The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories

Compare and contrast the two “beastly” husbands in “The Courtship of Mr Lyon” and “The Tiger’s Bride.” How are they similar, and how are they distinct?

“Puss in Boots” is the only story in the collection with a male protagonist. How did this narrative choice affect your reading of the story? Did a male narrator add anything to the story that a female narrator would not?

Many of the characters in the collection exist in a state of liminality—on the edge of life and death, or human and nonhuman. What do these liminal states show about the human experience?