Reciprocal Revival of the Fearful Lovers

Over a game of cards in Angela Carter’s, The Tiger’s Bride, a careless and desperately broke father sells his daughter in attempt to win the entirety of his component’s riches. Disgusted by her fathers actions and curious about “The Beast” and “the exact nature of his beastliness,” (55) the girl begins to reflect on a fairy tale about a tiger-man that was told by her nurse, “to scare me into good behavior, for I was a wild wee thing and she could not tame me into submission with a frown or the bribe of a spoonful of jam” (56). The more time the girl spends at The Beast’s palace, the more she ponders her imitative upbringing and the amount of fear that was instilled in her in order to maintain conformity. She also begins to see the true nature of The Beast and compares his sensitivity and loneliness to that of the men he attempts to imitate. Ultimately, she realizes that they both had been leading lives that were not true to their nature. Although becoming comfortable with one’s own individuality is never a simple task, the girl is able to experience a revival by accepting her own animalistic nature, as well as The Beast’s. By battling against her own fears of the past and ridding of conformed societal roles, the girl and The Beast are able to reciprocally become comfortable in their own skins.

             

Although fearful of her situation at first, the girl realizes that the father that abandoned her and the men that objectify her are far worse than The Beast and his desires. While thinking of the “different logic” she held as a person of society, in comparison with The Beast and the beings of his palace, this realization at first gave her, “a certain fearfulness still; but, I would say, not much…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…” (63). Since they both are denied by society of being able to think logically, and are instead objectified or seen as uncivilized creatures, the girl begins to empathize with The Beast. She again questions her role in society when she compares herself to the doll that powders her cheeks, “I certainly meditated on the nature of my own state, how I had been bought and sold, passed from hand to hand…had I not been allotted only the same kind of imitative life amongst men…” (63). Not only is the girl becoming less fearful of The Beast, but she also denies her own society and the mindset of many of those within it after being at the palace.

            

With a new sense of self and understanding of her situation, the girl rids of her fears and willingly gives into The Beasts desires, ultimately satisfying herself simultaneously. Although the girl witnessed The Beast fully undressed in his raw, naked form, she was nervous to do the same and fumbles with her dress, “for no man had seen me naked and I was a proud girl. Pride it was, not shame, that thwarted my fingers so” (64). She soon moved past her pride though, and as she followed them through the woods, rid of the clothes that bound her to her old life the girl thought, “I felt I was at liberty for the first time in my life” (64). Whether she felt freed from the outside world she once identified herself with, or simply liberated for exposing her own true form to The Beast who was also exposed as a tiger, is it clear that the girl willingly opened up to The Beast and was no longer feeling threatened.

            

Similar to the girl, The Beast displays his own transformation, which is why their actions are viewed reciprocally. When approaching the palace for the first time, the girl realizes that “The Beast bought solitude, not luxury, with his money” (57). In their first initial encounters, The Beast wears a clothes and a mask that conceal his entirety. He even soaks himself in a “thick, rich, wild scent” (58) to mask his natural odors. She soon realizes that he imitates a man out of fear of not being accepted. He seems ashamed of his beastliness as he hides his figure and face from the girl. Several times, he cries in front of the girl, shedding a single tear. Although it is not explicitly said, I believe the girl begins to understand The Beast and his loneliness. By the time the story reaches its final scene, The Beast is no longer concealing himself through false clothes and odors, and he can no longer smell the fear of the girl. Instead, there is a “sweet thunder” of his purring and in a sort of sexual act, “his tongue ripped off skin after successive skin, all the skins of a life in the world, and left behind a nascent patina of shining hairs” (67). Together, the unlikely pair are able to let their barriers down and instead of hiding their animalistic nature, they let it run wild by ridding their fears of going against society’s expectations, and instead exposing their true selves to each other.

            

 Although the girl willingly lets go of her civilized lifestyle, constrained by gender roles and conformity, where individuals are discouraged to expose their true selves, it is not an easy task. She battles with her nakedness since it is not accustomed to the society she knows, and feels that taking off her clothes “involved a kind of flaying” (66). In the context of The Tiger’s Bride, battling with her nakedness can be a metaphor for overcoming her insecurities and coming into selfhood; becoming comfortable with her individual identity. By battling through it, the girl and The Beast are both able to experience a kind of revival, a new beginning, where they are both comfortable for the first time within their own skin.