Beauty and the Beast Essay Example

Beaumont vs Disney: A Comparative Look into a Classic Fairy tales and stories are something that has been around since the beginning of time. Tales were passed down from generation to generation, and in the case of fairy tales, these stories were not at first geared towards any age group, but instead for anyone, for entertainment purposes. Growing up, one of my favorite tales was Beauty and the Beast. If you ask children if they know this story, I would guarantee almost one hundred percent of them would. However, I’m sure the story they would know is that of the Disney version. In my lifetime, the majority of fairy tales I know are the Disney version. There is more than just Disney’s version of Beauty and the Beast, for example, the original by Le Prince de Beaumont, which will be discussed as well. To simply compare and contrast the two versions would not suffice in really understanding the underlying tones and meanings of the two stories. Instead, an excerpt from Bruno Bettleheim’s, The Uses of Enchantment will be used to delve deeper into the meaning of stories and how they affect children. “’Safe” stories mention neither death nor aging, the limits to our existence, nor the wish for eternal life; the fairy tale by contrast, confronts the child squarely with the basic human predicaments” (Bettleheim 8). In this case, Beaumont’s version of “Beauty and the Beast” is a more effective one for children, unlike the always sunny, sugar coated Disney version. When you read the two stories, it is very obvious to see how children were perceived. With Beaumont, stories were created for everyone and children were looked at as just miniature adults. You can see this in the emotions the story portrays. It deals with some very adult things,, when Disney kind of just scrapes the top layer of emotions, not really going past good, evil, and happy, and sad. However, the two stories do have aspects in common. If we look at the setting, both contain the Beast’s castle, the