Inequitable Power Dynamics in Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber and The Tiger’s Bride

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Recommended: Gender in 20th century English literature

Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber and The Tiger’s Bride are both examples of “unsanitary” stories, stories which are filled with gore, sexually explicit themes and norm- breaking story lines. Carter argues that the combination of pornography and conventional gender roles of cultural ideology are responsible for female oppression. In both of these stories, Carter revisits the gender conventions and the problem of inequitable justice of women in faery tales. Overall, the main point which Carter makes is that women are constantly constrained of their self-determination by following the conventional roles society set back in the early 15th century stating that women are simply subordinates to male authority. To start, let us reflect on a quote from The Tiger’s Bride: “We come from countries of cold weather; at home, we are at war with nature but here, ah! you think you've come to the blessed plot where the lion lies down with the lamb (Carter 1). The aspects of symbolism imply that the male represents the tiger while the female represents the lamb, and basically states that the protagonist lives in a society where gender equity is a significant problem, where men are forced to step down from their dominating role to promote gender equality. In faerytale literature, women are often seen as victims of male dominance. Because of this generalization, women are more likely presented as being passive characters. Carter is interested in the portrayal of women as victims of male authority factor in the feminist movement. Carter’s depiction of femininity is multifaceted, it is useful to bring into play a model, based on a very similar pattern presented by Paulina Palmer in her essay “Gender as Performance in the Fiction of Carter and Atwood” from 1997 (Holzhaeuser, 19). She plans to demystify the misconceptions of and to break free from standard cultural views on gender roles

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