Puss in boots; This is by far my favourite story in the collection. I just thought it was so funny! It is about a cat (the puss in boots) and his part in helping his master be with his love. Carter has written it from the cat's perspective, so he is our narrator and I just thought it was brilliantly crude and blunt when it came to the very comical sex scenes (major contrast with the darker feel of the Bloody Chamber for example).
The Erl-King; This is a strange one. The characters seemed a lot less apparent and detailed than in previous stories. For example I just felt we weren't really introduced to a main character on such a level as in other stories like the puss in Puss in Boots. The story follows a girl who falls in love with this creepy man in the forest who has loads of birds in cages which he has collected to sing with him. However it turns out these birds are women and they aren't singing they're weeping. I'm sure this relates to some form of feminism, but I'm not sure at the moment. Perhaps Marxist feminism as it's like the man owns these women and he keeps wanting to collect more and trap them, so he's showing greed and it impacts badly on women whilst the men get the benefits. Perhaps.
The Snow Child; All I have to say is that I blinked and missed it, so I re-read it and then wished I had missed it. EW!
The Lady of The House of Love; This is about a female vampire who lures travelers to her lair and then eats them. However then this particular guy comes along and she falls in love with him and can't go through with her plans to eat him. He then cares for her overnight and sucks the blood out of a wound she has or something. She then becomes human and then dies. I quite liked this story but I'm not sure as to which forms of feminism it would fit if any, as the man is the savior. However perhaps it could show that women cannot change the patriarchal nature of society all by themselves as the men can only truly change of their own accord. For example all the men the vampire eats only accept to enter her bedchamber because she is very beautiful and they want to sleep with her. So they only really see her as an object. Whereas this one man stands out from the norm. But then again in doing so he kills her and makes her weak. Confused.
Maybe it is supposed to symbolise how it is against nature for men to treat women with respect like the man in the story does, as the story arguably doesn't have a happy ending.
The Werewolf; This is, like The Snow Child a rather short short story =). It, like the two that succeed it, is a form of the fairy tale Red Riding Hood. A young girl goes to visit her grandmother through the dark woods in which wolves live. She takes a knife just in case, she is attacked by a wolf and manages to cut one of it's paws off. She then wraps it up and puts it in her basket (as you do). She then arrives at her grandmothers and finds her very ill, she then sees she has a hand missing, and she unwraps the werewolf's paw and it turns out to be her grandmothers frail little hand. Her grandmother was the werewolf. She calls for help and the neighbors beat the grandmother to death. Cheery. No idea really how this relates to feminism. Perhaps it could be linked loosely to Anarchic feminism as they have to take justice into their own hands and take control, even though the 'bad guy' so to speak, is a woman. Hmm. These stories aren't simple.
The Company of Wolves; Weird one this. Red Riding Hood again and this girl on her way to grandma's meets a man and says she'll race him to there or something. He turns out to be a werewolf and kills her grandmother. He then traps the girl and says he's going to eat her, however she isn't at all scared of him and she even laughs at him, "The girl burst out laughing; she knew she was nobody's meat". She then strips him and sleeps in the bed with him (as you do), the now "tender" wolf. This could perhaps have elements of liberal feminism as it emphasises the importance of the actions and bravery of women in gaining equality or respect. For example the man wolf is easily turned "tender" once the woman has asserted her authority over him. This could also support the feminism that wants a total flip round of current society in which women are at the top. For example men will be seen as "tender" (a normally female trait) and women will be the leaders.
Wolf-Alice; This is about this feral human girl who was raised by wolves and therefore initially thinks and acts like one. She is then, however taken away from her pack and put in this big house. There's something about this Duke character who I think she saves but I don't really get it to be honest. I will have to read it again, it wasn't all that clear in my opinion. But then I probably skipped a crucial explanation section by accident. Oh and the C-bomb is also dropped most skillfully in this story. I really dislike that word. There are so many better ones of the same caliber.
On that lovely note, I have finished The Bloody Chamber blogs. I did enjoy this book as for one I didn't really know what to expect and at least it was interesting and cleverly done. I know my slight analysis is rather poor but I'm not great at analysing first time round. Anyhoo, can't wait to read Dr Faustus. NOT!
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