The Bloody Chamber

After completing The Bloody Chamber, I shall use this blog to reflect upon it (this is by no means being forced by Mr. Francis :P ). Well, I guess the thing that most struck me about this short story is how it can be interpreted as a feminist story.

One reason I think this is because of the two main male characters within the book, the Marquis and the piano tuner. The Marquis is a cruel, sadistic murderer who treats all of his wives rather meanly (e.g killing and attempting to kill them). Whereas the Piano tuner is a far nicer character who is kind to the young bride and even sticks by her as she goes down to meet the psychotic Marquis. According to Laura Mulvey, the moment that men look at women they subconsciously hate and oppress them- and this is what the Marquis does to his wives, he controls them and eventually murders them. This theory is backed up by the fact that the Piano Tuner is blind, he cannot see the narrator and so that is why he does not hate and oppress her.

The mother of the narrator is a very prominent figure in the novel, she is portrayed as a very strong character, from the beginning we are told that she, “outfaced a junkful of Chinese pirates, nursed a village through a visitation of the plague, shot a man-eating tiger.” These are all very dangerous, heroic and assertive things to do- she is portrayed perhaps in a stereotypical role of a male. The mother acts as a role model for her daughter, who is far less assertive. In fact the narrator is a pushover and is not even given a name- she is that insignificant. She allows the Marquis to control her and is even so obedient that when he tells her to come down to the courtyard for him to kill her- she goes!

It is also possible to link the Madonna/Whore complex to this short story as when we see inside the bloody chamber, we see that the Marquis has dressed his dead wives in their bridal clothes. This is because this is the last time his wives were virginal and pure- after this, in male’s eyes women are whores and so by dressing the women as for their wedding the Marquis is seeing them as the Madonna. This is backed up as the Marquis refers to his newest bride as a, “whore.”

The Madonna/Whore complex

A few lessons ago we looked at this concept by Sigmund Freud, and I’m not completely sure that I understand it, because it is so….. well, weird and absurd and therefore I’m puzzled as to how Freud became so famous. Anyway, I believe the complex to mean that there are only two ways in which a man can see a woman, she is either a sacred love object, where no sexual contact has occurred and so to men she is the Madonna. On the other hand, once a man has had sex with a woman, then he will see her as the whore.

Within the context of Dracula, this complex is fairly important as, despite both Mina and Lucy being virginal, Lucy is seen as the whore stereotype and Mina is seen as the Madonna stereotype. At the beginning of the novel, Lucy is desired by many men and even receives three marriage proposals in one. Then later on in the book, Lucy is bitten by Dracula, she has been ‘penetrated.’ After this event has occurred, Lucy’s physical appearance has changed and we see her, “pure [turn to] voluptuous wantonness.” Then Lucy is no longer desired by many men, despite her appearance being prettier, only Arthur still is in love with her. And even then Van Helsing won’t let Arthur near Lucy and her new whore-like characteristics. Tis shows that men far more crave the Madonna type of woman.

Dracula- Chapter 5

A few lessons ago we were looking at chapter five of Dracula. In particular we focused on the importance of letters with in this chapter. There are many benefits to the use of letters, for example the sudden change from Jonathan Harker’s journal to the letters between Lucy and Mina reflect the distance between the two topics, joy of Lucy and Harker’s fear, and of the actual distance between the characters, Transylvania and England.

The use of letters between Mina and Lucy also allows the reader to get to know the characters more quickly. If a narrator simply explained the two characters’ thoughts and feelings and actions, the reader wouldn’t feel as close to them or have as much sympathy for the characters. This is particularly important for Lucy as she becomes ill and then dies fairly early on in the book and this more direct way of communicating with the reader will allow them to feel sorry for Lucy and ultimately her fate.

The reader may be more inclined to believe events that are told to them if it is through letter form. This is because it is not through a narrator and so it seems more direct and real. Lucy and Mina aren’t trying to convince the reader that what they say is true and real, these are private and confidential letters being read. Therefore they have no cause to lie and so this will help to add to the book’s attempts to make us believe that the novel’s events are true.

Letters between Lucy and Mina have the effect of showing a contrast between the two characters. Mina is shown to be very committed and almost, ‘wifely’ to Jonathan, “when we are married I shall be able to be useful to Jonathan.” Whereas Lucy appears to be almost promiscuous, “why can’t they let a girl marry three men?” The closeness of these comments highlights the differences between the two girls.

Verisimilitude in the Opening of Dracula

Last lesson, we were looking at verisimilitude. This is where a piece of fiction contains similarities or reference to real life. For example, some verisimilitudes in Dracula include the locations of France and Germany. Verisimilitudes are the true aspects contained in the novel, things which still exist outside of the novel, another example would be Harry Potter going to King’s Cross station in London. Although Harry Potter is a fictional character, the station is real and so exhibits some realism and authenticity in the reader’s mind. (I don’t know why I used Harry Potter as an example, given that I have never read any of the books).

Once the definition of verisimilitude was established, we than began to look at the opening of Dracula in relation to this. The first extract is from page 8/9 and contains many verisimilitudes and details such as descriptions of the local people, “strangest figures we saw were the Slovaks, who were more Barbarian than the rest, with their big cow-boy hats, great baggy dirty-belts, nearly a foot wide, all studded over with brass nails.” This one sentence alone contains much factual information about the clothing and appearance of the people, it is not very orientated around opinions, but around concrete descriptions. The second extract we looked at was on page 13 of Dracula and was less factual; it contained more picturesque and dreamlike descriptions, such as, “the road, losing itself as it swept round the grassy curve.” Finally, the third extract, from page 14, was even less fact based and contained phrases such as, “peasant’s cart with its long, snakelike vertebra,” and, “produced a particularly weird and solemn effect, which carried on thoughts and grim fancies engendered earlier in the evening.” This extract has become even more based upon opinion and contains far more imagery than clear description. Mysticism has entered the novel, and so because the very beginning of the book contained to much factual and relatable information, the reader is potentially more likely to believe what the narrator is telling them. This is particularly important in a book like Dracula, which contains a lot of mythological ideas and so by containing verisimilitudes, the reader may find the ideas more readable and enjoyable.

Docotor Faustus- Le Essay

Last lesson Mr. Francis split the group into two small groups in order to write an essay between us. The title of the essay was, “What do you find striking about Faustus?” Straight away the advantages of working in a group of four became apparent, we each only had to submit one point, and straight away we had a basic essay plan, no wracking of brains trying to find another point. I heard points that I never would have thought of and then we all discussed each one in further detail and so already we knew exactly what to write.

However, it was at this point, when some difficulties began to arise. The designated writer for a paragraph could not concentrate on writing and discuss every word that they were thinking of writing down. This took too much time and since we were under a time limit, was near impossible. Instead, we would together discuss the next few sentences and then the current writer would write up discussed ideas in their own way. This worked very well and we managed to write more than the other group (whooo!) but it does mean that the essay does not flow as well as if we had discussed exactly what to write word for word. Another disadvantage of doing a group essay is that we wrote far less than if we were doing the essays on our own.

When I came to do my solo essay at home, I found it so much easier because we had had chance to discuss potential points and ideas. And because it was written solely, I was able to finish it the last point, something we didn’t manage as a group and so hopefully this essay should be an improvement on my last Doctor Faustus essay.

Act 5 Scene 2

This lesson we were looking at the very last scene of Dr. Faustus (whoo finally finished!). The very first stage direction of the scene is interesting because it says, “Thunder. Enter Lucipher, Beelzebub, and Mephistopheles (above).” The weather has been used to show to the audience that the upcoming scene is going to be serious and full of tension. The other part of that stage direction that is interesting is that the devil comes from above. Hell is usually associated with being down below and heaven above, and so this one direction challenges that idea. I do not know why this has been done, but maybe it is simply used to enforce that these characters are otherworldly.

Faustus’s last speech contains quite a lot of interesting ideas. The one that me and Rosie originally picked up on was where Faustus says, “Let Faustus live in hell a thousand years, a hundred thousand, and at last be saved.” This shows that Faustus accepts what he has done wrong, he sees that he has sinned, “o, if my soul must suffer for my sin,” and understands that he does deserve a punishment. However, what Faustus wants is for the punishment to come to an end and not be eternal. This is very similar to catholic purgatory, where people who have sinned receive temporary punishment from God before being allowed to be admitted to heaven.

Act 4 Scene 2

Today, we looked at act 4 scene 2. In this scene, we see that Benvolio wishes to take revenge on Faustus for giving him horns in the previous scene, “Then draw your weapons and be resolute.” Benvolio enlists the help of Martino, Frederic and some soldiers to do this. As Faustus enters the stage, Benvolio attacks Faustus, “He strikes Faustus,” and, “Benvolio strikes off Faustus’s false head.” The men then rejoice at Faustus’s apparent death, until suddenly Faustus gets up again, “Faustus rises.” Faustus then calls Mephistopheles and some other devils and they attack the men, “Take thou this other, drag him through the woods,” and “They set upon the soldiers and drive them out.”

We then discussed how this scene in the play could have been performed, looking specifically at the stage direction, “Enter Faustus with a false head.” This is to aid Faustus in pretending to have been decapitated, however it is unclear whether, when being performed, the audience would have been able to tell that Faustus is faking his death. Faustus could be wearing a fake head very similar to a human head, which would make the audience think that Faustus had died when Benvolio attacks him. This would make the resurrection of Faustus more shocking to the audience as they thought him dead, and so it reinforces the power of the devil and hell as Faustus as seemingly just come back from the dead. However, if Faustus were to come on the stage wearing an obviously fake head, and allow the audience to be in on the trick, allow them to see him putting on the fake head. This would make the scene more humorous as the audience knows something that the other actors don’t.