Mirrors In Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber

Angela Carter’s “The Bloody Chamber” has feminist undertones and overtones. These feministic tones aide in the exposure of male’s objectification, domination and revelation of the female. Specifically, within the text, mirrors are used as a tool to view women as an object rather than human. The placement of mirrors in front of the bed assert power and dominance the Marquis has over the narrator. In addition, the multitude of mirrors allows for the narrator’s self analysis and realization of her position within the Marquis’s household. Ultimately, these mirrors are an emblem for man’s objectifying eye. One of the first things readers notice in Carter’s “The Bloody Chamber” is the constant reference and use of mirrors. Specifically, these …show more content…
In respect to the mirrors, it is said: “He’d filled the room with them, to greet the bride, the young bride. The young bride who had became the multitude of girls I saw in the mirrors, identical” (Carter 11). The narrator is realizing her role as a woman within the house of the Marquis. She doesn’t see her uniqueness, but rather the homogeny between her and every wife that preceded her. These mirrors allow the reflection and self revelation within the narrator, … Furthermore, the narrator: “watched a dozen husbands approach me in a dozen mirrors and slowly, methodically, teasingly, unfasten the button of my jacket and slip it form my shoulders” (Carter 11). These mirrors intensify the Marquis presence. A sense of intimidation is added when the narrator stands there and is surrounded by these mirrors, it’s as if she can’t escape her husband and someone is always watching her. Contrary to feminist views, writer of “Pornography, Fairy Tales, and Feminism: Angela Carter’s ‘The Bloody Chamber,’” Robin Ann Sheets claims that the narrator finds sexual pleasure by the objectification that is placed upon her. Sheets backs up her claim with psychoanalytic research by Ann Kaplan: “Women . . . have learned to associate their sexuality with domination by the male gaze, a position involving a degree of masochism in finding their objectification erotic” (Sheets 651). This introduces an interesting point; although, the narrator was caught off guard by the pleasure she received by the Marquis’s gaze, it most likely due to her level of inexperience. It has been noted, within the text, that the narrator does not love the Marquis, which Kaplan’s claim would explain seduction without love. But this pleasure exhibited could be self pleasure, the