The Erl King Questions

1) How is The Erl King presented?

In Angela Carters short story, The Erl King, she presents the main male character in the story to be monster-like and have predatory features such as "White, pointed teeth". This image that Carter presents in the first instance is carried throughout the story through the way he entraps "the sweetest singers in cages", this presents his controlling and predatory nature. In a patriarchal society, women would be allowed no sense of individualism because they are prominently controlled by males. This is shown when Carter describes the 2 of them to be "enclosed in the same integument". The quote suggests that she isn't her own person, but that she's him. Whereas, this imagery is contradicted when the male is characterized as "an excellent housewife". This is one example out of many where Carter has subverted the typical gender roles of the female being centered in the domestic sphere, whereas in the Erl King, it is the male who is shown to be domesticated. Another view of this quote is that it contradicts the very nature that Carter created him to be in the first place. At first he is described as a monster, as a threat, however as suggested by this description of him being an excellent housewife, it takes away any thought of him being a threat and turns him from being active, to passive, which transcends the binary oppositions.

2) How is the narrator presented?

The narrator is a very self-conflicting character within the story. She is bound to him, as if she is under a magic spell to follow him everywhere he goes and in that sense, she is weak and her actions subject her to the stereotypical behavior during the time the book was written. This is suggested when "he whistles out of an elder twig" and "all the birds come". The female protagonist is presented as an animal and this conveys the idea that she is controlled by the erl king because as a woman, she is lead by her emotions even into some that will do her "grievous harm". However, conflicting this idea that she follows him, she isn't "afraid of him", which in fact suggests that she is very strong in her activeness in the novel, which Carter uses to break down the binary oppositions that women are bound by in society during this time period.

3) How does Carter use symbols in this narrative?

In a patriarchal society, women are submissive and second best as a gender to men, this is presented continuously throughout this story through bird imagery. Carter uses the animal to represent a woman's place in society. The Erl King is very controlling through the way he "keeps the sweetest singers in cages". This represents women as a whole in society who are trapped by men due to their authority and power over them. The female protagonist is more so effected by his entrapment and controlling nature as she herself goes "back and back to him" which suggests that she has no control over her feelings. Similarly, the oxymoron used when she admits "he both consoles and devastates me" portrays that she is unsure of him and unsure of her feelings because she is contradicting her words and suggesting multiple ideas. which emphasizes the idea that women are lead by emotion, and are irrational in their behavior and in their thought.

4) How does Carter use allusion to tell the story?

Carter refers to multiple stories throughout the one telling of The Erl King, such as the green eyed monster from othello and "the light is sufficient to itself" by Emily Dickinson. The fact that Carter used allusion throughout her tale gives her spin on a fairy tale a whole different meaning and idea to "normal" fairy tales.

Possible essay questions for "The Tigers Bride".

Question 1) "Angela Carter doesn't only suggest the deconstruction and redefinition of femininity but also masculinity"

Using ideas from the critical anthology and Angela Carters "The Tigers Bride" to what extent do you agree with this view?

Question 2) "Carter explores the themes of psychic transformation, liberating her protagonists from conventional gender roles"

Using ideas from the critical anthology and Angela Carters"The Tigers Bride" to what extent do you agree with this view?

Question 3) "Carters goal is the elimination of gender differences, proposing the model of androgyny, with men and women adopting a combination of masculine and feminine attributes"

Using ideas from the critical anthology and Angela Carters "The Tigers Bride" to what extent do you believe she achieves this?

Overall analysis of the courtship of Mr Lyon and The tigers bride - Professor M.A Meyre Ivone Santana Da Silva

Task 1 - Questions about the essay

• What is psychic transformation?
• What does Intertextuality mean?
• At what point in either "The courtship of Mr Lyon" and "The Tigers Bride" does Carter refer to the biblical reference of The Garden of Eden?

Task 2 - Reducing it down

5 sentences -

• "What is beautiful cannot be beastly and what is beastly cannot be beautiful"
• Carter deconstructs some familiar polarities using fantasy and grotesque, as in the representation of a metamorphosis of the woman into beast, or a beast that is transformed into a man but remains with scraps of beast.
• Defloration is linked with female destruction, it causes abjection and the woman's sexuality is denied.
• Carter presents the female as a creation of the patriarchal society. The female is seen as a social construct, a simulacrum that satisfies the male needs.
• Language is seen as an ideological construction that empowers man and inspires dominance and control.

5 words -

• Defloration
• Metamorphosis
• Patriarchy
• Dominance
• Social construct

One key idea -

• Metamorphosis

Summary

The whole essay is showing that Carter is a feminist writer who breaks females out of the social conventions that they are bound by, being female in a patriarchal society. The essay notes that in both The Tigers Bride and The Courtship of Mr Lyon, Carter demonstrates the breaking down of polar opposites slowly as the novel goes on. In The Courtship of Mr Lyon the narrator is aware of her submissive role in society, similarly in The Tigers Bride where the female protagonist is subjected to being a prize given away in a game by her father, as a possession to be lost. The essay shows this and explains the way that Carter subverts the binary opposites and gives females power in a way that they can't in daily life.