Possible essay quesions for The Tiger's Bride and The Courtship of Mr Lyon

'Fairy-tales contribute to perpetuate the patriarchal ideology and status quo by making female subordination an inescapable fate' Using ideas from the critical anthology, to what extent do you agree with Paulina Palmer's statement and how does Carter support this in The Courtship of Mr Lyon and The Tiger's Bride?


'Carter strongly emphasises women's desires and sex liberation, playing with the reader's expectations about the traditional roles of masculine and feminine' Using ideas from the Critical Anthology show how Angela Carter's short stories support or undermine this?


'Carter deconstructs and reconstructs gender roles in her collection of short stories' Using ideas from the Critical Anthology to what extent do you agree to this?

Analysis of The Courtship of Mr Lyon and The Tiger's Bride

The Overall Analysis of The Courtship of Mr Lyon and The Tiger's Bride, by Angela Carter, discusses the deconstruction of feminine and masculine roles within the stories. It does this by bringing attention to the gender binary opposites our society has created and bringing to light the ideas that Carter of fairytales being free from gender constraints. The reader learns that fairy tales 'generally contain parameter of domination and obedience' which is balanced with the argument of how Carter challenges this tradition.

5 key sentences: 1) Fairy tales contribute to the patriarchal ideology and the status quo by making female subordination an inescapable fate. Subordination

2) The character's names 'Beauty and the Beast' is an oxymoron, the names mirror each other. The idea is that the two sides of the mirror must be opposites, that what is beastly cannot be beautiful and what is beautiful cannot be beastly. Opposites                

3) New ideas to add to the binary opposites list: Prey - predator   

                                                                      Innocence - experience

                                                                      Body - Soul                     

4) The robotic maid in 'The Tiger's bride' represents women of the patriarchal era, as in serving to men. Maid

5) The courtship of My Lyon deals with the recurrent themes of self-knowledge, sexual liberation and gender construction. Themes

Carter's main aims throughout her collection of short stories is to use reoccurring themes to represent that women are not subordinate, but in fact equal to men and not the opposite.

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