yet clever story with imagery and techniques of tense changing and tension building sentences.
