Critical extract H - Margaret Atwood, 'Running with the Tigers'

1)

(A) Fresh knowledge/information that’s useful in reading the story

The Countess is the role of the ‘master’ and the ‘predator’ because of her vampire heritage and her thirst for blood. This is unusual due to the fact the stereotypical ‘lion and lamb’ mentioned in the article conforms to the natural order of patriarchy. De Sade thinks that your ‘nature’ is who you are; good or evil, you cannot change that, whereas Carter focuses on ‘nurture’ and the ability to morph between good and bad, acting on the duality of the Gothic genre. The Countess is trying to change what she was ‘born’ as, however, she cannot do this easily – proving de Sade has a valid point, yet this can be seen as biological only, as she tries to stop harming others.

B) Confirms your interpretation:

In De Sade’s work ‘Juliette’ is born evil and ‘Justine’ is good, showing the audience there are set roles within our nature; something Carter disagrees with, as the Countess displays both qualities within her actions, showing the common gothic themes of duality and liminality; juxtaposing with De Sade’s very basic idea, that adheres to the fairytale structure.

‘The nature of men is not fixed by Carter as inevitably predatory’ – this quote, although contrary to her other texts, fits the male character within the Lady of the house of Love, as instead of causing her grievous harm, he wishes her to get better because he loves her. However, even though he cares for her, it is his love that eventually kills her, because it is one thing she cannot have. His lack of violence shows that Carter has not deemed all men to be violent and powerful, as in this story, her death is out of kindness and can be seen as him setting her free and releasing her from the life she was not happy with. Although this gives the impression females can only be set free with the help of a man, we see that the gender roles do not dictate that man is predator; woman is prey, within this story.

C) Adds to or develops your interpretation

De Sade constructs a mould for individuals who are good or bad, predator or prey, something which Carter challenges by developing her characters from those conventional to fairy tales. She creates liminal characters, consequently acknowledging the ‘complexity of human relations’ in that male and females are both masculine and feminine. The Countess is described as “a girl who is both death and the maiden”, exploring that she is an example of both morbid mortality and innocence co-existing together. This links to Bettelheim’s interpretation of fairy tales as a means for a child to experience ways to overcome ‘evil’ within his own unconscious by seeing how good characters triumph over evil ones.  Carter explores in the form of the Gothic that we all have both good and bad within us, highlighting the duality of Gothic characters.

D) Challenges your interpretation

‘Carter celebrates relativity and metamorphosis’ shows us that Carter reinforces ideas of change within her characters. However, in this story, the protagonist doesn’t undergo a physical change, her life ends. Even though she is not given the ability to ‘try and resurrect her rose’, future generations have been given the chance to learn from this story so that they can encompass aspects of both good and evil. The Countess’ death is crucial to the story, as it allows the metamorphosis to occur within society, despite the fact she herself does not change for the better.

2)

Highlighted phrases to use in an essay:

‘Predator and Prey’

‘Pleasure belongs to the eater, not the eaten’

‘The Bloody Chamber can be seen as writing against De Sade’

‘The nature of men is not fixed by Carter as being inevitably predatory’

‘Carter celebrates metamorphosis and ‘the complexity of human relations’


3)

'Although society may slant things so that women appear to be better candidates for meat-eating' Carter reverses the gender roles within this narrative, so that the 'eaten' becomes the 'eater' and the Countess is the one in control. This reversal of the typical view of the weak and passive woman is the outcome of Carter's feminist views. In contrast to her other stories, the female character is not the 'meat', both because of her being a supernatural vampire, and becuase she is living without the dictation of a man. However, as we are told throughout the story, the Countess is miserable and wishes for a mortal life filled with love, we can see Carter has acknowledged the duality of her characters, showing that, in contrast to De Sade's opinion, metamorphosis within us is plausible and we are not simply born 'good' or 'evil'.