Setting
The story begins in an unkown area of Romanian in a abandoned village on the eve of the First World War, where the Countess, "queen of the vampires," lives. Ghosts live with her in the castle, but she keeps herself alone in a dusty, rotting and lightless suite. She wears her dead mother's bridal gown as though it is a uniform. Her only company is a caged lark. The Countess likes the lark's song because "she likes to hear it announce how it cannot escape." Similar to herself, which highlights her isolation and entrappment .
Key points
> Constantly shifting tense. Possible to give the impression the narrator is lost in time
> Male is unlike any other in the collection of stories; he is innocent. He takes on a parenting role- kissing her finger better and putting her to bed- as opposed to seducing her.
> Reversal in the story "her beauty is a symptom of her disorder, of her soullessness." Because it has no flaw, her face is as falsely human as the mask. Only when she has transformed and consequently died does her face look "far older, less beautiful and so, for the first time, fully human." The reversal at the story's end confirms one last time that love cannot survive in the Countess's sleepwalking world of torment.
> A lack of sexual understanding and experience is a weakness. For the soldier, virginity and sexual naivet are sources of strength. The narrator explains, "he is immune to shadow, due to his virginity" and, "he has the special quality of virginity, most and least ambiguous of states; ignorance, yet at the same time, power in potentia, and, furthermore, unknowingness, which is not the same as ignorance. He is more than he knows." According to the narrator, the soldier' sexual and transformative power is so great precisely because it is untapped.
> Male is unlike any other in the collection of stories; he is innocent. He takes on a parenting role- kissing her finger better and putting her to bed- as opposed to seducing her.
> Reversal in the story "her beauty is a symptom of her disorder, of her soullessness." Because it has no flaw, her face is as falsely human as the mask. Only when she has transformed and consequently died does her face look "far older, less beautiful and so, for the first time, fully human." The reversal at the story's end confirms one last time that love cannot survive in the Countess's sleepwalking world of torment.
> A lack of sexual understanding and experience is a weakness. For the soldier, virginity and sexual naivet are sources of strength. The narrator explains, "he is immune to shadow, due to his virginity" and, "he has the special quality of virginity, most and least ambiguous of states; ignorance, yet at the same time, power in potentia, and, furthermore, unknowingness, which is not the same as ignorance. He is more than he knows." According to the narrator, the soldier' sexual and transformative power is so great precisely because it is untapped.
Gothic chracters
Countess
Although this character is described with the physical attributes of a typical Gothic femme-fatal or monster, she actually has the personality traits of a victim.
She is described as being so beautiful she is unnatural. Her beauty is a deformity.' In this sense she is a victim within her own body. The only company she keeps his a caged bird, this is symbolic of her. She is forever locked within her castle and unable to escape, and she takes delight in torturing the creature in order to make herself feel wanted.
Countess is trapped is through her vampirism. This is also described using the typical Gothic animalistic elements of a monster. Carter described how, as a child the Countess would 'crawl on all fours' for her prey, however this animalistic nature is subverted as Carter then goes on to describe how the Countess would have 'loved to have taken the rabbits home.' This evokes sympathy from the audience, which is ironic as Carter has described her her as having the typical features of a Gothic monster and femme-fatal.
A supernatural element is highlighted by the use of the tarot cards. This is a typically a wiccan obeject the countess uses to predict, or try to predict, her future.
Englishman
The character of the Englishman, like the Countess, is subverted. He is described using all of the physical attributes of a stereotypical, Gothic, female victim. He is described as having 'blond hair' and 'blue eyes' and there is a lot of emphasis on the fact that he is a 'virgin'. But as we see later on, he is not your typical Gothic victim.
Upon his arrival in the deserted town of the Countess, Carter uses Biblical references in order to hint at the Englishman's heroism. 'He gratefully washes his feet in the fountain.' This quote has dual meaning. Firstly, there are links to Baptism, which, supposedly gives someone protection from Hell. This is significant as later, we see that the Englishman walks away from the Countess, unharmed and thus protected. Another link could be to the Last Supper where Jesus washed the feet
of the disciples, Jesus was the savior, therefore, we can assume that perhaps the Englishman is the savior of the Countess.
Another Biblical link would be; 'He hopes to find a friendly inn...' This has links to the Nativity story where Mary and Joseph try to find an inn, in which to rest upon reaching Bethlehem. This quote shows the contrast between good and evil, Christ, a force of good was born in an inn and the Countess lives in a castle, which has become her prison, again, all this points to the Englishman being the savior of the Countess.
Symbols
CAGED LARK
She takes pleasure in caging the lark because she herself is caged. Whereas she cannot free herself from her illogical fate, she enjoys having control over the lark.
BICYCLE
The bike symbolizes human reason at work; it functions on the basis of human laws and has no power beyond their stipulations. When the soldier initially refuses to give the governess his bicycle, he is symbolically denying a belief in the irrational. He refuses to be separated from his bicycle just as he refuses to be separated from reason. Because the soldier embodies 'the light of reason' so completely, his face actually blinds the Countess so that she must wear glasses in his presence.
LIGHT
In the end light floods the Countess's room, showing it to be false and chintzy. Symbolically, reason invades the realm of unreason, showing it to be no more than an illusion. Her voice confirms postmortem, "I was only an invention of darkness."
ROSES
Femininity and sex, they mock the Countess's sexless existence within the mansion that is her prison.
"And I leave you as a souvenir the dark, fanged rose I plucked from between my thighs, like a flower laid on a grave. One a grave." Vampire Queen. Carter invokes the idea of vagina dentata by describing the rose's thorns as fangs. Just as she was able to kill but not kiss with her mouth, the Countess was unable to experience pleasure from her "thorned" vagina. The rose is dead like the Countess and her chance to experience love and sexual fulfillment.
She takes pleasure in caging the lark because she herself is caged. Whereas she cannot free herself from her illogical fate, she enjoys having control over the lark.
BICYCLE
The bike symbolizes human reason at work; it functions on the basis of human laws and has no power beyond their stipulations. When the soldier initially refuses to give the governess his bicycle, he is symbolically denying a belief in the irrational. He refuses to be separated from his bicycle just as he refuses to be separated from reason. Because the soldier embodies 'the light of reason' so completely, his face actually blinds the Countess so that she must wear glasses in his presence.
LIGHT
In the end light floods the Countess's room, showing it to be false and chintzy. Symbolically, reason invades the realm of unreason, showing it to be no more than an illusion. Her voice confirms postmortem, "I was only an invention of darkness."
ROSES
Femininity and sex, they mock the Countess's sexless existence within the mansion that is her prison.
"And I leave you as a souvenir the dark, fanged rose I plucked from between my thighs, like a flower laid on a grave. One a grave." Vampire Queen. Carter invokes the idea of vagina dentata by describing the rose's thorns as fangs. Just as she was able to kill but not kiss with her mouth, the Countess was unable to experience pleasure from her "thorned" vagina. The rose is dead like the Countess and her chance to experience love and sexual fulfillment.
Intertextuality
Miss Havisham:
-Living in her wedding dress in a rotting house
Jack and the bean Stalk:
-Quotes used to break up the text and through the quote of; 'Fee, fie, foe, thumb I smell the
blood of an Englishman.' she creates a sense of foreboding as the audience knows what the Countess intends to do with the Englishman.
Dracula
Sleeping Beauty:
-Carters vesion the prncess is not sleeping but waiting undead for her rescuee. The countesses death clearly echoes 'Sleeping Beauty' as she pricks her finger on a rose, this is a clear subversion of the ending of the fairy tale as the Englishman, permanently puts Sleeping Beauty to sleep as appose to waking her up.
Alice in wonderland:
-"Eat me" references throughtout the text
The fall of the house of Usher
Don Quixote
The anatomy of melancholy
The Bloody Chamber
-Living in her wedding dress in a rotting house
Jack and the bean Stalk:
-Quotes used to break up the text and through the quote of; 'Fee, fie, foe, thumb I smell the
blood of an Englishman.' she creates a sense of foreboding as the audience knows what the Countess intends to do with the Englishman.
Dracula
Sleeping Beauty:
-Carters vesion the prncess is not sleeping but waiting undead for her rescuee. The countesses death clearly echoes 'Sleeping Beauty' as she pricks her finger on a rose, this is a clear subversion of the ending of the fairy tale as the Englishman, permanently puts Sleeping Beauty to sleep as appose to waking her up.
Alice in wonderland:
-"Eat me" references throughtout the text
The fall of the house of Usher
Don Quixote
The anatomy of melancholy
The Bloody Chamber