The Bloody Chamber Essay Example

The Bloody Chamber Essay Example The Bloody Chamber Paper The Bloody Chamber Paper by committing whatever act he wants, in this case for her to be his love. However, it could be argued that she puts herself in the situation to become a victim of male authority, through her previous behaviour of devouring young innocent men. Stoker portrays women in the gothic genre as victims of male authority, this is similar to Carter in, The Bloody chamber, but differs in the way that they portray this image. The tale is told in sections written by different characters: Jonathan’s and Mina’s journals, Lucy’s diary, Steward’s diary, a record by van Helsing. The cumulative method would once again seem to add up to the truth revealed. The very vagueness of the significance of the vampire prevents a final, neat conclusion about the novel. ’ [xviii] Whereas The Bloody Chamber is told in short stories, the purpose of doing this is to enhance the point of Carter; the message is portrayed through different women and their different situations rather than just one long story like Bram Stoker’s Dracula. Dracula expresses how it is the men who make the women within the Victorian era victims because of their behaviour and attitudes. The vampire figure has the haunting quality of nightmare and its association with sexuality is an important indication of the direction the exploration of psychological evil was taking. Mac Andrew argues that ‘The association of evil with sexuality probably reflects a gradually increasing awareness of the importance of sexuality in man’s nature. [xix] Again corresponding with the statement that, women within the Victorian era are made victims of male authority, Mina Murray is portrayed as the embodiment of the virtue of her age ‘one of God’s women, fashioned by his own hand to show us men and other women that there is a heaven where we can enter, and that it’s light can be here on earth’[xx], this differs with Mac Andrew’s argument by suggesting that it is the women within the Victorian era who make themselves victims, for example Mina is described by the men within Dracula as ‘So true, so sweet, so noble’ [xxi] Again giving the suggestion that it is not just the men who make the women victims within the gothic genre, but it’s the women who make themselves victims through their natural behaviour and attitudes for example innocence. Yet it is the male authority which takes advantage of this and therefore ultimately makes the women within the gothic genre victims. ‘Mina Mur ray is also shown as a model of domestic propriety while her sexuality remains enigmatic throughout the whole of Dracula’[xxii]. The fact that Mina never gives a voice to anything resembling a sexual desire or impulse means that she continues to retain her purity, a social aspect requires of all women in the Victorian era. Mina is portrayed as a successful wife and mother, yet all successes are always in the service of men, this is another way that she is portrayed in the gothic genre as victims of men. Lucy is opposite to Mina in many ways; she is a paragon of innocence and virtue but remains sexualised throughout the story ‘Lucy looks pale and haggard. Mina attributes this to Lucy fretting about something’[xxiii] this is portrayed as fragile women showing that she is weaker than Dracula. This method is shown continually throughout Dracula, it makes the women look more like victims, this contrasts to The Bloody Chamber where carters makes the women look strong ‘you never saw such a wild thing as my mother’[xxiv] Un-dead Lucy is expressed as a wanton creature of ravenous sexual appetite, which is against the acceptable behaviour of women within the Victorian era. Lucy stands as a dangerous threat to men and their tenuous self-control, yet when she is killed by the men, the purity on her face ensures the men that the world and its women are exactly as they should be. In Victorian England, women’s sexual behaviour was dictated by society’s extremely rigid expectations. This is shown within Dracula and My last Duchess as the women are made victims of male authority through the limitations which are placed upon them. There were only two options for women, they were both a mother and wife or they were a virgin, a model of purity and innocence. If women were not either then they were considered a whore and thus no consequence to society, the impending battle between good and evil within Dracula would hinge upon the female sexuality’[xxv]. Dracula makes the women victims of himself and other men within society, by threatening to turn the two women into their opposites, into women notes for their voluptuousness unapologetically open for sexual desire. ‘Gothic fiction is preoccupied with sexual assault. With the vampire it no longer deals only with sexual innocence in the victim and evil in this victimizer’[xxvi] this brings up the question of sexuality itself the innocent become the victims their own sexuality. In Stoker’s novel the forces of science and religion combine to destroy the innocent thus awakened- Lucy dies as Dracula drains life from her[xxvii]. ’ Whereas in The Bloody Chamber it is the mythical and supernatural beliefs, that make the women ultimately victims of male authority within the gothic genre; through fear of the unknown. In Stokers Dracula, when Lucy becomes a threat by transforming into a vampire vixen, Van Helsing and the other men see no other option but to destroy her , in order to return her to a purer, more socially acceptable state, this differs to carter’s bloody chamber as the women do not have expectations upon them but fight against these traditions. The men within the Victorian era are intensely invested in the sexual behaviour of women because they are afraid to associate with the socially scorned ‘your girls that you all love are mine already, and through them you and other shall yet be mine’[xxviii] voices of male fantasy have made women victims since Adam and Eve. The vampire figure has the haunting quality of nightmare and its association with sexuality. Both Dracula and The Bloody Chamber have significant gothic elements, they both discuss issues which could be dismissed as untrue, such as the fairytale structure in The Bloody Chamber and the superstitious beliefs of the peasants in Dracula. These elements contribute into making women victims of the male authority within the gothic genre, through male fantasies and the authority in which they control women. My last Duchess, by Robert Browning also, portrays women and victims within the gothic genre. My Last Duchess is about a portrait of the duke’s late wife, she is shown as a mere object that existed only to please him and to do his bidding ‘That piece a wonder, now’[xxix] he refers not only to the painting but also the wife as she was in life, a mere object, he now regards his wife as a wonder in the painting but was something less when she was alive. The Duke loves the portrait because it only reveals her beauty ‘ pictured countenance’ and none of the qualities that annoyed him. He now has complete control of the portrait and uses it as a pretty object that he can show the visitors. The Duchess is a victim of male fantasy, he only want her to look nice and did not want her around when he was alive. The Duchess’ general fault in the duke’s eyes was that her heart was ‘too soon made glad’[xxx]. She related easily to that which was around her such as the creatures, fruits and beauties of nature as well as to people of all ranks. Women are victim of male authority particularly here, a woman who loves everything around her and seems to complain of nothing, is a pain to her husband; the duchess is punished for simply being herself. This links to The Bloody Chamber and Dracula, as it is suggested that the women makes themselves victims because of their behaviour, and natural traits, rather than by male authority. The Duke suggests that the Duchess enjoyed the company of other men and implied that she was unfaithful but this is uncertain. The Duchess died in a suspicious death, possibly poisoned on ‘April 21st 1561 at the age of seventeen’[xxxi], although it is not clear what the duke did to his wife. The painter’s fate is also left obscure through ‘all smiles stopped together’ [xxxii] suggesting a common fate of the pair. Once again showing women in the gothic genre as victims of male fantasises. The technique of the writing of the poem means that it offers anyone reading it out-load a range of possible emphases and hence an interpretation of the Duke’s character. The poem itself is written in pentameters, arranged in couplets. One reads individual lines to oneself out loud; rhyme in couplets imposes a stately place appropriate to the duke’s dignity’[xxxiii] By writing in Pentameters it means that the rhyme of the poem is at a spread suitable for it to be read as a poem, for example ‘the curtain I have drawn for you, but I’[xxxiv] this is a grammatical error, the pronoun should be me and nor I, but I rhymes with By on the previous line, meaning It flows better. The use of alliterations also used within the poem also adds to the effect of the poem, it helps to exaggerate a particular point ‘The dropping of the daylight in the west’[xxxv] The man he addresses, in My Last Duchess, is the emissary of a certain count whose daughter to duke now wishes to marry. In return for his ‘nine-hundred-years-old name’ the duke confidently expects a large dowry. But the man he addresses is warned that the counts ‘fair daughter’[xxxvi] has better understand that she must submit completely to the duke’s will, again showing how women are victims of male authority and male fantasises to have pretty, young attractive women in their company. This would have seemed quite typical to readers in Britain c, 1850. ‘The marriage market persisted in the upper levels of society. Conventionally a suitable gentlemen- an old name was a great help’ took another gentlemen’s daughter off his hands in return for dowry in cash, kind or both. ’[xxxvii] The husband would then have full control of the wife’s income as well as her person, divorce was extremely rare and always scandalous, so that husbands might, and a lot of the time did, resorted to various cruel ways of punishing unsatisfactory partners. The Duke takes an extreme patriarchal and possessive view of women common enough in Victorian Britain, again showing the women as victims within a male society. This is similar to Dracula through the expectations of women, and how the behaviour of men towards women has not altered, but perhaps worsened within the Victorian era. Therefore, it could be argued that the women are made victims of male authority, in the gothic genre, because of the harshness endured by them due to the will of the men, such as the murder of vampire Lucy by the local men. Whereas it also could be argued that it is the women themselves who make them victims of male authority because of their natural traits such as innocence and naivety, as well as the blood of childbirth and menstruation which makes them look weak.

Charles Darwin Student WebQuest

Charles Darwin Student WebQuest Learning about the life and work of scientist Charles Darwin can be more engaging with a lesson plan incorporating a WebQuest. Students can do their own research to learn more about the Father of Evolution by using these questions with the links provided. Charles Darwin WebQuest:    Directions:  Go to the webpages listed below and answer the following questions using the information on those pages.    Link #1:  Who Is Charles Darwin?  https://www.thoughtco.com/who-is-charles-darwin-1224477​    1.  When and where was Charles Darwin born?  What were his parents named and did he have any siblings?    2.  Briefly describe Darwin’s schooling and why he did not become a doctor.    3.  How did Darwin get selected to sail on the HMS Beagle?    4.  What year did Darwin first propose the Theory of Evolution through Natural Selection and who was his collaborator?      5.  What was the name of his most famous book, when was it published, and why was he so reluctant to publish it?    6.  When did Charles Darwin die and where is he buried?    Link #2: 5 Interesting Facts About Charles Darwin https://www.thoughtco.com/interesting-facts-about-charles-darwin-1224479​    1.  Who did Charles Darwin marry and how did he meet her?  How many children did they have?    2.  What TWO things did Charles Darwin have in common with Abraham Lincoln?    3.  How did Darwin influence the beginning of Psychology?    4.  What is the name of the book Darwin wrote that was influenced by Buddhism and how is it related to that religion?    Link #3:  People Who Influenced Charles Darwin https://www.thoughtco.com/people-who-influenced-charles-darwin-1224651​ (Note:  In this section, you may have to click on the links of the people’s names to get to their biographies to answer some of the following questions)    1.  Give the birth and death dates of Jean Baptiste Lamarck.    2.  What did Lamarck believe would happen to older, unused structures as new adaptations took over for them?    3.  Who influenced Darwin to come up with the idea of Natural Selection (also sometimes called â€Å"Survival of the Fittest†)?    4.  The Comte de Buffon was not a scientist.  What area was he most known for and what did he help discover?    5.  Alfred Russel Wallace contributed to the Theory of Evolution as well but is far less known outside scientific circles. Briefly describe Wallaces contributions.    6.  What relation was Erasmus Darwin to Charles Darwin and how did he influence Charles Darwin?    Link #4:  Darwin’s Finches  https://www.thoughtco.com/charles-darwins-finches-1224472​    1.  How long did it take the HMS Beagle to reach South America and how long did they stay there?    2.  Besides the finches, what two things did Darwin study while on the Galapagos Islands?    3.  What year did Darwin return to England and whom did he enlist to help him figure out the situation with the finches’ beaks?  (Name the man and his occupation.) Describe the man’s reaction and what he said about Darwin’s information.    4.  Relate why the finches had different beaks to the evolution of the species.  How did this new information compare to Jean Baptiste Lamarck’s ideas?    5.  What is the name of the book Darwin published about his trip to South America?