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Beauty And The Beast In Being There And The Bloody Chamber

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In the novels Being There and The Bloody Chamber there are several examples of characters constantly changing throughout the telling of the novel. Many of the characters of The Bloody Chamber are creatures who are half-human and half-beast, or else undergo some change from beast to human or vice versa. In Being There, we see Chance transform from a simple gardener to a man who is respected and loved by the whole country seemingly in a blink of an eye. Transformation revealing some idea of truth is a common theme of folk and fairy tales. In the original 'Beauty and the Beast' the creature is rescued by the goodness of a true woman who restores him to his handsome self. Carter's two retellings of the tale offer something quite different. Mr. Lyon loses his attractive and powerful animal qualities and ends up looking 'unkempt' ('The Courtship of Mr. Lyon', p. 54). In 'The Tiger's Bride' it is not The Beast, but Beauty who is transformed. Having dispatched her replica to the real world of her father, she is free to shed 'all the skins of a life in the world' (p. 75) and become a beast herself. Carter inverts the traditional transformation from beast to human and its symbolism. To be beast-like is to be virtuous; to become 'manly' is to be vicious. 'The Snow Child' offers a different view on metamorphosis: a wish can become reality, but can just as easily be wished away. The transitory nature of male desire is emphasized by the melting away of the child: 'Soon there was nothing

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