English Literature: Marxist Lens Analysis questions.

• Is there an outright rejection of socialism in the work?

I don’t believe that there is an outright rejection of socialism in The Lady house of love or The Erl-king, but there is subtilizes in both stories where the aristocracy should be overthrown or overcome. To show the communism and socialism, in both stories, they died from a pure character whom is a virgin and they are the results of the deaths.

• Does the text raise fundamental criticism about the emptiness of life in bourgeoisie society?

In The Lady house of love, the countess is isolated from herself, she is the only vampire left and she keeps herself hidden away, as her family before then surfed out the peasants. The only company she has is her servants that work for her. She has no real meaning to her life as she hates the ways she lives by the many ‘shadows’ that are present within the story. In The Erl-king the only companionship that he had was nature and he lures women in by playing the pipe, and then cages them up so they can’t leave. He objectifies the free souls of the women or proletariats as he is lonely and that is all he knows in his emptiness of life.

• In portraying society, what approximation of totality does the author achieve? What is emphasized, what is ignored? Why?

The author manages to take some aspects of the approximation of totality in society, as she explores the inequalities that were faced in the late 1970’s. Class inequalities were only the increase as the proletariats were penurious and the bourgeoisie were just getting more and more wealthy. Carter tries to emphasis on the binary opposites, as she wants to challenge to stereotypes and assumptions, but still keep it as classic fairy tale qualities as she always has the heroine, or the insubstantial character beat and overcome the villain. The Lady house of love and The Erl-king both support this idea, as in the end they both die as the Lady dies by a solider and the Erl, by a strong female.

• How well is the fate of the individual linked organically to the nature of societal forces?

The fate of the characters aren’t decided by the nature of the society, as in these circumstances the two weaker characters should have died as they are the symbols of the proletariats, whereas in the end of the story, both of the ‘stronger’ characters die as the proletariats manage a way to kill them, as they triumph over the bourgeoisie.

• At what points are actions or solutions to problems forced or unreal?

As Angela Carter’s stories are fairy tales, many elements of the story are unreal and hard to achieve, as vampires in The Lady House of Love aren’t real, and she dies as a result of exposing herself to the light because of a solider. Then in The Erl-king he dies as a result of the girl killing him with his own hair, which is unreal.

• Are the characters from all social levels equally well sketched?

In Angela Carter’s stories she well represents the social class of each character, even though the bourgeoisie have the economic power and cultural capital, she creates binary opposites for the characters and makes the weaker characters come out on top and have the power.

• What are the values of each class in the work?

The social class of the characters are important as they show how powerful that character is whether they like it or not.

• What is valued most? Sacrifice? Assent? Resistance? Individuality?

In The Lady House of Love the most powerful value is sacrifice as she kills herself over the purity and innocence of the solider. Whereas in The Erl-King the value is individuality as he is distinct from the rest of them as he is the nature.

• How clearly do narratives of disillusionment and defeat indicate that bourgeoisie values—competition, acquisitiveness, chauvinism—are incompatible with human happiness?

In The Lady House of Love the narrative shows that she is a countess and she isn’t happy with her position whether that is because she is a vampire or if she is a bourgeoisie. This then results in her unhappiness as she doesn’t like what she is and wishes she didn’t have to do what she does. The narrator in The Erl-King suggests that she was seduced by him, and she was happy until she found out what the king was planning to do to her then it all changed.

• Does the protagonist defend or defect from the dominant values of society? Are those values in ascendancy or decay?
In The Erl-King the protagonist defeats the dominant values as she kills him with his own resources. Killing the king empowers the girl making her ascendancy. And in The Lady House of Love she defeats herself as she kills herself in order to be free and away from the dominance, which is decay.

English Literature: Research and Planning

 From H. Bertens' Literary theory:The basics he mentions 'capitalism alienates them[bourgeoisie] from themselves'
using ideas from the critical anthology to inform your argument, to what extent do you agree with this view?

The Lady house of love and The Erl-king.

War had broken out in Europe and she was evacuated as a child to Yorkshire to live with her maternal grandmother, a working-class, matriarchal, domineering, feminist bread granny of the north of England. Carter's first years were later to have so much of an influence on her writing. Her mother was a great literary influence on her, as she devoured book after book and author after author. Her upbringing was very much based on the works of Shakespeare and great names of English literature. There are references to Chaucer, Shakespeare, Lawrence, Wordsworth, Blake, Coleridge, Mansfield, Woolf, Dickens, Keats, Stoker, Carroll and on and on the list will go on...she was not just confined to English literature either. She spoke French and German and was interested in the philosophy of De Sade and Bataille regarding sexuality, Irigaray and De Beauvoir for feminist theory, and Genette and Barthes for ideas concerning intertextuality and analysis of texts. She was also greatly influenced by her short two-year stay in Japan, after having won the Somerset Maugham prize for Literature - she always said that Maugham would have been pleased to know that she used the five hundred pounds - which apparently went further back then - to run away from her husband and British culture.
http://www.sjsu.edu/faculty/harris/StudentProjects/Student_FairyTales/WebProject/Bios/Angela%20Carter.htm



The Bloody Chamber was written in 1979, which was a very unequal society and in 1979, a large proportion of the nation’s income and wealth went the top ruling class (the Bourgeoisie) and in particular the very wealthy top social group, than in the time before 1979. As a result of this there was the highest levels of poverty because the rich were getting richer and the working class were working and working and earning the bare minimum. The sharpest rises in inequality and poverty occurred from 1979 to 1990.
http://www.poverty.ac.uk/editorial/more-unequal-country


The text was written for the society in the time to address issues in a fantasy way. Angela didn't expect the reaction she got for her book as it had twisted elements that the society di not approve of.


Angela Carter's books were described as gynotexts and feministic as well as having some elements to inequality in social classes, as she liked to make binary opposites to clear  the stereotypes, which she wanted to remove in order to create a different side to the story.

The Bloody Chamber is a modernist text which has a blurring of genres in which it is the blurring of gothic and fairy tales. It changes the traditional roles and represents them differently, which Carter does as she uses binary opposites in many of her short stories.

Fairy tales are often viewed as harmless stories that people read to their children at bedtime every night. Gothic novels in the context of the many timeless fairy tales in literary history, that gothic novels are the grown up version of the fairy tale? Gothic novels are not exactly bedtime reading material.  But if one looks closely at fairy tales throughout the centuries, one can find that the two genres are really quite like one another in a number of ways. The fairy tales of the Grimm Brothers are ironic fairy tales in that they are actually quite grim and violent.  Although they include the obvious fairy tale elements of vengeance for the wronged, true love, and of course, the underlying lesson always reminiscent of Aesop, they are gory, dark and just plain scary at times.  They read like horror stories with happy endings.  And a horror story is exactly what many gothic novels are – grim and violent.

http://www.sarahghoshal.com/writing-pubs/academicpapers/thegothicandthefairytale

English Literature: Exam Questions.

Prose: The Lady House of Love



*1) From H. Bertens' Literary theory: The basics he says 'capitalism alienates them from themselves'

Using ideas from the critical anthology to inform your argument, to what extent do you agree with this view?

2) 'we tend to assume that our thinking is free, unaffected by material circumstances. In our minds we can always be free. Wrong, says Marxism, minds aren't free at all, they only think they are.'

Using the ideas from critical anthology and wider knowledge, to what extent do you agree with this statement?

3) 'It is not the consciousness of men that determines their existence, but their social existence that determines their consciousness'.

Applying your knowledge and using ideas from the critical anthology, to what extent do you agree with this view?

* Preferred question