Oppositions and Symbols in Angela Carters The Lady of the House of Love
... 2 2 Symbols 4 2. ... 7 The Tarot symbols . 13 3 Oppositions . ... 2 The Lady and the officer . ... 2 The Lady . ... 3 Angela Carter and C. ... In contrast to the definition of contrasts, oppositions ask for a defined pair of terms, of which none can be replaced by a different expression. To emphasise this dependency, I will use the semiotic term binary oppositions in the course of my paper. As I have mentioned that oppositions are defined, the question arises by whom they are defined. The Oxford English Dictionary only informs us that oppositions are "contrary in nature", but the question whether they also are contrary by nature remains unspoken, of course. ... As a consequence, Angela Carter suggests, that it is the duty of women to transform the shaped limiting concepts of patriarchy. ... For this purpose, she highly concentrates on the use of symbols and oppositions as constructs of our society and the grounds for (gender) myths. ... That is why Carter does not only use symbols to guide the process of interpretation, but also to play with the oppositions they contain and, therefore, to move from clear-cut oppositions to rather shady categories. In this paper I will examine some of the symbols Carter deliberately uses in the Lady of the House of Love, by analysing their general cultural meanings, by comparing those to the meanings given by the story and by transferring some of their general meanings to it. I will also examine oppositions directly mentioned by the narrator, as for example the opposition of rationality and irrationality, linked to the opposition of man and woman. ... As a result, I will prove the following thesis with the help of a personal interpretation: Carter uses symbols containing or alluding to binary oppositions and binary oppositions themselves to deconstruct patriarchal myths, such as stereotypes, and to blur the boundaries set by binary and oppositional thinking. 2 Symbols 2. ... The vampire as a symbol of sexual ambiguity based on binary oppositions offers Carter the best grounds for subversive thoughts, for it represents the liberation of those sexual activities or desires that have been allegedly proscribed or censored in society or repressed within the self (Hughes: 145). ... The figure of the vampire refuses this containment, liberating the explosive power that these generate, breaking down boundaries, behaviours, taboos and regulatory practices, denying the constraints of our lives as they fulfil both the terrors (devouring and death) and the promises (undying love and life) of popular myths and fictions (Wisker: 175). The most obvious metaphor containing binary oppositions, such as death and love/life lies in the vampires sexually ambiguous bite. ... The Lady vampire suffers from this paradoxical state, too. ... With the female vampire in The Lady of the House of Love, Carter clearly alludes to the(sexual) ambiguity of the figure of the vampire. For example, when the Ladys father dies, Carter writes : [. ... 2 The bird The pet lark kept by the Lady isnt really directly connected with binary oppositions, but its symbolic value is nevertheless important for the interpretation of the story and, therefore, necessary to support my thesis. In my opinion, there is an evident parallel between the bird and the Lady. Firstly, its song equals her coolness, her inability to love, as presented in the sentence: "[. ... Thirdly, she questions the nature of her imprisonment and of her gender role: "And could love free me from the shadows? ... On the one hand the Lady cannot be called a sadist, because she does not enjoy killing her victims: "A certain desolate stillness of her eyes indicates she is inconsolable. ... Makinen suggests that the men are the victims and that the Lady is the aggressor. ... Fourthly, my last example for proving the birds parallels to the Lady, makes it quite obvious what the bird stands for. When the Lady died, the soldier notes that the lark is not in its cage anymore: "[. ... Considering the symbolic meaning given by a dictionary, there remains no doubt that the bird is not only a parallel to the Lady, but that it symbolises her soul. ... As a result, we may assume that, when the Lady died, her soul, and with it, her thoughts and desire were liberated by death and carried away by the bird. ... In general it symbolises death, life, love, blood and resurrection. Also reuniting oppositions, such as the colours green and red (if it is a red rose) and the petals which are soft in opposition to its sharp thorns, the rose seems to be an equation in itself. As a result, the rose can be used as a tool for blurring boundaries between opposites, containing several oppositions in itself. ... ] the rose became symbolic of love that transcended even death, and of resurrection itself" (Biedermann: 289). This meaning of the rose also makes sense when you read the story, because love helps the Lady to transcend her soulless state between life and death, and because the freeing of her soul could be read as a resurrection. ... Transferred to The Lady of the House of Love, the rose she left on her bed could stand for the blood she shed (on her bed), meaning that she gave her life as a sacrifice to make an end to the evil root of Vlad the Impaler. ... This jungle of enormous thickets of roses again emphasises that the Lady is incarcerated in her castle which resembles rather a prison or a cage than a place to live of ones free will. The fact that her dead mother had planted these roses and that the Lady is imprisoned in "the castle of her inheritance" imply that she has been imprisoned by her ancestors, or, more figuratively, that she has inherited this imprisonment. ... On the other hand, as the rose symbolises love and blood, "[. ... When I was browsing through a German book with the title Mδrchen-Karten, which examined the meanings of fairy tale symbols, I found it striking how suitable for the story the analysis of the fountain was. ... This may imply that her ancestors forbid her to watch the sun, the sunny side of life, consisting among others of true love and free sexuality . ... The Lady "vanishes in the morning light; [she] was only an invention of darkness" (Carter: 107). ... 7 The Tarot symbols Tarot Cards are generally used to get an answer to a question, an answer given by symbols. ... To make it clear, I would like to analyse in short the meanings of the cards laid by the Lady with the help, for I am not an expert, of aTarot manual by Hajo Banzhaf. The question the Lady asks herself is whether it is possible for her to become human. ... Never, never before has the Countess cast herself a fate involving love" (Carter: 95) This laying and its symbols could be interpreted in the following way: La Papesse is the French word for priestess.