1. How does Beauty compare with Little Red Riding Hood? Are they
comparable types, or really different?
2. Do you see any overlap in
the gender issues we discussed in LRRH?
3. Discuss social class in the versions you read for today (choose one or two versions, and find examples). How do the versions present social class? Is it the same in these versions of the tale?
4. Discuss the figure of the beast, a
character that changes across versions (choose one or two versions, and find examples). How might we compare these
different animals/depictions? How does it relate to
masculinity/gender?
5. Discuss the importance of appearances. How
does this relate thematically to the ideas in the versions?
6. Who is the audience for Straparola's "The Pig King"? Why might this be
important?
7. Why do you think it's important that so many fairy
tales present the "fairest of them all" in the main female character?
Which tales do this?
8. What do you think are Karen Rowe's major points in her essay on the female voice in fairy tales?
The Tiger's Bride
1. How does Carter adapt the story? Did you think it was more/less disturbing than other versions? How so?
2. What did you think of Carter's version of the Beast? Was he cruel? Kind? Both? Abusive?
3. Do you think that the Beauty figure (the narrator) becomes a beast? What is happening with animalism and transformation in this story?
4. Collect all the physical objects that you can find (or at least the most important ones to you) in the story. Why do you think they are significant?
The Swan Maiden
5. Do you think we are meant to read the "Beauty" figure as a real woman or an abstract concept--a questing after beauty we cannot hold?
6. How do you compare Afanasev's "The Frog Princess" with Grimms' "The Frog King"? Do they reverse each other? Why Frogs?
1. Discuss competition in two versions we didn't discuss last time. Where
can you locate competition between characters? What might it signify?
2. Do you think it's significant that in some versions the beast is
called a monster? What does this do to the interpretation of the
versions?
3. In your readings for today, what symbols seemed
especially important? What are they? How do you interpret them?
4. Do any of the tales present a moral and/or lesson? If so, what is it?
5. What's the attitude toward marriage presented in the tales you
read?
6. How might we read class struggle in this tale? Choose a version for us to consider.
7. How might we read this tale psychologically? Choose a version for us to consider.
Carter, "Courtship of Mr. Lyon" and "The Tiger's Bride"
1. Both of these stories are about Beauty and the Beast. How do they retell the traditional versions?
2. Discuss transformation in both tales. What happens to Beauty? What happens to Beast? How do they both wear masks, either literally or figuratively?
3. Do you think there is emotional abuse in "The Courtship of Mr. Lyon"?
4. Do you think there is emotional abuse in "The Tiger's Bride"?
5. Why do you think Carter wrote two very different versions of Beauty and the Beast in these tales?
6. What sorts of overall messages do you think Carter wants to convey in "The Courtship of Mr. Lyon"?
7. What sorts of overall messages do you think Carter wants to convey in "The Tiger's Bride"?
Carter, "Courtship of Mr. Lyon
1. What is the Beauty figure like in this version? How does she compare to the other Beauty figures, especially in "The Tiger's Bride"?
2. What happens to the father in this version? How might it be important?
3. Do you think there is emotional abuse in "The Courtship of Mr. Lyon"?
4. Do you think appearances and material things are just as important in this version as they were in "The Tiger's Bride"?
5. What sorts of overall messages do you think Carter wants to convey in "The Courtship of Mr. Lyon"?
6. Why do you think Carter wrote two different versions of Beauty and the Beast? Do you think they come to the same conclusions?