In this essay, Basu tries to convey the nature of men and women and their effect on each other in a relationship. Basu uses Madame de Beaumont's Beauty and the Beast and Angela Carter's The Tiger's Bride as a lens to describe how wildness and civility take part in society’s typical gender roles. The main point that Basu is trying to convey is that while the “Beauty” in Beauty and the Beast is a civilized female who later converts the “Beast” into a real, human gentleman, the opposite is true in The Tiger’s Wife. In The Tiger’s Wife, it is actually the female Beauty who plays into the male Beast’s suppressed wildness and amplifies it with her devilish actions, and later, she herself becomes a beast. Basu’s thesis though, is quite controversial—relying heavily on assumed sexual undertones in Beauty and the Beast.
Basu uses quotes from both novels in order to convey her point. The evidence she uses is very important to her point, because without the concrete text, her assumptions on the text would seem wild and outlandish. However, with carefully placed quotes, her argument becomes more valid.
Basu’s essay is structured in a typical manner.She begins with an introduction that introduces the two pieces that she analyzing and effectively states her thesis. She starts her introduction by first stating how Beauty and the Beast and The Tiger’s Bride illustrate the nature between men and women then she throws in a few examples of how civility and beastliness exist in both genders in the story, and then finally rounds it off with her thesis. Basu then takes the time to write out five body paragraphs that focus on the relationship between Madame de Beaumont’s characters and how they grow and change throughout the novel. She then goes on to focus on Angela Carter’s characters in the form of two body paragraphs—analyzing them in the same way she did Beaumont’s characters. She then reflects on the final transformations of all characters in her concluding paragraph. She effectively compares and contrasts the final ironic fate of the characters in both novels, and effectively shows us how it supports her thesis.
Overall, her transitions work well, but she seems to have to gather more evidence and make more assumptions for Beauty and the Beast to prove her point than she does The Tiger’s Wife which makes the piece feel slightly out of balance.
One major criticism with Basu’s piece is that her use terminology, although formal, is lacking in variety. She constantly uses the same fluffy words over and over which really begins to take away from her argument when it becomes apparent that she does not seem to know how to articulate her point in with more than one particular word.
Basu tries to establish herself as a credible source, and for the most part, she does so effectively. She obviously knows both texts very well and effectively pulls evidence from both texts to prove her point. However, some assumptions she makes are quite hard to wrap one’s mind around and offers very little reason as to why the audience should buy into the claims she makes.
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