not a ‘shameless harlot’, but instead has a duty to please her husband.

The female within this short story is a clear victim, predominantly due to her naivety. Her innocence is first portrayed at the start of the story in which she labels herself ‘seventeen [and] knew nothing of the world’, which contrasts to the marquis’ ‘streaks of pure silver in his dark mane.’ This contrast heightens the innocence of the girl, however as she encounters the bloody chamber itself, it becomes obvious that ‘each time [she] struck a match… that innocence of [hers] which he had lusted fell away.’ This line is not only a reflection of her wiser self reflecting on her naive nature, shown through the use of past tense, but also highlights that a trembling innocent is necessary within this story, it is what the Marquis feeds on. Just as it is necessary to have an innocent victim within a gothic story, it is also compulsory to have a saviour within a fairytale story, Carter has managed to contain these elements whilst implementing a feminist twist, with the character of the Mother. One may argue that it is in fact necessary to have a character who completely conforms to the stereotype, much like Lady McDuff in Macbeth, so that when one presents a contemporary, defiant character, the Mother, it is much more obvious and shocking to the reader. Carter makes the mother the true heroine of the story as she ‘put a single, irreproachable bullet’ through the Marquis’ head, yet even before this abnormal act of a female riding in to save the day on a horse, the mother is shaped to be brave and courageous through the story of her 18th birthday in which she ‘disposed of a man-eating tiger.’ The reference to the ‘tiger’ in ‘Hanoi’ potentially places the mother from the 1970s, when this collection was written, as this was after the Vietnam War, which involved Hanoi. Subsequently allowing Carter to place a modern day character, from a generation who believed in free love, and equality within a classic fairytale, insinuated by the setting of the story featuring ‘wagons’, and a ‘fairy castle’, alongside a traditional ‘damsel in distress.’ This is an impeccable technique, used successfully to juxtapose a typical, submissive, trembling innocent gothic female against a modern-day pro-feminist character.