The Snow Child (Set Questions)

1. In what ways does the tale allude to (link to) other stories or fairy tales?  Name them.  
The snow Child alludes to The fairy tale of Snow white, looking at the appearances of the characters- also, the fact that there is a mean female figure continues that link into Snow White; but also other fairy tales such as Cinderella as there is a mean female step-mother character in that fairy tale as well.


2. How does this story link to the other stories in The Bloody Chamber collection?

It links to The bloody Chamber because the dominant male figure is one who starts off by appearing like one of the good characters, and then as the story goes on you can see that he is anything but that. This applies to The Erl-King as well. The Snow child also links to The Tiger's Bride in the way that characters are built up on perfection (such as the Tiger wearing his mask and trying to look human, and the Snow Child literally being built up on The Count's desires). Another link shown is between the Snow Child and The Erl-King because they both have a lot to do with the fact that the males are manipulating the women to do what they want (or appear how they want in The Snow Child's case). 

Final Question for Feminism

'In The Bloody Chamber, Carter de-constructs the traditional passive female and presents a binary opposite’

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

The Erl-King (Set Questions)

1. How is the Erl-King presented? 
The Erl-King is at first, presented as a mysterious creature/person- yet he is also seen as quite modest, kind, and caring towards the woman. The binary opposites are challenged straight away as he is seen as an 'excellent housewife' which leads the audience to believe that he does in fact have good inside of him, even though his appearance does not reflect this at all. 'White, pointed teeth with the spittle gleaming on them' gives the Erl-King quite a dark appearance and so therefore he is largely presented as having a nice character (at the beginning of the story) but a scary appearance. As the story goes on, you realize that his appearance does also reflect his personality. 'His touch both consoles and devastates me' this tells us that the Erl-King although will treat her kindly, she can tell that there is something evil within the Erl-King. The Erl-King is also presented as a character who is very powerful within himself and he can manipulate other people into doing what he wants 'he winds me into the circle of his eye on a reel of birdsong' this shows that The Erl-King is presented as a powerful character because he can manipulate the female protagonist into staying with him through his eyes. His eyes are green which does symbolize envy and jealousy, so he hypnotizes her into staying with him through his eyes because if she does not stay with him, he would become a very envious character, he needs to know that she is under his control, so when it comes to trapping her in the birdcage, it will be a very easy thing to accomplish. 

2. How is the narrator presented? 
The narrator is presented as a very self-conflicting character in the way that she sometimes appears as very strong against the Erl-King and knows her own mind, and she also knows that the Erl king is not who he appears to be straight away. 'A little of the cold air that blows over graveyards always goes with him, it crisps the hairs on the back of my neck but I am not afraid.' This part demonstrates the fact that she is strong with her inner desires and she knows, inside her head, what she wants because she states very clearly that she is not afraid of the Erl king which shows the challenge of the binary opposites as she is being strong and decisive, and not weak. However, she contradicts her thoughts by not going through them by her actions. 'He is the tender butcher who showed me how the price of flesh is love; skin the rabbit, he says! Off come all my clothes.' In this point, the Erl King is hinting that he takes flesh and turns into birds because he loves them. He is being manipulative. her taking off her clothes symbolizes how his manipulation works- she is at his will. This links back to when i said she is a self-conflicting character. she contradicts her thoughts and feelings continuously by physically being weak and doing whatever the Erl King says to.

3. How does Carter use symbols in this narrative?
One way that Carter uses symbols is by using the birds. the birds are symbols for women- and how women are trapped in a Patriarchal Society, just as they are trapped in The Erl-King's bird cages. It is a metaphor for women being hidden away by men by keeping them in their homes and not letting them go out to places. 'His kitchen shakes and shivers with birdsong from cage upon cage of singing birds, larks and linnets, which he piles up one on another against the wall, a wall of trapped birds.' This is an example of how possessive The Erl-King is, who he himself is a symbol for typical males in a patriarchal society.


4. How does Carter use allusion (inter-textual references) to tell the story?
Carter uses metaphors to tell the story-such as The Erl-King's green eyes to show that he is greedy, and that in his greed he will steal the narrators life by keeping her trapped as a bird just like the other women. 'There are some eyes can eat you'. This allusion helps show what the Erl-Kings interior motives were.


5. ‘The Erl-King’ is the most innovative and experimental of the narratives. (Use the worksheet to answer this question)
One of the reasons as to why this is the most experimental of all the narratives is because Carter switches between 1st, 2nd and 3rd person whereas the other narratives tend to stick to one narrative rather than switching between them. Carter's use of different narratives keeps the reader entertained because it is intriguing to read into the story with a different narrative every now and again- other readers may not even notice the experimental narrative voices.


6.How does ‘The Erl-King’ connect to other ‘TBC’ narratives?
The Erl-King connects to other 'TBC' narratives because in The Courtship of Mr.Lyon, the female protagonist starts off by being weaker, similar to the female protagonist in The Erl-King by the end however, both the women become stronger. In both of the stories, the women set themselves free from the dominant males. The difference, however, is that the male protagonist in The Erl-King is evil, whereas in The Courtship of Mr.Lyon, he is not.