History of Beauty and the Beast

The tale of Beauty and the Beast has many imaginative adapted versions and has seen slight changes over the centuries it is made reference to worldwide tales of Cupid and Psyche, La Belle et la Bête, Zelinda and the Monster, The Maiden and the Beast, The Fairy Serpent and The Enchanted Tsarévich. It is from more recent times that famous storytellers such as Giambattista Basile, Charles Perrault, The Brothers Grimm and Walt Disney have enabled the tale to become an immortalised piece of literature. Yet they are still a highly thought of and influential form of literature the purpose of the tale has considerably changed as they were to “instrumentalise fairy tales as didactic fictions that can be used in the moral education and ‘socialisation’ of children” (Teverson, 2013) compared to contemporary functions that are more suitable forms of entertainment and of late to pinpoint the socio-cultural and political flaws.

Although slightly different they were “initiated first by aristocratic and educated ladies and some male writers like Perrault ... who forged a discourse about manners, laws and customs through the new genre of the fairy tale” (Zipes, 2012) and similarly to a contemporary audience this tale (as well as many other fairy tales) still upholds the same themes of the original tale. The themes that are a recognisable trait to this fairy tale are beauty, self image, vanity, family, honour, trust, danger, abandonment, helplessness, power and above all this the emergence of love. All these themes (among many others) are representative of the socio-cultural fashions as Villeneuve’s La Belle et La Bête where “issues surrounding women’s marital rights in the mid eighteenth century ... In this period, women had no choice over who they married and had to ‘learn to love’ the men they were bequeathed to” (Carruthers, 2015).

The original tale surrounds a merchant father who goes outward to the trading ships, not before asking each and every one of his children they would like as a gift on his return. All were materialistic gains apart from his daughter Beauty who asked for a simple gift of a rose. On the father’s return and in a storm the father becomes lost and seeks shelter in a palace of pure amazement. Very similar to that of Carter’s The Courtship of Mr. Lyon and her idyllic setting “Behind wrought iron gates, a short, snowy drive performed a reticent flourish before a miniature, perfect, Palladian house that seemed to hide itself shyly behind snow-laden skirts of an antique cypress” (pg.44). He and all his needs are catered for by an unseen presence, the merchant accepting the omniscient’s gratuitous gifts of food, drink and shelter. The next day just before he leaves he discovers a walled garden of beautiful flowers and remembered his promise to Beauty and her desire for a rose; upon picking the loveliest of all roses the merchant became confronted by a ‘Beast’. The Beast confronting the merchant on abusing his hospitality states that he must die.

There is then a sense of the sacrificial lamb, taking the lamb to the slaughter as the merchant explains his reasoning for taking the rose without consent and used as a bargaining tool Beauty is the object of the Beast’s desires “Take her the rose, then, but bring her to dinner” (pg.47) and her father’s source of freedom. The Beast then sends the merchant on his way with treasures promised for his other children on the promise that Beauty is not to know the bargain. Unable to keep the secret to himself the father retells his account to Beauty who accepts her responsibility and takes on her duty wholeheartedly “I have, indeed, caused this misfortune, but I assure you I did it innocently. Who would have guessed that to ask for a rose ... would cause so much misery? But as I did the mischief it is only just that I should suffer for it” (Carruthers, pg.98) The Beast openly accepts her and she becomes the mistress of his castle, he lavishly provides her with everything she could desire. Every night the Beast asks Beauty to marry him, “Do you love me, Beauty? Will you marry me?” (Carruthers, pg.110) to which Beauty refuses every offer and the beast returns to his private dwellings.

“Dear Beauty, try not to regret all you have left behind you, for you are destined for a better fate. Only do not let yourself be deceived by appearances” (Carruthers, pg.107)

After each refusal Beauty dreams of this handsome Prince who questions why she refuses the Beast, and her answer is that she simply loves the Beast as a friend and nothing more; Beauty cannot make the connection that the Beast and the Prince from her dreams are in fact the same man. After several months of living in pure luxury and receiving all the finest fashions Beauty becomes homesick and begs the Beast to let her see her family, on one condition that she returns to him one week later “I cannot refuse you anything you ask, even though it should cost me my life ... for if you do not come in good time you will find your faithful beast dead”(Carruthers, pg.116). Beauty accepts this offer and she leaves with an enchanted mirror to see the Beast she has left behind and a magic ring which will instantly return her to the castle. On her return her sisters are surprised to see her well fed and in such finery that Beauty causes her sisters to become extremely jealous of their sisters evident happiness. The thought of her departure only stressed and grieved poor Beauty “Every day when she got up she meant to say it at night, and when night came she put it off again, until at last she had a dream which helped her make up her mind ... the Beast was stretched out upon his side, apparently dying” (Carruthers, pg.121).

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder – Margaret Wolfe Hungerford

Beauty immediately returns to the Beast and he is in fact laying grief stricken in the rose garden where Beauty’s father had stolen her ‘perfect white rose’. “Can you really love such an ugly creature as I am? ... Ah! Beauty, you only came just in time I was dying because I thought you had forgotten your promise!”(Carruthers, pg.125). In return Beauty professes her love for the Beast and when he asks one final time “Beauty, will you marry me?”(Carruthers, pg.125) Beauty’s reply is yes and he is instantly transformed into the handsome Prince of her dreams, the enchantment of the Princes monstrous form is lifted and the pair marries and lives happily ever after.