Feminism impact in Fairy Tales 

For a very long time, fairy tales have existed in our world. They have experienced a wide range of cultures, languages, and lifestyles. However, in order to adapt to the modern circumstances, they have frequently experienced many modifications. Retellings of fairy tales, such as Angela Carter’s, “The Bloody Chamber” challenge the gendered standards established in traditional versions of these tales by introducing themes of feminism and violence into fairy tales. These challenges caused controversies in the modern world in many ways by changing gender roles, re-examining marriage, and introducing feminist perspectives to society. In “The Inner Wild Woman Freed: Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber and the Overcoming of Sexist Traits in Classic Fairy Tales” by Ianara Silva Dantas, Dantas posits that  during the 1970s writing became very popular and authors started to include themes of gender and women’s rights. Women felt that there was a problem of sexism in society, so authors started to introduce gender inequality and female sexuality into different stories. One of these authors was Angela Carter. She used fairy tales to show society that  women should be able to do whatever they wanted to and that they didn’t have to follow any rules. By doing this, Angela introduces empowerment to the women’s lives and this causes them to see society from a different point of view. According to Dantas, Carter influenced more when she released her book The Bloody Chamber, which influenced the Women’s Liberation Movement ( 20). In an age where there was major controversy, Angela Carter challenged the social norms and influence in feminism in a society where it wasn’t accepted at the time. Additionally, it reflects that with her book she changed the perspective of women, putting feminism into their lives.
Charles Perrault’s “The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood,” reflects many of the traditional patriarchal ideals of the old era of fairy tales. The young fifteen-year-old princess is sentenced to a very long sleep that can only be finished by her true love. She disobeys her parents when they told her to not go out because it was dangerous. Her curiosity prevailed, “She came to a tiny attic room and found an old woman sitting…She took the spindle; and because she was hasty and impulsive, and in any case the fairies’ decree had decided what would happen, no sooner had she done so than she pricked her hand and fell down in a faint”(Perrault 86). After one hundred years, her prince arrives and breaks the sleeping curse brought on by her deadly female curiosity. After that they get married and live happily forever. The prince fell in love with her and “he declared that he loved her better than he loved himself. His words were faltering, but they pleased the more for that. The less there is of eloquence, the more there is of love” (Perrault). This illustrates the classic story’s theme of real love and living together forever, having a happy marriage.  It also reflects traditional gender roles, where a princess is  passive and dependent on the king, and her worth lies in her beauty. 

Angela Carter however, took this classic fairy tale and modernized it by adding themes of feminism. She changes gender roles in a way that makes women independent in the story. Instead of being saved by a king, they take control of their lives. In the article “Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories: A Postmodern Re-Telling of Politics,” Ridha’a Jelaaweiy and Basim Al-Ghizawi explore how Angela Carter’s retellings of classic fairy tales challenge both societal and political structures. They argue that Carter uses postmodern strategies to question the roles that society has assigned to men and women. Jelaaweiy and Al-Ghizawi states, “…Carter has subverted the representational female and male characters. The target reader is both females and males like in the case of the earlier fairy tales, however with a new understanding of the reader’s response to the text” (242-243). This modern approach to storytelling gives Carter’s works a deeper social and political significance, making readers question the structures that limit both individual and collective freedom. Furthermore, In the article “Feminist Fairy Tales: Blurred Boundaries in Angela Carter’s Rewritings of Classical Fairy Tales” by Cornelia Wilhelmsson she explores how Angela Carter’s retellings of traditional fairy tales blur the lines between gender, power, and identity, offering a feminist critique of classical narrative. Wilhelmsson argues that Carter’s uses fairy tales to expose structures that are unfavorable for women. Traditional fairy tales that usually present rigid gender roles where women are passive and dependent on male figures, often playing the role of the victim or the prize to be won. However, Carter subverts these roles by giving her female characters more agency, allowing them to make their own choices and take control of their destinies (Wilhelmsson 5). By changing classic fairy tales, Carter not only challenges the traditional gender roles seen in older versions but also invites readers to rethink the way power and identity are shaped by the traditional, cultural, and political systems around them. 
Another example that connects to the same idea  can be found in Refurbishing Marriage Institution Through Rewriting of Fairy Tales Selected from Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories by İşler, Tuba. Tuba argues that by rewriting classic fairy tales in The Bloody Chamber, Carter critiques the traditional idea of marriage as a social structure that makes women tied to a slavish and dependent role. Unlike fairy tales, where marriage is seen as the ideal “happy ending” that every woman should want, Carter presents marriage as a more complicated situation that brings many traumas to these women. “…because marriage for Carter is a delusion created by bourgeoisie that kills women” (Tuba 38). Furthermore, in this story marriage is not a simple thing but a relationship that needs to be in constant negotiation and self awareness, things that women didn’t have in the old times. Tuba states, “she criticizes how Western European culture turned women into angels-mummies in the house by encouraging women to be pregnant, which is, for Carter, mostly an enfeebling and a tiring process which withholds women from producing literary pieces; and thus enslaved them throughout centuries through literary agents” (76). This demonstrates how by speaking on these themes, women felt that they were being abused and forced to become slaves, as well as that having kids was a sign of prosperity. Causing these controversies helped society become more concerned about how women were being treated. This caused a big impact because it gave the courage to women to speak about how they were feeling. Carter questions the idealized, submissive position that women were supposed to perform and reveals the power relations present in the system of marriage through these changes. 

Moreover, in the journal article “Ours is an Orgiastic, Not an Ecstatic Culture: Angela Carter Discusses Cultural Expressions of Sexuality in Her Non-Fiction,” Dominika Oramus explores Angela Carter’s views on sexuality and how she engages with it in both her fiction and non-fiction. Oramus focuses on the type of strategies to express herself by putting many aspects of sexuality, like violence, desire, and taboo into stories to influence in society by challenging how people are going to react to this when they read it. She tries to convince readers to confront these issues directly. Oramus argues that by doing this, it has motivated many readers to reshape modern cultural discussions, she introduces identity issues and how people should solve them. Basically she goes with the idea that society should control what you do with your life or identity. 

By integrating feminism with explicit discussions of sexuality and violence, Carter challenges the cultural repression of female sexual desire and calls for a more liberated, honest conversation about gender and power in sexual relationships. Oramus states, “Carter believed that the changing fashion of the 1960s reflected profound social changes and that the non-restrictive sexual norms of her own milieu granted young people personal freedom: not only in their choice of partners but also politically. She saw sartorial extravagance as a powerful tool in a war with “age and class” and a sign of upcoming liberation in all spheres of life” (Oramus 61). This quote reflects how through her unapologetic approach, Carter’s work has had a lasting influence on how sexuality is portrayed and understood in both literature and broader cultural discourse. Notably Oramus concentrates on the point that by Carter introducing sexuality into stories, influence people to break traditional norms and have more freedom. 

Angela Carter’s, The Bloody Chamber challenges old gender roles and norms of society by rewriting traditional fairy tales. By changing weak female characters into strong heroines who take charge of their own lives, she challenges the traditional view of women as weak victims. Carter challenges society’s exaggerated view of marriage and highlights the boundaries imposed on women.Carter didn’t agree with how women were being portrayed, so she wasnt to defend them by challenging traditional roles. Also by challenging these traditional boundaries, Carter not only critiques the gender norms embedded in these stories but also reflects a feminist understanding of identity and power, encouraging readers to question the limiting structures of conventional storytelling.  Critics such as Dantas, İşler, Oramus, and Wilhelmsson emphasize how Carter’s feminist perspective challenges readers’ stereotypes about gender, power, and sexuality. Carter has had a major impact on literary and cultural conversations through her modification of classic stories, which inspire a more open discussion about gender equality and freedom of choice. 

Work Cited

Dantas, Ianara Silva. “The Inner Wild Woman Freed: Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber and the Overcoming of Sexist Traits in Classic Fairy Tales.” The Inner Wild Woman Freed: Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber And The Overcoming Of Sexist Traits In Classic Fairy Tales, Universidade Federal da Paraíba, 24 Nov. 2021, 

repositorio.ufpb.br/jspui/handle/123456789/21526?locale=pt_BR. 

İşler, Tuba. Refurbishing marriage institution through rewriting of fairy tales selected from Angela Carter’s the Bloody Chamber and other stories. MS thesis. Pamukkale University Social Sciences Institution, 2022. 

Oramus, Dominika. “‘ours Is an Orgiastic, Not an Ecstatic Culture.’ Angela Carter Discusses Cultural Expressions of Sexuality in Her Non-Fiction.” Atlantis. Journal of the Spanish Association for Anglo-American Studies, 

www.atlantisjournal.org/index.php/atlantis/article/view/965. Accessed 23 Oct. 2024. Perrault, Charles. The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood. George Routledge & Sons, 1870. 

Ridha’a’Jelaaweiy, Basim Al-Ghizawi. “Angela Carter’s the Bloody Chamber and Other Stories: A Postmodern Re-telling of Politics.” 

Wilhelmsson, Cornelia. “Feminist Fairy Tales: Blurred Boundaries in Angela Carter’s Rewritings of Classical Fairy Tales.” DIVA, 10 Jan. 2017, 

liu.diva-portal.org/smash/record.jsf?pid=diva2%3A818364&dswid=6929.