Literary Culture Shift In The Tiger's Bride
Angela Carter’s Literary Culture Shift in The Tiger’s Bride
Angela Carter was a vocal feminist and advocated women’s empowerment. This is often apparent by the strong female characters in her work which is quite famous for her representations of femininity. Carter’s portrayal of women opens up a lot of discussion on the feminist sociological perspective. When Anna Katasavos interviewed Carter, she described how Carter believed that women were represented in a negative light with very minor roles in the world [Bristow 12]. At first glance it seems people are taken aback by the sexuality and grotesqueness of her stories however upon looking at the deeper structure it draws towards the changing role of women that was taking place in reality …show more content…
across the world. Her story “The Tiger’s Bride” is really updated version of “Beauty and the Beast” with the insertion of present-day societal matters, female behavior, and gender roles. She specifically focuses on the depiction of gender, sexuality, and identity of women. Her work consistently shows the physical abuse women experience in a patriarchal society and beyond that the retaliation of women with sexuality. “The Tiger’s Bride,” her update on “Beauty and the Beast,” is a great depiction of the gender roles expected of females. When reading both stories one can draw the cultural shift from “Beauty and the Beast” to “The Tiger’s Bride.” Angela Carter a feminist writer perfectly animates the sexual uprising by the feminists of her era in her work, particularly in her revisions of classical fairy tales. Angela Carter’s “The Tiger’s Bride” is a re-enactment of “Beauty and the Beast” to show the cultural shift from one era to hers.
Born in London England on May 7, 1940, Carter was surrounded by writing and radicalism. Her father was a journalist and her grandmother was a working-class suffragist and radical. It is believed that Carter’s grandmother had a heavy influence on Carter’s upbringing and therefore served as her role model from whom Carter developed her persona [Gamble 5]. After graduating from college, she wrote for two British journals, New Society and Guardian. Carter observed and studied British culture and then wrote critiques on what she observed for the journals [Gamble 13]. This wasn’t the last time Carter used her feminist influence in Britain. Carter also traveled to Japan where she lived for two years. She claims that this marked a significant turning point in her life both professionally and personally because she was heavily influenced by the way the Japanese lived their lives free from distinction between sexes. The Japanese influence helped her find her identity and voice as a woman and social radical [Gamble 15-6]. When she returned to her native Britain, it coincided with the period of second-wave feminism in the United States, which was the greatest influence to her writing. Carter was intrigued by folk and fairy tales, which she both translated and reinterpreted. Carter is widely known for her fearless examination of taboo topics such as pornography, sexual fetish, rape, incest, and cannibalism [Gamble 29]. As Roz Kaveney explains, she is unafraid to "scorn the powerful and cruel and thoughtless [Gamble 1]." Carter 's work embraces anarchy and champions the weak and disadvantaged. Carter has attributed her "feminist" status to the simple fact that, as a woman, she writes from female points of view. Her work is meant to speak out against the male-dominated society of yesteryear and promote the new rise of feminist power in the 1970s.
The feminist movement of the 1970’s in the United States and abroad was a social and political movement with the intended goal to establish equality for women.
The movement transformed the lives of many women and the effects exerted a major effect through the decades. Feminist writing flourished during the movements of the 70s and 80s, especially in the US and Britain. In the United States research concentrated on a separate women 's culture, the growth of all-female institutions, the family and sexuality [Snitow 7]. Carter was mainly influenced by the feminist movement in the United States whose biggest branch a school of thought was called “sex-positive feminism.” Sex-positive feminism was a movement that began within the feminist movements of the 1970s and 80s, they believed sexual freedom is essential to women’ freedom. They oppose legal or social efforts that control sexual activities between consenting adults, regardless of who tries to oppress this behaviour, including other feminists [Snitow 9]. Their ideology is perfectly summed up by Gayle Rubin a prominent sex-positive feminist:
“One tendency has criticized the restrictions on women 's sexual behavior and denounced the high costs imposed on women for being sexually active. This tradition of feminist sexual thought has called for a sexual liberation that would work for women as well as for men. The second tendency has considered sexual liberalization to be inherently a mere extension of male privilege. This tradition …show more content…
resonates with conservative, anti-sexual discourse.” [Snitow 10]
This branch of feminism rejects the patriarchy that places a limitation on female sexual expression. They believe that the liberation of female sexuality is a key component in the overall liberation of women [Snitow 12]. Angela Carter in her stories shows a deep concurrence with this ideology.
Carter’s protagonists enact her feminist beliefs of women fighting for her own desires. The sexual desires of Carter’s male antagonist, often in some beastly form are symbolic of the females’ sexual desires. Therefore, when the women engage in these sexual actions, she is claiming her own desires. Specifically her book “The Bloody Chamber: And Other Stories,” Angela Carter can be seen as a devoted feminist who promotes her beliefs about empowering women to escape male oppressive forces, reclaiming sexual identity, and deconstructing patriarchal roles by acknowledging female curiosity. Amongst her many stories the reclamation of sexual identity is best represented in “The Tiger’s Bride.”
“The Tiger’s Bride” is a post modernistic adaptation of the fairy tale “Beauty and the Beast”. Not only is the story narrated by Beauty, but the whole fairy tale is told from Beauty’s point of view and how she perceives the relationship between men and women. She is controlled by the male world around her, first and foremost by her father who loses her at cards: “I watched with the furious cynicism peculiar to women whom circumstances force mutely to witness folly, while my father ... rids himself of the last scraps of my inheritance [Carter 52].” Her father loses her to a mysterious character called “The Beast”, who “wears a mask with a man’s face painted most beautifully on it” in order to hide his true identity, which is a tiger. As a child, the girl has always been warned of the danger and evilness of beasts like him and she was told that the beast would surely “gobble her up.” This idea sends a moral message to young girls, that if a girl does not behave in the correct manner that a beast will eat you. It will rid you of your innocence so much that no man will want to marry you. What Carter was referring to is the idea that a woman must stay a virgin until marriage, suppressing their animalistic, lustful instincts and desires, breaking their innocence is deemed worthless to a man [Bristow 134]. Now, she finds herself in the hands of The Beast who wishes to see the girl naked. The girl refuses and, as a “punishment”, she has to see The Beast “naked” instead. The sight of his natural “beastliness” shocks her, but not only in a negative way: “I felt my breast ripped apart as if I suffered a marvelous wound. [Carter 64]” She is so impressed by his openness that she freely shows him her naked body in return, an act which triggers extreme feelings in her: “I felt I was at liberty for the first time in my life [Carter 65].” Later in the story, she willingly visits The Beast in his room; again she is naked. The two come closer and, unexpectedly, the tiger begins to purr and finally begins to lick her leading to her final transformation. In Carter’s story as Beauty gives in to her desires, by being stripped of layer upon layer of skin metaphorically the expectations placed upon her by society and by accepting that she, too, can be a “beast”. As a result allowing herself the freedom required to be a free-thinker, permitted to chase her own basic intentions, sexual desires and ambitions; she no longer has to accept that she is just someone’s daughter or wife and that she has the right to create and enjoy her own happiness. This gives her the power, strength, and awareness that a majestic tigress is known for. The protagonist’s transformation succeeds because she recognizes her sexual needs and desires and, through that, finds to her true self. When looking at her work compared to the Beauty and the Beast one can draw many parallels in the way each protagonist behaves in context of the society.
Madame de Beaumont 's Beauty and the Beast and Angela Carter 's The Tiger 's Bride delve into the nature of men and women and the relationships between them by exploring and analyzing the patterns of wildness and civility.
Women are presented as the civilizing agent in the relationship with men, who succumb to their "beastliness," giving way to their animalistic, wild side in Madame de Beaumont’s Beauty and the Beast, while in Angela Carter’s The Tiger’s Bride, the reverse is in that true women are the ones who open up to the beast in them in relationship with men instead of being the civilizing agent [Bristow 135-7]. In the conclusion which conforms to this ideal, Madame de Beaumont’s Beauty remains mainly passive and makes her decision of marrying in conformity with her kindness and gentleness that cannot hurt others. The version of “Beauty and the Beast” by Madame de Beaumont (1757) was written during the Enlightenment Era [Beaumont 27], and was created for young women of marriage-age as an instruction for proper conduct, “...good manners, good breeding, and good behaviour...[Beaumont 26]”, and to provide comfort when faced with the prospect of an arranged marriage [Beaumont 27-8]. A woman was expected to accept her role in life as an object to be possessed, almost an accessory for men; to be the recipient of man’s sexual desires and to merely be the instrument for reproduction; to perform her duty for her family’s gain, may it be monetary, status or to pay off a debt and
to sacrifice her own needs and desires to appease all those around her. However, Angela Carter adapts Madame de Beaumont’s fairy tale to accommodate for our post modernistic views and encourages women to follow their hearts’ desires, to seek equality not only within a relationship but within society itself and to embrace their own needs.
Angela Carter was a vocal feminist which is often apparent by the strong female characters in her work. Growing up with a radical father and a suffragist grandmother shaped her persona compounded with the feminist movements taking place at the time. It was just a ticking time bomb for a great author like her to arise. Carter was mainly influenced by the feminist movement in the United States whose biggest branch a school of thought was called “sex-positive feminism.” They opposed legal or social efforts that attempted to control sexual activities between consenting adults. They believed everyone has the right to their own sexual freedom and what they want to do with their bodies. It was in-tune with Pierre Trudeau’s quote that "there 's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation.” Carter was a fond supporter of this freedom of sexual expression, thus her female protagonists are often taken from a disempowered role to an empowered role where they rise up against oppression and fight not only for their sexual equality and sexual freedom. This is evident in her story "The Tigers Bride" which influenced by "Beauty and the Beast" shows the change in femininity from one era to the next. As is in the original novel, Beauty expected to accept her role in life as an object to be possessed, she was essentially a tool for the men’s action be it sexual or economical. In opposition to this was the revised version written by Carter where In her Beauty gives in to her desires, by being stripped of layer upon layer of skin or rather, the expectations placed upon her by society. No longer is she a tool of other people’s pleasure but she is now seeking her own pleasures. This was Carter’s literature impression of the changes caused by the second-wave feminist movement. Using colorful imagery and thought-provoking symbolism, Angela Carter perfectly animates the sex-positive perspective of her era in her work, particularly in her revisions of classical fairy tales.
Work Cited
1. Bristow, Joseph, and Trev Lynn Broughton, eds. The Infernal Desires of Angela Carter: Fiction, Femininity, Feminism. London: Longman, 1997. Print. Studies in Twentieth-Century Literature.
2. Carter, A. (1979). The Bloody Camber And Other Stories. Penguin Group.
3. Leprince de Beaumont, Jeanne-Marie. Beauty and the Beast. Lexington, KY: Forgotten Books, 2008. Print. Easy Reading Series.
4. Gamble, Sarah. Angela Carter: A Literary Life. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. Print. Literary Lives.
5. Snitow, Ann Barr, Christine Stansell, and Sharon Thompson, eds. Powers of Desire: The Politics of Sexuality. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1983. Print. New Feminist Library.
6. Gerhard, Jane F. Desiring Revolution: Second-Wave Feminism and the Rewriting of American Sexual Thought, 1920 to 1982. New York: Columbia UP, ©2001. Web. 17 Apr. 2014. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/gerh11204>.
Angela Carter was a vocal feminist and advocated women’s empowerment. This is often apparent by the strong female characters in her work which is quite famous for her representations of femininity. Carter’s portrayal of women opens up a lot of discussion on the feminist sociological perspective. When Anna Katasavos interviewed Carter, she described how Carter believed that women were represented in a negative light with very minor roles in the world [Bristow 12]. At first glance it seems people are taken aback by the sexuality and grotesqueness of her stories however upon looking at the deeper structure it draws towards the changing role of women that was taking place in reality …show more content…
across the world. Her story “The Tiger’s Bride” is really updated version of “Beauty and the Beast” with the insertion of present-day societal matters, female behavior, and gender roles. She specifically focuses on the depiction of gender, sexuality, and identity of women. Her work consistently shows the physical abuse women experience in a patriarchal society and beyond that the retaliation of women with sexuality. “The Tiger’s Bride,” her update on “Beauty and the Beast,” is a great depiction of the gender roles expected of females. When reading both stories one can draw the cultural shift from “Beauty and the Beast” to “The Tiger’s Bride.” Angela Carter a feminist writer perfectly animates the sexual uprising by the feminists of her era in her work, particularly in her revisions of classical fairy tales. Angela Carter’s “The Tiger’s Bride” is a re-enactment of “Beauty and the Beast” to show the cultural shift from one era to hers.
Born in London England on May 7, 1940, Carter was surrounded by writing and radicalism. Her father was a journalist and her grandmother was a working-class suffragist and radical. It is believed that Carter’s grandmother had a heavy influence on Carter’s upbringing and therefore served as her role model from whom Carter developed her persona [Gamble 5]. After graduating from college, she wrote for two British journals, New Society and Guardian. Carter observed and studied British culture and then wrote critiques on what she observed for the journals [Gamble 13]. This wasn’t the last time Carter used her feminist influence in Britain. Carter also traveled to Japan where she lived for two years. She claims that this marked a significant turning point in her life both professionally and personally because she was heavily influenced by the way the Japanese lived their lives free from distinction between sexes. The Japanese influence helped her find her identity and voice as a woman and social radical [Gamble 15-6]. When she returned to her native Britain, it coincided with the period of second-wave feminism in the United States, which was the greatest influence to her writing. Carter was intrigued by folk and fairy tales, which she both translated and reinterpreted. Carter is widely known for her fearless examination of taboo topics such as pornography, sexual fetish, rape, incest, and cannibalism [Gamble 29]. As Roz Kaveney explains, she is unafraid to "scorn the powerful and cruel and thoughtless [Gamble 1]." Carter 's work embraces anarchy and champions the weak and disadvantaged. Carter has attributed her "feminist" status to the simple fact that, as a woman, she writes from female points of view. Her work is meant to speak out against the male-dominated society of yesteryear and promote the new rise of feminist power in the 1970s.
The feminist movement of the 1970’s in the United States and abroad was a social and political movement with the intended goal to establish equality for women.
The movement transformed the lives of many women and the effects exerted a major effect through the decades. Feminist writing flourished during the movements of the 70s and 80s, especially in the US and Britain. In the United States research concentrated on a separate women 's culture, the growth of all-female institutions, the family and sexuality [Snitow 7]. Carter was mainly influenced by the feminist movement in the United States whose biggest branch a school of thought was called “sex-positive feminism.” Sex-positive feminism was a movement that began within the feminist movements of the 1970s and 80s, they believed sexual freedom is essential to women’ freedom. They oppose legal or social efforts that control sexual activities between consenting adults, regardless of who tries to oppress this behaviour, including other feminists [Snitow 9]. Their ideology is perfectly summed up by Gayle Rubin a prominent sex-positive feminist:
“One tendency has criticized the restrictions on women 's sexual behavior and denounced the high costs imposed on women for being sexually active. This tradition of feminist sexual thought has called for a sexual liberation that would work for women as well as for men. The second tendency has considered sexual liberalization to be inherently a mere extension of male privilege. This tradition …show more content…
resonates with conservative, anti-sexual discourse.” [Snitow 10]
This branch of feminism rejects the patriarchy that places a limitation on female sexual expression. They believe that the liberation of female sexuality is a key component in the overall liberation of women [Snitow 12]. Angela Carter in her stories shows a deep concurrence with this ideology.
Carter’s protagonists enact her feminist beliefs of women fighting for her own desires. The sexual desires of Carter’s male antagonist, often in some beastly form are symbolic of the females’ sexual desires. Therefore, when the women engage in these sexual actions, she is claiming her own desires. Specifically her book “The Bloody Chamber: And Other Stories,” Angela Carter can be seen as a devoted feminist who promotes her beliefs about empowering women to escape male oppressive forces, reclaiming sexual identity, and deconstructing patriarchal roles by acknowledging female curiosity. Amongst her many stories the reclamation of sexual identity is best represented in “The Tiger’s Bride.”
“The Tiger’s Bride” is a post modernistic adaptation of the fairy tale “Beauty and the Beast”. Not only is the story narrated by Beauty, but the whole fairy tale is told from Beauty’s point of view and how she perceives the relationship between men and women. She is controlled by the male world around her, first and foremost by her father who loses her at cards: “I watched with the furious cynicism peculiar to women whom circumstances force mutely to witness folly, while my father ... rids himself of the last scraps of my inheritance [Carter 52].” Her father loses her to a mysterious character called “The Beast”, who “wears a mask with a man’s face painted most beautifully on it” in order to hide his true identity, which is a tiger. As a child, the girl has always been warned of the danger and evilness of beasts like him and she was told that the beast would surely “gobble her up.” This idea sends a moral message to young girls, that if a girl does not behave in the correct manner that a beast will eat you. It will rid you of your innocence so much that no man will want to marry you. What Carter was referring to is the idea that a woman must stay a virgin until marriage, suppressing their animalistic, lustful instincts and desires, breaking their innocence is deemed worthless to a man [Bristow 134]. Now, she finds herself in the hands of The Beast who wishes to see the girl naked. The girl refuses and, as a “punishment”, she has to see The Beast “naked” instead. The sight of his natural “beastliness” shocks her, but not only in a negative way: “I felt my breast ripped apart as if I suffered a marvelous wound. [Carter 64]” She is so impressed by his openness that she freely shows him her naked body in return, an act which triggers extreme feelings in her: “I felt I was at liberty for the first time in my life [Carter 65].” Later in the story, she willingly visits The Beast in his room; again she is naked. The two come closer and, unexpectedly, the tiger begins to purr and finally begins to lick her leading to her final transformation. In Carter’s story as Beauty gives in to her desires, by being stripped of layer upon layer of skin metaphorically the expectations placed upon her by society and by accepting that she, too, can be a “beast”. As a result allowing herself the freedom required to be a free-thinker, permitted to chase her own basic intentions, sexual desires and ambitions; she no longer has to accept that she is just someone’s daughter or wife and that she has the right to create and enjoy her own happiness. This gives her the power, strength, and awareness that a majestic tigress is known for. The protagonist’s transformation succeeds because she recognizes her sexual needs and desires and, through that, finds to her true self. When looking at her work compared to the Beauty and the Beast one can draw many parallels in the way each protagonist behaves in context of the society.
Madame de Beaumont 's Beauty and the Beast and Angela Carter 's The Tiger 's Bride delve into the nature of men and women and the relationships between them by exploring and analyzing the patterns of wildness and civility.
Women are presented as the civilizing agent in the relationship with men, who succumb to their "beastliness," giving way to their animalistic, wild side in Madame de Beaumont’s Beauty and the Beast, while in Angela Carter’s The Tiger’s Bride, the reverse is in that true women are the ones who open up to the beast in them in relationship with men instead of being the civilizing agent [Bristow 135-7]. In the conclusion which conforms to this ideal, Madame de Beaumont’s Beauty remains mainly passive and makes her decision of marrying in conformity with her kindness and gentleness that cannot hurt others. The version of “Beauty and the Beast” by Madame de Beaumont (1757) was written during the Enlightenment Era [Beaumont 27], and was created for young women of marriage-age as an instruction for proper conduct, “...good manners, good breeding, and good behaviour...[Beaumont 26]”, and to provide comfort when faced with the prospect of an arranged marriage [Beaumont 27-8]. A woman was expected to accept her role in life as an object to be possessed, almost an accessory for men; to be the recipient of man’s sexual desires and to merely be the instrument for reproduction; to perform her duty for her family’s gain, may it be monetary, status or to pay off a debt and
to sacrifice her own needs and desires to appease all those around her. However, Angela Carter adapts Madame de Beaumont’s fairy tale to accommodate for our post modernistic views and encourages women to follow their hearts’ desires, to seek equality not only within a relationship but within society itself and to embrace their own needs.
Angela Carter was a vocal feminist which is often apparent by the strong female characters in her work. Growing up with a radical father and a suffragist grandmother shaped her persona compounded with the feminist movements taking place at the time. It was just a ticking time bomb for a great author like her to arise. Carter was mainly influenced by the feminist movement in the United States whose biggest branch a school of thought was called “sex-positive feminism.” They opposed legal or social efforts that attempted to control sexual activities between consenting adults. They believed everyone has the right to their own sexual freedom and what they want to do with their bodies. It was in-tune with Pierre Trudeau’s quote that "there 's no place for the state in the bedrooms of the nation.” Carter was a fond supporter of this freedom of sexual expression, thus her female protagonists are often taken from a disempowered role to an empowered role where they rise up against oppression and fight not only for their sexual equality and sexual freedom. This is evident in her story "The Tigers Bride" which influenced by "Beauty and the Beast" shows the change in femininity from one era to the next. As is in the original novel, Beauty expected to accept her role in life as an object to be possessed, she was essentially a tool for the men’s action be it sexual or economical. In opposition to this was the revised version written by Carter where In her Beauty gives in to her desires, by being stripped of layer upon layer of skin or rather, the expectations placed upon her by society. No longer is she a tool of other people’s pleasure but she is now seeking her own pleasures. This was Carter’s literature impression of the changes caused by the second-wave feminist movement. Using colorful imagery and thought-provoking symbolism, Angela Carter perfectly animates the sex-positive perspective of her era in her work, particularly in her revisions of classical fairy tales.
Work Cited
1. Bristow, Joseph, and Trev Lynn Broughton, eds. The Infernal Desires of Angela Carter: Fiction, Femininity, Feminism. London: Longman, 1997. Print. Studies in Twentieth-Century Literature.
2. Carter, A. (1979). The Bloody Camber And Other Stories. Penguin Group.
3. Leprince de Beaumont, Jeanne-Marie. Beauty and the Beast. Lexington, KY: Forgotten Books, 2008. Print. Easy Reading Series.
4. Gamble, Sarah. Angela Carter: A Literary Life. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009. Print. Literary Lives.
5. Snitow, Ann Barr, Christine Stansell, and Sharon Thompson, eds. Powers of Desire: The Politics of Sexuality. New York: Monthly Review Press, 1983. Print. New Feminist Library.
6. Gerhard, Jane F. Desiring Revolution: Second-Wave Feminism and the Rewriting of American Sexual Thought, 1920 to 1982. New York: Columbia UP, ©2001. Web. 17 Apr. 2014. <http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7312/gerh11204>.