The Theme of Virginity in Carter's Bloody Chamber

The Bloody Chamber

Angela Carter's "The Bloody Chamber" is a reimagining of the Bluebeard fairy tale, and it uses the theme of virginity to amplify its chilling effect. The narrator's virginity is a state of physical purity and a symbol of innocence and naivety, which Carter uses to heighten the story's tension. This works because the narrator's virginity is like a gauze that makes her discovery of her husband's murderous past more shocking. As a virgin, she is not only physically but also psychologically unprepared for the brutal reality of her husband's nature—and the shocking line between good and evil. This contrast between her innocence (she does not even really know what love is, as she skirts her mother’s question in the beginning—“Do you love him?”—by answering, “I want to marry him.”) and her awareness of reality is perfectly reflected in her virgin status. She does not know what she does not know. It is only the revelation of his past crimes and her loss of innocence in the marriage bed that opens eyes: barriers are crossed.

If the narrator were not a virgin, the story might still retain its shock value due to the gruesome discoveries and the overall atmosphere of dread, but the impact of her naivety and the loss of innocence are what help to heighten the overall dramatic effect. For example, she is helpless to save herself—but she is also saved by an unlikely hero: her mother. This moment at the end is particularly powerful because it subverts traditional gender expectations. The mother is aware of her daughter's innocence and becomes the hero in a story that typically would have a male savior. But the male here is the problem—the loss of virginity not so much.