The Bloody Chamber Key Ideas

The key ideas with in the short stories in The Bloody Chamber are as followed;

• virginity/purity this is a key focus through out The Bloody Chamber ( the young girl's loss of virginity could be a symbol of her corruption., The Lady of the House of Love ( the sodiers virginity over powers the countess and intrigues her) and The Snow Child ( created from all pure objects around her. 'White snow' she is initially pure and innocent.
• solitude seen in 'Wolf-Alice' (the duke and alice are both not fully human and therefore cannot connect with society) and in The Lady of the Hosue of Love ( she is lonely because she is a vampiress and can never love)
• fairytales the fairytales the stories used are; bluebeard, beauty and the beast, snow white, sleeping beauty and little red riding hood.
• betrayal
• death
• feminism & women women are seen to act in a certain way. women are usually seen as sexually deviant, an old wench or have no place in society.
• nature
• animals
• love
• deformity & transformation & anthropomorphism
• sexuality & violence The Bloody Chamber shows sexuala violence along with the Snow Child. The Bloody Chamber we see the Marquis is sexually deviant and has sexual books in his study which show violence during sex. Snow Child we see the child getting raped and necrophillia is also present.
• mirrors The Bloody Chamber story shows the use of mirrors because the main male character has mirrors all around the bedroom which gives the feeling that he is always watching, it also makes him feel that he has more then the one wife as her reflection is in every mirror.
• flowers (roses) Roses are used to with in the Snow Child (the rose kills the young girl at the end) and also in The Lady of the House of Love ( the rose survives)