A Study of Sexual Perversions in Angela Carter’s

In this study, a comparison has been made and analyzed between The Story of O (1954) by Pauline Reage and The Bloody Chamber (1969) by Angela Carter. Both stories have been studied by keeping in mind the idea of sexual perversions such as sadism and masochism. Both of the terms were coined by a German psychiatrist named Krafft Ebing. The main idea deployed in this essay is borrowed from Gilles Deleuze's elaboration of sadism and masochism in his book called Coldness and Cruelty & Venus in Furs written in collaboration with Leopold von Sacher-Masoch in 1967. Sadism means driving pleasure by inflicting pain on others while masochism is about giving pain to the self and seeking pleasure. Both stories are infused with various examples of such perverse natures of sexuality. Also, biblical allusions have been discussed briefly here, besides the similarities and dissimilarities between the stories. In order to describe the binary of domination and submission involved in a sexual relationship, the thought-provoking quotes have been borrowed from The History of Sexuality written by Michel Foucault