Albu Gina CDSAM I
Wise Children Review
By Angela Carter
The book I had a chance to get it and read it with pleasure belongs to Vintage Classics, published by Vintage2006.
Angela Carter is considered to be one of the most important writers of the contemporary period, with her novels often interpreted as postmodern fables with the source of western civilization. Angela Carter’s style seems to illustrate a new dimension of magical fiction, many of her novels having as its main point of inspiration various mythological images or mythical heroes.
She is well known for writing short stories (’’Fireworks’’,The Bloody Chamber’’, ‘’ Black Venus’’), Novels (‘’ The Magic Toy Shop’’,’’Nights at the Circus’’, ‘’Shadow Dance’’), Non-fiction ( ‘’The Sadeian Woman : An Exercise in Cutural History’’,’’Shaking a Leg ; Collected Writings’’ and Drama ( ‘’Come onto These Yellow Sands: Four Radio Plays’’) according to Vintage 2006.
Angela Carter uses a number of methods and techniques to present events and characters in a more distinctive way like the one in Chapter 1. By using Dora’s voice she is able to express her point of view of the character and introduce the story reader into a rhythm and style that not only sets other characters, but from the point of view of the language used the reader can create a new personality for Dora.
Wise children begins with a question to slowly introduce the reader in the idea of legitimacy and illegitimacy.
“Why is London like Budapest?
And the answer is : because the two cities are divided by a river.
Dora brings up in the City of London to explain how she and Nora live on the “bastard part of the old father Thames “, as illegitimate children this being of course a metaphor presenting the reality of their situation. Carter uses these parallel north and south to show how Nora and Dora are, from the “wrong side of the lines. ” And this is what makes the reader refer to and empathizing with Dora and Nora’s position.
The novel does not follow a classical timeline, but rather a non-linear narrative that fluctuates between what happens at the 75 anniversary and the events that have taken place in the past. The first main event in the novel is the arrival of the invitation to Melchior’s birthday party. Now there are some episodes taken place , but also other new characters are introduced , and allow the author to give the reader some information about Dora’s situation mentioning that Melchior Hazard is her father who is in a “wheelchair “. Carter is using very efficiently the plot in the first chapter; She is offering some bits of the story culminating with the moment when Tristram shows the video recording, “Freeze-frame “.
Thus the author has the opportunity to explain the hazard family history and let the reader clipping different parts of the story . There is a pause in the story where Tristram and Tiffany story is mentioned . Carter carefully controls the narrative and amount of information given to the reader at a time, teasing the reader by offering parts of the story, but then having Nora hold back.
During the viewing of the video by Dora and Nora develops a plot that allows the reader to understand the events that have happened in the past. This episode clearly highlight Dora’s emotions that help the reader to appreciate its perspective. Tiffany’s task also strengthens the idea of illegitimacy, again by a member of the Hazard family.
The language that Nora uses throughout the novel is informal and direct, example could be “Bastard Robin! ” Because of this honest way of speaking Dora becomes a credible character and the reader gets confidence in everything she says. Carter uses Dora’s voice to talk to us as if the reader is there with Dora, “But take a good look at the photos signed… “, which gives Carter the opportunity to describe Dora’s photos and the surroundings giving the reader a glimpse of the past of Dora and Nora. These situations attract the reader’s attention in building an image in which it would be a relationship between Dora and us, so that we become more involved and we care more about what is happening.
Thus Carter, through the opinions and descriptions of Dora’s, establishes who are the two families, Hazard and Chance, and the different personalities of these families. They are first presented to the parents of Melchior, Estella and Ranulph, grandmother and Dora’s grandfather. These two characters also offer the idea of duality in a family; They are two very different people, not just aged, but also personality.
Dora describes Estella as carefree saying that this was a marvel and she was a disaster. Melchior is described as seeing Shakespeare as “kind of God for him” who “thought he had a call “. These are very different opinions, which then filter up to the two children, Melchior and Peregrine. Dora says of Peregrine, “Our Uncle Peregrine was his mother’s boy. ” who inherited his mother’s hair “Scarlet ” While Melchior, which is “dark and brooding “, inherited the love of Ranulph by the Shakespearean Theatre.
Again, there’s a suggestion of illegitimacy around the Hazard family.
The chance family, led by Grandma Chance, offers a different and unorthodox view of a family. From the description of Dora’s grandmother Chance we get a very maternal image of her towards the girls, “She was our air-raid shelter; She was our entertainment; was our boob. “This quote shows the protected grandmother, laid out and nurtured Nora and Dora.
While Sir Melchior Hazard is a serious Shakespearean actor and acts in theatrical institutions, a “pillar of the legit. Theatre “, Dora and Nora debuted and as lucky chances in the ” low “theaters of the era, as chorus girls who summarize the opinion that the company would take on them, Dora’s irreverence to social status is presented when she describes the fall of the hazard family, ” Tristam Hazard… The last breath of the Imperial danger dynasty… Lo, the mighty have fallen, Dora is mocking the disappearance of the Hazard family, once great Shakespearean act reduced to a host on a sticky game show.
Dora pour scorn on the idea that the Hazard family are the height of respectability and legitimacy: “Speaking of illegality, there was more than one of romantic clue, Nay, melodramatic illegitimacy in the Hazard family long before Nora and me took Our first bows “, she breaks down the social barriers between the two families, subtracting them to the revealing status that even the families of good repute hide the dark secrets.
By the end of Chapter 1 different questions have been raised for the reader who now have to respond, these questions create tensions that encourage the reader to learn more. The development of the plot in the first chapter portrayed not only the events, but as they are seen by the form of Dora her character.
The novel ends where it starts on the day of Dora and Nora’s seventy-fifth birthday. They get ready for the party – plenty of makeup and star spangled stockings, and they and Wheelchair arrive at the party, to be greeted by the flash of paparazzi cameras – and where they find Melchior enthroned on a great chair, wearing a purple kaftan. Dora had known it would be an eventful day, and as the party progresses there are more surprises and revelations – not to mention one more inappropriate bunk up.
In conclusion thinking about ; How did Angela Carter expressed her feminist views through the characters of Wise Children?’ i can see it in the structure of the family – Grandma Chance brings up Dora and Nora without any major male assistance, and this continues at the end of the novel when Dora and Nora take on the role of motherhood without a father figure – almost Carter firing a warning shot across the bows of the patriarchal world – i.e. we don’t need you. This could be seen to be linked to the departures in Chapter 5 of Peregrine and Tristram back to Brazil – they are not needed/have no place in London – the women do not need them – especially Tristram, who is rejected by Tiffany.
Sources used
Grigore, R., & Grigore, R. (n.d.). “Angela Carter. De la realismul magic la carnavalesc”. Retrieved from
https://www.academia.edu/19629713/_Angela_Carter._De_la_realismul_magic_la_carnavalesc_
“Angela Carter Carter, Angela (Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism).” Enotes.com, Enotes.com,
www.enotes.com/topics/angela-carter/critical-essays/carter-angela-79709.
TheTerribleman. (2015, February 21). Angela Carter talks to Lisa Appignanesi. Retrieved from
Muller, N. (2013, March 11). Introducing Angela Carter. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81uU7TXH3YE
(n.d.). Retrieved from
http://www.angelfire.com/wa2/margin/nonficSLD1.html