beuaty and the beast

In the fairytale Beauty and the Beast written by Jeanne-Marie LePrince de Beaumont, and The Little Mermaid written by Hans Christian Andersen have female protagonist who are pure at heart. In both stories, Beauty (the protagonist in Beauty and the Beast) and the little mermaid (the protagonist in The Little Mermaid) are unpretentious women that show love to others. Both the dilemma in Beauty and the Beast and The Little Mermaid revolve around love, yet both of their dilemmas are quite different. This paper will first address what love is, and what thoughts and feelings accompany love and how it relates to these stories. This paper will look at how little mermaid does not actually receive love back from her prince and how Beauty engages in a relationship and begins to love the Beast. Additionally, the paper will give evidence that the little mermaid’s dilemma is self-imposed, whereas Beauty indulges in her dilemma willingly. This paper will lastly look at the theme of “inner beauty” and how this resulted in the success for Beauty; as well as extrapolate that if the little mermaid showed the prince her true beauty, that it would have led to success, rather than her downfall. To understand the dilemma of love, one must understand what it means to love and what love is. The subject of love is extremely complex and is beyond the scope of this paper. So for the simplicity of this paper, a few scholarly articles will be used to aid in the definition of the complicated concept. The conclusion of Beall and Sternberg’s paper relates to Andersen’s The Little Mermaid. In the Little Mermaid, the mermaid was swimming late and saw a ship sinking. She proceeded to save the prince from the ship wreck and brought him to shore. She immediately falls for the prince. In fact when she brings him to shore, the mermaid “…kissed his high, smooth forehead, and stroked back his wet hair” (Andersen, 1836). The prince never sees the mermaid because he is unconscious. Later in the fairy