The Pure Reluctant Virgin with Honour v. The Marvelous Machine of the Most Delicately Balance Cords and Pulleys

Within Carter’s The Tiger’s Bride, there are many interesting dynamics to be drawn between the relationships of men and women. I believe Carter portrays the character The Beast, to represent the male portion of society that views women as possessions. I believe that Carter’s story of the woman from virgin to “machine” represents the idea that men who want to possess women place them in a catch twenty two situation- they desire the woman who is innocent, a virgin, and pure because they are a challenge, but expect them to “put out” at some point or they are no use to them. At the same time, they appreciate the woman that is the “marvelous machine” because she does what she is told when she is told and is easy to control.  However, once the pure virgin gives in to the males requests, she is no longer seen in an equal light as she was once before, and although she falls into the category of the reliable, faithful and secure “marvelous machine,” she is not desired as she was once before. This vicious cycle of the excitement some men in society get from tainting a virgin, yet wanting to eat their cake too, and come home to the reliable woman that can easily be manipulated/controlled is problematic and much to common in today’s society.

The first issue that needs to be raised is the idea of women as a possession in general within the short story. We are exposed to this possession before we even make it to the first sentence. The title The Tiger’s Bride is possession within itself. We never find out the young woman’s name in the story, we can only identify her as the bride of the tiger. Also, the young woman’s father who claims to love her “lost” his daughter by gambling her off in a game of cards with The Beast. Apparently, the mother had a similar fate as the daughter; she was “bartered for her dowry to such feckless sprig of the Russian nobility that she soon died of his gaming, his whoring, his agonizing repentances.” (52) Clearly the mother was “valued” in a similar manner as her daughter. While her father is playing cards, the young woman (daughter) admits “you must not think my father valued me less than a king’s ransom; but, at no more than a king’s ransom.” (54) The daughter realizes that her father may care for her, but at the end of the day she is still worth a price to him, and in the end he had to ante up his daughter to The Beast’s possession.

When the young woman is put up at The Beast’s large, yet somber, palace. Right from the beginning, it is made clear to the girl that if she would like to escape, she must first show her naked body (of which no other man has seen) to The Beast. Obviously, this trap is not appealing to the young girl, and as she contemplates suicide over being forced into a sexual act, the valet responds, “Oh, no, you will not. You are a woman of honour.” (59) This pure woman of honour is exciting and enticing in a place in which “nothing human lives,” and so, as a gesture to bribe and sway the young woman’s decision to offer herself sexually, The Beast begins offering her gifts as his patience and desire increase with the challenge of the virgin.(59) As the virgin maintains her honour, and denies all gifts from The Beast, the challenge continues. As The Beast grows impatient, on the horseback ride, he pushes the process along, and unclothes himself in front of the girl, in a last itch effort to encourage her to follow along. The young woman feels a distinct transition within herself. She states:

“I certainly meditated on the nature of my own state, how I had been bought and sold, passed from hand to hand. The clockwork girl who powdered my cheeks for me; had I not been allotted only the same kind of imitative life amongst men that the doll-maker had given her?” (63)

The girl begins to realize, that if she is to be with The Beast, there is no middle ground for her. She cannot remain the desired virgin forever. If she does not produce results by offering herself sexually, then the beast will lose interest with a prude. However, if she does offer herself to him, she will become “the most marvelous machine, the most delicately balanced system of chords and pulleys in the world,” she met earlier. (60) And the only reason The Beat enjoys such a “breed” of woman is because he can control the cords and pulleys whatever way he pleases. Either which way, the girl realizes her fate lies within the hands of this man.

After the young girl exposes her naked body to The Beast, Carter then adds “The tiger will never lie down with the lamb; he acknowledges no pact that is reciprocal. The lamb must learn to run with the tigers.” (64) Man will never settle or adjust to the woman, it is woman who must adjust to the wants needs and desires to a man. However with such a broad desires and spectrums of woman that The Beast desires, it seems as though the woman is doomed from the beginning.