The Bloody Chamber - Angela Carter

Quotes by theme + critics (and critical views over time) + context

Sexuality - TBC

‘‘he stripped me..

…as if he were stripping the leaves off an artichoke’’

Sexuality - TBC

‘‘The lilies that…

..I always associate with him; that are white, and stain you.’’

Sexuality - TBC

‘‘My little nun…

…has found the prayer books has she?’’

Sexuality - TBC

‘‘A dozen…

…husbands impaled a dozen brides.’’

Sexuality - The Erl King

‘‘He strips me to my…

…nakedness… like a skinned rabbit; then dresses me again in an embrace.’’

Sexuality - TBC

‘‘the weight of his desire…

…was a force I could not withstand.’’

Sexuality - Dracula

‘‘A deliberate voluptuousness…

…which was both thrilling and repulsive’’

Sexuality - Dracula

‘‘I closed my eyes…

… in a languorous ecstasy’’

Sexuality - Dracula

Lucy’s punishment

‘‘lucy’s eyes…

…were unclean and full of hell-fire, instead of the pure, gentle orbs we knew.’’

Gender - Gothic female - TBC

‘‘I only did what…

…he knew I would’’ ‘‘‘like Eve’’ he said’’

Gender - Gothic female - Lady OTHOL

‘‘A girl with the fragility…

…of the skeleton of a moth’’

Gender - Gothic female - Lady OTHOL

‘‘All claws and teeth…

… she strikes; she gorges.’’

Gender - Gothic female - Lady OTHOL

‘‘Her huge dark eyes…

…almost broke his heart’’

Gender - Gothic female - Lady OTHOL

‘‘red lips like the obese…

…roses in her garden, lips that do not move’’

(‘‘a whore’s mouth’’)

Gender - Gothic female - Lady OTHOL

‘‘He was struck, once again, by the birdlike…

…predatory claws which tipped her marvellous hands.’’

Gender - Gothic female - The Tiger’s bride

‘‘that not beasts nor women were equipped… when…

…the good Lord opened the gates of Eden and let Eve and her familiars tumble out.’’

Gender - Gothic female - The Tiger’s bride

‘‘The tiger will never lie down with the…

…lamb… The lamb must learn to run with the tigers.’’

Gender - Gothic female - The Tiger’s bride

‘‘each stroke of tongue ripped off skin after successive…

…skin… and left behind a nascent patina of shining hairs.’’

Gender - The Company of Wolves

‘‘She knew she was…

…nobody’s meat.’’

Gender - Gothic female - TBC

‘‘I saw how much that cruel…

…necklace became me.’’

Gender - Gothic female - Dracula

‘‘I am alone in the castle with those…

…awful women… Mina is a woman, and there is nought in common. They are devils of the Pit!’’

Gender - Gothic female - Dracula

‘‘I suppose there is something in woman’s nature that…

…makes a man free to break down before her… without feeling it derogatory to his manhood.’’ (Lord Godalming)

Gender - Gothic female - Dracula

‘‘when we are married…

…I shall be useful to Jonathan.’’

(The New Woman.)

Gender - Gothic female - Dracula

‘‘Why can’t they let a girl marry…

…three men? or as many as want her?’’

Gender - Gothic female - Dracula

‘‘lying like…

… Ophelia in the play.’’

Gender - Gothic female - Dracula

‘‘purity to….

voluptuous wantonness.’’

Gender - Gothic female - Frankenstein

Elizabeth ‘‘fairer than a…

…pictured cherub.’’

Gender - Gothic male - TBC

‘‘He was older than I. He was..

much older than I; there were streaks of pure silver in his dark mane.’’

Gender - Gothic male - Lady OTHOL

‘‘He will learn to shudder in the…

trenches. But this girl won’t make him shudder.’’

Gender - Gothic male - Lady OTHOL

‘‘he is an exorcism… he put his mouth…

…to the wound. He will kiss it better for her, as her mother… would have done’’

Gender - Gothic male - The Tiger’s bride

‘‘ one single tear swelled…

…a tear! A tear, I hoped, of shame.’’

Gender - Gothic male - The Tiger’s bride

‘‘He was far more frightened…

…of me than I was of him’’

Gender - Gothic male - The Erl King

‘‘Erl-King will do…

…you grievous harm.’’

Gender - Gothic male - The Erl King

‘‘There are some…

…eyes can eat you.’’

Gender - Gothic male - The Erl King

‘‘He is an…

…excellent housewife.’’

Gender - Gothic male - The Erl King

‘‘He is the tender butcher…

..who showed me how the price of flesh is love; skin the rabbit, he says! Off come all my clothes.

Gender - Gothic male - The Erl King

‘‘You sink your teeth…

…into my throat and make me scream.’’

Gender - Gothic male - Dracula

‘‘peculiarly sharp…

…white teeth.’’

Gender - Gothic male - Dracula

‘‘What it was, whether…

…man or beast, I could not tell.’’

Gender - Gothic male - Dracula

‘‘a brave man’s blood…

…is the best thing in the world when a woman is in trouble.’’

Gender - Gothic male - Dracula

‘‘but the evil smile as quickly passed…

…into a cold stare of lion-like disdain.’’

The Outsider - Wolf Alice

‘‘she does not under…

…stand their language… her pace is not our pace.’’

The Outsider - Wolf Alice

‘‘Nothing about her is human…

…except that she is not a wolf.’’

The Outsider - Wolf Alice

‘‘he passed through the mirror…

…and now, henceforward, lives upon the other side of things.’’

The Outsider - Wolf Alice

‘‘If you could transport her, in her filth and rags…

…and feral disorder, to the garden of Eden f our first beginnings…. she might prove to be the wise child who leads them all.’’

The Outsider - Wolf Alice

‘‘We secluded her in animal privacy…

…out of fear of her imperfection because it showed us what we might have been.’’

The Outsider - Wolf Alice

‘‘she, the serene, inviolable one…

…in her absolute and verminous innocence.’’

The Outsider - Wolf Alice

‘‘he believes himself to be both less and more than a man…

…as if his obscene difference were a sign of grace.’’

The Other - Frankeinstein

‘‘I ought to be thy Adam…

…;but i am rather the fallen angel.’’

The Other - Frankenstein

‘‘Men appear to me as…

…monsters, thirsting for eachother’s blood.’’

The Other - Frankenstein

‘‘a figure so hideously deformed…

…and loathsome; I was not even of the same nature as man.’’

The Outsider - Frankenstein

‘‘I am an unfortunate and…

…deserted creature; I look around and I have no relation or friend upon earth.’’

Religion - TBC

‘‘no, not the key to my heart. Rather…

…the key to my enfer.’’

Religion - TBC

‘‘the mark…

…of Cain.’’

Religion - TBC

‘‘my virgin of the arpeggios prepare…

…yourself for martydom.’’

Religion - Wolf Alice

‘‘he will use the holy cross…

…as a scratching post.’’

Religion - The Company of Wolves

‘‘invisible pentacle…

…of her own virginity.’’

Religion - The Company of wolves

‘‘She has her bible…

…for company. She is a pious old woman.’’

Religion - The Company of Wolves

‘‘call on Christ and his mother…

…and all the angels in heaven to protect you but it won’t do you any good.’’

Religion - Dracula

‘‘His hand touched the string…

…of beads which held the crucifix. It made an instant change in him.’’

Dracula - Religion

‘‘Held between them his little…

…golden crucifix. She recoiled from it.’’ (Van Helsing)

Dracula - Religion

(Dr Seward) ‘‘holding the Crucifix and Wafer in…

…my left hand. I felt the mighty power.’’

Religion - Frankenstein

‘‘The saintly soul of Elizabeth shone…

…like a shrine-dedicated lamp.’’

Religion - Frankenstein

‘‘I pursued nature…

…to her hiding places.’’

Religion - Frankenstein

‘‘I considered Satan as…

…the fitter emblem of my condition.’’

Religion - Frankenstein

‘‘His soul is as hellish as…

…his form, full of treachery and fiend-like malice.’’

Taboo - Snow Child

‘‘and thrust his…

…virile member into the dead girl.’’

Taboo - Snow Child

‘‘She was the child of…

…his desire.’’

Taboo - TBC

‘‘I lay in bed alone. And I longed..

…for him. And he disgusted me.’’

Gender - Gothic female - Courtship of Mr Lyon

‘‘Miss Lamb…

…,spotless, sacrificial.’’

Taboo - Dracula

‘‘both thrilling and repulsive…

…she actually licked her lips like an animal.’’

Taboo - Dracula

‘‘my arms are hungry for you…

… …come, my husband, come!’’

Taboo - Dracula

‘‘Her white nightdress…

…was smeared with blood.’’

Gothic Setting - TBC

‘‘A mysterious…

…amphibious place.’’

Gothic setting - TBC

‘‘The walls of this stark torture chamber…

… were the naked rock; they gleamed as if they were sweating with fright.’’

Gothic setting - The Erl King

‘‘the woods…

…swallow you up.’’

Gothic setting - The Company of Wolves

‘‘tangle about you, trapping…

…the unwary travellers in nets.’’'