'The Courtship of Mr Lyon'

The Courtship of Mr Lyon

Quotes

-   ‘one white, perfect rose’

-  ‘there was no living person in the hall’

-  ‘a lion is a lion and a man is a man’

-  ‘there was an air of exhaustion… in the house’

-  ‘her own image reflected there’ (in the Beast’s eyes)

-  ‘Fast as you can’

-  ‘an attic, with a sloping roof’

-  ‘the roses…were all dead’

-  ‘as if, curious reversal, she frightened him’

Characters

-  Beauty

-  ‘looked as if she had been carved out of a single pearl’

-  ‘she smiled at herself with satisfaction’

-  ‘Miss Lamb, spotless, sacrificial’

-  Beast

-  ‘some kind of sadness in his agate eyes’

-  ‘a man with an unkempt mane of hair’

-  ‘he was so different from herself’

AO2 - language, form and structure and how they shape meaning

-  Language

-  Extensive imagery of snow symbolises Beauty’s purity - ‘white and unmarked as… bridal satin’

-  Personification of the house - ‘the chandelier tinkled... as if emitting a pleased chuckle’

-  ‘Pearl’ - pure, beautiful, valuable

-  Form

-  Reworked fairy tales - Carter called them ‘new stories’ not ‘versions’

-  Carter extracts ‘latent content’

-  Short stories maximise the impact of Carter’s messages

-  Beauty and The Beast - both characters change, not just the Beast - role reversal of princess in the tower

-  Structure

-  ‘I hope he’ll be safe’ - no speech marks, highlighting Beauty’s lack of a voice

AO3 - connections between texts and different interpretations

-  References to the modern world - ‘the snow brought down all the telephone wires’ (see BC, LOTHOL)

-  Fairy tale references - she reads ‘elegant French fairy tales’, ‘Fast as you can’ (see BC, EK, LOTHOL)

Gothic Features

-  Weather/setting

-  ‘Palladian house that seemed to hide itself shyly’ = ‘he forced himself to master his shyness’

-   ‘Thin ghost of light on the verge of extinction’ - no signs of Spring at the Beast’s house - reflects what has happened to him

-  Bloody chamber = Beast’s attic - he is trapped and dying, claustrophobic setting

-  Roses die as the beast dies: ‘The roses…were all dead’

-  Countryside = place of purity and femininity, town = masculine place of corruption

-  Foreshadowing

-  ‘she smiled at herself in mirrors a little too often’ - pride comes before a fall

-  Dominant males - no longer dominant

-  ‘a cracked whisper of his former purr’

-  ‘I am sick and I must die’

-  Passive females

-  Objectification of women - she is called ‘Beauty’ but gets an identity at the end - ‘Mrs Lyon’

-  Supernatural

-  Magic of the house - her father can call the garage even though the phone lines are down

-  ‘All the natural laws of the world were held in suspension here’