Liminality permeates Angela Carter's short story collection, titled The Bloody Chamber, in its characters, its physical settings, and even its narrative voice. The Bloody Chamber, as a physical "chamber", may refer to a room where violence and enlightenment occur simultaneously. It is a space of transformation for the heroine which changes her irrevocably. Bloody rooms are often linked not only to the blood of violence, but also to the bloodshed when a woman loses her virginity and when she gets her period. The concept of the "bloody room" can also refer to the vagina or uterus, and Carter uses this fact to highlight the connection between women's sexuality and the violence they experience. Carter creates an atmosphere that has elements of the "Bloody Chamber", both power and torment, particularly in "The Erl King", a story in which all aspects exist in a liminal way. Erl-King's narrator describes the sensation of liminality as "vertigo." When the Erl-King, a half-human, half-wood liminal creature, pulls her into his in-between “gravity,” she is unpleasantly disoriented. This disorientation results in the ambiguity of the identity of the king and the intentions of the narrator. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay In literature, liminal spaces traditionally give the occupier both power and torment. By existing in two states or being two things simultaneously, the occupant possesses the qualities of both. At the same time, he is condemned never to live in either state. The two halves of the experience of liminal being do not seem to form a satisfactory whole. Her most radical statement, however, is that all women are forced to live their lives as a liminal experience. Carter's liminal experience in the text aims to deconstruct and reposition female sexuality in a male-dominated space. The narrator, a woman, lives unconsciously on the threshold of “virgin” and “sexual being,” unable to fully identify with either; Carter suggests that women who use their sexuality as a means of empowerment are isolated from society and those who neglect it are oppressed by patriarchal figures, particularly King Erl. Carter begins the text in a relatively conventional manner; his narrative voice is easily accessible. However, at the first mention of the forest and the king, who are ultimately revealed to be the same being, Carter manipulates the planes of reality in the story, indicating the effects the forest has physically and mentally; “The woods enclose and enclose again, like a system of Chinese boxes opening onto each other… it is easy to get lost in these woods. » (Carter 85) The narrator is aware of the demystifying effects of her environment, but looks for dangers anyway, representing the naivety of young women. She reveals in her winding sentences that the woods and the object of her desire, King Erl, are the same being; he exists simultaneously in the state of forest and man; “When he combs his hair the color of dead leaves, dead leaves fall from it; they rustle and drift to the ground as if he were a tree and he can remain as still as a tree…” (Carter 87) She also makes mention of his physical body; “…because its flesh is of the same substance as these leaves which slowly turn into earth. » (Carter 88) King Erl is neither a man nor a forest, and his seductive tendencies are successful with the "virgin/highly sexual" narrator. The narrator should not be presented as a victim; instead, Cartersupports her as an independent and sexual being. She admits that only the “imprisoning” effect that the king possesses inspires fear in her: “I am not afraid of him; only, fearing dizziness, the dizziness with which it takes me. Fear of falling. » (Carter 87) Vertigo is a type of vertigo, where you have a sensation of movement when you are stationary. The narrator experiences the king "liminally" in a physical and mental sense, as well as in a sexually liberating and captivating way. The relationship between the king and the narrator is highly romanticized by the latter. Erotic language and artful images of nature are characteristic of the Romantic era, which Carter uses in a contemporary way. However, while the Romantics saw nature as a source of spiritual enlightenment and life, in The Erl-King it is a source of confinement and death. The narrator's initial description of the woods already foreshadows her entrapment; she depicts the light filtering through the trees as "those vertical bars of a distillation of brass-colored light descending from sulfur-yellow gaps in a sky lined with gray clouds." ” (Carter 86) Since the narrator is complicit in her imprisonment, she knows she is “caged” or trapped as soon as she enters the woods. She is subject to their power; because everything in the woods “is exactly as it seems” (Carter 86), everyone who enters there imprints their own desires. On some level, the narrator desires to be caught, and the cage-like light patterns are a reflection of this desire. She admits her knowledge by declaring: “this light admits of no ambiguity. " (Carter 87) The narrator even details her impending punishment before she comes into contact with the king: "The two notes of a bird's song rose over the still one. air, as if my feminine and delicious solitude had made a sound of me. ”(Carter 85) Carter calls the birdsong “feminine and delicious,” commenting on the vulnerability of women in sexual situations. However, the narrator matures quickly in response to the “marriage-like” proposal the king has in store for her. The narrator herself begins to convey liminal elements, as she is submissive to her virginal side as well as her sexually independent nature. This is characterized when he explains the king's effect on her; “Your touch consoles me and devastates me at the same time. » (Carter 89) She encourages the Erl-King's domination because she is caught in the "vertigo" between her erotic desire for the Erl-King and her desire to be independent. Summarizing her dilemma in two words, she calls him a “tender butcher”; she knows that he is both her lover and her destroyer. Carter cleverly manipulates the setting as a character, as the narrator becomes an active figure within the thematic “bloody chamber.” The King is her source of pleasure and punishment, since he strips her of her virginity and her sexual appetite; his identity is very ambiguous. She believes that the Erl-King can enlighten her by consuming her; she wishes: “I would like to become extremely small, so that you could swallow me... Then I could lodge myself inside your body and you would carry me. » (Carter 89) Ultimately, the narrator's extreme solution is to kill the Erl-King and supplant male domination with female domination. While other heroines in Carter's stories find happiness in relationships with men, the narrator of The Erl-King rejects them entirely. She must kill the male figure in order to replace him as creator. The narrator admits that she was aware of the dangers of "enslavement" from the beginning and confesses: "...I loved him with all my heart and yet I had no desire to join the hissing congregation he kept in its cages well.]