Metaphor In Angela Carter's The Bloody Chamber

Cannibalism in the form of metaphor for different aspects of human lives is strongly represented in Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber. In order to understand metaphorical cannibalism, the definition of metaphor is provided by Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. The metaphor is “a figure of speech in which a word or phrase literally denoting one kind of object or idea is used in place of another to suggest a likeness or analogy between them (Merriam-Webster).” For example, expression ‘to drown in a sea of grief’ is metaphoric because ‘sea of grief’ does not exist in reality, and it is not possible that one encounters sea filled with grief instead of water. Therefore, the metaphor is a figure of speech that explains one element through the words that form the meaning of the particular element or a

Food is something without human beings cannot survive, and if someone is starving the survival instinct comes to the surface. This is the case with cannibalism as well, if someone is starving to death he/she can find themselves in a situation of consuming or wanting to consume another human being. This is the instinct all human beings have in their nature (Filimon, 139). Angela Carter’s writing is brimming with examples of food and cannibalism connection that intertwine into love and sexuality as well. The nameless heroine in the story “The Bloody Chamber”, for example, is aware the way her husband looks at her: “I saw him watching me in the gilded mirrors with the assessing eye of a connoisseur inspecting horseflesh, or even a housewife in the market, inspecting cuts on the slab (11).” As the story progresses the heroine realises the way her husband sees her, as a piece of meat or even a vegetable. At one point she feels stripped down just by the way he is looking at her, and she claims he feels as an artichoke being peeled by a repulsive man