The Magic Toyshop by Angela Carter - 1954 Words

Angela Carter wrote in various forms, she wrote novels, poetry, film scripts and she also translated the fairy tales of Charles Perrault and edited the Virago Book of Fairy Tales1. The Magic Toyshop is Angela Carters second novel and winner of the John Llewellyn Rhys Prize (1969)2. The Magic Toyshop is a Bildungsroman, it follows the coming of age of Melanie, as she becomes aware of herself, her environment, and her own sexuality. The Magic Toyshop can in many ways be seen as following the conventions of a fairy tale and has been categorised as some as Magic Realism. In a Concise Glossary of Contemporary Literary theory this has been defined as â€Å"involve the sudden incursion of fantastic or magical elements into an otherwise realistic†¦show more content†¦Melanie dreams of her future husband and tends to have a very romantic image of her future and at this time in her teenage years the most important thing to her is that of falling in love,getting married and having se x. We can see that Melanies life is one of comfort and safety and she is able to fully indulge in her fantasies. However it is at this point that we first begin to see the element of fantasy or magical element encroach on to what can be seen as a typical setting. Melanie one night indulging in her dreams decides to try on her mothers wedding dress and goes out into the garden at night. She seems to be overcome with the whole image of herself in the wedding dress and the dark night. She becomes overwhelmed with a felling of ecstasy â€Å" In her carapace of white satin, she was the last, the only woman. She trembled with exaltation under the deep, blue, high arc of sky†5. However the vast enormity of the world dawns on her and she is left feeling frightened and alone and in a panic she rushes to go back indoors to safety however she finds herself locked out. Melanie is forced into climbing the apple tree in order to get back to her room, however the dress becomes caught and is destroyed. At this stage in the novel we see that Melanie sees thingsShow MoreRelatedquot;the Oppressive Power of Patriarchy in Angela Carters Novelsquot;794 Words   |  4 Pages We can read Angela Carter as both entertaining and a critique of constructions and presentations of power, gender, sexuality and construction of gendered identities. First we will consider the oppressive and destructive power of patriarchy which is the social system in which men are regarded as the authority within the family and society. Afterwards in the next chapter we will investigate how Carters heroines succeed in constructing their femininity and their gendered identities. Read More Fairytales and Folktales2815 Words   |  12 Pagesof young women; that they should remain ‘pure’ and ‘docile’. He wrote the tales in a time period when fairytales or ‘jack’ tales were looked at as instructional lessons. They were also widely told around the fire, as entertainment, for adults. Angela Carter adapted Perrault’s classic tales in the 1970’s; changing the victim into the heroine, with sex as reward for bold action, instead of the cause of her eventual downfall. Both authors’ collection of tales can be viewed as anthropological and sociologicalRead MoreThe Theory, History, and Development of Magical Realism Essay examples3188 Words   |  13 Pagesfrom the previous period, techniques that endow all things with a deeper meaning and reveal mysteries that always threaten the secure tranquillity of simple and ingenuous things. (Zamora and Faris 17-18) Roh continues, â€Å"This calm admiration of the magic of being, of the discovery that things already have their own faces, means that the ground in which the most diverse ideas in the world can take root has been reconquered - albeit in new ways† (20). During the 1940s and the 1950s, the term â€Å"magical