Comparative Essay of Angela Carters "The Bloody Chamber" collection
Comparative essay – Tigers bride and the Courtship of Mr Lyon
The Bloody Chamber collection by Angela Carter is a selection of short gothic retellings of well known fairy tales. Two of the works “The Tigers Bride” and “The Courtship of Mr Lyon” are both based from the story Beauty and the beast. Beauty and the beast is a traditional French tale first created in 1740. As they are based off the same text it’s not surprising that they have some very similar elements, however their differences are where the deepest questions are to be asked.
From the opening of each story the characters of Beauty both have very distinct personalities, in the Tigers bride in the first line we are handed is a cynical statement from Beauty “My father lost me to the beast at cards”, instantly she is complaining about her own hardship and we become under the impression that she cares only for herself. However in the Courtship of Mr Lyon we hear from Beauty in the first paragraph “I hope he’ll be safe” her only concern is for her father’s safety, not for her own, we hear the emotion in this and I understand her to be the type of girl to express her emotion unlike the Beauty from Tiger’s bride. We know this because of the way Carter uses the object of these sentences to give clue of their personality, Beauty (tigers bride) uses “me” as the object so the statement is steered towards herself whereas Beauty (Courtship of Mr Lyon) chooses to make “he” in “he’ll” as the subject which effects the perspective as its focused on her father and not herself .From a first glance the girls appear to be polar opposites, one whose primary concern is herself and another whose concern is selflessly for her father.
The father figure is represented very differently within the two stories, the two men value their daughters very differently one willing to risk death to give her the one thing she wants and the other objectifies her in a game of cards and gambles away her life. I question if Beauty (tiger’s
The Bloody Chamber collection by Angela Carter is a selection of short gothic retellings of well known fairy tales. Two of the works “The Tigers Bride” and “The Courtship of Mr Lyon” are both based from the story Beauty and the beast. Beauty and the beast is a traditional French tale first created in 1740. As they are based off the same text it’s not surprising that they have some very similar elements, however their differences are where the deepest questions are to be asked.
From the opening of each story the characters of Beauty both have very distinct personalities, in the Tigers bride in the first line we are handed is a cynical statement from Beauty “My father lost me to the beast at cards”, instantly she is complaining about her own hardship and we become under the impression that she cares only for herself. However in the Courtship of Mr Lyon we hear from Beauty in the first paragraph “I hope he’ll be safe” her only concern is for her father’s safety, not for her own, we hear the emotion in this and I understand her to be the type of girl to express her emotion unlike the Beauty from Tiger’s bride. We know this because of the way Carter uses the object of these sentences to give clue of their personality, Beauty (tigers bride) uses “me” as the object so the statement is steered towards herself whereas Beauty (Courtship of Mr Lyon) chooses to make “he” in “he’ll” as the subject which effects the perspective as its focused on her father and not herself .From a first glance the girls appear to be polar opposites, one whose primary concern is herself and another whose concern is selflessly for her father.
The father figure is represented very differently within the two stories, the two men value their daughters very differently one willing to risk death to give her the one thing she wants and the other objectifies her in a game of cards and gambles away her life. I question if Beauty (tiger’s