The Tiger's Bride

So, we have just finished reading ‘The Tiger’s Bride,’ in lesson and I have to say that it is by far my favourite story that we have read so far (actually out of any of them- as I have read the whole book previously). Anyway, I think the first thing that strikes you about this short story, is the difference in the narrator to the previous stories. In The Bloody Chamber and The Courtship of Mr. Lyon, both narrators are willing to submit to every command of the male characters. An example, a very frustrating example, is where the young bride in The Bloody Chamber is phoned up by the Marquis and he tells her to come down to the courtyard to be murdered- and she goes!
At that point in the story, honestly, I was all for the Marquis killing her. Anyway, back to the point, ah yes, so I liked this story more because the narrator was slightly less naïve and wielded some power. For example she says of the town where the Tiger is from, “I myself spoke in favour of this remote provincial palace,” therefore this suggests that the narrator has some say in the destinations her and her father travel to, she is not completely powerless. Also, I really liked how cynical and sarcastic this character came across as, “what a burden all of those possessions must have been to him, because he laughs as if with glee as he beggars himself.” This narrator is also critical of her father- something which the female in the other beauty and the beast story lacked, “You must not think my father valued me at less than a king’s ransom; but, at no more than a king’s ransom.”

Other than the narrator, the other thing about this story that I really liked was the ending- it’s certainly a twist on the conventional Beauty and The Beast fairly tale, and although some of the other stories aren’t too similar to the original stories, this one thank goodness didn’t contain lots of well…….taboo language. I’m sure Carter had many valid reason for these language choices, but after a while it has less impact and is just annoying and often cringe-worthy in lessons :P Anyway, back to the twist, twas unexpected, the reader will have recognised the references to Beauty and The Beast- mirror, rose and the narrator being referred to as a beauty- and so the reader’s expectation is that at the end of the story The Beast becomes a man et voila everyone lives happily, conventionally after. But in this version, the narrator turns into a tiger, she changes, not the male. I’m not sure why Carter chose to do this, but it’s possible that she did it to give the narrator, the female more power. As it says in the story, “The tiger will never lie down with the lamb……….. The lamb must learn to run with the tigers,” this could mean that the tiger can not change to be with the narrator, even if he wanted- he has no choice and cannot, “lie down with the lamb.” However, the narrator can chose, “to run with the tigers,” she can change herself to be with him if she chooses, and so she has sole control over the possible future of their relationship. Then again, I could be typing a load of basura!