What does it mean to be human? How does maleness/masculinity function among humans?
- Maleness --> Masculinity --> Man/Boy --> Beast
- How do women react to the Other, the Beast?
- How does masculinity coming to terms with violence?
- Does femininity find its Other through disgust/revulsion?
The Bloody Chamber
How do issues of sexuality; male and female agency; and the geography of male violence function in this story?
- Does the room represent a womb? Does the key represent a phallus that grants the woman a sense of male agency?
- The red mark: possibly symbolic of the scarlet letter. The scarlet letter, as we know, functioned in Hawthorn's original work as a mark of ignominy--it signified that Hester Prynne exercised her own sexuality outside the boundaries of what society allowed. In the same way, perhaps this woman bore a red mark on her head as a sign that she (by assuming and, moreover, using the key) acted outside the boundaries of her gender.
- The Bloody Chamber: a parable about how marriage, in addition to male/female relationships, should function
Chelsea: I like your reading here about how the red mark is like the scarlet letter -- this seems exactly right to me. Keep up the good work. Laura
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