"... I'm sorry young man, I cannot be your friend I don't believe in a fairytale end..."

Is 'The Courtship of Mr Lyon' intended to be in the style of a traditional fairytale?

Having read the first story in the collection, 'The Bloody Chamber', we have a certain expectation of what 'The Courtship of Mr Lyon' will be like. Looking at the title of the story, in particular the name 'Mr Lyon', we have the expectations of beastial masculinity and therefore a bad masculine figure. Basing our expectations on the previous story we would automatically assume that the 'courtship' in this story will be one of deceit and corruption. However, when we begin to read the story and look at it more in depth it becomes obvious that it is quite a stark contrast to 'The Bloody Chamber'.
'The Courtship of Mr Lyon' is quite obviously based upon the traditional fairytale 'Beauty and The Beast' as it follows the plot and structure of the story very closely. There are many elements of traditional content in the story for example, the idea of the weak paternal figure and the loss of a child. Another example of traditional content is the innocent and virtuous female character; "lovely girl, whose skin possesses that same, inner light..". This contrasts slightly with 'The Bloody Chamber' as, although initially innocent, the young female character seems to desire the thought of corruption.
Though the story has a lot of similarities with traditional fairytales there is one main difference, being the feminist way in which it is written. The feminist content makes the usually strong and imposing male character seem weak and frightened in the presence of the female character; "curious reversal, she frightened him". As in 'Beauty and The Beast' it is the female character that saves the male character, which contradicts the ideas of traditional fairytales. This again shows feminist elements as it makes the woman seem stronger and the male seem weak in comparison. The male character, Mr Lyon, is found at the end of the story in "an attic, with a sloping roof" which somewhat resembles the idea of the traditional 'damsel in distress' at the top of a tall tower, once again perpetuating the idea of a role reversal and feminist content.
The story does have the traditional 'happy ending' as Mr Lyon and Beauty fall in love and, as in the story 'Beauty and The Beast', Mr Lyon transforms into a man; "And then it was no longer a lion in her arms but a man".
I believe that 'The Courtship of Mr Lyon' is intended to be in the style of a traditional fairytale and this can be seen in the amount of traditional content that Carter has kept in the story. I think that she may have decided to keep it so traditional to act as a contrast to 'The Bloody Chamber', which contradicted the traditional ideas so much that it bears little resemblance to the fairytale on which it was based. She has, however, very cleverly and subtly kept the idea of the feminist twist on the story, without changing the base plot and structure in 'The Courtship of Mr Lyon' which makes it successful as a fairytale.