The Bloody Chamber: Characters (OCR A Level English Literature)
Revision Note
The Bloody Chamber: Characters
In The Bloody Chamber and other short stories, Carter either writes from the narrative perspective of the female protagonist, as is the case in The Bloody Chamber and The Tiger’s Bride, or the third-person narrative perspective such as in The Courtship of Mr Lyon. This offers a new “twist” on traditional fairy tales as we are viewing the narrative from the perspective of characters who are normally submissive and voiceless. Characters can also be symbolic, representing certain ideas or ideals, so it is essential that you consider:
how characters are established
how characters are presented via:
actions and motives
what they say and think
how they interact with others
what others say and think about them
their physical appearance or description
how far the characters conform to or subvert stereotypes
the relationships between characters
what they might represent
Below you will find detailed character profiles for the major characters in The Bloody Chamber, The Courtship of Mr Lyon and The Tiger’s Bride, along with a summary of the other significant characters.
Examiner Tip
In the exam, the idea of character as a conscious construct should be evident throughout your response. While these characters are from famous fairy tales, you should try to avoid seeing the original characters as “early versions” of these characters, as Carter has merely taken some inspiration from these stories.
Instead, focus solely on the text, and your analysis of characters should be literary rather than influenced by other versions or representations.
The Bloody Chamber
Major characters
Other characters
The nameless narrator
The narrator is the protagonist of the story and a young female of seventeen
Her father has died and she has grown up without wealth with her mother and her nanny in an apartment in Paris
The story begins with the narrator on a train to her marital home:
She has married a marquis, who is significantly older than her and has been married three times before
She is an excellent and accomplished pianist
She is curious, but it is very evident that she is intimidated by her new husband
She wants to marry the Marquis because he is wealthy and has worldly experience
She begins to feel very lonely at the castle:
Her new husband seems more interested in his business than her
She has no experience with intimate relationships and she finds comfort in the Marquis, but also fears him - “I longed for him. And he disgusted me”
She is curious and inquisitive and decides to find out more about her husband by searching his office:
This leads to her searching for more by using the key he had forbidden her to use
Upon entering the chamber, she finds the corpses of the Marquis’s previous three wives
When her husband returns, she attempts to seduce him in order to distract him from his query about the keys
The narrator fails to seduce him and so tries to delay her execution in order for her mother to arrive in time
After she inherits the Marquis’s wealth, she gives the majority of it away to charities and dedicates her life to help people with her lover, Jean-Yves
By the end of the story, it is evident that the narrator is not the same naive girl she was at the start of the story
The young female narrator is nameless:
This could be because Carter wanted the reader to see the narrator the same way as the Marquis saw her, which was as an object of desire and as an innocent, naive virgin
It could also be that by making her nameless, Carter universalised her struggle and her victory so that she represented all women
By keeping the narrator nameless, the story focuses on the themes of gender, identity and empowerment rather than individual characteristics:
Readers are therefore able to relate and project themselves onto the narrator
The Marquis
The Marquis is a French aristocrat and is extremely wealthy:
This gives the Marquis a sense of power and dominance over the narrator and the other people around him
He has married for the fourth time and is clearly attracted to the narrator’s physical beauty and innocence
The Marquis’ previous three wives died under mysterious circumstances
He is someone who collects pornography and has fetishes that include torturing women:
It is clear that he married the narrator due to these fetishes and to exert dominance over her sexually
The Marquis has a chamber that he forbids the narrator to enter:
When the narrator does enter the chamber, it is evident that the Marquis’s three previous wives have been killed by him in gruesome ways
They are displayed like trophies
He makes the narrator wear a red choker at certain points in the story, which foreshadows what his plans are for her:
At the end of the story, he attempts to behead her
Minor characters
The narrator’s mother
The narrator’s mother is a brave and independent woman:
The narrator states that her mother fought pirates and killed a tiger when she was younger
She married a poor soldier and it is hinted that she gave up her wealth for him
She is a widow
She carries her husband’s pistol in her bag
It is evident by what the narrator says that her mother is not keen on her marriage to the Marquis
She travels to the Marquis’s castle to save her daughter
In order to save her daughter, she kills the Marquis with her husband’s pistol
Jean-Yves
Jean-Yves is a young piano tuner who is blind
He lives in the village near the Marquis’s castle and is called by the Marquis to tune the piano
He becomes the narrator’s ally and tries to protect her from the Marquis
He later marries the narrator
The fact that he is blind suggests that the narrator’s appearance is not what attracts him to her, positioning this character as an opposite to the Marquis
The Beast
The Beast is a creature that resembles a lion
He is angered when Beauty’s father takes advantage of his generosity by taking a white rose from his garden
However, he sees a picture of Beauty and is attracted by her physical appearance
He tells Beauty’s father to bring her for dinner as compensation for stealing the rose:
He then falls in love with Beauty
He helps Beauty’s father with his finances and, as a result, Beauty and her father become wealthy again
Here, the fates of Beauty and her father are in the hands of the Beast
He makes Beauty promise to return to him before the winter ends:
Beauty does not remember her promise and, as a result, the Beast becomes weaker and starts to die
His fate is now intertwined with Beauty
His health is restored when Beauty returns and she kisses him:
He is transformed into a man as a result of this kiss and is called Mr Lyon
Beauty
Beauty is a beautiful girl who is asked to meet the Beast by her father, whom she cares about deeply
Despite his appearance, she begins to fall in love with the beast
This suggests that the female protagonist is less interested in physical beauty
She returns to her father after his wealth is restored
She then becomes distracted by their newfound wealth and forgets about her promise to return to the Beast
This paints her as superficial and spoiled
However, she returns to the Beast and kisses him as he lies dying
Her kiss transforms the Beast and she becomes his wife
Carter is more traditional in her representation of Beauty in this short story:
She is faithful to her father and a loving daughter
She does what her father tells her to do and is willing to risk her life to help her father
However, what is interesting to note that Beauty’s looks begin to fade when she forgets her promise to the Beast
Carter is highlighting how women like Beauty are passed from man to man and that their looks are linked to how useful they are to the male figures around them
It could also be argued, however, that Beauty’s looks begin to fade as she becomes more materialistic and shallow after her father becomes rich again
Beauty’s looks then return when she fulfils her promise to the Beast and gives up her life of frivolity for a more domesticated life with Mr Lyon
Carter could be ridiculing traditional fairy tales and the traditional stereotypes present in those stories
Minor characters
Beauty’s father
A man who lost his fortune due to his poor business decisions
He has one daughter called Beauty
His car stops working as he is driving home and is stranded in a snowstorm
He stumbles upon a castle and finds food and comfort
Upon leaving, he picks a rose for his daughter, which angers the owner of the castle, the Beast
As payment for the rose, he agrees to bring his daughter for dinner at the castle
He leaves his daughter with the Beast as he goes to restore his fortune, which he does successfully
The Tiger’s Bride
Major characters
Minor characters
The Beast
The Beast is a tiger who disguises himself as a man by covering his body and wearing a mask
He lives in an isolated castle in a village
He plays cards with everyone who passes through the village:
He “wins” the narrator in a game of cards with her father
He cannot be understood by people as he is only able to growl and roar:
Therefore, he communicates through his valet, who speaks for him
He asks to see the narrator naked and, if she agrees, he will let her go back to her father with money and gifts
He takes off his mask and cloak in front of the narrator to reveal himself to her
He and the narrator stay together at the castle after he transforms her into a tiger by licking off her skin
The narrator
A young woman (Beauty) is the protagonist and narrator of the story:
We see everything from this character’s point of view and we are given an insight into her thoughts and feelings
She is based on the character of “Beauty” from Beauty and the Beast
She is a young female who is beautiful and an only child
She lives with her father as her mother is dead
She is gambled away by her father in a game of cards and sent to live in the Beast’s castle
The Beast asks to see the narrator naked and she refuses:
Her pride and honour stops her from doing what the Beast wants her to do
She only undresses in front of him after the Beast reveals himself to her:
There is a subversion of power here as she does not do his bidding until he reveals himself to her
She chooses to stay with the Beast rather than return to her father:
It is evident at the end that the narrator decides to choose her own path rather than go back to her father
She is transformed into a beast:
This transformation can also represent Beauty’s transformation from an objectified female to a woman who decides to shed her skin and choose her own destiny
Minor characters
The narrator’s father
A widower whose wife died after tiring of his womanising and gambling
He has gambled away the majority of his money
He loses his daughter in a game of cards:
Here it is evident that the narrator’s father objectifies his daughter and uses her as currency
He feels some guilt for losing his daughter and tries to apologise to her:
She gives him a white rose which is stained with her blood
He becomes rich again once the Beast sends him money
The Beast’s valet
The valet is a monkey who is disguised as a man
He attends to the Beast and translates what the Beast is saying:
He appears loyal to the Beast
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