I love it when concepts currently studied in another class begin to make reappearances in others. Recently, in one of my english classes we studied a fairy tale spin-off of Beauty and the Beast titled The Tiger’s Bride by Angela Carter. It follows similar suite to Beauty and the Beast. A young woman is lost in a gambling match by her stupid father to “The Beast,” a figure that wears a mask and is completely covered by various articles of clothing. She is taken to the Beast’s palazzo and while standing before the Beast, the butler translates on his master’s behalf, telling her she may go free and return to her father with many riches if she will disrobe herself once in front of the Beast and allow him to see her completely nude. Gross. Yes, your skin does crawl.
She refuses and instead shames the Beast resulting in him shedding a single tear. Later on she refuses him again causing him to shed another. After that he tries a new tactic and takes her hunting with him and his butler out in the countryside. The butler tells the young woman that because she won’t disrobe in front of him, she must watch as he disrobes in front of her (hang in there guys, I promise this isn’t as terrifying or disgusting as it sounds). The Beast does so in a manner of extreme consciousness and embarrassment. Underneath that mask and all that clothing however is a tiger. The young woman is completely moved by this. Afterwards she goes to the tiger and disrobes in front of him. The tiger is afraid of her at first but after seeing she means him no harm begins to purr and the young woman’s skin is pulled off to reveal that underneath is a tiger.
I’ll go out on a limb here and claim that nudity is not something we are comfortable discussing. And for good reason too, I don’t think this apprehension can be harshly criticized. Trying to talk about it is like trying to swim through shark-infested waters. Heck, our origin story shows us hiding out of shame and covering ourselves with fig leaves. This isn’t a bad thing.
That being said, the poem the book is titled after “Standing Female Nude” asks a lot of interesting questions. Underneath our clothing and accessories, it’s just us. Yes underneath the skin is the muscles, tissues, and cells, but without diving in and just by looking at the whole, it is us completely exposed; nowhere left to hide or mask ourselves. This concept is incredibly personal on a large scale. Just look at how the female narrator uses language in the poem to show possession over herself.
-he drains colour from me.
-I shall be represented analytically and hung in great museums.
-I can see the Queen of England gazing on my shape.
-He possesses me on canvas as he dips the brush repeatedly into the paint.
This tone keeps up all the way until the very end when she looks at the painting and finally distances herself from the image.
–It doesn’t look like me.
This poem fascinated me. Probably because it was one of the easier ones to understand; it’s pretty straightforward. It also illustrates the highly personal relationship with one’s own skin. I sense pain and disappointment coming from the female nude as she realizes that painting, even after studying her for hours, failed to capture her essence. It doesn’t show her for what she truly is. It misrepresented her, even if a true representation was never the artist’s goal. That adds a whole new level of coldness to the situation. While I’m not entirely comfortable discussing nudity I think this concept of exposing true self is very interesting. The tiger wasn’t being gross in the Tiger’s Bride, he wanted to see the young woman for what she truly is. Once he goes through the pain and embarrassment of showing her who he truly is does she return the favor.
Image by Joanna Barnum on DeviantART
