I fumbled for the matches in my pocket; what a dim, lugubrious light they gave! And yet, enough, oh, more than enough to see a room designed for desecration and some dark night of unimaginable lovers whose embraces were annihilation.
Perhaps this was the result of near comatose exhaustion; a delirious state of half-sleep in which ludicrous scenes draped over my eyes, each a little more preposterous than the other. Nay, my husband had gone to deal with monetary matters that allowed me to recline so comfortably upon the cushion of his wealth. He shall return imminently, bringing with him an atmosphere of apprehension; compelling my slim, lithe form to hold taut; the atmosphere which had all but disappeared after his departure.
Having seen the first ever mistress of this mansion during her performance of Isolde; that opulently draped diva, trepidation had tingled to my toes, knowing that I may never compare to such a grace. But what an euphoric feeling it had been, being held in the same light as so fine a woman, in the same light as all these women; knowing that to the Marquis, I was as coveted a treasure as any of them. It may simply have been to feed his fiendish desire to watch, while his vulnerable lady; attractive for her form or indeed in my own case, innocence; lay writhing on a bed of stone. He had surprised me with many a treat. A box of the finest marrons glacés, a bouquet of hot-house flowers or even his frequently desired, solitary lily.
Raising my shy gaze heaven-ward, my eyes made out large, bulky shapes of yet another set of gargoyles through the dim light, backs arched as though waiting for me to make my escape. Their stiff, solid posture and smooth, glossy marble texture causing an involuntary shiver down my spine, not unrelated to the bitter blue breeze penetrating in through some fissure in the walls.
I was alone, standing in an unknown place where nothing made sense, save for my grey mind and its newly accumulated thoughts; the mad ravings of a mousey pianist.
The walls of this stark torture chamber were the naked rock; they gleamed as if they were sweating with fright.
-
Analysis of my writing;
The writings of Angela Carter are unique, in the way of style, themes, symbols and motifs. The stories written by Carter are not those of cheerfulness and happy endings, they are different in a most spectacular way. Carter's rewritten fairy tales are a frightening look at the true reality of what fairy tales really are.
I have chosen this story as it is a familiar fairy tale story, combined with the unfamiliarity of a young girl going to her marital home. I have used this particular gap in the narrative as it is in this moment that the lead character is about to discover her husband’s deep dark secret. This gap made it possible to explore her anxiety of realising that she does not know the man she has married, her reluctance to accept the truth, and perhaps the emotions she feels on being left alone in such a way. Carter had only hinted at her character being a conventional heroine of fairy tales; passive and meek. I wanted to explore why she would feel this way, how she would react, and whether I could alter this view so that she is more concerned with her relationship with the Marquis rather than screaming bloody murder.
Unlike a traditional fairy-tale narrator, generally an impartial third person, this narrator is the heroine herself. By giving the heroine a voice, Carter challenged the fairy-tale tradition of our seeing, from the outside, events befall an innocent girl. Letting the distressed heroine tell her story empowers the figure of woman by putting her in the traditionally male-dominated roles of storyteller and survivor instead of relegating her to the role of helpless princess. In The Bloody Chamber, the heroine tells us personally about how her suffering became the source of her enlightenment.
I wanted to replicate the way in which Carter empowers her character by making her a poor pianist that marries primarily for money. I did this by continuing her interior monologue into how she feels about her husband and their marriage and whether she could believe what she was about to see. I included his past, such as “the first ever mistress of this mansion during her performance of Isolde; that opulently draped diva”, in order to reflect upon the character’s own inexperience and wonder whether this was the reason he had left her alone to find such a scene.
I have kept the setting of my narrative the same as it is before and after the gap in the narrative; the chamber she has wandered into. I wanted to focus on the underlying feeling of her being trapped, in this case, literally in a stone dungeon, to symbolise being trapped in the marriage. Keeping with the narrative, the atmosphere was one of tension within the character’s own mind, emphasised by the gargoyle statues in the room, watching her every move, as though the Marquis had never left, leaving her unable to relax.
Carter uses a variety of syntax in her work, ranging from two short words to whole paragraphs without a full stop. Instead, she uses semi-colons. I have tried to re-capture this style in my work. It is most evident during the second paragraph, in which there are three long sentences and one short one. I have also used certain phallic symbols such as; ‘stiff, solid posture and smooth, glossy marble texture’ to describe the gargoyles, and ‘recline so comfortably upon the cushion of his wealth’, ‘feed his fiendish desire’ ‘lay writhing on a bed of stone’ and ‘penetrating’ to interweave sexual ambiguity into the narrative. She raises her eyes ‘heaven-ward’, symbolising a religious undercurrent within the text, since gargoyles are typically seen to ‘guard’ churches.
When the Marquis is present, he dominates the relationship, able to make her do as he wishes. The colour used to symbolise their relationship is mostly red, symbolising male dominance and their sexual relationship. This is also used in other stories, such as “The Company of Wolves” to symbolise virginity and hormonal urges. In this extract however, I have used the colour blue to describe the ‘bitter blue breeze penetrating in’. This is because the character is worried and apprehensive, and the colour blue would feel chilly, bringing out goose-bumps in such a situation. I have also described her as having a dim ‘grey mind’ to emphasise the numbness of her brain after learning of her husband keeping something from her, of not knowing him at all, of the knowledge that she had married such a man and will have to spend the rest of her life there.
To the reader, this passage between the original narrative implies that the character knows the truth about her husband but refuses to believe it at first, insisting that “ludicrous scenes” are a part of her “delirious state of half-sleep” although the truth slowly scrapes away at the back of her mind.
I believe this piece, while fitting well into the narrative, lacks Angela Carter’s unique style and depth in the characters. On reflection, I would have concentrated the character’s thoughts into a rational sense of fear and explored this emotion.
No comments:
Post a Comment