This gothic short story is definitely a far cry from my normal choice in texts but it was 42 pages of brilliance. Carter bases this text off the French legend of "bluebeard" casting the Marquis as Bluebeard, killing his wives and keeping their corpses in a secret chamber. Carter's language choices are extremely harsh, and really spins an intense attachment to the heroine of the story and a hatred of the Marquis. The text is twisted in so many ways and really is quite shocking when you read it. The feminist messages within it, despite not being subtle, are woven meticulously in with the plot achieving something many feminist authors struggle with, creating an engaging story even when disregarding this theme.
Perhaps one of the most interesting questions Carter creates is what room does the text actually consider to be the 'Bloody Chamber'. When the heroine is in the forbidden room she directly refers to it as "this bloody chamber", however, could she infact be referring to their marital chamber? Especially as Carter points out within the text is, “There is a striking resemblance between the act of love and the ministrations of a torturer.” Every time the heroine is in her marital rooms there is an air of shame about her, her despisal of seeing herself in the mirrors surrounding the room suggests an embarrassment in her actions and presence in her room. After they first consummate her marriage the first thing mentioned is the blood, could 'the bloody chamber' really be in reference to the room in which this monstrous man took her virginity. The "blood" being symbolic of the death of her innocence and purity in the world, despite considering herself naive she is intelligent enough to realise the only reason the Marquis was interested in her was her innocence. Does she call this bedchamber bloody because she feels there is no going back now the Marquis has managed to entice her with petty romances?
Carter takes a very different approach to the traditional fairytale ending of 'happily ever after', however breaking the rules of conformity the Heroine doesn't get saved by her Prince Charming. Instead she was saved by her mother, a clearly feminist message, but also a message defining the maternal bond of mother and daughter. As though the mother could sense the desperation of her daughter whilst facing her imminent death. The image of someone storming in on horseback and shooting the bad guy dead is an image generally associated with males at the end of a very tale - you just have to look at every disney film and how rarely it is the princess is saved by a female! However, another interpretation (and a much better one in my opinion) is that the ending is actually a lie. The ending is seemingly too quick and perfect, the last section of her future life with the piano tuner seems too perfect for the rest of the text and instead appears dream like. As though a fantasy that she is holding onto, to make her struggle easier.
To conclude, this work of Carter's is truly incredible and instills the want to read it over and over and discover more of the words. For this reason, I would rate it 9/10
