The Joining of Two Worlds in Angela Carter's "The Company of Wolves".
Animals and humans are two very different creatures, and yet in this story they share similar qualities. This is demonstrated in "The Company of Wolves" by Angela Carter where "carnivore incarnate" defines the assimilation of animal and human characteristics. The word "carnivore," meaning a flesh-eating mammal, and "incarnate" meaning endowed with a human body, illustrates the joining of the animal/natural world and the human world. The role of nature in this story demonstrates the link between the animal/natural world and the human/civilized world. .
In Carter's story, both the girl and the wolf share human qualities as well as animal ones. The wolf, initially thought of as a handsome hunter by the girl, turns out to be "carnivore incarnate" (227), a flesh-eating mammal endowed with a human body. At first, when the girl realizes this truth, and notices her grandmother's disappearance, she is extremely frightened. "No trace at all of the old woman except for a tuft of white hair that had caught in the bark of an unburned log. When the girl saw that, she knew she was in danger of death" (226). However, she soon realizes that she has no reason to be afraid of the "hunter" if she makes herself unwilling to be the "hunted." Instead of being eaten by the wolf like one would initially think, the girl uses her animal sexuality to surprise and outwit the wolf. "She ripped off his shirt for him and flung it into the fire" (227). This reveals the way humans can display animal tendencies. In reverse, the story ends with the girl sleeping in bed with the wolf. "See! Sweet and sound she sleeps in granny's bed, between the paws of the tender wolf" (227). The last impression that the wolf leaves is that he is tender. Tenderness is not a quality that is normally attributed to a carnivorous animal that has just eaten a human being.
