The Courtship of Mr Lyon

The Courtship of Mr Lyon

1. The Character of Beauty

   • Women in distress
     • Typical to Carter's style, in The Courtship of Mr Lyon, there are some females that appear to be in distress; but there are also, males. In this case Mr Lyon.
     • Beauty's father is seen to be in distress as his car breaks down, and the Beast to be in distress as he lives alone.
     • This allows an interesting variation from Carter's conformation to the gothic genre, as in this story she chooses to actively portray the female as the dominant character.
   • Women threatened by tyrannical male
     • Again, the gender roles have been swapped in Carter's version of Beauty and the Beast.
       • He tells her, "It will be lonely here without you", and begging her to come back and visit him.
     • Instead of Beauty feeling threatened by the Beast, the Beast appears to feel threateed by her leaving.
       • "Since you left me, I have been sick. I could not go hunting, I found I had not the stomach to kill the gentle beasts, I could not eat. I am sick and I must die; but I shall die happy because you have come to say goodbye to me."
   • Objectification of Women
     • Beauty's father uses Beauty as a payment for his debt to the Beast for taking the white rose.
     • Although she is treated very well with luxury like the heroine in 'The Bloody Chamber', she is seen as property.
     • “his girl-child, his pet”
     • Being an adolescent shows even more her innocence and how she can be objectified by men in the story.

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