The Bloody Chamber-Imagery

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  • Blood
    • Imagery
      • Flowers
        • Most of the tales feature flowers, symbolic of different things.
          • The Bloody Chamber- lillies =death and mourning-associated with funerals
          • The Snow Child- Rose= desire and sexuality. For the countess the rose is a weapon.
          • The Lady of the House of Love-Flowers= female genitalia.
          • The Courtship of Mr. Lyon- "One white, perfect rose"- symbolic of beauty and purity
      • The songbird
        • Symbol of loss of individual freedom
          • The Lady of the House of Love- The countess is trapped in an endless cycle, unwillingly inherited from her ancestors who still watch over her.
          • The Erl- King- turns women into birds and traps them.
      • Mister Wolf
        • Imagery of fairy tales and folk lore. In early civilizations, wolves posed a threat to human safety.The wolf also represents greed and deceit as well as suppressed sexual desire
          • The werewolf-wolf represents older generation of women whose domesticated roles were shaped by men. It is a threat resolved by the heroine.
          • The Company of Wolves- wolf-man is symbolic of sexual appetite and desire, which women have taken shelter from in the story. The end of the tale demonstrates women can have relationships on their own terms.
    • Gothic element of the tales. Relates to menstruation, sexual maturity, wounds, pain, death and sexual pleasure
      • The bloody chamber-stain=shame after heroine discovers the chamber
      • The Snow-Child-blood=consequence of count's sexual assault
      • The Lady of the House of Love- Blood= survival,how she satisfies hunger
      • Wolf Alice-Blood=puberty, it is relentless and forceful, a part of female maturity. Not romantic but realistic.

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