The (oedipal) purpose of “Papa” in the “Beauty and the Beast” tales

At the risk of a collective groan, I think psychoanalytic theory provides a useful starting place for understanding the purpose of parents in the “Beauty and the Beast” tale. Specifically, I want to frame the narrative in Freudian terms – as the oedipal tale of a young girl who must remove all attachments to her father in order to reroute her attachments toward a “beastly” male suitor, resulting in a heterosexual union in the end.

In a way, it is difficult to think of the “Beauty and the Beast” tale strictly in terms of Freud’s Electra complex because of the lack of a maternal figure. (By the way, the Electra complex is the notion that the young girl identifies with her primary love object – her mother – and then, without ever dropping her first identification, with her father. This means that the young girl – like the young boy – is inherently bisexual (although the young boy must repudiate his mother and youthful bisexuality to become an obligatory heterosexual). However, the young girl eventually discovers that her mother is a “rival” for the affections of the father, and so she must take the mother’s place in order to complete her oedipal trajectory toward (heterosexual) union with her father.)

Though the maternal element of the Electra complex is inaccessible in the “Beauty and the Beast” tales, the paternal factor continues to exist. The power of “Papa” in all (Western) versions of the tale holds tremendous sway over the young girl’s decisions. For example, she refuses to ever leave her father because she loves him and believes he cannot live without her. However, the “Beauty and the Beast” tale forces her to make the decision to take the place of her father as the Beast’s eternal prisoner (a curious notion since the young girl never usually assumes the father’s place in the oedipal trajectory). As a result, the tale requires that she displace her father in order to forge a heterosexual union at the end of the story. This heterosexual union is the goal to which the Beast persistently aspires, and eventually it must come to fruition for the young girl’s trajectory to be a success (as it does).

Therefore, the purpose of “Papa” in the “Beauty and the Beast” tales is as “part one” of the two-step process (young girl relinquishes Papa; young girl bonds to beastly male suitor) that underlines each “Beauty and the Beast” narrative. The renunciation of Papa is required in order to permit the “arranged marriage” tale (Tatar) to be effective.