The Courtship of Mr Lyon

The Courtship of Mr. Lyon :

Angela Carter’s short story, The Courtship of Mr. Lyon, first appeared in British Vogue before it was published in The Bloody Chamber and other short stories in 1979 (12 pages). It is based on the French classic story “Beauty and the Beast” and is told in the third person as fairy tales were often written. Carter was renowned for her feminist vision on classic fairy tale stories having written new stories and not retellings as she was once quoted “My intentions was not to do “versions”, [….], but to extract the latent content from the traditional stories and to use it as the beginnings of new stories.” Carter’s interpretation of Beauty and the Beast comes across as a softer version compared to other stories such as the Tiger’s Bride, the Bloody Chamber, or the Wolf sequels. Tiger’s Bride, another retelling of Beauty and the Beast, brings out the perversity of a man’s downfall due to gaming. We do not know the name of the FATHERS but does this justify by not giving them names, one can pardon their foolishness (picking a white rose without being authorised and gambling his daughter on a game of cards). As in the two stories, Beauty is subject to her father’s moneyless existence after the death of her mother. She demands nothing, is portrayed as an innocent virginial perfect daughter requesting one single white rose from her father on his return after his visit to the city. He was once rich, but she never saw this side of her father.

The passage that we are interested in is to be found on page 48 from “Her bedroom contained…….” to page 50 “….he went out on all fours”, and focuses on Beauty’s first visit to the Beast’s domain. Her father having picked a White Rose to bring back to his daughter was caught out by the beast who in a fit of rage pounded down on him. Calling him a “Thief” after the Beast showing so much hospitality, the Father explained why he dared steal this white perfect rose. He showed him a photo of Beauty that calmed him down at once and in a comical love struck condition demanded that he return with his daughter for dinner, […] “then with a strange kind of wonder, almost the dawning of surmise.” Once in his house, the Beast proposes that Beauty stay on with him while her father seizes the opportunity to return to the city and make his fortune once again. The uncomfortable feeling Beauty feels surrounded by luxurious items, “a glass bed”, “towels thick as fleece”, contradicts with the opulence of her surroundings and portrays a feeling of sacrifice that she is willing to endure all for the happiness of her father. She longs for her “shabby home” and understands that the pleasure is not felt by her nor the owner himself. While at first we believe that Beauty is frightened of him, Carter reverses the Beauty/Beast, dichotomy by implying that the Beast is afraid of her, “curious reversal, she frightened him.” (top of page 49). This amplifies the contraction scenario that the short story is taking. In the opening of the story Beauty is contemplating the garden from her “mean kitchen”. We can almost imagine the sigh of frustration of the writer in what is a first preconceived image of a weak feminine character relegated to the anticipated return of a male figure, her Father. The representations of innocence and purity, “snow”, “white rose” “pearl” and the frivolous

...