The Snow Child (The Bloody Chamber) A2 English Lit

THE SNOW CHILD

Events and what happens: 

- Count and his wife go riding

- The man wants a child 

- The man wants an unspolied, pure and virginal character (connotations of lust, power, control, hierachy, ownership, sexual urges and desires) 

- The man wants "a girl as white as snow" "a girl as red as blood" and "a girl as black as that bird's feather" - this implies that the Count wants a lot, and cannot choose just what he wants. A typical Gothic trope of greed and a high rate of desire 

- The Countess starts to grow jealous of this mystical girl that has appeared after the Count has described his ideal girl. She tries to kill her in a variety of ways. Further tropes of the Gothic - jealously, power struggle and death

- The Countess then asks the girl to pick her a rose, the Count consents then the girl "pricks her finger on the thorn; bleeds; screams; falls." The girl has died and the Count then has sex with the dead body of his desired girl/daughter. 

- The Countess then pricks herself on the same thorn that the girl did, but is not effected in the same way, "When she touched it, she dropped it" 

Themes 

• Lust
• Desire
• Jealousy 
• Power (struggles)
• Greed
• Gender 
• Control
• Sexual desires
• Nature/The wild - Winter

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