Analyzing Madame De Beaumont's 'Beauty And The Beast'
Kelly McLaen
WGST 199-01
Professor Uman
1/28/14
1. Tatar suggests that Madame de Beaumont’s “Beauty and the Beast” demonstrates her desire to turn the fairy tale into “parables of instructions”. This is to display vehicles for indoctrinating and enlightening children about the virtues of good manners, good breeding, and good behavior. Throughout Beaumont’s tale, Belle begins to learn such virtues. She gains such virtues from the willingness to sacrifice herself. Belle sacrifices herself and agrees to marry Beast in order to save her father and prove her feelings for him. We can also observe Belle begin to value essences over appearances. She states: “It is neither good looks nor great wit that makes a woman happy with her husband, but character, virtue, and …show more content…
kindness, and beast has all those good qualities.
I may not be in love with him, but I feel respect, friendship, and gratitude toward him.” This proves that Belle learns to appreciate what is on the inside of a person rather than what is on the outside. Though these messages are the most prominent of the tale type, in other versions of the tale the heroine didn’t learn these lessons on her own. In the Norwegian “East o’ the sun and West o’ the Moon,” the heroine was actually talked into marrying the beast by her father who convinces her that she would eventually be extremely rich. This represents an arranged marriage and how brides view them as being forced to marry a beast. A lesson that the heroine learned in this tale would be to accept arranged marriages, even though she may not be attracted to the beast because it will be for the best. You see her learn this after her father convinces her to marry the white bear and she willingly agrees to the marriage. Lessons like this one were applicable to previous times when arranged marriages were more common, which began to change as it grew unpopular, and form into the lesson of Beaumont’s tale which is to
value what’s on the inside rather than the outside.
2. Personally, I do not view Angela Carter’s “The Tiger’s Bride” as a feminist revision of the Beauty and the Beast tale type. I find that the tale objectifies women. The only way that the beast will let her go is if she gets naked in front of the beast. A feminist would want the woman to refuse and by refusing won her case. Instead, the woman gives in and shows the beast her naked skin. I also do not find this written in a feminist point of view because he uses her sexuality against her. When she does show the beast her naked body, she moves into an elegant room instead of the cell she was stuck in before. This suggests that the more sexual favors that she does for the beast the better he is to treat her. This is not at all how a feminist would rewrite a tale.
WGST 199-01
Professor Uman
1/28/14
1. Tatar suggests that Madame de Beaumont’s “Beauty and the Beast” demonstrates her desire to turn the fairy tale into “parables of instructions”. This is to display vehicles for indoctrinating and enlightening children about the virtues of good manners, good breeding, and good behavior. Throughout Beaumont’s tale, Belle begins to learn such virtues. She gains such virtues from the willingness to sacrifice herself. Belle sacrifices herself and agrees to marry Beast in order to save her father and prove her feelings for him. We can also observe Belle begin to value essences over appearances. She states: “It is neither good looks nor great wit that makes a woman happy with her husband, but character, virtue, and …show more content…
kindness, and beast has all those good qualities.
I may not be in love with him, but I feel respect, friendship, and gratitude toward him.” This proves that Belle learns to appreciate what is on the inside of a person rather than what is on the outside. Though these messages are the most prominent of the tale type, in other versions of the tale the heroine didn’t learn these lessons on her own. In the Norwegian “East o’ the sun and West o’ the Moon,” the heroine was actually talked into marrying the beast by her father who convinces her that she would eventually be extremely rich. This represents an arranged marriage and how brides view them as being forced to marry a beast. A lesson that the heroine learned in this tale would be to accept arranged marriages, even though she may not be attracted to the beast because it will be for the best. You see her learn this after her father convinces her to marry the white bear and she willingly agrees to the marriage. Lessons like this one were applicable to previous times when arranged marriages were more common, which began to change as it grew unpopular, and form into the lesson of Beaumont’s tale which is to
value what’s on the inside rather than the outside.
2. Personally, I do not view Angela Carter’s “The Tiger’s Bride” as a feminist revision of the Beauty and the Beast tale type. I find that the tale objectifies women. The only way that the beast will let her go is if she gets naked in front of the beast. A feminist would want the woman to refuse and by refusing won her case. Instead, the woman gives in and shows the beast her naked skin. I also do not find this written in a feminist point of view because he uses her sexuality against her. When she does show the beast her naked body, she moves into an elegant room instead of the cell she was stuck in before. This suggests that the more sexual favors that she does for the beast the better he is to treat her. This is not at all how a feminist would rewrite a tale.