thesis of beauty and the beast

Beauty and the Beast Essay

Beauty and the Beast ( La Belle et la Bête in French) written by Madame Leprince Beaumont in 1776, is renowned for its reformist and moralistic character, especially for discoursing feminine ideals. The story was written with the aim of educating young ladies of the virtues of femininity (Zipes 31).

Beaumont wrote the tale in her magazine as an educational and moralistic story for she strongly believed in reforming the women readers. She wrote her stories in order to reform women within the Christian domain (Walker 61). The discourse of a good woman in her stories was apparent, and the one under study is no exception.

However, these feminine qualities portrayed by Beaumont surpassed the traditional constructs of feminine virtues. The feminine characters that Beaumont stressed on were far greater than just being a kind and self-sacrificing woman. This forward-looking feminine view is apparent in her story Beauty and the Beast . Though she retained many of the traditional feminine virtues of the eighteenth century, she challenged many others that subjugated women.

It has been stated that Beaumont supported female education, and stressed women’s superiority over men (Walker 61). Her stories opine her views on femininity and female superiority. The idealistic world of female superiority painted by Beaumont in her stories was mostly domestic and had a deep sense of religiosity in it. She herself stated that she used her novels as a device to “instill virtue” among “young readers” (Walker 61).

In Beauty and the Beast Beaumont portrays the female with feminine virtue becomes the real hero and saves a man doomed for his ignorant arrogance and feeling of superiority. This essay analyses the portrayal of feminine ideals in the story Beauty and the Beast . This paper argues that de Beaumont’s version of Beauty and the Beast transcended from the traditional feminine ideals, to present women as strong and willful rather than submissive and docile, even when they retained their virtue of kindness and generosity.

The setting of Beaumont’s Beauty and the Beast is the world of merchants and nobility (Beaumont 1). The story depicts a class struggle of the merchants and the nobles, where the merchant’s daughters dream of upward mobility. However, the struggle is dealt with only briefly and the story moved on to the good-natured “Little Beauty” in contrast to her arrogant and airy sisters. The story narrates the feminine virtues that all women must embrace through prosperity and poverty.

The story presents a prosperous family in the beginning and shows the selfless, humble, and genteel behavior of Beauty. Beaumont’s Beauty becomes the ideal for feminine virtues. The story clearly demonstrates the feminine virtues that Beaumont wanted to preach among young women – goodness, education, tolerance, and humility. She spins the tale of an ill-fated merchant and his family of six children – three daughters and three sons.

Beaumont emphasizes that all the children of the merchant were educated by stating, “… he spared no cost for their education” (1). The heroine of the story, Beauty, the youngest of the six children, and the most “handsome” of the three sisters wan the one with sweet temperament. Beauty was not just a woman of kindness and of feminine virtues, but also courageous and hard working. The virtues of Beauty were demonstrated through her selfless conduct.

First, when her father was rich, she did not lose her head in arrogance like her elder sisters and treated all with courtesy. Then when their fortunes fell, Beauty remained composed and helped her father and brothers in hard time through her help to do the household chores. Then in the end to prevent, her father going into the clutches of the Beast with whom she falls in love and then marries. Her virtues are hailed and rewarded when the Beast turns out to be a prince under a fairy’s curse and becomes the Queen.

Beaumont’s Beauty and the Beast is actually the story of Beauty. Beaumont actually adapted the story of Beauty and the Beast as a moralistic story for the education of young women. The true virtuosity of Beauty is revealed when she learns to keep a household and do the household chores even though she was not accustomed to work like a servant. Beaumont wants to reveal that hard work is another ideal for women, and they should take pride in doing household chores rather than be lazy.

When her father learns of the safe journey of his lost ship, he asks his children what they want from the city. While Beauty’s sisters ask for dresses and jewels, Beauty in her modesty asks for a rose that Beaumont explain, “Not that Beauty cared for a rose, but she asked for something, lest she should seem by her example to condemn her sisters’ conduct, who would have said she did it only to look particular.” (Beaumont 3)

Through this, Beaumont emphasizes that women of ideals would know the financial situation as well as the men and would take care not to squander hard-earned money. Beauty’s virtues are further demonstrated when she decides that it would be she who goes to live with the Beast in order to save her father’s life.

Though Beauty remains visibly scared of the Beast initially, she learns to like the heart within the scary facade, and a friendship between the two evolves. This demonstrates that Beauty had successfully transcended from her fears and prejudice against those who looked ugly even though she truthfully acknowledges it. Here Beaumont imbibes another ideal for women – always speak the truth. An ideal woman is one who speaks the truth, even if it is not endearing to the other’s ears.

Beauty has an unending sense of duty. Beaumont adorns her heroine with a sense of duty that is shown in all course of the story. She worked for the household as she feels it to be her duty to take care of the house – “Beauty rose at four in the morning, and made haste to have the house clean, and dinner ready for the family.” (Beaumont 2) However, it must be noted that Beaumont emphasizes that the female must work within the household, and that is her rightful duty.

Beauty again becomes the ideal female, unlike her sisters who were lazy. However, it must be noted that the sphere of women’s work, as demarcated by Beaumont is the household. Beauty’s sense of duty is expressed further when she decides to go and live with the Beast in place of her father demonstrating that a daughter must be ready to sacrifice herself for the safety of her family (expressed as her father in the story).

However, it must be noted that Beaumont in her version of the story leaves it as a choice for Beauty to decide for herself if she wanted to do the sacrifice for her father and she viewed it as her duty rather than sacrifice as has been expressed in earlier version of the story by Madame de Villeneuve’s story (153-229). Therefore, Beaumont stresses the feeling of duty towards her parents should be an innate quality of women and should not be confused as a sacrifice.

Beaumont stressed the need to avoid vices in women through the discourse of the evil and conniving elder sisters of Beauty. Through the character of the sisters, Beaumont created an “other” for the genteel Beauty in order to demonstrate the vices that should be present in female character.

Beaumont in the very beginning of the story sates that Beauty was the youngest of the sisters but she was admired the most: “… but everyone admired the youngest one in particular…. [and] called her simply ‘Little Beauty’…. as a result it led to a great deal of envy on the part of her sisters” (Beaumont 1). Beauty relation with her sisters creates her character as a humble female.

Beauty stats that in order to hide her sister’s follies she asks for a rose from her father: “Not that Beauty cared for a rose, but she asked for something, lest she should seem by her example to condemn her sisters’ conduct, who would have said she did it only to look particular.” (Beaumont 3) In another instance, when Beauty returns to visit her family for a week, the evil sisters were unhappy to see Beauty so happy and adorned in riches. This leads them to plot against her:

Beauty’s sisters sickened with envy, when they saw her dressed like a princess, and more beautiful than ever, nor could all her obliging affectionate behavior stifle their jealousy, which was ready to burst when she told them how happy she was.

They went down into the garden to vent it in tears; and said one to the other, in what way is this little creature better than us, that she should be so much happier? “Sister,” said the oldest, “a thought just strikes my mind; let us endeavor to detain her above a week, and perhaps the silly monster will be so enraged at her for breaking her word, that he will devour her.” (Beaumont 12)

They were envious of their little sister’s good fortune and lamented over their misfortunes. They chose their husband unwisely as the elder fell for the love of good looks and the second daughter fell for wit. Bet both their husbands mistreated and neglected them. The otherness Beaumont created through the elder sisters showed the vices that women should not have.

Beauty’s sisters through their envious nature, constant harmful actions against their younger sister, and Beauty’s constant forgiveness outshine her and bring forth her positive qualities. Therefore, beauty’s good qualities set at the backdrop of the conniving evil elder sisters bring forth the former’s good nature. Beauty realised her true self through the unkindness and egocentricity that she did not want her husband to be neither handsome nor witty like her sisters.

On the contrary, she wanted a husband who was caring and warm hearted like the Beast. This self-realization of beauty to ultimately marry the beast was brought forth through the wickedness of her sisters. Thus, beauty’s unwavering kindness was received with wealth and happiness, while the wicked sisters were punished for their treachery and are turned into statues that would constantly witness their sister’s kindness and learn from her warm nature.

Beaumont undoubtedly wanted Beauty to become the ideal feminine role model with all the traditional values of kindness, generosity, humbleness, self-sacrificing, and trustworthy. However, her Beauty digresses from her predecessor’s Beauty in her essence of self-identity. Beauty is the individual in Beaumont’s novel. She is a girl with all the virtues of a true feminine irrespective of her class. Villeneuve recounts that her Beauty was of noble birth, and therefore, her good nature was innate to royalty (220).

However, Beauty of Beaumont was good-natured naturally irrespective of the class she belonged to. Further, in Beaumont’s story beauty assumed the central and maximum attention. In contrast to Villeneuve version of the story, Beaumont clearly omits a few lengthy areas of her predecessor’s novel – the episode of the beast’s early life. The Beast in Beaumont’s story is a character that supports in demonstrating beauty’s graciousness.

Beaumont creates allegorical beauty who loves books and she derives some of her good nature from her love of good books. Therefore, she stresses that beauty was a reading woman to emphasize the importance of education in young women. Therefore, many believe Beaumont’s Beauty was created in the middle class background, and not in the noble class, with the specific desire to create a new kind of heroine “specifically to reinforce the goals of the meritocracy for the young women who were the intended audience” (Cummins 23-5).

Beaumont’s Beauty is scholarly and has an intellectual element in her stature. Beauty amused herself with reading even when she did all the household chores. When at the Beast’s palace, Beauty explored the house, discovered “Beauty’s Apartment”, and found there a large library:

She opened it hastily, and was quite dazzled with the magnificence that reigned throughout; but what chiefly took up her attention, was a large library, a harpsichord, and several music books. (Beaumont 8)

Beaumont stressed that even when beauty was alone and afraid she found courage in her books, again stressing on the importance of education for women. Therefore, need for education for reformation of women formed an important discourse in Beaumont’s story.

So, was Beaumont creating a heroine who was educated and well read, full of virtue, but was docile, submissive like the traditional women, and feminine? Was Beaumont trying to show that the true mark of a woman was in her obedience, humility, and patience? On reading the story from the point of view of a modern feminist, Beaumont’s Beauty emerges as a submissive character that shows women to be self-sacrificing at the cost of drowning their won desires, and subjugating to the marriages that are arranged by their family in depicting beauty’s situation at the Beast’s castle is concerned.

Further, the aristocratic girl in Beaumont’s story is shown that one should be wise enough to marry a man who may appear as a beast at first appearance, but a true woman can transform even a beast to a beautiful prince (Griswold 63). Nevertheless, one must acknowledge that it was written in the eighteenth century and from the point of view of the then prevalent social orders, Beaumont appears to be a radical feminist.

One of the most radical views presented in the book was equal education for both boys and girls, when the then prevalent social norm was to school only boys. Beaumont’s Beauty is not always submissive as her beauty may recoil with horror at the first sight of the Beast but that does not prevent her from speaking her mind. This shows the willpower in the heroine. Then her decision to save her father was taken as she felt that she had equal responsibility to save her father like her brothers, and not as an act of sacrifice.

Further, when Beauty returns to meet her father, she indulges in her own wishes and does not submit to the Beast’s orders. Therefore, from the context of eighteenth century, the book upholds female independence and education that may seem trivial from today’s context but then, assumed great importance. Thus, Beaumont’s Beauty emerges not as a heroine but as a female hero in her Beauty and the Beast .

Works Cited

Beaumont, Jeanne Marie Le Prince de. Beauty and the Beast. NA: Forgotten Books. , 1756. Print.

Cummins, June. “Romancing the Plot: The Real Beast of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast .” Children’s Literature Association Quarterly, 20(1) (1995): 22–8. Print.

Griswold, Jerome. The meanings of “Beauty and the Beast”: a handbook. Toronto: Broadview Press, 2004. Print.

Villeneuve, Gabrielle Suzanne de. “The Story of Beauty and the Beast.”.” Zipes., Jack. Beauties, Beasts, and Enchantment: Classic French Fairy Tales. New York: Smithmark Publishers, 1989. 153–229. Print.

Walker, Lesley H. A mother’s love: crafting feminine virtue in Enlightenment France. Cranbury, NJ: Associated University Presse, 2008. Print.

Zipes, Jack David. Fairy tale as myth/myth as fairy tale . Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 1994. Print.

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Bibliography

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A Summary and Analysis of the ‘Beauty and the Beast’ Fairy Tale

By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)

Perhaps such an august fairy tale of such fine vintage deserves closer analysis, since it’s clearly spoken to many cultures across a vast time span. What makes ‘Beauty and the Beast’ so intellectually satisfying (to borrow the Opies’ phrase), and why has it endured?

Plot summary

Well, first, here’s a quick reminder or summary of the plot of ‘Beauty and the Beast’. A wealthy merchant has three daughters, the youngest of which is admired widely for her beauty, and comes to be known simply as ‘Beauty’.

Her older sisters are far prouder than she is, and let it be known that they will only marry an earl or duke. When their father loses his fortune, the two older sisters find it difficult to adjust to a life of penury, but the loyal and modest Beauty sets about finding ways to help out her father around the house.

After a year of this, their merchant-father receives a letter telling him that a ship containing some of his property has arrived in port, so he sets off to meet it.

He asks his daughters what gifts they would like him to bring back for them: the two eldest daughters ask for expensive gowns and jewels, but Beauty requests a simple rose. Their father sets off, but after the legal hearing concerning the ship’s property, he leaves with nothing, and begins the despondent journey home.

On his way, he gets lost in the woods, and comes upon a house where he takes refuge. This great house appears to be empty, and the merchant falls asleep in it, and wakes to find that breakfast has been prepared for him. Going out into the garden, he remembers his promise to Beauty, and so plucks a single rose from the bush – at which point, a fearsome Beast appears, declaring that he is the owner of the house and that the merchant has insulted his hospitality by stealing a rose like this.

The Beast says he will kill the merchant, but the merchant begs for his life, and the Beast says he will allow the merchant to live, as long as he returns home and brings back one of his daughters to be killed in his stead. Failing that, in three months’ time the merchant must return and face his fate.

The merchant, seizing the opportunity to see his daughters again, agrees, and the Beast gives him a bag full of coins to be on his way home. When he arrives home, the merchant keeps the money a secret, but tells his children about his promise to the Beast.

When Beauty hears about it, she says she will follow her father back to the Beast’s palace, since she won’t allow him to be killed for her (it was because he plucked a rose for Beauty that the Beast sentenced him to death).

At the palace, the Beast sees that both Beauty and her father have arrived, and so he dismisses the father, who reluctantly and despondently returns home, convinced that the Beast will eat up his daughter at the palace.

But the Beast treats Beauty well, who in turn is kind to the Beast: she admits that she finds him physically ugly, but she sees that he has a good heart underneath. He asks her to marry him, and she says no. Not content with this, the Beast continues to ask Beauty every night if she will marry him, but each night she says no.

Beauty, learning that her older sisters have married and her father is all alone at home, asks the Beast if she might go and visit him. The Beast agrees, since he cannot bear to see Beauty unhappy, but as long as she agrees to return after a week.

Beauty agrees to this, but when she is at home with her father, her sisters – jealous of their sister, who has been given the finest clothes by the Beast, while they have married horrible husbands – return home and conspire to use emotional blackmail to make Beauty stay away from the Beast for longer than a week. They hope that by doing so, the Beast will be enraged and will come and devour Beauty!

But after she has been at home for ten nights, Beauty grows ill at ease. Why did she refuse to marry Beast, just because he is ugly? He is kind and caring and worships her, and wants to make her happy. She would be happier with him than her sisters are with their selfish and cruel husbands. So she resolves to return to the palace.

But when she gets there, she finds the Beast on the floor, unconscious; bringing him round, he reveals that when she didn’t return as promised, he resolved to starve himself. Now she has returned, he can die happy. But Beauty says she will marry him, and longs for him to live.

No sooner has Beauty said this than the Beast disappears, and is replaced by a handsome young prince, who tells her that an evil fairy cast a spell over him, transforming him into a hideous creature; he would only be freed from the spell when a young woman agreed to marry him. Beauty has freed him from the wicked spell.

A beautiful fairy appears, and uses magic to transport Beauty’s father and her sisters to the palace. The fairy turns Beauty’s two older sisters into statues, so that they must forever look on their younger sister’s happiness: this is the punishment for their malice. Beauty and the Prince Formerly Known as Beast get married and live happily ever after.

Stockholm Syndrome: this has made the tale of Beauty and the Beast unpalatable in some circles. Beauty only comes to love the Beast because she is placed under house arrest at his home; she initially doesn’t want to be there.

And the moral of ‘Beauty and the Beast’ seems to be all over the place. Beauty’s reward for prizing virtue above physical good looks is … an attractive husband. It’s not that there’s no way of interpreting or analysing this so that it makes sense, just that the story’s moral is not as straightforward as it is in some other fairy tales.

Why did ‘Beauty and the Beast’ become popular when it did? This is difficult to pinpoint for sure, and any analysis of the fairy tale’s popularity must be based partly on conjecture, but it’s possible to see it as a tale promoting the idea of marriage to someone you might not necessarily find attractive: it is significant that Beauty’s father is a merchant, and his daughters either want to marry wealthy and aristocratic men or else it is expected that they will.

Arranged marriages were common in France at the time: was ‘Beauty and the Beast’, in the last analysis, a sort of ‘handbook’ for young brides entering into marriages with hideous older men, all hair and bad breath but with a good kind heart underneath (if they were lucky)?

Different versions

‘Beauty and the Beast’ appeared in Madame Leprince de Beaumont’s Magasin des enfans, ou dialogues entre une sage Gouvernante et plusieurs de ses Élèves in 1756. But in fact, as already noted, the basic plot of the story dates back far earlier. There was a 1740 version (much longer) also published in French, by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, and this is the first version of the tale of ‘Beauty and the Beast’ as we now know it.

Before that, Madame d’Aulnoy, French queen of the fairy tale (and originator of the term), had written ‘Mouton’, or ‘The Royal Ram’, which appeared in an English translation in 1721, and shares some similarities with ‘Beauty and the Beast’. But there is also a similar tale in the Pentamerone from the 1630s, involving a monster marrying a beautiful princess.

The Opies mention a popular non-western version in which ‘a crocodile changes into a fine man when his bride consents to lick his face.’ Even The Golden Ass , from the 2 nd century AD, we get a version of the story involving Cupid and Psyche. In short, we’ve been fascinated by this idea of hideous beasts marrying beautiful women for a long while. Perhaps what that tells us about marriage and the sexes is best left unexplored.

Continue to explore the world of fairy tales with these classic Victorian fairy stories , our discussion of the Bluebeard myth , and our analysis of the ‘Hansel and Gretel’ fairy tale .

4 thoughts on “A Summary and Analysis of the ‘Beauty and the Beast’ Fairy Tale”

Could it be men see themselves as beasts wanting to desecrate beauty of women?

Shows that a father is wiling to sacrifice his child to save his own life. Men, including the christian god do things like that all the time. Children are goods to be given away or traded for something. It again shows how evil sisters, step or otherwise, are to each other. Bitter competition or jealousy over men who can care for them, since women are never allowed to take care of themselves and are always forced into dependency. Shows how beauty, in women is not appreciated by other women but seen as something to hate and envy, so no sisterhood there either. Women turning on women, hating, ganging up on the pretty one, Cinderella, etc., always women hating. Women sent to die. Boys/princes are never motherless, jus the girls/princesses. Dead women are the best women in a lot of fairy tales and the dead ones are usually the nice mothers. So this is just one more tale about horrible fathers who care more about themselves then they do their daughters. Men getting what they want and females hating each other. Sigh. Blah.

Hmm, I just reviewed this very story when Theatre By The Lake produced it over the Christmas period. As usual, I researched it before writing my review and I have to say I was left disquieted. I was taken aback by the final ‘message’ of the play that ‘a beautiful innocent can marry a monster and change him into a prince’.

Given the history of the publication(s) – namely to prepare well-to-do French girls for arranged marriages – the implications are clear. It is selling a myth that if you are pious and virtuous, well-behaved and do all that is expected of you, you can turn your monster of a husband into something decent. By implication then, if your husband remains a monster, you must be getting it wrong and need to work harder.

For me, I find this somewhat unpalatable and feel Beauty and the Beast needs to be consigned to the realm of ‘stories we don’t like to talk about any more’. Especially noting the continued popularity of both film versions. Young girls are still getting the message in a rather covert but definite way. My own experience is that my own daughter remains a fan even in adult life now and she’s far from alone in the area where we live. We storytellers have to careful with the messages we bring….

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Beauty and the Beast: the dark history of a literary fairytale

From classical myths to psychoanalytic theory, the story behind Disney’s new live-action movie has a fascinating past

I f it is anything like as successful as the 1991 animated version, the remake of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast as a live-action movie, opening next week, is likely to be one of the hit films of 2017. I hope so, because I have spent a lifetime obsessing over this particular fairytale.

To begin with, it was not a fairy story but the classical myth of Cupid and Psyche, featuring the first action heroine in literature. According to Apuleius’s The Golden Ass , Psyche’s beauty incites the anger of Venus, who commands her son Cupid to punish her. Instead, he is smitten. Offered up on Apollo’s command as a sacrifice to a monster by her father the king, Psyche is carried off to a beautiful palace where she spends every night in darkness with a lover she promises never to look upon, who she assumes to be the monster.

When she is persuaded to kill him, the candle she smuggles in to the room reveals her lover to be Cupid, who flees, angered by Psyche’s betrayal. The unhappy Psyche must win him back by going on a quest to placate the jealous Venus. She wins through, and Cupid begs, successfully, for her to be made immortal. United, the body and soul produce a child, Pleasure.

Effectively, this is the plot of Beauty and the Beast , written by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve in 1740, and retold countless times under other names, from the Norwegian fairytale “East of the Sun, West of the Moon” to Sarah J Maas ’s bestselling 2015 fantasy novel A Court of Thorns and Roses . Originally one of what the psychoanalyst Bruno Bettelheim called “animal groom” stories, intended to reassure virginal brides about sex, Beauty and the Beast has itself been repeatedly transformed.

The original interpretations of it are distasteful. From depictions in antiquity to Canova’s sculptures, artists have tended to present a swooning Psyche in Cupid’s embrace rather than showing her as an active protagonist winning love and divine status in her own right.

Yet Madame de Villeneuve’s version, on which numerous novels and films are based, argues – as Marina Warner says in From the Beast to the Blonde – “for marriages of true minds”. Her Beast must learn to express his heart and mind to become worth loving. It’s a pattern echoed by Samuel Richardson’s Pamela , and even by Pride and Prejudice , in which the proud, rich Mr Darcy must reveal his true goodness to win the witty, bookish Elizabeth Bennet.

Anthony Trollope’s Ayala’s Angel has its impoverished, idealistic heroine reject the honourable Colonel Stubbs because of his bristly red hair and ugly surname, until she is persuaded by events that he is “the real Angel of Light” she has been seeking all along. Even Cocteau’s delicate, dreamlike 1946 film La Belle et la Bête focuses on Belle’s awakening to the Beast’s virtue rather than the Beast experiencing a change.

Angela Carter argued that the story of Beauty and the Beast must be seen “as a literary fairytale”, and her subversive The Tiger’s Bride acknowledged that Beauty needs the Beast quite as much as vice versa. The Disney cartoon, perhaps surprisingly, is the best version yet. Disney’s Beast begins as the incarnation of the spoilt rich kid but love turns him into a brave, generous and self-sacrificing hero. He steals the show even as the feminist, bookish (and rather prim) Belle reforms and loves him.

When I was asked for a novella this year by Quick Reads, the annual initiative run by the Reading Agency , whose mission is to inspire more people to read, Beauty and the Beast seemed the obvious story to use. The Other Side of You has a deprived teenager hiding from a murder. He believes he is outcast as a beast; what changes him is love (and reading). I am currently writing yet another version of the fairytale. Reading is now integral to the fairy story – reflecting, perhaps, how stories themselves give us new versions of ourselves.

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Home > All theses > 545

Theses - ALL

Tale as old as...feminism the (re)making of beauty and the beast.

Cara Doreen Hardman , Syracuse University

Date of Award

Spring 5-23-2021

Degree Type

Degree name.

Master of Arts (MA)

Communication and Rhetorical Studies

Hall, Rachel

Antifeminist, Beauty and the Beast, Belle, Disney, Feminist, Gender

Subject Categories

Arts and Humanities | Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies | Film and Media Studies | Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Studies

In this thesis, I investigate Disney's positioning of the live-action Beauty and the Beast as feminist. Up to this point, Disney's animated Beauty and the Beast has both been hailed as presenting audiences with an empowered princess and criticized for the Beast's aggressive behavior and the positioning of Belle as a woman meant to propel the Beast's story forward. I provide an assessment of the gender politics depicted in Disney's live-action Beauty and the Beast, and I problematize the tendency to classify texts as either entirely feminist or utterly antifeminist. As a whole, this thesis provides an in-depth analysis of the gender politics of Disney's live-action Beauty and the Beast to address the importance of acknowledging that popular culture texts are complex and cannot be reduced to an either/or binary opposition between progressive and retrograde. To label a film such as Disney's live-action Beauty and the Beast as purely feminist or strictly antifeminist ignores the potential for contradictory messages to be communicated.

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Hardman, Cara Doreen, "Tale As Old As...Feminism? The (re)making of Beauty and the Beast" (2021). Theses - ALL . 545. https://surface.syr.edu/thesis/545

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Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection)

Two in one: the union of jung's anima and animus in beauty and the beast.

Kathryn Sullivan , Regis University

First Advisor

Narcisi, Lara

Second Advisor

Dimovitz, Scott

Regis College

Degree Name

Regis College Senior Honors Program

Document Type

Thesis - Open Access

Number of Pages

Psychoanalysts such as Bruno Bettelheim and Sheldon Cashdan have theorized that popular fairy tales provide children with a way to confront negative aspects of themselves by exorcising these aspects into the villainous characters contained therein. However, despite the fact that the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale contains no similar villain in its literary form, it remains prominent in the popular canon today. This thesis uses Carl Jung's anima and animus archetypes to develop the argument that the two title characters achieve this representation of the self in a different way, ultimately functioning together to create a unified 'self through the symbol of their marriage. It develops these images through Disney's version of the tale in its 1991 animated film and in two short stories by Angela Carter entitled "The Courtship of Mr. Lyon" and "The Tiger's Bride." Each incarnation of the tale reveals new facets of the characters, but they have the most meaning when considered together because they reflect different concerns within the self. The story implicitly addresses these concerns in each variation, and although the tale does not provide the same sort of psychodrama evident in many of the other fairy tales in the canon of Western literature, it amplifies and resolves a similar set of concerns into a positive and unified self.

Date of Award

Spring 2013

Location (Creation)

Colorado (state); Denver (county); Denver (inhabited place)

© Kathryn Sullivan

Rights Statement

All content in this Collection is owned by and subject to the exclusive control of Regis University and the authors of the materials. It is available only for research purposes and may not be used in violation of copyright laws or for unlawful purposes. The materials may not be downloaded in whole or in part without permission of the copyright holder or as otherwise authorized in the “fair use” standards of the U.S. copyright laws and regulations.

Recommended Citation

Sullivan, Kathryn, "Two in One: the Union of Jung's Anima and Animus in Beauty and the Beast" (2013). Regis University Student Publications (comprehensive collection) . 601. https://epublications.regis.edu/theses/601

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The Art of Retelling Fairy Tales: A Study of “Beauty and the Beast” Fairy Tale, Robin McKinley’s Beauty: A Retelling of the Story Beauty and the Beast (1978) and the 2017 Disney Adaptation

This thesis seeks to investigate how female characters are represented in classical fairy tales and in their retellings. The study uses the famous fairy tale “Beauty and the Beast” as a case study. Three versions of this fairy tale are examined: James Planché’s English translation “Beauty and the Beast” (1858) as a classic, its retelling by Robin McKinley under the title of Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast (1978), and its Disney adaptation of 2017 entitled Beauty and the Beast. In addition, the study explores whether the female characters of each narrative are empowered or disempowered. Furthermore, this research traces the message evolution of the classical fairy tale throughout its retellings. Following the analytical and the comparative methods, the present investigation is conducted through the use of two literary approaches. From the one hand, feminism is imperative to this study since the protagonist is a female herself, and because the study tackles female representation as well as female (dis)empowerment. From the other hand, the historical approach permits the assessment of message evolution. The study concludes that while female characters are positively represented as well as fully empowered in McKinley’s retelling because it is a highly feminist tale, their representation and empowerment is only partial and delusional in both the classic and the 2017 adaptation. Finally, though the fairy tale versions are produced in different periods, developed differently and written to accomplish dissimilar purposes, the key message of the classical fairy tale is still the same in both retellings: it did not change but it rather evolved.

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Home > Honors College > Theses > 150

Honors Theses

Changing the nature of the beast: an analysis of significant variations from madame de beaumont’s la belle et la bête in disney’s beauty and the beast.

Heather A. Stevens , University of Southern Mississippi

Date of Award

Spring 5-2013

Degree Type

Honors College Thesis

First Advisor

Jameela Lares

Advisor Department

Madame Jeanne-Marie LePrince de Beaumont wrote and published La Belle et La Bête while working as a governess and educator in 1757. She told the tale to a young female audience as a means of teaching important life lessons. Walt Disney’s animated film Beauty and the Beast, released in 1991, is clearly inspired by Beaumont’s story, yet Disney makes many alterations to her characters. This thesis locates and analyzes these changes, arguing that they greatly alter the message of Beaumont’s story from one that is empowering to women to one that is harmful and ultimately anti-woman. This thesis also examines the first cinematic version of the Beauty and the Beast tale, La Belle et La Bête (1946), because Disney’s version also clearly draws a great deal of inspiration from this adaptation. In order to historically and socially contextualize the original tale, this thesis also includes a brief biography of Beaumont.

Copyright for this thesis is owned by the author. It may be freely accessed by all users. However, any reuse or reproduction not covered by the exceptions of the Fair Use or Educational Use clauses of U.S. Copyright Law or without permission of the copyright holder may be a violation of federal law. Contact the administrator if you have additional questions.

Recommended Citation

Stevens, Heather A., "Changing the Nature of the Beast: An Analysis of Significant Variations From Madame De Beaumont’s La Belle Et La Bête In Disney’s Beauty and the Beast" (2013). Honors Theses . 150. https://aquila.usm.edu/honors_theses/150

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Home — Essay Samples — Literature — Beauty and The Beast — A Theme of Beauty in “Beauty and the Beast”

"Beauty and The Beast": The Theme of True Beauty

• Categories: Beauty and The Beast Book Review

About this sample

Words: 1484 |

Published: Oct 2, 2020

Words: 1484 | Pages: 3 | 8 min read

Madame de Villeneuve's "The Story of Beauty and the Beast" is set in eighteenth-century France and presents a fictional yet instructive tale. This narrative, while imaginary, imparts valuable lessons about the true nature of beauty and the importance of kindness and selflessness. The story revolves around the notion that genuine beauty lies within a person, transcending mere physical appearance and reflecting qualities like sacrifice, forgiveness, and grace.

The Beast, initially perceived as a ferocious monster, also surprises readers by displaying grace and hospitality towards Beauty and her father. This challenges the preconceived notion that antagonists cannot possess redeeming qualities and emphasizes the importance of not judging based on appearances. Throughout various adaptations of "Beauty and the Beast," including the Disney film, the story's core message remains intact. It highlights society's tendency to place undue importance on physical appearance and the need for individuals to look beyond the surface to recognize true beauty. The story teaches that kindness, forgiveness, and sacrifice are the most significant gestures of love and affirmation one can offer.

In today's world, where appearances often overshadow character, "The Story of Beauty and the Beast" serves as a timeless reminder that genuine beauty emanates from within, offering a valuable lesson in empathy and understanding for readers of all ages.

Table of contents

Introduction, true beauty in the beauty and the beast, “beauty and the beast” adaptations, works cited.

• Beaumont, J. M. (1991). Beauty and the Beast: Classic tales about animal brides and grooms from around the world. Penguin.
• Bettelheim, B. (1977). The uses of enchantment: The meaning and importance of fairy tales. Vintage Books.
• Bruno Bettelheim (1963). The Child's Need for Magic in the World and in Himself. The Journal of Aesthetic Education, 1(2), 9-16.
• Do Rozario, R. (2014). Breaking the spell: Queer readings of fairy tales. University Press of Mississippi.
• Haase, D. (Ed.). (2008). The Greenwood encyclopedia of folktales and fairy tales: A-F. Greenwood Press.
• Hoffman, E. T. A. (2012). The Nutcracker and the Mouse King. The Floating Press.
• Kahney, L. (2003). The cult of Mac. No starch press.
• McLeod, S. (2014). Jean Piaget's theory of cognitive development. Simply Psychology.
• Perrault, C. (2008). The tales of Mother Goose. Oxford University Press.
• Zipes, J. (2006). Why fairy tales stick: The evolution and relevance of a genre. Routledge.

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Home > STUDENT-WORKS > honors > 104

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Beauty and the beast: across cultures and time..

Bridgette Johnson , East Tennessee State University

Honors Program

Honors in English

Date of Award

Thesis professor(s).

Phyllis Thompson

Thesis Professor Department

Literature and Language

Thesis Reader(s)

Jessie Bray, Melissa Schrift

This thesis traces the fairy tale of Beauty and Beast across different cultures in classic versions of the tale to examine social and cultural factors and gender norms and compares those findings to modern retellings while examining the same themes as the classic tales.

Document Type

Honors Thesis - Withheld

Creative Commons License

Recommended citation.

Johnson, Bridgette, "Beauty and the Beast: Across Cultures and Time." (2013). Undergraduate Honors Theses. Paper 104. https://dc.etsu.edu/honors/104

Copyright by the authors.

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