The Werewolf

?
View mindmap
  • The Werewolf
    • The Grandmother/wolf
      • "it was a huge one, with red eyes and running, grizzled chops"
        • "red" colour represents danger
          • Gothic imagery
        • "huge" implies a sense of power over the girl
      • "the wolf let out a gulp, almost a sob"
        • Subversion of the archetype. Feeling pity for the wolf.
    • The Supernatural
      • "to these upland woodsmen, the Devil is as real as you or I"
      • "wreaths of garlic on the doors keep out the vampires"
        • Links to idea of death. wreaths on a grave
      • "they soon find it"
        • patriarchal society- fear and hatred of women
      • Links to the Devil- Supernatural
    • Setting
      • "it is a northern country"
        • setting is isolated
          • no indication of time or place
            • "margins of the forest"
              • Metaphysical for approaching adulthood
          • Enhances isolation of setting and reflect on isolation of the child
      • Folklore setting
        • "At midnight, especially on Walpurgisnacht, the Devil holds picnics in the graveyards and invites the Witches"
      • "their houses are built of logs, dark and smokey within"
        • sense of the past - medieval
    • Language, Form and Structure
      • Language creates distance between the story and the reader
        • "it went for her throat as wolves do"
      • Short sentances increase the pace of the story and add suspense
      • Starts with omniscient narrator- distracts the audience
      • Brief change in narrative perspective
        • "go and visit grandmother"
    • The Child
      • No father-figure. strong, independant and assertive
        • "take your father's hunting knife. you know how to use it"
      • "the good child"
        • Nameless child- innocence
      • "shabby coat of sheep-skin"
        • vulnerable, poor, prey.
          • reference to the sacrificial lamb
          • Doesn't speak, passivity
      • "by the wart, she knew it to be her grandmother's hand"
        • Moment of realisation- Anagnorisis (greek tragedy
          • "now the child lived in the grandmother's house;she prospered"
            • defiance of patriarchal expectations
    • The Gothic
      • The Supernatural
        • "to these upland woodsmen, the Devil is as real as you or I"
        • "wreaths of garlic on the doors keep out the vampires"
          • Links to idea of death. wreaths on a grave
        • "they soon find it"
          • patriarchal society- fear and hatred of women
        • Links to the Devil- Supernatural
      • "bloody stump"
        • reoccuring theme of blood
      • "pelted her with stones until she fell down dead"
        • reoccuring theme of death
      • "any footsteps, that migth have been upon it were obscured"
        • Deception
        • security within patriarchal society at the expense of another woman

Comments

No comments have yet been made

Similar English Literature resources:

See all English Literature resources »See all The Bloody Chamber resources »