In Tartar's essay before the series of stories, she discusses the repeating motif of arranged marriage. She states that these Beauty and the Beast stories would console the wives of an arranged or forced marriage. In these stories, as in arranged marriages, the parents play the influential role in determining who their daughter is to marry. However, in the well-known Beauty and the Beast stories the parent does not intentionally mean to surrender their daughter to an unfit suitor. Nevertheless, in Beauty and the Beast stories, the parents play a significant role in determining their daughter's fate.
In Beaumont's version of the story the close relationship between father and Beauty results in her imprisonment. The father, after stealing the rose, has no intention of surrendering his daughter to the beast. However, Beauty loves her father so much that she volunteers to take his place. The relationship, therefore, was the cause of Beauty meeting her "suitor." Interestingly enough, the close relationship with her father is reemphasized to serve another purpose toward the end of the story. When Beauty realizes that her father is sick, the Beast, in an act of unselfish love, allows her to go to her father's bedside. This might be a stretch, but I think Beauty's father was the catalyst for Beauty's realization of her love for the Beast.
In contrast, in the "Pig King," the father is never present and the relationship between the protagonist and the parent is not stressed. In the "Pig King" the women play a key role in the arranged marriage between the Beast and Beauty. The mother of the Pig King is on a quest to find someone for his son to marry, even though she realizes that no well- off woman will agree to marry him. Therefore, she takes advantage of a poor woman's desperation and exploits her desire for money. The poor woman agrees to give up her daughters, even after two of them get killed. Why does she do this? Because she wants money? I dont get it. But anyway, the Pig King is ultimately satisfied with the 3rd and most beautiful daughter and reveals his true self.
In both of these stories, the parents play a crucial role in coercing their daughters into marrying a beast of a man. The parents exploit their daughter's good bigheartedness and force them into a potentiall dangerous situation with a beast of a man. Side note: while all of these stories are supposed to be about inner beauty and accepting people regardless of their looks, the beast always seems to want the prettiest daughter. Any thoughts? Is Beauty beautiful because of her beautiful inside that is translated outward?
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I definitely agree with you that the parents play a huge role in determining the daughter's fate. You make an interesting observation that the beast always desires and falls in love with the prettiest daughter. I never really saw this contradiction in the story until you pointed it out. It does seem strange that a story teaching the significance of inner beauty (and its triumph over external beauty) actually always specifies that the favorite daughter must be beautiful. However, like you suggested, I do think Beauty is considered beautiful because of her good natured and kind heart, which radiates outward in her physical being. Her positive qualities make her even more beautiful in the eyes of those who know her, particularly the beast.
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