Task eight: basic questions

11)      Carter describes the ruby choker as being ‘like an extraordinarily precious slit throat’, foreshadowing the way in which the Marquis tries to kill her later on in the story. The fact that it is a ‘ruby’ necklace shows how rich the Marquis is. From a marxist perspective he gives her a choker made of rubies because it is a way in which he can control her, as she is of a lower class than he is. In addition to this, Carter also describes the choker as a ‘cruel necklace’, which shows how the narrator acknowledges the control he has over her.

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22)      Through the narrator’s description of herself as an ‘exile’ in marriage suggests that she is reluctant to become married, as exile is forced. From a feminist perspective, the narrator would be unhappy about marriage because it is a social expectation for a woman to get married, whether she wants to or not. Furthermore, from this the reader can infer that she is not marrying the Marquis for love, but rather for social position.

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33)      The girl gains power and confidence from the Marquis’ ‘chaffing’. However, this confidence could simply be a show, as she would be expected to act in such a way by the Marquis. The girl also gains this confidence from the presence of the key, as it symbolises the forbidden knowledge she will find within the bloody chamber.

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44)      The usual hero structure is altered during this scene because Jean-Yves, who the reader would expect to be the hero, is passive, simply stating the obvious, ‘you have no more time’. However, the narrator is the active one, ‘I dealt with the keys’, therefore inverting the usual stereotypes of a hero.

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55)      The Marquis views women simply as objects. This is evident through the bloody chamber itself, and the way in which he displays the bodies of his dead wives, ‘ he had embalmed her’. This shows that, even after they die, the Marquis feels the need to control them and to have power over them.