The Courtship of Mr Lyon - complete*

Question 1

this story was written before/after the other stories

Answer 1

before

Question 2

what magazine was the courtship of mr Lyon published in

Answer 2

in vogue magazine, January 1976
- A magazine about beauty - showing a key theme of the story is beauty

Question 3

what is a central question of the story?

Answer 3

what is beauty?

Question 4

what could be thought of as making beauty beautiful?

Answer 4

she has an ‘inner light’ - an inner goodness/ purity
- purity is supported with the idea that she is similar to snow - as snow is described as possessing ‘a light of its own’

Question 5

how pale is beauty?

Answer 5

so pale she seems to be made of ‘snow’

Question 6

what shows Beauty is not a materialistic person

Answer 6

she only asks for a white rose for Christmas

Question 7

is Beauty concerned for her father or not?

Answer 7

yes she says ‘I hope he’ll be safe’

Question 8

Beauty is her father’s ___ and ___-___

Answer 8

‘pet’ and ‘girl-child’

Question 9

what does Beauty look like in the photograph her father shows the beast?

Answer 9

‘absolute sweetness and absolute gravity’ (likely gravity as in seriousness)

Question 10

what act of transgression does the father commit?

Answer 10

he takes the white rose from the beast’s grounds without asking
- Mr. Lyon was already very generous and this oversteps the generosity

Question 11

is the father wealthy at the start?

Answer 11

no, he is broke

Question 12

what does mr lion look like? (2 word quote)

Answer 12

a ‘leonine apparition’

Question 13

what are mr Lyon’s eyes like

Answer 13

green as ‘agate’
- potentially showing wealth/preciousness

Question 14

what is the beast described as when he is shaking the father for stealing the rose?

Answer 14

‘like an angry child shakes a doll’

Question 15

are lions more or less beautiful than humans?

Answer 15

‘more beautiful by far than we are’
a ‘different order of beauty’

Question 16

what description of the beast shows him as divine

Answer 16

he seems to be ‘irradiated’ with a kind of ‘halo’ like the ‘great beast of the Apocalypse’

Question 17

another question of the story is will the ___be able to lie with the ___

Answer 17

lion, lamb

Question 18

beauty is compared to what animal?

Answer 18

‘Miss Lamb, spotless, sacrificial’

Question 19

what makes beauty stay with the Lion upon his request?

Answer 19

• Beast with a hint of ‘shyness, of fear of refusal’ asks beauty to stay
  ○ And she then realises that the visit is ‘on some magically reciprocal scale, the price of her father’s good fortune’
  ○ She had will (carter spells this out ‘do not think she had no will of her own’) it’s just she felt ‘possessed by a sense of obligation’ and anyways she loved her father ‘dearly’

Question 20

the narrator likes/doesnt like the luxury of the beast’s mansion

Answer 20

likes

Question 21

who prepares Beauty’s meals while she is staying with Mr. Lyon?

Answer 21

mr Lyon

Question 22

by the end of the story - which character has become weaker and which one stronger

Answer 22

mr Lyon =weaker
Beauty = stronger

Question 23

what suggests that mr Lyon was a man not a lion all along (as opposed to the interpretation that he becomes a man during the transformation at the end)? (2 things)

Answer 23

his fists were ‘clenched’ before which is why they looked like paws
- and beauty sees mr Lyon’s eyes for the first time at the end and they are ‘like those of a man’ - before she had only look ed at ‘her own face’ reflected there

Question 24

by the end of the story, beauty is reaching the end fo what

Answer 24

the ‘end of her adolescence’

Question 25

at the start beauty is described as what (in terms of love)

Answer 25

‘petulant’

Question 26

what is beauty’s prettiness described as at the start

Answer 26

‘a lacquer of invincible prettiness’

Question 27

what animal (not a lamb) is Beauty described as?

Answer 27

‘pampered, exquisite, expensive cat’
§ The opposite of a lion (a big cat)
§ Feline imagery
□ Could be sexual?
§ Being a pet, controlled/domesticated

Question 28

what prompts the beast’s ‘transformation’?

Answer 28

beauty kisses his hand

Question 29

why is the ending happy?

Answer 29

they live together happy ever after, and see each other for who they really are

Question 30

what 4 characteristics of beauty and the beast are common to the Brother’s Grimm version and Beaumont’s version?

Answer 30

§ The youngest daughters sacrifice themselves for their fathers
§ The youngest daughter has to go to the beast’s castle in return for the beast saving her father’s life
§ In return she gets a perfect spouse as a reward for her her act
Hence self sacrifice is clearly shown as valuable and worthy of reward

Question 31

where does the saying the lion fell in love with the lamb come from?

Answer 31

• There is a popular saying ‘the lion will never lie down with the lamb’ (due to the nature of the lion as eating the lamb)
  
  • In the Bible it describes the future period of peace (the messianic period)
    ‘the wolf shall live with the lamb…and the lion and the fatling together’ (Isaiah 11:6)

Question 32

what is a feminist critique of the ending

Answer 32

• A reward = a perfect spouse
  ○ Teaching young girls that their purpose in life is a perfect spouse
  ○ Implying that you usually don’t get a perfect spouse and happy marriage
  ○ The perfect spouse seems like a beast at first - the man is valuable on the inside - fewer patriarchal standards for male beauty?
  Basically - if you don’t value yourself too highly, you are a good person and you submit yourself to the patriarchy then you could be rewarded

Question 33

the castle of beast could be ___(freud)

Answer 33

phallic

Question 34

the fact that the girl sacrifices herself for her father teaches what

Answer 34

• role reversal
• women aren’t important
• passivity/modesty is rewarded