Angela Carter's Heroes And Villains: Utopia Or Dystopia?

Angela Carter’s Heroes and Villains projects a futuristic post-apocalyptic world. This new world is neither a utopia or an ideal world, but rather a dystopia. Three societies remain in Carter’s dystopian world the professors, the barbarians and the out-people, all at war with another and yet depend on the other for their own survival. A hierarchical system takes place within all three societies. The Professors claim to represent civilisation of the pre-apocalyptic world. The title of ‘professors’ suggests elitism and educated people within their community compared with the savagery of ‘barbarian’ which suggests impulsive, violent people who live within this society. Marxism’s social class theory suggests there are two social classes within

Jewel and Donnelly both speak the language of the elite community and have a similar system of patriarchy as the Professors. Yet it operates more brutally than that of the Professors. The Barbarians are more feudalistic as they have a hierarchical system, with Donnelly at the top. Donnelly, previously a professor, has given him knowledge, excellent language and manipulation skills. With this superiority over his peers he is able to depict himself as a shaman. “donning purple and black blotches, dark red spots…covered all his face...He was robed from head to foot in a garment woven from the plumage of birds ...”. This description of Donnelly creates terror within those of the barbarians, just as any great leader he uses fear to control and manipulate those around him. Donnelly uses religion as a tool of manipulation, he uses Jewel to force religion onto his society. Christianity is irrelevant within the world of the Barbarians as it is a story of the past. But Donnelly uses his intellect and religion as a tool for maintaining a feudalistic system within the Barbarian community. This could be Carter inferring that religion can have power and control over what goes in in people’s lives. Donnelly corrupts religion and creates something much more theatrical to influence the Barbarians. He uses it to influence them into believing that the professors are the enemy, this is perhaps why the Barbarians warn off Marianne with

The professor’s community is a male-dominated society; Marianne’s mother values her son far more than she values her daughter. The oppressive nature of this rationalistic community drives anyone more sensitive to madness or suicide. This could represent middle class community during the 1960s and 70s. It was an essentially patriarchal community, based on the oppression of women and workers. Whereas in the barbarian society women seem to have more control. Mrs Green has an authority within the tribe and although this is true she talks about it with detachment, as though she doesn’t agree with the system and the way in which it works. “As if she refused to capitulate to the tribe at some final point.” Mrs Green even states that she “don’t trust the Doctor, I never have” showing that possibly, even though she has superiority, she doesn’t have the power or the confidence to speak her mind. Mrs Green accepts her place in the hierarchical system and does nothing to change or influence who is in power. Donnelley is often evil but to reject him is fatal to the Barbarians. Carter may be rejecting Barry’s exploration of Marxism that a rejection of the class system, a rebellion from the lower classes will result in a positive outcome. In the case of Heroes and Villains rejecting and rebelling against the