500 Words on the language used in “The courtship of Mr Lyon”.

The story is founded upon a highly metaphorical lexis, which creates in depth
descriptions of the non- human beings. “…on the golden hairs of the great
paws.” Furthermore, Carter’s portrayal of this “Beast” gives rise to the
question whether it is anthropomorphism of a lion, or Theriomorphism of a
man. “He reared on his hind legs like an angry lion, yet he wore a smoking
jacket.” This quote is almost comical (Incongruity Theory) as the Beast who is
presumed to be quite savage, is actually rather more polite, hospitable and
caring than his guests, this highlights the fact that he wants to be perceived as
human.

In further exploring the way in which Carter utilises metaphor to profound

effect, we can see a constant metaphor throughout the story. Beauty is the
rose, as the rose was revealed to Beauty’s father through the snow, so was
beauty, as without said snow her father wouldn’t have stopped at the Beast’s
house, and brought her in with him next time. Also, as the rose was stolen
from Beast, Beauty’s father was robbed of the daughter that he used as a
bartering chip, to save his own hide. “Take the rose, but bring her to dinner”
The Final line of this short story is “…in a drift of fallen petals.” I believe that
this relates to the metaphor of Beauty, as when she meets the beast she goes
through a cycle of becoming more attached to the beast, alienating him and
finally returning, whereby he transforms into a man, as does she by “shedding”
her petals and therefore ceasing to be a rose, or a bartering chip. Then they
both can finally be seen as human beings. Also Carter uses Beauty as an
emblem for social feminism, as she is a passive young woman.

In addition to this point, Carter subverts the typical ideas of fairy tales,
where the physically attractive character is the benevolent being, and less
aesthetically pleasing characters are typical nefarious, as Beast who is typically
unattractive to a human being, is the kind hearted soul who helps strangers
who become stranded on the road. “This dish contained sandwiches of thick
cut roast beef, still bloody.”
 In my opinion Beauty’s initial reaction to the Beast is telling to the rest of the
story, “She stayed stock still” Most would infer that Beauty was scared or
disgusted, whereas then “With a flood of compassion” Carter instantly changes
the situation and we realise the notion of Illicit Love. If we segue to the
penultimate sentences and the scene where Beast seems to be dying, we can
see a comparison of the old and raggedy beast to his former self, here we see a
role reversal as when Beauty arrived at the house she was most definitely
incarcerated, whereas when she leaves it is the beast who has to contend with
his own demons trapped inside himself.

Finally if we look at the destination of the story we see that Carter’s aim was to
show people how to accept one another for who they are.