Task 1

leonine: appearing as or looking like a lion.

Fugue: in music fugue refers to a piece which is started by one person, but as it develops picked up by other people  or by being interweaves with other parts.In psychiatry fugue refers to when a person loses awareness of their identity often coupled with panic, hysteria and possibly epilepsy.

Rococo: A particular fashion of architecture developed in the eighteenth century as part of the baroque movement, it is highly elaborate, often involving asymmetrical patterns motifs and scroll work.

Minimalist: a person who practices/enjoys minimalism, a type of art from the 1950's characterized by the use of simple massive forms.

Chamber music: instrumental music played by a small ensemble with one person per part, the most important being the string quartet (first violin, second violin, viola, cello)

Florid: either having a red or flushed complexion

Angela Carter 1940-1992. Angela carter lived all over the world. She lived in England, Japan, as well as spending a large amount of time travelling the USA, Asia and Europe.

Carter's link to Jane Eyre is that not long before she died, she was working on a sequel to Jane Eyre following Jane's stepdaughter Adele Varens, however she died before she could start writing it, only leaving a synopsis.

Carter wrote in many genres, traditional and Gothic fantasy, science-fiction, satire and even Shakespearean comedy

she was ranked tenth in a list of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945.

Some of Carter's influences were Chaucer, Shakespeare, Lawrence, Wordsworth, Blake,Coleridge,Mansfield, Woolf,dickens,Keats,stoker,carrel.

Task 3:

Perault was lived from 12 January 1628 – 16 May 1703

He's famous for inventing the fairy tale literary genre as we know it today.

Peraults' most well know book was called tales and stories of the past with morals or more commonly known as tales of mother goose.It was published in 1697 in Paris, France.

Perault got the basis for his idea's from Madame d'Aulnoy's tales, which she coined the term fairy tales for.

In tales of mother goose he published eleven stories, eight of them were his own new ones and the other three were stories which had previously been written in song.

The brothers Grimm fairy tales were published in Germany in 1812. The first volume contained eighty six stories, the second volume had seventy stories published in 1815.

The Grimm brother's were inspired by stories they heard as children and whilst the younger one was ill.

Task 4:
Charles Baudelaire lived from April 9th 1821 till August 31st 1867.
He lived and worked throughout France spending time in Lyon and Paris, he also travelled the world by visiting India for a short period of time.
The way Baudelaire is different to his romantic predecessors is that while the previous Romantics wrote about the goodness of man and the supremacy of Nature, Baudelaire wrote about individual morality, Vices, aesthetic and sensual pleasures as well as the use of the urban scene instead of a more nature bound scene.
He is like the earlier Romantic poets in how he structured his poems, In that he paid particular attention to the formal features of a verse.
His most famous poetry collection is called flowers of evil ,it was published in 1857.
The principle themes of his poetry collection was; sex ,death and corruption and lost innocence.
It's believed that when his step-father arrived, no longer being his mother's main attention left Baudelaire with a trauma that may have explained his later excesses.
Baudelaire was a opium and laudanum addict which contributed to the stroke which led to his death two years later (his mother died four years after he did.)

Task 5:
Marquis de Sade wrote many books including  Justine, or the Misfortunes of Virtue; Juliette; The 120 Days of Sodom; and Philosophy in the Bedroom.
Marquis de Sade's views on sexual preference were libertine to say the least caring little for gender and seeming to care very little for age, having a sexual relationship with a fourteen year old. The Marquis also appears to have enjoyed Dominating others sexually to a large degree including holding people captive and beating them. 

Vocabulary:
aesthete: someone who is appreciative of and sensitive to art and beauty
aigrette: a headdress consisting of a white egret's feather or other decoration such as a spray of gems.

avarice: extreme greed for wealth or material gain.

Baroque: relating to or denoting a style of European architecture, music, and art of the 17th and 18th centuries that followed Mannerism and is characterized by ornate detail. In architecture the period is exemplified by the palace of Versailles and by the work of Wren in England.

Beir: a movable frame on which a coffin or a corpse is placed before burial or cremation or on which they are carried to the grave.

Billets-Doux: A love letter.
carillon:a set of bells played using a keyboard or by an automatic mechanism similar to a piano roll
carnal: relating to physical, especially sexual, needs and activities.

catafalque:a decorated wooden framework supporting the coffin of a distinguished person during a funeral or while lying in state.

chthonic: relating to or inhabiting the underworld.

dolorous:feeling or expressing great sorrow or distress.

eldritch: weird and sinister or ghostly.

enfer: Hell, Inferno, Underworld.

gourmand: a person who enjoys eating and often eats too much.

immolate/immolated: kill or offer as a sacrifice, especially by burning.

importunate: persistent, especially to the point of annoyance.

interdiction: To prohibit or place under an ecclesiastical or legal sanction.

jinn: an intelligent spirit of lower rank than the angels, able to appear in human and animal forms and to possess humans.

lisle: a fine, smooth cotton thread used especially for stockings.

loge: a private box or enclosure in a theatre.

loquacity: the quality of talking a great deal; talkativeness.

lustratory: ceremonial washing or other rite of purification

missal: a book containing the texts used in the Catholic Mass throughout the year.

nacreous:

parure: a set of jewels intended to be worn together.

Rictus: a fixed grimace or grin, (usually associated with a corpse and death)

sacerdotal:relating to priests or the priesthood; priestly/relating to or denoting a doctrine which ascribes sacrificial functions and spiritual or supernatural powers to ordained priests.

sadomasochism: The derivation of pleasure from receiving or giving of physical or mental pain upon oneself or another person
sardonic: grimly mocking or cynical.

trousseau: the clothes, linen, and other belongings collected by a bride for her marriage.

vellum: 

fine parchment made originally from the skin of a calf.

vicuña: cloth made from the wool of the vicuña or an imitation of it.

viscera: the internal organs in the main cavities of the body, especially those in the abdomen, 

voluptuary: a person devoted to luxury and sensual pleasure.

Basic questions:

1. Carter presents the choker as a both a symbol of authority over the narrator as well as a sign of superiority. Its usage as a sign of superiority is shown in this phrase " like an extraordinary slit throat". This is a reference to the terrors, a period of time during the French Revolution when tens of thousands were killed most notably by the Guillotine. The choker is a sign of superiority as it sits exactly where the blade of a Guillotine would have passed and coloured red to represent a "slit throat", the choker is used to symbolise that the Marquis's family survived the terrors and flourished, superior to so many upper class families who were killed and wiped out. 

2.The fact that she refers to herself as in "exile" would suggest that she believes that her getting married to the Marquis means she will never return home, even to visit, as exiles may never return to their homeland. It also suggests that our Narrator believes that she will be forever lonely once she is married. The fact she refers to herself as "exiled" would also suggest that she believes this.

3. What seems to return power and confidence to the Narrator is the keys to the castle given to her by the marquis. Read from a feminist critic perspective, the returning of power and confidence being gifted from the man shows the patriarchy in the society at the time, as this appears to suggest that without a man there to give the Woman her power and confidence she would not have any. However a Marxist critic would read this as showing the oppression of the lower classes, represented by the narrator, by the upper classes, the Marquis, as it appears to show that only the upper classes can give any confidence and power to the lower classes.

4. The usual hero structure is altered in two ways. One that the Hero is female, unusual in most novels especially Gothic novels. It is altered in that the Narrator is the hero in this sequence not the male Jean-Yves who in fact the female hero,the narrator protects. The second alteration to the usual hero structure is, where as in the standard structure of a hero novel, the hero stands up and doesn't deny his actions, the hero in this story, the narrator, does so. She attempts to hide the fact that she found the red room and tries to seduce her husband, the Marquis to distract him from this fact.

5. The duke appears to view women as little more than objects there for entertainment or pleasure, but he does not view them as equal in any way to them. This is clearly shown with his Red room where his previous wives lie dead in various states of decomposition. The duke's view of women is symbolised by the picture by Rops he owns called "reproof of curiosity" where the male figure delivering pain seems to be receiving all the enjoyment, where as the women who is receiving the pain appears to be receiving no pleasure, simply being used as a way to achieve the male's pleasure.

Developed questions: 

1. I would say the description is more uncomfortable than anything else. The description is uncomfortable in how the Narrator compares herself to the painting by "Rops" of the "child with her stick like limbs" being stared and examined by the "old monocled lecher.". It is also uncomfortable in how the Narrator refers to herself as some object that has been purchased "and so my purchaser unwrapped his bargain"or as a piece of food "as if he were stripping the leaves off an artichoke." This is uncomfortable as it suggests that the Marquis sees the Narrator in this light and probably most women in this way, as little more than "artichokes" or bits of "lamb." Another way in which this description is so uncomfortable is in how detached it seems by both the Narrator and the Marquis, with the Narrator seemingly describing herself as more of an item than a person in this encounter, whilst the Marquis seems quite detached in how he undresses her, as the Narrator tells the reader to "not imagine such finesse about it" as she describes the Marquis as seeing her as "no particular treat for the diner."

2.The language to describe the painting is extremely graphic and explicit, with the Narrator description going into explicit and crude description of the painting such as "her cunt a split fig below the great globes of her buttocks". The painting symbolises the control the Marquis wishes to have over his wives and as the painting puts it their "reproof for curiosity." The painting also symbolises the Marquis sexual enjoyment of control and giving pain, the sadist side of sadomasochism. The painting also foreshadows the fate of the Narrator with the "reproof for her curiosity" going to him punishing her for her curiosity, in this case the punishment being death.

3. "coloured stones"  This suggests that to the Marquis they had little value and that the Narrator seems to believe that he bought her for cheap with these "coloured stones" which are insulting the narrator by calling her cheap.

"white, voluptuous cheese" This is used to the effect to reference the Narrators recently lost innocence, usually symbolised by white, purity, It is also used to reference the difference between the Narrators and the Marquis's wealth, where the Narrator could not have afforded "voluptuous cheese"

"acrid black coffee in precious little cups" This is used to the effect to suggest the darkness (black) possible and inherent in all man-kind, shown especially in the Marquis in this novel.

"purple velvet curtains drawn against the night" This is used to the effect of darkening the room beyond the night outside, as the night may be lit by moonlight, but with "purple velvet curtains drawn against the night" no light will come in, darkening the room to almost pitch black with only the flickering fire. This is used to the effect of emphasising the darker and more negative turn the book takes from this point on.

"little poiret shift of white Muslim"  This is used to emphasise the Innocence which the Narrator has just 'lost', 'taken' by the Marquis. The innocence which the Marquis seems to so enjoy.

"soft white doves that sleep, each with a pink eye open" This is used to the effect of yet again referencing her lost innocence, with white the colour of purity, and doves the birds traditionally released at a wedding. The pink also refers to the old myth that when a woman first loses her virginity she bleeds, pink referring to the blood.

4. The phrase "all the better to see you with" is from the tale of Red Riding hood. Which when it was first written a tale of both listening to parents and bewaring of entrapment of young innocent girls by evil 'wolves.'

The quote itself is said by the wolf, who in Charles Perraults version of the tale convinces the Girl through lies and entrapment to get into bed with him,the wolf. This is used to the effect of referring to the Marquis who through a false veneer has convinced the Narrator to get into bed with him. And only now is the Narrator starting to see what is beyond the disguise to see what he really is, and question it, to which he "answers all the better to see you with" 

More complex:

Appearance is important in the story as they reveal what the characters are really like, with their looks showing what they really are and their clothing the appearance they or someone else are trying to give.

This is shown with the Marquis who dresses smartly described as wearing a "smoking jacket" and a "monocle." and yet the Marquis described as leonine, like a lion "as if all his shoes had soles of velvet" referencing cat's and therefore lions paws "pure silver in his dark mane" "heavy eyelids folded over eyes".These all describe as an animal in paradoxical contrast to the clothes of finery he wears. The Narrator is forced to wear the choker given to her by the Marquis "with trembling fingers, I fastened the thing around my neck.It was as cold as ice and chilled me" the choker is forced upon her to show the Marquis's control and authority over her. This is further reinforced as she does not wear the choker despite being told to do so, this shows us that the Narrator has thrown off his control and authority of her symbolised by the ruby choker This shows the way in which appearance is important in this story as it is used to both hide what that character truly is, the marquis hiding that he is truly an animal, as well as used to show the effect characters have upon one another with the Marquis's choker symbolising his authority and control over the Narrator and eventually his loss of such control and authority.

Magical Realism is a genre where Magic and the supernatural are accepted as a natural part in the realistic environment of the novel or work of fiction, it is often not specified as it is a part of that world and such does not constitute explaining to the characters and inhabitants of that universe. The novel accepts magic as real as any other force within nature and does not feel the need to codify or explain why, expecting the reader to simply accept the magical realism. It is described by Professor Matthew Strecher as "what happens, when a highly detailed, realistic setting is invaded by something to strange to believe". Magical realism is possible within the universe of the Bloody chamber though it is never explicitly said. It is hinted in the leonine descriptions of the Marquis "his dark mane" "had soles of velvet." It is also hinted at, in the control that the Marquis seems to at first wield over the Narrator.