Angela Carter - The Tiger's Bride (quotes and analysis)

The Beast mounted again... cloaked and masked and once more, to all appearances, a man

Beast hides behind the masculine gender constructs. He is less comfortable in his true self

I fixed the earrings in my ears

Chooses to wear earrings - unlike BC where she's forced. Her choice. Explicitly aware of what it represents, and so acknowledgement gives her power

All the best religions in the world state categorically that not beasts nor women were equipped flimsy... things when the good Lord opened the gates of Eden and let Eve and her familiars tumble out.

Debunks religion and deconstructs it as a central law. Role of reason. Eve, but not Adam

His tongue ripped off skin... left behind... shining hairs. My earrings turned back to water.

Dissolation of material items. Female established identity is torn away from patriarchal society, same primal state. Bestial emerges. Sublime more than Gothic, transgression into another state. NEW construct of being

If this young lady was not a good little girl and did not eat her voiled beetroot... the Erl-King's... straight to the nursery and... GOBBLE YOU UP!

Entrapment like society through fairy tale. Subjects women to the construct of identity. Even innocent girls can be corrupted. Change of narrative 3rd to 2nd. Fairytales contain morality, moulding children into behaving. Like religion

My father lost me to The Beast at cards

Expresses a sense of ownership and oppression of women

the dead season of this spurious Eden

Fake construct that she is aware of

How pleased I was to see I struck the beast to the heart

Happy to have gained empowerment over the beast; the word "struck" suggest physical harming but she's emotionally attacked him, which is worse. Also, it shows role reversal as the female character has emotionally hurt the man, but normally the man hurts the women.

I was a young girl, a virgin, and therefore men denied me rationality, just as they denied it to all those who were not exactly like themselves, in all their unreason

Ignorance of Bloody chamber can be seen in contrast to this as the protagonist here is in fact aware of societal constructs. The girl makes a critical point, putting her in the role of reason and gives her a Descartes reasoning

The palace was dismantled... uninhabited place

Isolation of male character, but this is due to rejection. Can't settle down due to societal views, no one there willingly stays

He was far more frightened of me than I was of him

Men are assured women are passive in society. After liberation, women realisation of men's insecurities behind patriarchal constructs

And yet the Beast goes always masked

Motif of masks which shows how Carter wants us to look more deeply into appreciating the person that's beneath

The sharp winter sunlight that wounds the retina

Painful, exposed to go back into natural state

My rose had lost all its petals

Refers to losing virginity and nature; also reiterates that sexuality is the only power women have over men.

Let in the white light of the snowy moon

Representative of virginity and innocence

I walked along the river bank for a while. I felt I was at liberty for the first time in my life.

Returning to nature is liberating from the constraints of society and of the castle in which she's isolated in

I wish I'd rolled in the hay with every lad... to disqualify myself from this humiliating bargain

Same as BC ("Bargain"). Introspective

Beast lowered his massive head

Shame of himself, of male speculation

Suites of vaulted chambers... like systems of Chinese boxes

She escapes these restraints, symbol of marital status. Form of fairy tale that she is stuck in. How difficult it is to escape the mouldings of societal constructs. Centrality of religion is debunked as it is hidden under so many interpretations.

He paced out the length and breadth of his imprisonment

Shows how he his trapped inside the mask of being powerful and dominating, But inside he is sensitive. It's like he wants to escape himself.

I have lost my pearl, my pearl beyong price

Shows the objectification of women in that men think they have the right to own and gamble them.

The lamb must learn to run with the tigers

Suggesting that women need to adapt themselves according to men's ideas. Could also be Carter's suggestion that women should take control of their sexuality in a relationship and become the predator, not the victim

Ripped petal by petal apart

The white rose represents love, purity and innocence so Beauty's ripping up of this gesture shows her empowerment and rejects the 'damsel in distress' stereotype. However, this also puts across the idea of deflowering and loss of purity.

I prick my finger so he gets his rose all smeared with blood

This represents a lack of purity as this symbol of innocence has been stained by a colour representing love as well as lust. Beauty is no longer virginal; she is tainted because her father gave her away.

"My master's sole desire is to see the pretty young lady unclothed, nude without her dress

This shows that without her dress he just sees her as an object, not as a person. This also highlights the male's desire for sex rather than love.

You must not think that my father valued me at less than a king's ransom, but, at no more than a kings ransom

aware of objectification. Is corrupted