The Courtship of Mr Lyon questions

The Courtship of Mr Lyon


3) The girl is presented as a beauty with an "inner light" that lands her firmly as a young virgin in need of protection. However, she is doing "chores" consequently reveals her lower social class and her place in the domestic realm of that class. This is developed in the plot when she is in London with her father. She is " plumping out" and starts to become "petulant" and superficial, in effect becoming the complete opposite to what she was in the opening paragraph.


4) The girl's father is described with an "old sheepskin coat" and therefore is associated with not having much money. This may be a reason why he so scrupulously spends the money the beast gives him in Town. This frivolous spending is the reason for Beauty's extended absence from the beast's house which leads to his sickness and the decline of his house and property. Her father is also described as having "another whisky" suggesting immorality. this is emphasised when he tries to steal the white rose from the beast, someone who had been benevolent, and tried justify the theft. This theft is the reason for Beauty's meeting the beast in the first place and so is the pivotal moment in the original development of the plot.


7) Mr Lyon's property is ostentatious and opulent with many jars made from crystal and solid gold door knockers. The house very obviously belongs to the rich and almost seems suspended in a different era to the modern world Beauty and her father live in, in their cottage. The house is described using adjectives such as "great" and "white" which would suggest a clinical, uninhabited place (especially given the lack of a human presence in the house) if not for the "warmth" given off by a large number of flowers in crystal jars in the hall. The house itself originally is impressive and intimidating by the wealth it suggests that lies within it but becomes welcoming by the presence of the flowers and the open doors. However, there is a sinister undertone to the positive descriptions of the house, mainly due to the lack of people. The fact "no living person " was in the hall makes the hall seem silent and uninhabitable, perhaps suggesting there is a secret within the hall.


11) Carter is highlighting the fluid nature of identity by flitting between the first and third person. The narrator is at once male, female and neutral. This reveals the idea of identity and its changeable temperament as it is rarely clear who the narrator is and also what gender it is, this in unaided by the parenthesis "(how amusing!)" when describing the spaniel, suggesting a presence that is other to the characters in this story.


12)


13)


15)


16)