Beauty and the Beast


Beauty and the Beast is a fairy tale written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in La Jeune Américaine et les contes marins. Its lengthy version was abridged, rewritten, and published first by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont in 1756 in Magasin des enfants and by Andrew Lang in the Blue Fairy Book of his Fairy Book series in 1889, to produce the version most commonly retold. It was influenced by some earlier Ancient Greek stories, such as "Cupid and Psyche", The Golden Ass written by Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis in the 2nd century AD, and The Pig King, an Italian fairytale published by Giovanni Francesco Straparola in The Facetious Nights of Straparola around 1550.
Variants of the tale are known across Europe. In France, for example, Zémire and Azor is an operatic version of the story, written by Marmontel and composed by Grétry in 1771, which had enormous success well into the 19th century; it is based on the second version of the tale. Amour pour amour, by Pierre-Claude Nivelle de La Chaussée, a 1742 play based on de Villeneuve's version. According to researchers at universities in Durham and Lisbon, the story originated around 4,000 years ago.

Plot

Villeneuve's version

A widower merchant lives in a mansion with his six children. All three of his daughters are very beautiful, but the youngest, Beauty, is the most lovely, as well as kind, well-read, and pure of heart; while the two elder sisters, in contrast, are cruel, selfish, vain, and spoiled. On a dark and stormy night at sea, all of his wealth was robbed by pirates, who sink most of his merchant fleet, and forces the entire family to live in a small barn to work for a living. While Beauty makes a firm resolution to adjust to rural life with a cheerful disposition, her sisters do not and mistake her firmness for insensibility, forcing her into doing household work in an effort to make enough money to buy back their former home.
A year later, the merchant hears from one of his crewmembers that one of the trade ships he had sent has arrived back in port, having escaped the destruction of its companions. Before leaving, he asks his children if they wish for him to bring any gifts back for them. The sons ask for weaponry and horses to hunt with, whereas the oldest daughters ask for clothing, jewels, and the finest dresses possible as they think his wealth has returned. Beauty asks for nothing but her father to be safe, but when he insists on buying her a present, she is satisfied with the promise of a rose after none of those grew last spring. However, to his dismay, the merchant finds that his ship's cargo has been seized to pay his debts, leaving him penniless and unable to buy his children's presents.
On his way back, the merchant becomes caught in a terrible storm. Desperately seeking shelter, he comes upon a mysterious palace. Seeing that no one is home, the merchant sneaks in and finds tables inside laden with food and drinks, which seem to have been left for him by the palace's invisible owner. The merchant accepts this gift and spends the night there. The next morning, the merchant has come to view the palace as his own possession and is about to leave when he sees a rose garden and recalls that Beauty had desired a rose. Without warning, the merchant quickly plucked the loveliest rose he can find, and was about to pluck more to create a bouquet, only to end up being confronted by a hideous "Beast" who warns him that theft of his property, i.e. a rose, is a charge punishable by death. Realizing his deadly mistake, he merchant begs for forgiveness, revealing that he had only picked the rose as a gift for his youngest daughter. After listening to his story, the Beast reluctantly agrees to let him give the rose to Beauty, but only if the merchant brings Beauty to him in exchange without deception; he makes it clear that Beauty must agree to take his place to the point where he will then treat her as his fiancée, and not his prisoner, while under no illusions about her predicament. Otherwise, the Beast will threateningly destroy his entire family.
At first, the merchant is hesitantly upset about Beauty being abducted into marrying him, but he reluctantly accepts this condition. The Beast sends him on his way atop a magical horse, along with wealth, jewels and fine clothes for his sons and daughters, but stresses that Beauty must never know about his deal. The merchant, upon arriving home, tries to hide the secret from his children, but Beauty pries it from him on purpose. Reacting swiftly, the brothers suggest if they could go to the castle and fight the Beast together, while the older sisters place blame on Beauty for dooming the entire family. The merchant dissuades his children, forbidding them from ever going near the Beast. Eventually, Beauty sneaks away from home later that night against her father's orders to face the Beast alone.
Once she arrives at his palace, the Beast becomes excited to meet her face to face, so he throws a welcome ceremony by treating her to an amazing cabaret show. He gives her lavish clothing and food and carries on lengthy conversations with her and she notes that he is inclined to stupidity rather than savagery. Every night, the Beast asks Beauty to sleep with him, only to be refused each time. After each refusal, Beauty dreams of a handsome "Prince" whom she dances with. Suddenly, a fairy appears and pleads with Beauty to answer why she keeps refusing him, to which she replies that she doesn't know how to love the Beast because she loves him only as a friend and not a seducer. Despite the apparition of the fairy urging her not to be deceived by appearances, she does not make the connection between a "prince" and a "beast" and becomes convinced that the Beast is holding the Prince captive somewhere in his castle. She searches and discovers many enchanted rooms containing sources of entertainment ranging from libraries to aviaries to enchanted windows allowing her to attend the theater. She also comes across many live furniture and other live objects which act as servants, but never the Prince from her dreams.
Throughout an entire month, Beauty lives a life of luxury at the Beast's palace, having every whim catered to, with no end of riches to amuse her and an endless supply of exquisite finery to wear. Eventually, she becomes homesick and begs the Beast to allow her to go see her family again. He allows it on the condition that she returns exactly one week. Beauty agrees to this and is presented with an enchanted ring which allows her to wake up in her family's new home in an instant when turned three times around her finger. The rest of her family is surprised to find her well fed and dressed in finery. Beauty tries to share the magnificent gowns and jewels the Beast gave her with her older sisters, but they turn into rags at her sisters' touch, and are restored to their splendor when returned to Beauty, as the Beast meant them only for her. Her sisters are envious when they hear of her happy life at the castle, and, overhearing that she must return to the Beast on a certain day, try to persuade her to steer clear of the Beast, even her father threatens to disown Beauty if she refuses to marry his younger and wealthier cousin next week, a wedding which was arranged for his youngest daughter instead, snatching the ring away from her to prevent her from going back to the Beast's castle. When she then pleads for the marriage with the merchant's cousin to be delayed, her brothers reject her, believing she knows too much about the Beast. Beauty is now shaken by her family's overprotection, and she reluctantly agrees to make it official, even if she stays with her family a lot longer.
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A week has passed and she begins hallucinating about the Beast lying dead in his quarters back at his castle and hastens to return; she immediately steals back the ring from her father and uses it to return to the Beast. Once she is back in the castle, Beauty's fears are confirmed as she finds the Beast murdered in cold blood at the hands of an angry mob sent by her father in an effort to keep his children, even Beauty, away from him. Now completely devastated over her sins, Beauty bursts into tears and laments that she should have learned how to love the Beast in the first place, screaming "I am sorry! This was all my fault!". Suddenly, when she says those magic words, the Beast is transformed into the handsome prince from Beauty's dreams. The Prince informs her that long ago, a powerful witch turned him into a hideous beast for his selfishness after trying to seduce him and that only by finding true love, despite his ugliness, could the curse be broken. He and Beauty are married and they live happily ever after together.

Beaumont's version

Beaumont greatly pared down the cast of characters and simplified the tale to an almost archetypal simplicity. The story begins in much the same way, although now the merchant has only six children: three sons and three daughters of which Beauty is one. The circumstances leading to her arrival at the Beast's castle unfolds in a similar manner and on this arrival she is informed that she is mistress there and he will obey her. Beaumont strips most of the detail and lavish descriptions present on Beauty's exploration of the palace in Villeneuve's versions and quickly jumps to her return home. She is given leave to remain there for a week and when she arrives her sisters plot to feign fondness for her to entice her to remain another week in hopes that the Beast will devour her in his anger. Again, she returns to him dying and restores him to life. They then marry and live happily ever after and this ends Beaumont's tale as she omits the background information given on both the Prince and his family and Beauty and hers.

Broader themes

Harris identifies the two most popular strands of fairy tale in the 18th century as the fantastical romance for adults and the didactic tale for children. Beauty and the Beast is interesting as it bridges this gap, with Villeneuve's version being written as a salon tale for adults and Beaumont's being written as a didactic tale for children.

Commentary

Tatar compares the tale to the theme of "animal brides and grooms" found in folklore throughout the world,
pointing out that the French tale was specifically intended for the preparation of young girls in 18th century France for arranged marriages.
The urban opening is unusual in fairy tales, as is the social class of the characters, neither royal nor peasants; it may reflect the social changes occurring at the time of its first writing.
Hamburger points out that the design of the Beast in the 1946 film adaptation by Jean Cocteau was inspired by the portrait of Petrus Gonsalvus, a native of Tenerife who suffered from hypertrichosis, causing an abnormal growth of hair on his face and other parts, and who came under the protection of the French king and married a beautiful Parisian woman named Catherine.

Modern uses and adaptations

The tale has been notably adapted for screen, stage, prose, and television over the years.

Literature