The Bloody Chamber Feminist Analysis

The Marquis, as he removes his jacket, asks for the keys, finds the bloodstain on the key to the forbidden room, rebukes the girl for her transgression, imprints her forehead with a heart-shaped bloodstain from the key and pronounces her death sentence—Decapitation. He orders her to take bath, put on her white dress and the red choker, and wait in the music room for his telephone call. As she reaches the music room, she finds that though all the servants were given a holiday by the Marquis, the piano-tuner had stayed back. He offers her comfort and courage. Soon the telephone rings asking her to report to the courtyard immediately. The lover turned piano-tuner kisses her and offers to escort her to the courtyard. Suddenly, the blind man hears hoof beats and the girl, on glancing out of the window, sees her mother riding towards the castle on a horse back. Meanwhile, the Marquis calls again and …show more content…
By exposing sexism and authoritarianism inherent in the “Bluebeard’s tale,” “The Bloody Chamber” puts forth a new way of using the fairy tale genre. Nevertheless, “The Bloody Chamber,” also discusses the limitations of the feminist use of the genre. For instance, the mark made by the key on the forehead of the young bride remains and she lives in shame even after the Marquis is killed, and that too for no fault of hers. It points to the limitations of experimenting with conventionally patriarchal genres. “The Bloody Chamber,” interpreted as a warning to writers of female gothic, also hints at the dangers of being straddled between affirmation and subversion of the excesses of the genre they choose to parody. Just as the “amphibious” castle of the Marquis that belonged neither to the land nor to the sea, these writers occupy an ambivalent position and are often accused of endorsing the values and conventions they are