The Tiger's Bride Tasks

Task 1

Andrea Mantegna           

He was an early Italian Renaissance painter that experimented with perspective. He had a sculptural approach to painting. He produced engravings which helped spread his designs outside of Italy. He was knighted in 1484.

                   

St. Sebastian (1457-1459)                                                                                                                      St. Sebastian is the subject of three painting by Mantegna. He lived in the time of many plagues and Sebastian was considered the protector against the plague as he had been shot through by arrows and it was believed the plague spread through the air.

Christ as the Suffering Redeemer (1488-1500)                                                                                         Christ is portrayed with open hands to show all the wounds of his crucifixion. He is supported by two kneeling angels (one seraph and one cherub). The tomb is visible in the background and two women are running along a path to reach Jesus’ tomb.

Guilio Romana                                                                                                                                       He was an Italian artist and architect.

The Battle of the Milvian Bridge                                                                                                                  It is a fresco in a room called the Stanze di Raffaello in the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican.  It shows the battle that took place on October 28^th 312 between the Roman Emperors Constantine I and Maxentius.

Benvenuto Cellini                                                                                                                                    He was an Italian goldsmith and sculptor. He was one of the most important artists of Mannerism. This is a period of European art that emerged in the later years of the Renaissance period. 

Crucifix

 

Saliera                                                                                                                                                       It is a part enamel part gold sculpture. It depicts a male figure representing the sea and a female figure representing the earth.  

Task2

Assuage-to make milder or less severe                                                                                                       Awry-askew
Axium (or axiom)-a statement or proposition which is regarded as being established
Capisco-I understand                                                                                                                                  Ciliate-belonging or pertaining to the phylum Ciliophora
Civet-a yellowish, unctuous substance with a strong musklike order, obtained from a pouch in the genital region of the civets
Desnuda-nude                                                                                                                                  Excoriating-to denounce or berate severely                                                                              Expostulating-to reason earnestly with someone against something that person intends to do or has done
Eyrie (or aerie)-the nest of a bird of prey
Gavotte-an old French dance
Gracile-gracefully slender                                                                                                                             Megalomaniac-a person afflicted with megalomania                                                                     Metaphysical-pertaining to the nature of metaphysics                                                                              Minuet-a slow, stately dance, popular in the 17^th and 18^th centuries
Molto agitato-very rough                                                                                                                            Nascent-beginning to exist or develop                                                                                                      Obsequiousness-showing servile complaisance or deference                                                                     Ostler (or hostler)-a person who takes care of horses 

The Bloodly Chamber Tasks

Task 1

Leonine-resembling or pertaining to a lion

Fugue-a composition based on themes, which pronounced by several voices and gradually built up into a complex composition with a marked climax at the end.

Rococo-a type of architecture and decoration, which originated in France in 1720 

Minimalist-a person who favours a moderate approach to the achievement of a set of goals

Chamber music- classical music that was performed in a small space

Florid- reddish or rosy, flowery; excessively ornate or showy    

Task 2

She was born in 1940 and she died in 1992.

She has lived in Japan, the USA and Australia.

She had started to work on a sequel to Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre based on the life of Jane’s stepdaughter Adele but unfortunately she died before she could finish it.

She has written in the gothic, magical realism, fantasy and fairy tale genres.

The Times ranked her as 10^th in a list of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945.

Carter was influenced by surrealism, sexual libertarianism and the Situationist cultural activism.   

Task 3

Charles Perrault as born in 1628 and he died in 1703.

He was famous for inventing the written fairy tale.

His most famous book was called Tales and Stories of the Past with Moral, subtitled Tales of Mother Goose.

It was published in 1697 in Paris.

He used pre-existing folk tales as the basis for his tales.

He published eight tales with in the book, these where Sleeping Beauty, Little Red Riding Hood, Blue Beard, Puss in Boots, the Fairies, Cinderella, Ricky with the Tuft and Little Tom Thumb.

The Brothers Grimm fairy tales where published between 1812 and 1857 in Germany.

They published 211 fairy tales.

They draw their influence from Johann Gottfried von Herder who inspired a lot of the early Romantic nationalism.

Task 4

Baudelaire was born in 1821 and he died in 1867.

He lived and worked in Paris, France.

He is unlike his poetic Romantic predecessors because he rejects the belief of supremacy of nature and the fundamental goodness of man.

He is like Romantic poets because he believed the same as them. He said that “art lust create beauty from even the most depraved or non-poetic situations”

His most famous work is called Les Fleurs du Mal (The Flowers of Evil)

It expresses the changing nature of beauty in industrializing, modern Paris.

Facts about him- He was a pioneering translator of Edgar Allan Poe.

He coined the term modernity.

Task 5

Marquis de Sade wrote novels and short stories.

He was famous for his views on libertine sexuality, meaning his thought people should not be sexually restrained.

Essential Vocabulary

Aesthete-a person who has a particular interest towards the beauties of art or nature

Aigrette-a plume or tuff of feathers arranged as a head ornament or a jewelled ornament worn in the hair or on the hat

Avarice-a greed for riches that is incapable of being satisfied

Baroque-a style of architecture and art originating in Italy in the early 17^th century or the musical period following the Renaissance, from roughly 1600 to 1750

Bier- a frame or stand which a corpse or the coffin containing it is laid before burial

Billets-doux-a love letter  

Carillon- a set of stationary bells hung in a tower and sounded by manual or pedal action

Carnal-pertaining to or characterized by the flesh or the body, its passions and appetites
Catafalque-a hearse or a raised structure on which the body of deceased person lies
Chthonic-pertaining to the deities, spirits and other beings dwelling under the earth
Dolorous-causing pain or sorrow
Eldritch-eerie, weird or spooky
Enfer-hell
Gourmand-a person who is fond of good eating, often to excess
Immolated-to sacrifice  
Importunate-urgent or persistent in solicitation  
Interdiction-an act or decree of a court or an administrative officer

Jinn-any class of spirits, lower than angels, capable of appearing in human and animal forms, influencing humankind for either good or evil
Lisle-knitted goods  
Loge-the front section of the lowest balcony, separated from the back section by an aisle or railing or a box in a theatre  
Loquacity-talkativeness  
Lustratory-
Missal-the book containing the prayers and rites used by the priest in celebrating Mass over the course of the entire year
Nacreous-lustrous or pearly
Parure-a matching set of jewels or ornaments
Rictus-the gape of the mouth of the bird
Sacerdotal-priestly  
Sadomasochistic-interaction, especially sexual activity, in which one person enjoys inflicting physical or mental pain on another person, who derives pleasure from experiencing pain
Sardonic-mocking, cynical or sneering
Trousseau-an outfit of clothing, household linen, etc. for a bride
Vellum-calfskin, lambskin, kidskin, etc. used as a writing surface  
Vicuna-a wild South American ruminant, an endangered species
Viscera-the organs in the cavities of the body, especially those in the abdominal cavity

Basic Questions

Carter says the ruby “choker” is “like an extraordinarily precious slit throat”. A choker is similar to a collar, making her his possession, his pet, like a dog. The “precious slit throat” foreshadows what he will try to do later. The fact that the choker is made out of rubies symbolises blood and his wealth.

She has been cut off from the rest of the world, literally with his house being on an island and he being far away from civilisation. Also, metaphorically as he hardly ever speaks to her. She does not really have anyone else apart from Jean, whom she should not really speak to. She is basically lone.

He hands over the key to “every lock in the house”, in doing this he also hands over his power and dominance over her. He trusts her and this then gives her the confidence to later defy him.

Jean tries to stay with her and be her hero but she tell him to leave her and he obeys as she now has the power that men normally have because she has the keys.

He thinks they are just there to look pretty and to bear children. They should not speak much or have any opinions on anything. This view is similar to the one that society produced at the time Carter was writing.

Developed Questions

He “strips her” which seems slightly pornographic and he closes her “legs like a book” this shows an uncomfortable atmosphere and would have been seen as disgusting for a young woman to do this.

The language used is sexual graphic and very detailed. The title of the painting “reproof of curiosity” is a reference to the moral of the original Bluebeard.
White symbolises her purity and naivety. Black suggests death and bad things to come. Purple illustrates his wealth and status. Pink shows the love she thinks she has for him. Ruby represents the bloody for his murderous hobby and the bloody that could still be shed. 
This phrase comes from the wolf in Little Red Riding Hood. It is used here because shows the dark messages in fairy tales.  

More Complex

He gives her jewellery and expensive clothes, they show his wealth and his power over her.  He comes across as your normal wealth eligible bachelor but underneath this fake front he is a murderous sexual deviant. Appearance link to the overt and the covert. The overt is the obvious, what the thing actually is and the covert is the hidden meaning. There are many overt and covert subject in the Bloody Chamber. The choker, the chamber, Jean and many more.

Form of the Bloody Chamber 

Magical realism- fiction or other art forms such as painting which combine with realism with fantastic elements. It reminds the reader that all art is created or invented. By the 1980’s it was an established form of fiction, Angela Carter was an author regarded as a magical realists.