I want to focus on the lack of a mother figure in most Beauty and the Beast stories. What I've noticed about the lack of a mother is that Belle, whether or not she has siblings, steps into that role. She assumes the roles as daughter, spouse and mother - the role of being a single woman is left aside. In fear of being alone and vulnerable as a young woman, instead of flocking to a suitor, she clings to the one she has: her father.
This is why I think she clings to her chastity and that idea is promoted throughout a lot of the stories. But I think this provides a dichotomy that is somewhat irreconcilable. On the one hand, she's supposed to plan for her future by preserving her chastity, the one thing she has left of her own. But on the other, she's supposed to cling to the past rather than look for a future; current family comes before possible family. I think this is why so many Beauties or Belles are torn, such as Beauty in the movie. She has Avenant and her father. For her, papa wins, but she is not without her own desires. The bigger message is recognizing there are two options, choosing to take care of your elders who have provided for you, and then doing so without being bitter.
For me, B&B stories show the horrible things that happen in the absence of the mother. Belle goes to this extreme and sacrifices her future (the possibility of a suitor) to take care of her father. This almost ends in disaster ... although that it ends up so well maybe throws off my theory?
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It's almost as if by having the mother disappear, the father becomes emasculated. In the written version of "Beauty and the Beast", he is a pushover. He is not a strong figure. The father is bad at business. He depends on others hospitality to survive that night and then pays the price for it. And then to top it all off, he lets Beauty go to the castle for him.
ReplyDeletePerhaps another moral in here is that the father needed to remarry to have someone who better understands his three daughters. Most of the story involves him not noticing how evil two of the daughters are. He's clueless without a female presence and thus Beauty has to be both mother and daughter--a somewhat creepy combination.