The Bloody Chamber have similar characteristic with different conditions, in which they are represented in a very negative light with less than ideal roles. In these stories the protagonists are a young girl who has many conflicts with love, desire and decision about their own life. Carter attempts to encourage women to do something about this degrading representation. An influential American feminist critic has been Elaine Showalter, who developed "gynocriticism", a criticism concerned with the specificity of women's experience and women's writing.