Erl King
In the ‘butchery’ style, Red Riding Hood
Erl King is an erotic male woodland spirit (heart eater and blood drinker)
Young girl goes into woods, gets lost, meets seductive Erl King, learns from him, as sex with him.
Realises he is making cage for her, brushes his hair and kills him, releases all the girls.
“perfect transparency” relating to the fact that the girl was blinded by Erl King and he wasn’t
transparent.
“the woods enclose you” entrapment, disguise, protect
“the wood swallows you up” woods associated with the unconscious, the wild and the unknown
The woods could also represent domestic entrapment, second wave feminism. Carter herself felt
entrapped in her first marriage. “the trees stir like noise of taffeta skirts of women who have lost
themselves in the woods and hunt round hopelessly for the way out”
“young girl”
“she will be trapped in her own illusion because everything in the woods is exactly as it seems”
imagination plays tricks on us
“the woods enclose”
“it is easy to loose yourself in the woods”
“delicious loneliness” easy prey, vulnerable
“I felt I was in a house of nets”
“Erl King will do you grievous harm”
“lays upon me his irrevocable hand”
“some eyes can eat you”
“he came alive form the desire of the wood”
“nanny goat gives her milk for cheese with an amniotic taste” maternal
“little cages in which he keeps his singing birds”
Jeff Vandermeer “the characters are forever escaping the traps laid by men”
“trapped birds” “how cruel it is too keep wild birds in cages”
“he was an excellent housewife”
“he lays me down on his bed of rustling straw where I lie at the mercy of his huge hands”
“he is the tender butcher”
Julia Kristeva abject, Girl both scared and in love with the Erl King.
Helen Simpson “content is violently sexual”
In the ‘butchery’ style, Red Riding Hood
Erl King is an erotic male woodland spirit (heart eater and blood drinker)
Young girl goes into woods, gets lost, meets seductive Erl King, learns from him, as sex with him.
Realises he is making cage for her, brushes his hair and kills him, releases all the girls.
“perfect transparency” relating to the fact that the girl was blinded by Erl King and he wasn’t
transparent.
“the woods enclose you” entrapment, disguise, protect
“the wood swallows you up” woods associated with the unconscious, the wild and the unknown
The woods could also represent domestic entrapment, second wave feminism. Carter herself felt
entrapped in her first marriage. “the trees stir like noise of taffeta skirts of women who have lost
themselves in the woods and hunt round hopelessly for the way out”
“young girl”
“she will be trapped in her own illusion because everything in the woods is exactly as it seems”
imagination plays tricks on us
“the woods enclose”
“it is easy to loose yourself in the woods”
“delicious loneliness” easy prey, vulnerable
“I felt I was in a house of nets”
“Erl King will do you grievous harm”
“lays upon me his irrevocable hand”
“some eyes can eat you”
“he came alive form the desire of the wood”
“nanny goat gives her milk for cheese with an amniotic taste” maternal
“little cages in which he keeps his singing birds”
Jeff Vandermeer “the characters are forever escaping the traps laid by men”
“trapped birds” “how cruel it is too keep wild birds in cages”
“he was an excellent housewife”
“he lays me down on his bed of rustling straw where I lie at the mercy of his huge hands”
“he is the tender butcher”
Julia Kristeva abject, Girl both scared and in love with the Erl King.
Helen Simpson “content is violently sexual”
