Fairy Tales 2010

Wednesday, February 24, 2010

Beauty and her Unfortunate Progenitors

It seems to me that so many of the Beauty and the Beast stories include the parents of the latter because they play a crucial role in the development of the story and the relationship between Beauty and the Beast. For instance, in Beaumont's version, due to the misfortune of the father Beauty is forced into a position where she must suffer the death of her father or see her own mortal fire extinguished at the hands of the Beast. Had it not been for the old man getting lost in the woods Beauty would never have faced such a predicament.

In another version, Straparola's The Pig King, again the parent of the Beauty character is at least ;artially responsible for her involvement with the Beast character. Granted, the pig boy becomes enamored with her and demands her marital hand from his mother as a result, the only reason the marriage occurs is because Beuaty's mother was so poor and the Queen offered her many riches.

So, a pattern seems to arise in which the misfortune of a parent, whether it be getting lost in the woods, seeking shelter in a castle and then just happening to take his most prized possession, or simply beng down on one's monetary luck, the end result is a sort of contract that results in Beauty forming a relationship with the Beast in some way. If the parents were not in the picture the stories would have to change entirely to get to the desired end. This also makes me think that the parent characters are meant as scapegoats that can be blamed for the suffering of their daughter. If Beauty brought her unfortunate situations upon herself readers would pity the character much less. However, since somebody else is to blame the Beauty character can retain all of her virtue. The parents are just a means to an end.

1 comment:

  1. "The end result is a sort of contract that results in Beauty forming a relationship with the Beast in some way. [...] The parents are just a means to an end."

    I COMPLETELY agree. In fact, in my argument, I noted how the Freudian oedipal trajectory might be a useful way of honing in on why the father is so important to the "Beauty & the Beast" tales. He IS just a means to an end - that end being a heterosexual union with the Beast. Belle HAS to be cut off from her father (and attached instead to the Beast) in order for the goal of the narrative to come to fruition.

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