KidLit Forum

This version of Beauty and the Beast is very different from the earlier versions. The Lyon is still called Beast, but it is not described as ugly. There is a paragraph in which the girl thinks of lyons as a species that is more beautiful than human beings: ”Although her father had told her of the nature of the one who waited for her, she could not control an instinctual shudder of fear when she saw him, for a lion is a lion and a man is a man and, though lions are more beautiful by far than we are, yet they belong to a different order of beauty and, besides, they have no respect for us: why should they?”
Also, another interesting thing is that at a given moment, the author mentions that the girl had personality, and obeyed her father only because she loved him very much. In this passage I have the feeling that the author tries to point out the difference between this version and the earlier version: ”Do not think she had no will of her own; only, she was possessed by a sense of obligation to an unusual degree and, besides, she would gladly have gone to the ends of the earth for her father, whom she loved dearly.”

From my point of view, Angela Carter is rewriting a well known fairy tale, Beauty and the Beast, and since this is, as I said, a rewriting, one of the main characters, Beauty, is rediscovering herself. From this point forward Beauty has the word "feminist" writen all over her and this is what gives us continuing plot. At first she is refered to by her father as "his Beauty, his girl-child" and with a good reason, because she is just a stay-at-home girl. At the request of her father, Beauty went to dine with Mr. Lyon, where the first glimpse of his form made her shake with fear, thus at the beginning she is rather vulnerable. The changing point, or better yet, the reversal of the roles starts when Beauty and the beast start spending time with each other. Beauty becomes more independent, more empowered, while the beast seems to be timid. An even greater reversal occurs when the beast is dying and Beauty is the only one who could save him. Without hesitating that's exaclty what she does, she saves him. This image is presented in a fairy tale manner, Beauty as the knight who comes to the aid of the princess that is locked in the highest tower, where she awaits her prince lying helplessly in her bed. The main idea here is that Beauty has become an empowered, independent woman, that is capable of making her own mind and taking her own decisions.