Bloody Chamber Close Analysis 2

The Bloody Chamber 2
The train slowed ...
In the empty air outside…read more

The train slowed ...
· Phallic symbol
· Shuddered to a halt (do I have to spell it out?)
· Sentence "Lights; clank ..." asyndetic list ­
series of impressions ­ she is overwhelmed?
· And I could not sleep ­ minor sentence ­
tension and excitement
· His breathing is rhythm hers is warmth…read more

Cont ...
· The real everyday domestic world is
contrasted with her future
· Asyndetic listing ­ sense of loss summed up in
exiled (repeated in next paragraph)
· Mention of the station master's children
implies that despite her assumption that she is
there to provide an heir, children will not be
part of her future…read more

Into marriage, into exile
· She has married for materialism (tripled
asyndeton of ring, bloody bandage of rubies, the
wardrobe of clothes)
· Proleptic metaphor bloody bandage continues
· And desire (scent, train began to throb)
· Complicit on her own downfall ­ has made the
wrong choice yet feels no regret. Exile / lonely
· Distance ­ from childhood to adulthood ­
significance of loss of virginity…read more

The first grey streamers
· Eldritch = Old English word for unearthly /
weird. Pathetic fallacy
· Synesthesia ­ one sense described as another
­ daylight / air described as water seeped
· My heightened excited senses
· Sale and size again ­ he is huge, enormous Go
compare…read more

Ancient Egyptians / sarcophagi
· A culture which made an art form of death
· As does the sadistic Marquis
· The Romeo y Julieta is a cigar. It also alludes to
a tragic outcome.
· Simile fat as a baby's arm…read more