Tiger's Bride

Tiger's Bride

Setting
1. Italy
2. 'Through archways and open doors, I glimpsed suites of vaulted chambers opening one out of another like systems of Chinese boxes'
3. set in a foreign "sunless" and "treacherous" place far away, allowing us to suspend our disbelief and accept the magical happenings of the story.
4. The Beast's home is also a classic Gothic, "ruined" setting; with "infinite complexity" and "broken windows", the palace seems "uninhabited", the place almost seems dream like, again allowing a suspension of our disbelief of the story, in comparison the modern, city setting of London in the previous story, which makes our suspension of disbelief less likely.
Intertextuality
1. Beauty and the Beast
  1. the narrator is based upon the character of Beauty: she is used by her father and manipulated by the beast
Themes
1. fur/ skin/ identity
  1. she describes her skin as "my own skin was my sole capital in the world and today I'd make my first investment"
  2. a metaphorical way of describing how men are expected to appear gentlemanly (brave, strong) to hide the beast within
    1. "he is a carnival figure made of papier mache and crepe hair"
2. purity /innocence
  1. Her nurse refers to her as 'the christmas rose' - a symbol of perfection and beauty
    1. "rose all smeared with blood" - symolises her loss of purity as her father has gambled away her innocence
      1. highlights the value of a young women's purity and how it is possessed and manipulated by men
  2. the symbol of a white rose is used in both Beauty and the Beast and the Courtship of Mr Lyon
3. re-birth
  1. "the lab must learn to run with the tigers"
    1. Carter's feminist views that women are tigers but have been disguised as lambs
The Gothic
1. Inhuman/Supernatural
  1. an animal dressed in a man's clothes and wearing a mask playing cards
  2. the beast is a tiger with "fur, paws and claws"
    1. his beastliness can also be seen as sexuality- "rich, thick, wild scent" and his desire to see Beauty naked
2. Objectification/ the Male gaze
  1. Carter transforms the narrator to criticise the objectification of women.
    1. transforms from a submissive and objectified young woman to an animal/wolfish form
  2. her father sells her to the Beast at cards as if she were an object and the beast wants her for her body and purity
3. Isolation
  1. "the beast bought solitude"
  2. the beast lives only with only a valet and hides himself from society by wearing a mask, gloves, scarf and wig
A03/4
1. "man of a beast, beast in a man" Gina Wisker
Characters
1. Heroine/narrator
  1. as the story progresses, she becomes stronger and more independent
  2. young Russian woman
    1. at first portrayed as a victim of her father's actions
      1. "my father lost me to The Beast at cards"
    2. "A young girl, a virgin, and therefore men denied me rationality."
2. Father
  1. objectifies his daughter and loses her to the Beast at cards
    1. "I have lost my pearl"
  2. represents patriarchal society- treating women as merely a possession or trophy, beautiful and dependent
3. Soubrette
  1. "clockwork twin"
4. the Beast
  1. experienced and cultured, manipulative and clever
  2. tries to hide his appearance from society- he presents himself as shy and embarrassed
    1. wears a mask, gloves, scarf and wig to disguise himself as a man rather than a tiger
Form and Structure
1. written in the past tense- changes occasionally
2. strong 1st person narrative

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	Created by katherine.crick almost 10 years ago