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2013

Magical Realism can be defined as the presentation of extraordinary occurrences as
an ordinary part of everyday reality
1
. Explore how magical realism is used in both
Chronicle of a Death Foretold and The Bloody Chamber collection?
On account of the magical and fantastical elements interwoven throughout Angela
Carters works, some critics suggest her inspiration by the highly appraised Latino
writer Gabriel Garca Mrquez
2
, whose works are considered to be fundamental in
the development of magical realism. From her first novel Shadow Dance
3
,
concerning a pathological love triangle, Carter presented fantastical elements that
would later flourish in her later works, and in both Carters The Bloody Chamber
collection and Mrquezs Chronicle of a Death Foretold, elements of magical realism
are clearly prevalent. However, as Veronika imunkov notes, due to magical
realism having such a diverse number of elementsin its broader sense it is an
indefinable mode of writing
4
. Therefore while both of these narratives base
themselves around the central concepts of magical realism, they are used and
presented, in very different ways indeed.
Since magical realism can be seen as when the realistic mingles with the
unexpected and the inexplicable
5
, the unexpected and the inexplicable can take
many different forms, from the overtly magical and fantastic to simply surreal actions
and events that go unquestioned within the narrative. In both The Bloody Chamber
collection and Chronicle of a Death Foretold, both of these elements occur, perhaps
on a more subtle level in Mrquezs work in regard to the overtly magical, but these
notions are nonetheless present.
Firstly, objects seem to take on a life of their own or become magical, particularly in
The Bloody Chamber tales. The first example of this is in the tale The Bloody
Chamber, based upon Bluebeard
6
, in regard to the key which opens the door to the
bloody chamber about which the Bride says the more I scrubbed, the more vivid
grew the stain
7
. The key appears to adopt the magical attribute of an ever-present
blood stain, revealing the girls disobedience to the Marquis. Conversely, in

1
M. Ann Bowers, Magic(al) Realism, Routledge, 2004, p. 131.
2
V. imunkov, Reimagining the Fairy Tale in Angela Carters Earlier Edition, 2011, p. 6.
3
Shadow Dance was first published in 1966 and immediately revealed Carter as a writer who was
prepared to shock in an attempt to rid people of the myths and beliefs that wrongly influence and grip
society. In Shadow Dance, through the narrative of Christian martyrdom, Carter uses the surreal and
magical realist sentiments to her advantage, which would later be turned to focus on the subservient
role of women in society.
4
V. imunkov, Reimagining the Fairy Tale in Angela Carters Earlier Edition, 2011, p. 6.
5
D. Birch, The Oxford Companion to English Literature, Oxford University Press, 2009, p. 626.
6
The fairy tale Bluebeard was first published in 1697 by Charles Perrault and can be seen to have
had a profound effect on Carters literary career in particular regard to her translation of Perraults
contes into English. In contrast to the rejection of them by feminists seeing fairy tales as conservative
and displaying of patriarchal values, Carter promotes the critical edge and liberating possibilities of his
Histoires ou contes du temps pass, Avec des Moralits. Thus the subversive nature of Carters work
is not aimed at Perrault but instead at the cultural and commercial presentation of the fairy tale, such
as the promotion of a nave view of marriage.
7
A. Carter, The Bloody Chamber in The Bloody Chamber, Vintage, 1995, p. 33.
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Chronicle of a Death Foretold, during the butchery of Santiago Nasar, the Vicario
twins observe that, The strange thing is the knife kept coming out clean
8
. Through
this comparison of the presence of the stain in The Bloody Chamber and the eerie
absence of it in Chronicle of a Death Foretold, the destruction of the girls innocence
in her exposure to the Marquis dark and sadomasochistic side, and the innocence of
Santiago for his alleged crime, are depicted.
Valerie Henitiuk notes how women have not played a significant role in writing
novels of the frontier, whereas they have responded to the lure of magical realism.
Perhaps women employ this genre to seek a space where phallocentric laws do not
apply
9
. With this in mind, the magical transformations in Carters work are part of this
alternative reality that she creates in an attempt to escape the notion that patriarchy
regards being masculineas the norm, and builds the social order around masculine
sexuality; the term used to describe this is phallocentrism
10
. Indeed, this is exactly
what Carter is trying to break down throughout her feminist messages in The Bloody
Chamber collection. In adopting this overall magical realism format, Carter is able to
avoid abiding by the laws of the natural order of society in allowing a subversion of
the norm.
One of the most overt instances of magical realism in The Bloody Chamber
collection is that of the metamorphoses during the tales. There is a direct contrast in
the metamorphoses in The Courtship of Mr. Lyon and The Tigers Bride. In the first
tale, Carter describes then it was no longer a lion in her arms but a man
11
who has
an unkempt mane of hair, indicating a more realistic element to this tale, he is not
merely the perfect image of a charming prince. On the other hand, in The Tigers
Bride, it is not the male character who undergoes this change, but the female who
with each stroke of his tongue ripped off skin after successive skinand left behind
a nascent patina of shining hairs
12
. Through this, there is the complete role reversal
of the male and female characters; Carter presents here how the girl herself is
capable of becoming a dominant beast akin to the male character, thus empowering
the female role in doing so. As proclaimed earlier in this tale, The lamb must learn to
run with the tigers,
13
which perhaps can be interpreted as misogynistic message in
that women have to adapt to mens ideals. However it could also suggest that it is a
womans onus to elevate herself to the level of a man to achieve equality, rather than
a man to reduce himself to the level of woman.



8
G. Mrquez, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Penguin, 2007, p. 119.
9
V. Henitiuk, Step into my Parlour: Magical Realism and the Creation of a Feminist Space, 2003, p.
11.
10
J. Peck and M. Coyle, Literary Terms and Criticism, Palgrave Macmillan, 1984, p. 167.
11
A. Carter, The Courtship of Mr. Lyon in The Bloody Chamber, Vintage, 1995, p. 54.
12
A. Carter, The Tigers Bride in The Bloody Chamber, Vintage, 1995, p. 75.
13
A. Carter, The Tigers Bride in The Bloody Chamber, Vintage, 1995, p. 71.
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The structure of both texts augments the magical realist nature with the spiralling
constructs of time that go against the typical Western convention of the linear
narrative. In Chronicle of a Death Foretold the narrative consists of sudden jumps of
time in trying to put the broken mirror of memory back together from so many
shards
14
. This incessant leaping between different events and timelines accentuates
the confusion surrounding the mystery of Santiago Nasars death and the impression
of Latin America as a place of magic and wonder. As Ain Quereshi writes: Mrquez
reflects magical realism by exploring both natural and supernatural worlds and
illustrating traces of the culture characters have, which is Latin America
15
. This
would imply that the narrative itself is more of a window into the culture of Latin
America in Mrquezs eyes. It is not something purely magical and fantastical that he
is writing about, but merely an objective presentation of life there as seen through his
eyes and that of those who live there such as the prominent figure of his
grandmother
16
. For such people, what might seem to the Western reader as
something fantastical and magical, is an everyday occurrence.
Likewise in Carters narrative, the form is utilised to enhance the overall magical
realist style with the use of a deus ex machina device when the mother suddenly
arrives to save her daughter in The Bloody Chamber as she is seen galloping at a
vertiginous speed along the causeway
17
. Likewise Beauty in The Courtship of Mr
Lyon says that because the spaniel howled, then tugged and whimpered again
18
,
she knew the Beast was dying, implying a sense of a rather fantastical affinity that
she has with the Beast and the spaniel. In both of these instances, the unrealistic
and magical structure allows both female characters to be transformed into heroic
saviours. Carter reverses the role that would normally be filled by men as the heroic
antagonist in tales such as these to let them instead be taken by an empowered
female character.
Both texts are set in what is an otherwise ordinary and relatable world with familiar
scenes and setting; however supernatural and other-worldly elements are
seamlessly interwoven throughout. In the portrayal of these settings there is also the
use of rich and vivid sensory descriptions, which is another prominent feature of
magical realism, and the use of these by Mrquez can be seen to have been
inspired by the writer Virginia Woolf
19
. In The Bloody Chamber there is the imagery

14
G. Mrquez, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Penguin, 2007, p. 5.
15
A. Quereshi, The Use of Magical Realism, Retrieved 5 May 2011,
www.studymode.com/essays/The-Use-Of-Magical-Realism.
16
Mrquezs grandmother played an essential part in his upbringing when he went to live with his
grandparents in 1929 and then remained there for the following seven years. He was inspired by the
way that she treated the extraordinary as something perfectly natural and the house where they lived
was filled with her superstitious stories about ghosts, premonitions, omens and portents.
17
A. Carter, The Bloody Chamber in The Bloody Chamber, Vintage, 1995, p. 38.
18
A. Carter, The Courtship of Mr. Lyon in The Bloody Chamber, Vintage, 1995, p. 53.
19
The British writer Virginia Woolf can be seen to have influenced Mrquezs work due to her
overabundance of auditory and visual impressions, inspiring the vivid and magical realist settings in
Chronicle of a Death Foretold. Similarly to Mrquez her writing career began as a journalist for the
Times Literary Supplement in 1905 and her connections with this remained until her death in 1941.
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of the castle on the Brides arrival where she says Seal; sand; a sky that melts into
the sealits turrets of misty blue
20
and how it is neither on land nor on the water
21
,
invokes a rather dream-like atmosphere with the idea of liquidity and haziness,
indicating an impression of separation from the rest of the world. Carter perhaps
points out here how women become isolated from everyone who was previously
known to them when going into marriage, just as the Bride becomes isolated in
travelling to the Marquis castle. Moreover, the castles amphibious nature is similar
to the image portrayed of the Widower Xius house when Bayardo nearly dies in
Chronicle of a Death Foretold. The narrator notes how Things looked like they were
underwater
22
, thus creating a sense of a warped and distorted atmosphere
surrounding the man on the brink of death from ethylic intoxication
23
.
Although it might seem unlikely at first, it can be argued that the most realistic yet
surreal scenes invoke the greatest sense of magic, and not the more overtly
fantastical moments. In both the texts, surreal rituals and the overbearing power of
religion have a significant part to play. In The Bloody Chamber there is the violent
and bizarre ritual that the Marquis initiates when he says: We shall have absolute
privacy for our last rites
24
and that the girls death would be Decapitation, he
whispered, almost voluptuously
25
. In death by decapitation along with her musical
interest and finesse, the Bride becomes perhaps an incarnation of Saint Cecilia
26
,
empowering her to position above that of the everyday woman through the magical
element. This again highlights the Marquis grim voyeurism due to the skull, one of
his victims, in on full display, underlining the merciless extent of his desires.
Furthermore this can be argued to be one of Carters metaphors for the suppression
of women by men, which is vividly conveyed through magical realism.
At the end of Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Santiago Nasar started to walk in a
state of hallucination, holding his hanging intestines in his hands
27
and he walked
more than a hundred yards
28
. Although the aftermath of the attack on Santiago is
clearly unrealistic and very graphic, an underlying magical tone remains, creating a
brave and dignified ending for Santiago Nasar, a man who has perhaps been brutally
murdered for a crime he did not commit. The overall graphic presentation of the
inevitability of Santiagos death and the injustice of it could be argued to have been
influenced by events such as the Massacre of the Banana workers in Cinaga on

20
A. Carter, The Bloody Chamber in The Bloody Chamber, Vintage, 1995, p. 8.
21
A. Carter, The Bloody Chamber in The Bloody Chamber, Vintage, 1995, p. 9.
22
G. Mrquez, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Penguin, 2007, p. 85.
23
G. Mrquez, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Penguin, 2007, p. 85.
24
A. Carter, The Bloody Chamber in The Bloody Chamber, Vintage, 1995, p. 36.
25
A. Carter, The Bloody Chamber in The Bloody Chamber, Vintage, 1995, p.36.
26
Saint Cecilia is the patron saint of music who lived during the second century A.D. Attempts on her
life were carried out several times with each of them failing until she received the sacrament of Holy
Communion and she was finally beheaded. She is often depicted playing an organ or an instrument in
paintings.
27
G. Mrquez, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Penguin, 2007, p. 121.
28
G. Mrquez, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Penguin, 2007, p. 121.
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December 6th 1928
29
. Therefore it can be seen in both texts how this feature of
magical realism is used in order to empower the antagonists.
There are also moments in both texts where magical or strange instances would be
conventionally questioned as Lilburn notes ambiguities and uncertainties are not so
closely scrutinized
30
. However here they become seamlessly become part of the
reality in each text. In the Bloody Chamber tales, the most evident example of these
unquestioned bizarre occurrences would be found in The Snow Child, based upon
the fairy tale Snow Drop
31
and Little Red Riding Hood
32
. Despite his wife being
present, the Count casually expresses that I wish I had a girl as white as snowas
red as bloodas black as that birds feather
33
. The development of the male
fantasy is portrayed here, with the Count desiring someone more beautiful than his
wife. It is therefore understandable that the Countess is far from pleased when the
Snow Child suddenly appears and the Count starts to turn his attention to her, as
Schiro notes Angela Carter uses fantasy in order to express the emotion on behalf
of the Countess, when being betrayed by her own husband
34
. The actions taken
after her passivity, then, can be seen as an extension of her internal feelings,
representing how much she suffers as a result of the betrayal of her husband.
Yet her inaction continues when the Count thrust his virile member into the dead
girl
35
; thus she becomes the voyeuristic one in witnessing and failing to prevent the
necrophilia. Carter shows here how the woman can become as base and voyeuristic
as men, and in doing so she puts male and female characters on the same level,
breaking down the gender divide, whilst drawing attention to the objectification of
women and the injustice in marriage. Certainly in this tale, it can be observed what
Morrison describes as an archaeological investigation of gender representation,
coupled with a set of creative attempts at subversion
36
. The Snow Child is, in
essence, a presentation of the destructive force of the male fantasy and selfish
nature in marriage, and Carter uses magical realism to bring her critique of this to
life. The inspiration for going about empowering women in such a way most likely

29
During this incident, the Colombian government sent in the army to put an end to peaceful strikes
by workers of the United Fruit Company who were campaigning for better working conditions. It is
estimated that the number of workers massacred ranges from the forty seven taken responsibility for
up to two thousand. This incident occurred in the year Mrquez was born and the subsequent
revolutionary movements and violence would have affected his political views and ideologies. A
fictional representation of this event is found in his work One Hundred Years of Solitude.
30
J. Lilburn, Essay on A Chronicle of a Death Foretold in Novels for Students, Gale, 2000.
31
Published by the Brothers Grimm in 1812.
32
Published by Charles Perrault in his Histoires ou contes du temps pass, Avec des Moralits in
1697, however the tales origins are found in French folklore. During her time studying medieval
English literature at Bristol University, Carter developed an interest in French literature as well, thus
tales such as Perraults would have become of interest to her.
33
A. Carter, The Snow Child in The Bloody Chamber, Vintage, 1995, p. 105.
34
I. Schiro, Angela Carters style involves a fusion of the realistic and the fantastic. Discuss, 1998, p.
7.
35
A. Carter, The Snow Child in The Bloody Chamber, Vintage, 1995, p. 106.
36
J. Morrison, Contemporary Fiction, Routledge, 2003, p. 168.
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would have come from the Marquis De Sade
37
, whose influence on Carter was so
great that she named Marquis in The Bloody Chamber after him and wrote The
Sadeian Woman.
This idea of a bizarre lack of action can also be found in Chronicle of a Death
Foretold. Even though There had never been death more foretold
38
due to the
Vicario twins proclamation about the impending murder, no one actually takes any
effective action to prevent it. This is perhaps at the centre of the magical realist
elements of the text, with the critic Buford noting that the very title Una cronica de
una mueine anunci-ada, anunaada signifies not so much foretold as announced or
advertised or broadcast
39
. The Vicario twins purposely wanted people to know
about Santiago Nasars impending murder, broadcasting the death to anyone who
would listen, developing the theme of guilt due to the widening the circle of blame to
involve all those who had knowledge of the death. Yet no one still takes thorough
measures to prevent it. Therefore one of the most important uses of magical realism
in Chronicle of a Death Foretold is perhaps to present peoples surreal inaction when
faced with opportunities to prevent the murder from happening, and the rejection of
guilt that follows. The idea of guilt and morality here can be seen as Kafkaesque,
with Mrquez being inspired by the work of Franz Kafka
40
, by Mrquezs own
exploration of the theme of guilt, using magical realism as its basis.
Overall the use of magical realism in The Bloody Chamber tales and Chronicle of a
Death Foretold takes on many and varied forms, some more subtly fantastical than
others, but no less significant. Both narratives include moments of magical
transformation, objects taking on a life of their own and some purely surreal events.
However the most striking difference is the world that these authors create, with both
texts, although being based on the same fundamental magical realist elements,
building completely opposing realities. Through magical realism, Carter invokes an
overtly fantastical reality, one where she can bend the laws of nature as we know it
in order to break down the societal laws of patriarchy and gender constraints. As
Gamble writes, over time Carters texts have lost none of its capacity to shock,
startle and delight
41
, keeping alive her insightful investigation into the position of
women in society through her magical realist and dramatized worlds. Meanwhile,
Mrquez adopts what can be considered an antithetical approach. It was perhaps
not his intention to write something that was truly magical, but rather a window into
the lives of a vastly differing culture, that of Latin America in the 1950s. As Western

37
The Marquis De Sades work has often been seen as immoral, pornographic and depraved, yet
Carter was an ardent defender of his work and reclaimed it for feminism due to the empowerment she
believed it gave women.
38
G. Mrquez, Chronicle of a Death Foretold, Penguin, 2007, p. 50.
39
B. Buford, Haughty Falconry and Collective Guilt, in Times Literary Supplement No 4145,
September 10, 1982, p. 965.
40
Franz Kafka was a Czech writer who wrote novels and short works such as Das Urteil (1913: The
Judgment) and Die Verwandlung (1915: The Metamorphosis), which have a tendency to fable and
parable whilst exploring existential, alienation and guilt themes.
41
S. Gamble, Angela Carter: A Literary Life, Palgrave Macmillan, 2005, p. 205.
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readers, the events that occur in his works might seem surreal and magical to us as
they are something we have not experienced; they are of a different place. Mrquez
merely reminds us that this far off place is not in some alternate reality or far off
world, he is not writing about Middle Earth, but about one we all inhabit. Macondo
exists. That is magic.
42

Words: 3754 (with quotes), 1961 (without)






















42
S. Rushdie, Angel Gabriel in London Review of Books, September 16 to October 6, 1982, p. 4.
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Biblography:

Primary Texts:
Carter, A., The Bloody Chamber. Vintage, 1995.
Mrquez, G., Chronicle of a Death Foretold. Penguin, 2007.

Secondary Texts:
Ann Bowers, M., Magic(al) Realism. Routledge, 2004.
Birch, D., The Oxford Companion to English Literature. Oxford University Press, 2009.
Buford, B., Haughty Falconry and Collective Guilt in Times Literary Supplement No 4145.
September 10, 1982.
Coyle, M and Peck., J Literary Terms and Criticism. Palgrave Macmillan, 1984.
Gamble, S., Angela Carter: A Literary Life. Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.
Henitiuk, V., Step into my Parlour: Magical Realism and the Creation of a Feminist Space.
2003.
Lilburn, J., Essay on A Chronicle of a Death Foretold in Novels for Students. Gale, 2000.
Morrison, J., Contemporary Fiction. Routledge, 2003.
Quereshi, A., The Use of Magical Realism. Retrieved 5 May 2011,
www.studymode.com/essays/The-Use-Of-Magical-Realism.
Rushdie, S., Angel Gabriel in London Review of Books. September 16 to October 6, 1982.
Schiro, I., Angela Carters style involves a fusion of the realistic and the fantastic. Discuss.
1998.
imunkov, V., Reimagining the Fairy Tale in Angela Carters Earlier Edition. 2011.
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