In the short stories in ‘The Bloody Chamber’, Carter is excessively interested in violent instincts’. How far do you agree with this view?

In the short stories in ‘The Bloody Chamber’, Carter is excessively interested in violent instincts, this viewpoint is correct to an extent but Carter has a feministic approach to her stories, which at some points more apparent. I find that her stories are in a literal sense driven by violent instincts but optimistic outlook of Carter that humans are capable of change is still evident.
Violence is already embedded in fairytales and by bringing this to the surface; she is only catering to her adult audience. The violent instincts portrayed by the characters shows what happens when we give in to the …show more content…

In ‘The courtship of Mr. Lyon’, the story is written in first person, giving the female protagonist the voice, a feminist move unlike Beauty in CML. In the tiger bride, the ‘earrings’ are used as symbols; only a man who is beast-like can truly feel sorry for objectifying a woman.
Furthermore, Cater is in a way addressing the double standard that men live by traditionally. That men are also viewed by her as being capable of thought and compassion and not purely sexual driven beings although the animalistic qualities of men are evident it is systematically represented in ‘TBC’, through the imagery of cats, lions and wolves. However, in the ‘Snow Child’ the entire story can be seen as an allegory for the transitory nature of male desire, with the short-lived girl representing the male fantasy, while the Countess’ victory represents the triumph of feminism. In the ‘The courtship of Mr. Lyon’, the simile of the Beast’s eyes “green as agate” emphasise the materialistic nature of Beauty and her father, while Beauty using his eyes as a mirror to see “her own image reflected there” emphasises this. On the other hand it could be that TBC is ‘A critique of the idea of adult womanhood sanctioned by patriarchy and a suggested alternative to it’ E.C. Rose. It can be argued that ‘a suggested alternative’ would mean the part victimisation of men to allow the balance to tip in to the