Fergus Kennedy The Courtship of Mr Lyon, from The voice that seemed to issue from a cave of echoes (46)

to He went on all fours (47). Using this extract as your starting point, with reference to one other story from The Bloody Chamber: Explore Carters manipulation of language to develop the voice of the lion & the reaction of the girl to it. Examine how Carter exploits the voices of her characters in both stories to comment on attitudes towards characters that are different. The Courtship of Mr Lyon is a fine example of Carters manipulation of language. In this short story of Beauty learning to accept and appreciate those with differences, Carter uses many linguistic techniques to develop the voice of Mr Lyon and show Beautys changing opinion to it throughout the story. The narrative for this particular extract is third person omniscient to separate the reader from events taking place, possibly mocking the attitudes of society from a distance, in which, those who stand out are looked down upon. The use of this narrative choice enables readers to be faced with the reality of their actions and encourage them to change their views. The narrator also uses interjections and intrusions to show their opinions and too an extent controls the views of the reader (how amusing!) Curious reversal Carter exploits the voices of her characters in both The Courtship of Mr Lyon and The Tigers Bride to give her comments of characters which are different, identifying stereotypes at the time of her writing and commenting on societys view of those who are different. Mr Lyon is illustrated using highly metaphorical lexis, but never fully indentifies him as a lion, only lionlike mazy head of hair, on the eyes green as agate, on the golden hairs of the great paws These are connotations of a non-human creature, emphasised by the triplet and the use of the adjective great reflects the lion to be dominant and of power which portrays his status. In addition, his actions are that of an animal: He reared on his hind legs like an angry lion, yet he wore a smoking jacket. This amusing description shows why the Beast fears being mocked and compromises human and non-human qualities, therefore creating a surreal image as if the lion wants to be viewed by others as human. However, when Beauty meets the Mr Lyon, she is adamant that a lion is a lion and a man is a man. This parallel structure emphasises Beautys fear of the different or strange, and shows there is progress to be made. Carter also uses sentence structure to emphasise his differences in Beautys eyes, Head of a lion; mane and mighty paws of a lion; he reared on his hind legs like an angry lion the clauses growing in size and the triadic incremental patterning of lion emphasises the initial fear the Beast strikes into the heart of society, as more and more of his person is scrutinized. Beauty exists within days of pastel-coloured idleness, a beautiful choice of lexis which shows a sense of boredom reinforced by the use of soft sounding letters and open vowels, but is also child-like, washed out and pleasant. The choice of these lexis help to suggest details regarding Beautys persona, a passive character, innocent and submissive, unable to make her own decisions, this is the stereotypical seen-butnot-heard objectified woman that was common in Carters time. With, a kind of halo the Beast appears almost saintly, providing a distraction from Beautys monotonous existence. This also suggests the Beast is the authoritative figure within the relationship, Beauty possesses somewhat of awe towards him for the first time in the story indicating her progress and changing opinion of him. However, the distinct lexical choice kind suggests the Beast is not entirely what he seems; his sense of being different is never able to leave him totally. The Beast appears to be in the position of power in this encounter; he was irradiated, this use of anaphoric referencing foregrounding the Beast shows his importance. Carter creates a strong sense of the lion in the Beast He forced himself to master his shyness, which was that of a wild creature this third

person narrative shows the Beast possesses emotion and animal instincts that he must struggle with. However, unlike Beauty, who is unable to work up the courage to speak small talk turned to dust in her mouth, the Beast overcomes his sense of fear; again showing he is stronger than Beauty inside. This is a strong sense of character and voice created through repetitive reinforcement of the character of the Beast. He can relate to Beauty, He drew his head back and gazed at her with green, inscrutable eyes, Carters lexical choice of inscrutable shows that the Beast knows Beauty must cast off her constraints she has been conditioned with from childhood. Beauty is still submissive, but is no longer shying away from the Beast, showing she has come to accept the Beasts differences much more, and realises her potential of which the Beast has created. Beauty sees her face as if it were a bud, suggesting she has the potential to grow and mature as a bud does. All he is doing is kissing my hands this realisation shows Beauty is making progress as at the beginning she was frightened to acknowledge the Beast. Through out the encounter Beauty is beginning to show the signs that she is looking beyond the monstrous exterior of Mr Lyon and begins to awe at him Fascinated, almost awed, she watched and the language used humanizes him until the two are wrapped in conversation, barely aware of their differences soon she way chattering away to him as if she had known him all her life which is why Beauty suffers indescribable shock when he leaves as a beast would on all fours This encounter the two of them share shows the potential for Beauty to look beyond his skin to the being beneath, and for Mr Lyon to come out of the defensive shell he has created from a life time of being mocked for his appearance. However Beauty does not yet fully see within him : all he is doing is kissing my hands this piece of internal narrative through free indirect speech shows she believed he was attacking her and misinterpreted his actions, and this reaction shows she is not accepting, The lion is not yet human stiff bristles of his muzzle grazing her skin yet in this extract his real voice is used and for the first time not intended to threaten So late! You will want to sleep, he said showing he is also making progress. Eyes are considered to be the window to the soul, and Carter uses the eyes in A Courtship of Mr Lyon to show the characters progress. Beauty is amazed at how is that she had never noticed before that his agate eyes were equipped with lids like those of a man, this shows she has finally come to accept both her own and the Beasts otherness, and is content and comfortable with herself. It was no longer a lion in her arms but a man, concludes the main idea of the story, both Beauty and the Beast have found themselves and are comfortable, despite the reactions and isolation they experience from society. When Beautys father is attacked for picking the white rose, the Beast shakes him until his teeth rattled. Although these actions are not that expected from a normal member of society, and suggest the Beast possesses very little humanity at that moment, the humorous nature of the phrases suggest that the Beast may not be as frightening as initially thought, which suggests foreshadowing to the reader, that the actions of the Beast are not all as they appear. The Beast sees the absolute sweetness of Beauty, an ambiguous syntactic parallel, suggesting to the reader that not only the Beast, but Beauty is too different from society and not all that she appears. Carter often uses ambiguous parallels in The Tigers Bride for the same effect, to show there is more to the characters than the readers initial reaction and there is the potential to show it. Who looked as if she had been carved out of a single pearl hinders her development, as she is treated as a possession. The Tigers Bride uses primarily a first person narrative to show Beautys perspective, also shown by Carters changing use of lexis and linguistic techniques as Beauty makes progress, much like The Courtship of Mr Lyon. The fairy tale voice shows how Beauty has been conditioned as this good-girl stereotype who thinks of herself highly. For I was a wild wee thing and she could not tame into submission with a frown or the bribe of a spoonful of jam. The tiger-man in the fairy tales she is told exactly describes The Beast, and in this fairy-tale he is the monster, or at least considered the monster, because of his differences, The Beast always goes masked; it cannot be his face that looks like mine (emphasised by standing alone) and this has made her grow up to look down of people based on their

appearance. Yes, my beauty! GOBBLE YOU UP! the dire consequences if she does not follow the orders of the nursemaids have made her needy and dependent. The ancestral voice mocks the old wives tales which have passed down through the centuries, such as the story of the tiger-man. When Beauty is making progress towards her transformation, she changes her perception of the Beast and now is in awe of him, Carter uses the triadic modifiers to show this - great, feline, tawny shape. However, before her transformation is almost complete she repeats the words He will gobble you up but without capitalisation and without fear, which demonstrates her opinions on the world of individuality and unstructured society the tiger-man came from have become positive. The ancestral voice mocks the old wives tales which have passed down through the centuries, such as the story of the tiger-man. In The Tigers Bride, Carter uses a lot of alliteration in the opening paragraphs - Lovely land where the lemon trees grow. This example of alliteration shows a poetic side to the heroine, and uses the soft sounding letter L which gives the narrative a gentle tone and reveals the innocent side of the character. Perpetual pleasure is another example of alliteration in the opening paragraphs, but this one uses plosive sounds which show another, harsher and bitter dimension to the character and builds up aggression and frustration in her tone. In The Tigers Bride Carter exploits voices such as the fairytale voice which was used to condition Beauty from a young age, and the voices of foreign characters to show how this upbringing can affect a persons opinion of people who are different Phlegmy, bronchitic speech This extract shows her looking down on the unfamiliar speech of the Italian woman, implying she has led a sheltered life and has believes herself to be more important. The Courtship of Mr Lyon focuses on a similar illustration of those who are different but it is more that difference is feared rather than simply disliked. In conclusion, both The Courtship of Mr Lyon and The Tigers Bride demonstrate an effective use of language to both create their Beasts and show changing reaction of Beauty as she progresses towards her transformation, in which the message of accepting those who are different is the same but the metaphors vary, Beauty in The Courtship of Mr Lyon seeing the human within the Beast who also goes through a transformation, and Beauty in The Tigers Bride becoming a beast by shedding her conditioned skin of society. Angela Carter exploits the voices in The Tigers Bride to show Beauty as a pejorative product of a society stereotyping women; she is frustrated and petulant, whilst the heroine in The Courtship of Mr Lyon is submissive and timid. This allows the author to show the reader that this fear society has of those who are different can be overcome, and everyone has the potential to overcome it and find the clich happy ending that is made so believable in this story Mr and Mrs Lyon walk in the garden; the old spaniel drowses on the grass, in a drift of fallen petals. However the stand alone structure of this final paragraph shows it may be distant and the transformation may be a struggle, but to live happily-everafter is worth the challenge.