"The Bloody Chamber"

Upon reading Angela Carter's "The Bloody Chamber," I was pleasantly suprised to see it was actually a feminist piece. Despite the horror of a man killing all his previous wives that would normally indicate the patriarchal power balance, Carter threads details into the story that make it ultimately feminist. At first, the young girl's innocence and desire to marry a man thrice wed would make her appear naive and impressionable. However very quickly, with small line such as "I'm sure I want to marry him" it is more obvious that she is capable of manipulation more than she lets on. Even as a young girl, she needs no comfort from her father, and instead is entranced and empowered by the final scene of Isolde.This is no ordinary, meek young girl, she is capable of corruption and even acknowledges it herself, "I sensed in myself a capability of corruption that took my breath away."

Rather than the helpless fairytale maiden, the girl has a natural potential for the same type of destruction a man has. While her husband says he saw a face with a "promise of debauchery," what he fails to realize is the nature of it. He thrives on the thought of being the one to turn her perverse, but does not realize that she already has budding perverseness within her. Overall, Carter writes a short story that tells more about the capability of women to be just as naturally carnal or dangerous as men. Even the end has the mother coming to rescue her daughter, leaving no room for weak damsels, but rather a story that defies the meek archetype of women and introduces the concept of natural corruption within women equal to that of men.