The Tigers Bride And The Bloody Chamber

Introduction

"The Tiger's Bride" takes place in Italy. As in "The Bloody Chamber," the narrator is also the heroine. She tells us, "My father lost me to The Beast at cards." She then sets the scene of her and her father's journey to Italy. She says that to Russians like her, the South is supposed to feel like a warm Eden; but the winter there is as cold and snowy as in the North. In addition to enduring the cold, the heroine is forced to watch her father feed his gambling addition with countless games of cards with The Beast. Even though she chose to visit this remote part of Italy because it had no casino, she was unaware that every man who stays in the Beasts's territory must play a hand of cards with him.(Danielle,19)

The Beast is ashamed of his animal appearance and attempts to look as human as possible. He wears a mask with a perfect man's face painted on it so only his yellow eyes are visible. He wears old-fashioned clothing, including a wig, gloves over his uncannily large hands and a scarf to cover his neck. He smells so strongly of cologne that the heroine wonders what sinister smell he is trying to conceal. His actions are awkward because he forces himself to act human; the heroine says he "has an air of self-imposed restraint, as if fighting a battle with himself to remain upright when he would far rather drop down on all fours." Furthermore, he speaks in such an incomprehensible growl that his valet must translate for him.

The heroine is a radiant beauty who was born on Christmas Day. She faults her father's gambling and adultery for her mother's early death. As her father loses at cards, she tears apart a white rose that The Beast gave her when she arrived at his house. When the heroine's father has lost all his money to The Beast, he bets his daughter. As dawn breaks, the narrator's father loses her to The Beast and she must her report to his estate the next day. Suddenly comprehending what he has done, her father sobs, "I have lost my pearl, my pearl beyond price." The beast responds in a roar that his valet translates to mean, "If you are so careless of your treasures, you should expect them to be taken from you." (Jordan,507)

The valet arrives to take the heroine away, bearing a bouquet of white roses. When her father asks for one as a sign of her forgiveness, she pricks her finger on it by accident and hands it to him "all smeared with blood." She is furious to have to endure such "humiliation." The heroine wonders what kind of creature The Beast is. She recalls her nursemaid's stories of a tiger-man who would "gobble [her] up" if she was naughty and other tales of half-men-half-beasts. She is afraid to be being married to and have sex with such a ...