Stereotypes Of Women In The Bloody Chamber

In “The Bloody Chamber” women are presented in many different aspects through the different characters. The Grandmother who is one of the more minor characters of the novel is of some significance to how women are presented. Her ‘ruby choker” is worn as a symbol of representing her escape from the guillotine, however, it may also be viewed as a “luxurious defiance” of her femininity. She also foreshadows the events of the narrator who narrowly escapes the marquis’ blade. The blade could also be represented as a phallic symbol representing how women can escape the dominant male figure.

The narrator is without her feminist qualities representing free or independent women, her naivety shows her without any real strength depicting her more as a child. She is also viewed as a possession as she “ceased to be her child becoming his wife” suggesting she is passed between owners foreshadowing a possible neglect to the things people can find most valuable. She is shown as an object of desire too saying she is an “artichoke” who’s leaves need to be stripped suggesting further that he may finish with her after his sexual desire is sated. The little girl stereotype is projected as she calls herself a “schoolgirl” and her husband also refers too her as a “little girl” repeatedly expressing to the reader her absence of maturity. Her immaturity is developed further after she views her new dwelling as a “castle” suggesting a link too fairytales calling herself “queen” of the ocean surrounding her, this also suggests she is not fully void of her childish ways and therefore is not aware of the bad in the world. The major indication of her lack of immaturity is shown when the narrator calls her mother and “burst(s) into tears” and all she can say his her “gold taps” her mother then foreshadows the girls escape later by planting the seeds of doubt in the readers mind by being “concerned”.

The mother is the icon for feminism, she has her own independence, courage and strength. The