The Bloody Chamber

by

Angela Carter

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on The Bloody Chamber makes teaching easy.

In “The Bloody Chamber” the heroine, a young pianist, marries a rich Marquis who had three earlier wives. The heroine moves to the Marquis’ castle, where she loses her virginity and finds a collection of sadistic pornography. The Marquis then gets a business call and leaves, entrusting his keys to the heroine and only forbidding her from one room. He leaves and the heroine uses the forbidden key, which leads to a torture chamber containing the bodies of the Marquis’ three previous wives.

The heroine tells a young piano tuner what she saw and then the Marquis returns. The Marquis learns what the heroine did and prepares to behead her. Just as he swings his sword the heroine’s mother appears and shoots the Marquis. The heroine inherits the Marquis’ fortune and she, her mother, and the piano tuner live happily together.

In “The Courtship of Mr Lyon,” Beauty’s father seeks refuge from a snowstorm at an empty mansion. On his way out he takes a white rose and then the lion-like Beast appears. The Beast makes Beauty come to dinner, where the Beast asks her to stay with him, promising that her father’s fortunes will be restored. Beauty agrees, and she spends the days alone and the nights talking with the Beast. When her father grows rich she leaves, promising to return before winter ends. Beauty forgets her promise and only returns when the Beast is dying. She finds him in his bed and kisses his hands, and he turns into a man.

In “The Tiger’s Bride” a Russian man gambles away his daughter to a mysterious nobleman called The Beast. The Beast’s valet takes the heroine to a mansion, where The Beast wants to see her naked. The heroine refuses and is put in a room with an automaton maid. The Beast then takes the heroine on a horse ride, where he disrobes and reveals himself as a tiger. The heroine takes off her own clothes in response. Later the heroine goes to the tiger’s room, where he licks her and her skin comes off as she transforms into a tiger.

In “Puss-in-Boots,” Figaro is a clever cat whose young, promiscuous master falls in love. His desire is the young, closely-guarded wife of Signor Panteleone. Figaro cleverly unites the two lovers and he himself falls for the woman’s tabby cat. Eventually the tabby trips Panteleone so he falls to his death, and Figaro’s master and the young woman have sex next to Panteleone’s body and then get married.

In “The Erl-King,” the heroine wanders into the woods and is seduced by the Erl-King, a mysterious figure who lives in harmony with nature and has many birds in cages. The heroine learns that the caged birds were once girls, and she strangles the Erl-King and sets the birds free.

In “The Snow Child,” a Count creates a girl out of his wishes, but she pricks herself on a rose thorn and dies. He then has sex with her body, melting it.

In “The Lady of the House of Love,” a young soldier is lured into the mansion of the Countess, a beautiful girl vampire. The Countess cuts herself on some glass as she prepares to seduce and kill the young man, and he kisses her wound, making her become mortal and die. He takes a rose from her and goes off to war.

In “The Werewolf” a child travels through the forest to visit her grandmother. She is attacked by a wolf and cuts off its hand. When she reaches her grandmother’s house she finds that her grandmother is missing a hand, so the neighbors kill the grandmother.

In “The Company of Wolves” a child goes to visit her grandmother and meets a handsome huntsman on the way. The huntsman gets to the grandmother’s house first, transforms into a wolf, and eats the grandmother. The child arrives and seduces the wolf before he can eat her.

Wolf-Alice” is a girl raised by wolves. Some nuns take her in but then give her to a werewolf Duke. The Duke is wounded by a bullet and then Wolf-Alice licks his wound, transforming him into a full human.