OCR A-Level English Literature - Bloody Chamber and Dorian Gray Quotes

AO1 (Question 4 - 12.5%)

Excellent and consistently detailed understanding of texts and question; well-structured, coherent and detailed argument consistently developed; consistently fluent and accurate writing in appropriate register; critical concepts and terminology used accurately and consistently.

AO3 (Question 4 - 50%)

Consistently developed and consistently detailed understanding of the significance and influence of the contexts in which literary texts are written, as appropriate to the question. Consistently developed and consistently detailed understanding of the significance and influence of the contexts in which literary texts are received, as appropriate to the question.

AO4 (Question 4 - 25%)

Excellent and consistently detailed comparative analysis of relationships between texts.

AO5 (Question 4 - 12.5%)

Judgement consistently informed by exploration of different interpretations of texts.

Dorian Gray, Chapter IV : “My dear boy, no woman is a genius. Women are a decorative sex. They never have anything to say, but they say it charmingly.”

Henry does not see women as intelligent, reflecting the views of many men contemporaneously. He sees them only as sexual objects. This view of women is easily rubbed off onto Dorian, and could be seen as a partial reason for Dorian’s shunning of Sibyl - once she is emotional and no longer decorative, Dorian casts her away, as she is ‘no longer’ female or human.

Dorian Gray, Chapter IV : “If I ever did a crime, I would come and confess it to you. You would understand me.”

Subtle foreshadowing for Dorian’s murder of Basil. Ironically, Dorian does confess to this - but Henry does not believe him. This misunderstanding could be considered one of the things that pushes Dorian to destroying the portrait, as he realises he has become someone unrecognisable to an outsider.

Dorian Gray, Chapter IV : “‘When is she Sibyl Vane?’ ‘Never.’”

Sibyl is objectified and glorified - but never truly herself. It is her lack of humanity that is so appealing to Dorian; her acquisition of humanity is what ends their relationship.

Dorian Gray, Chapter VIII : “She had no right to kill herself. It was selfish of her.”

Dorian’s view of Sybil suggests that he believed that she existed only to please him - stripping her of her autonomy and humanity. It also ironically emphasises Dorian’s selfishness - he cannot see Sybil’s distraught through any lens but his own.

Dorian Gray, Chapter VIII : “Some one has killed herself for the love of you. I wish that I had ever had such an experience. It would have made me in love with love for the rest of my life.”

Henry’s romanticism of Sybil’s suicide could reflect society’s view on suicide, seeing it as a selfish and damnable act that will cast dishonour on the family, instead of an emotional last resort. This could also reflect the patriarchal need for the devotion of women.

Dorian Gray, Chapter VIII : “But don’t waste your tears over Sibyl Vane. She was less real than they are.”

Sibyl being less real than the fictional characters of Shakespeare

Dorian Gray, Chapter IX : “You are made to be worshipped.”

Basil commits the sin of idolatry due to Dorian’s appearance, which means he is not as sinless as he is maybe expected to be. He could be seen as being punished for this idolatry by dying at the hands of his ‘God’ - perhaps a like to the Ten Commandments and the story of Elijah, where the fake God fails their worshippers.

Dorian Gray, Chapter XII : “Sin is a thing that writes itself across a man’s face. It cannot be concealed.”

The dramatic irony of Basil’s declaration to Dorian reflects the Gothic trope of appearance versus reality - you cannot be sure of the morality of a person by their appearance. This could be seen as a warning to the reader to not make assumptions off of appearance. (Link to the Snow Child, Jekyll and Hyde, etc.)

Dorian Gray, Chapter XII : “Each of us has Heaven and Hell in him, Basil!”

The duality of good and evil is used continuously throughout the Gothic. Dorian is aware that he has goodness in him, but he still leans into the ‘Hell in him’ - perhaps suggesting his growing immorality and enjoyment of sin.

Dorian Gray, Chapter XX : “He was withered, wrinkled, and loathsome of visage. It was not till they had examined the rings that they recognised who it was.”

Dorian’s sin has corrupted him so thoroughly that he is unrecognisable - except from his rings, symbolic of his greed. In death, he is only remembered by his greed, perhaps suggestion Dorian went to Hell. Furthermore, Dorian’s final appearance is tainted by all the things he did not wish to become - old, ugly, and unloved.

The Bloody Chamber, The Bloody Chamber : “He was older than I. He was much older than I.”

The repetition and added emphasis of ‘older’ emphasises the age gap between the Marquise and Marquis. Whilst this was contextually normal (this short story is set in the Parisian fin de siècle), the Marquise is still a victim. (Link to second wave feminism, which bought attention to domestic violence and marital rape).

The Bloody Chamber, The Bloody Chamber : “In my innocence, he sensed a rare talent for corruption.”

The Marquis wishes for the Marquise to loose her innocence and naivety to become corrupt and knowledgeable in death. By corrupting her before death, the Marquis may be attempting to prevent the Marquise into going to Heaven - and furthermore, he may be attempting to enter Heaven himself, as killing the corrupt is not necessarily a sin.

The Bloody Chamber, The Bloody Chamber : “She raised my father's gun, took aim and put a single, irreproachable bullet through my husband's head.”

Here, the Marquise’s mother subverts gothic expectation in saving herself and her daughter, rather than falling into the traditionally feminine role of ‘damsel in distress’. However, she does not have the agency of a truly ‘free’ woman - she is still defined by her husband’s gun, perhaps suggesting that the hand of the patriarchy is not easy to escape.

The Bloody Chamber, The Bloody Chamber : “I am glad he cannot see it […] because it spares my shame.”

Jean Yves cannot see the red mark on the Marquise’s forehead, symbolising his acceptance of her past and unconditional love. This could relate to the idea of ‘fallen women’ - how unmarried women who are not virgins are often shunned for their immorality. Jean Yves could be representative of fourth wave feminists fighting for less social stigma around sexuality.

The Bloody Chamber, The Courtship of Mr Lyon : “Since you left me, I have been sick.”

Gothic corruption is usually a result of the unknown or the immoral. However, Mr Lyon is corrupted by the familiar society, subverting expectations entirely. The could be a warning to readers that the most familiar aspects of life might be just a dangerous. It may also be a message on conformity.

The Bloody Chamber, The Tiger’s Bride : “A tear! A tear, I hoped, of shame.”

The tiger is able to feel human emotion, perhaps linking to the stereotype of ‘boys don’t cry’. This subverts gothic convention, as men are typically either heroic or monstrous - but the tiger is neither, he is the damsel in (emotional) distress. It also showcases the ability for traditional ‘monsters’ to reform their ways, which is not explored frequently in the Gothic.

The Bloody Chamber, The Tiger’s Bride : “And each stroke of his tongue ripped off skin after successive skin, all the skins of a life”

The sexual act of licking off skin could be seen as the similar sexual act that leads to birth. Sex is reclaimed as a collaborative act of creation rather than the traditional objectified and disgusting views. The metamorphosis brought upon by sex could link to fourth wave feminism ideas of sexual liberation.

The Bloody Chamber, The Erl-King : “He is the tender butcher who showed me how the price of flesh is love”

The Erl-King showcases traits of both masculinity and femineity, perhaps representing the gothic trope of the ‘other’ - something slightly uncanny and foreign to the reader. The oxymoron suggests he is both loving and ruthless, and that loving is a duty, rather than a pleasure. (Link to second wave feminism against domestic violence).

The Bloody Chamber, The Snow Child : “So the girl picks a rose; pricks her finger on the thorn; bleeds; screams; falls”

The Snow Child dies due to the male idealisation of women - the requests were impossible to maintain. However, the Snow Child is innocent, with the ‘snow’ representing her purity, perhaps suggesting her death was less of a devastation and more of a relief - with how rapidly the Count turns to rape her corpse, it could be implied that he might have raped her even if she hadn’t died. Death is her only escape from the male gaze and brutality, and even that is not total.

The Bloody Chamber, The Snow Child : “When she touched it, she dropped it. ‘It bites!’ she said.”

The rose is natural, and kills the supernatural Snow Child, as traditional Gothic tales see the natural defeat the supernatural. This could be a metaphor to the girl growing up - her nature changing and her childish body disappearing as she transforms. The bite of the rose is the Snow Child’s revenge - attacking the Countess for her passiveness in her husband’s brutality, which is damaging and contrasts Carter’s representations of strong, active women.

The Bloody Chamber, The Lady of the House Of Love : “The perennial sadness of a girl who is both death and the maiden”

As both a murderer and a muse, she is a victim of her own nature, which demands her to murder for the bloods of her survival, and a victim of the male gaze, which demands her to use her body to satisfy her hunger. She is unhappy with her condition, in a similar way to the male Beasts of Carter’s tales are.

The Bloody Chamber, The Lady of the House of Love : “Her beauty is a symptom of her disorder, of her soullessness.”

Despite being the ‘perfect woman’ in the male gaze, this is a deformity for her, leading her to feel hollow and inadequate due to her dependency on her seductiveness. Carter could be suggesting that perfection is unnatural (emphasised by the lady’s supernatural vampirism) and impossible to replicate without dire consequence. (Link to third wave feminism questioning female beauty standards).

The Bloody Chamber, The Lady of the House of Love : “He has the most special quality of virginity, most and least ambiguous of states: ignorance”

This characterisation is similar to the Marquise in The Bloody Chamber - they can be seen as literary foils of each other. Similarly, The Lady of The House of Love can be seen as an inverse of The Bloody Chamber, as it exposes the opposing view of virginity and gender. Where the Marquise is a victim, the soldier is a saviour, and where the Marquis enjoys sexuality, the lady is repulsed.

The Bloody Chamber, The Lady of the House of Love : “Far older, less beautiful and so, for the first time, fully human.”

The metamorphosis from her beautified look to her truthful state could relate to how femineity is a construct, often requiring women to shed their biological beauty for Botox and makeup. The liberation gained from not conforming or performing may look ‘ugly’, but is much more natural and freeing. (Link to Deborah Cameron ‘gender is performative’)

The Bloody Chamber, The Werewolf : “Here, take your father’s hunting knife, you know how to use it.”

By using her father’s hunting knife, the child becomes more masculine, taking on the strength of her father and proving that she is as strong as her father. Now armed, she subverts gothic and fairy-tale expectations of being a ‘damsel in distress’, instead becoming the predating monster. However, this could also be seen as her reliance on the patriarchy, fulfilling the damsel in distress stereotype.

The Bloody Chamber, The Werewolf : “The child wiped the blade of her knife clean on her apron”

The child uses her apron, which is representative of her social position and domestic expectations, to wipe the blood from the knife. This could be seen as actively rejecting the societal expectations placed upon her by using her token of femineity in an inherently masculine way. Furthermore, the knife, which was once her father’s, is now hers - she has proven her place in the masculine sphere.

The Bloody Chamber, The Werewolf : “Now the child lived in her grandmother’s house; she prospered.”

The child gains agency by owning the house and ‘prospering’. She could either be gaining money or gaining freedom - both of which subvert the expectations of women and place her among the ranks of men. She not only gained her own agency, but she has cemented herself into the public sphere usually dominated by men, and only uses the domestic sphere out of choice.

The Bloody Chamber, The Company of Wolves : “You can hurl your Bible at him and your apron after […] but it won’t do you any good”

The werewolves are traditionally Gothic, reflecting the intolerance to religion also demonstrated by other Gothic monsters, such as Dracula and Dorian. (Link to Dracula being repulsed by the crucifix, Dorian killing Basil while praying). It is almost mocking of the grandmother, which subverts the traditional depiction of grandmothers in the fairy-tale genre.

The Bloody Chamber, The Company of Wolves : “The girl burst out laughing; she knew she was nobody’s meat.”

Even when threatened with a classic fairy-tale villain, the girl remains confident and unapologetic, going as far as to mock her predator. Unlike her grandmother, she is strong, independent, and has agency - she can take care of herself and does not need a male saviour.

The Bloody Chamber, Wolf Alice : “She howls because she is lonely”

Wolf Alice experiences loneliness due to her middling state as not-quite human, not-quite wolf. However, she is particularly lonely as she has been taken away from her foster family and placed with a family she does not relate to. (Link to postcolonial interpretations of the slave trade and identity).

The Bloody Chamber, Wolf Alice : “At night, those huge, inconsolable, rapacious eyes of his are eaten up by swollen, gleaming pupil.”

The Duke metamorphosises at night as the hunger overcomes him. This could suggest that he is more alive at night, as eyes are the window to the soul. However, as he metamorphosises before becoming human, he is similar to Wolf Alice - not quite human, not quite anything else.