KidLit Forum

Beauty and the beastt

A) Context: Beauty and the Beast is a fairy tale written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in La Jeune Américaine et les contes marin. Her lengthy version rewritten and published first by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont in 1756 in Magasin des enfants and by Andrew Lang in the Blue Fairy Book of his Fairy Book series in 1889. It was influenced by some earlier stories, such as Cupid and Psyche, The Golden Ass written by Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis in the 2nd century AD, and The Pig King, an Italian fairytale published by Giovanni Francesco Straparola in The Facetious Nights of Straparola.
I based my analysis upon Joseph Jacob’s retelling of the original story.


B) Summary:
Beauty and the Beast is a heartfelt story about love and the capability of love to transform the way you look at people you love. The moral of this fairytale is that a person’s beauty comes from a heart in love and when Beauty realizes the inner beauty of the beast and the feelings it has, the outer appearance means nothing to her anymore.
The fairytale of the beauty and the beast starts with a young girl who lived with her father and two sisters. They lived a good life in a big house but due to some unfortunate turn of events her father lost all his money. They were forced to move into a smaller house. The two sisters kept on grieving for their former life and Beauty maintained her sadness for herself and tried her best to help her family.
The fairytale of “Beauty and the beast” started with a young girl who lived with her father and two sisters. One day, their father went on a journey to get some things and asked his daughters what they wanted him to bring them back. The two sisters started to demand all sorts of thing and Beauty just wanted her father to come back safe. He persuaded her to tell him what she wanted and in the end, she asked him for a single rose. On his way home, their father saw beautiful roses and he picked one. In that moment, the beast caught him and then, he begged for his life, saying that the rose was for his youngest daughter. The beast let him go under the condition of him sending his youngest daughter to the castle, but the daughter had to want to come.
On his way home he didn’t want to tell Beauty what happened, but she found out and accepted to go to the castle. When they came to the castle the beast asked whether the girl came by her own will and both of them be affirmed she did. The beast told her father he could come to see his daughter once a week. Beauty’s life was pleasant, as invisible servants tended to her every wish, but growing tired of solitude, she began talking to the beast. She grew very fond of the beast, as she began to discover his kindness. One day, the beast didn’t show up at the usual hour, so Beauty waited for him. After a while, she found him huddled and lifeless under the rose bush from which her father plucked the rose for her. Throwing herself down beside him, she declared her love for him and that broke the spell the prince was under.


C) Position in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther index
Beauty and the beast belongs to 400-459: Supernatural or Enchanted Wife/Husband or other relative, 425-449 Husband, 425C Beauty and the beast.


D) Characters and functions according to Vladimir Propp
Hero of the day: Beauty
Villain: The magician
Magical helpers: the enchanted objects in the castle
The father: Beauty’s father
Prince or prize: The prince transformed into a beast
Functions:
Initial situation: The fairytale of Beauty and the beast starts with a young girl, Bella, who lives with her father and her two other sisters.
Abstentation: The father leaves home
Departure: Beauty goes to the beast’s castle to save her father.
Victory: Beauty tells the beast that she loves him, thus breaking the magician’s curse
Marriage: Beauty marries the prince


E) Modern-day editions in English and Romanian
The tale has been notably adapted for screen, stage, prose, and television over the years.
Variants of the tale are known across Europe. In France, for example, Zémire and Azor is an operatic version of the story, written by Marmontel and composed by Grétry in 1771, which had enormous success well into the 19th century, it is based on the second version of the tale. Amour pour amour (Love for love), by Nivelle de la Chaussée, is a 1742 play based on de Villeneuve's version. According to researchers at universities in Durham and Lisbon, the story originated around 4,000 years ago.
The first adaptation in literature was The Pig King, written by Giovanni Francesco Straparola, which was published in The Facetious Nights of Straparola. This was followed by thirteen other adaptation, the newest being written by Sarah Price, Belle: An Amish retelling of Beauty and the beast, released in 2017. Liz Braswell’s As old as time and Meagan Spooner’s Hunted give an interesting twist to this classic story, inviting us to look at it from a different perspective. Its cinematic adaptation started with Jean Cocteau’s La Belle et la Bête in 1946, followed by many other movies. the latest being released in 2017.


Bibliography:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beauty_and_the_Beast
https://www.bookreports.info/beauty-and ... t-summary/