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Author
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Comment
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moonfaery
Unregistered User
(9/20/03 5:17 am)
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beauty and the beast
I am currently teaching a unit on fairytales to middle school students and we are wondering what happened to the beast to make him a beast? I know he did something no good and was put under a spell or something until someone truly, truly loved him but I can remember no more.
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moonfaery
Unregistered User
(9/21/03 7:11 am)
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the beast
Was it that he refused the advances of some feminine creature and she wanted revenge? Was he rude? Did he deserve the curse?
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Laura
McCaffrey
Registered User
(9/22/03 4:34 am)
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Re: the beast
In the Jeanne-Marie LePrince de Beaumont ( 1711-1780) version - based on Mme. de Villeneuve's story - the beast, now transformed into a prince, only says: "A wicked fairy condemned me to remain in this form until a beautiful girl consented to marry me..." This is from Jack Zipes translation in BEAUTY AND THE BEAST AND OTHER CLASSIC FRENCH FAIRY TALES.
In Marianna Meyer's retelling, illustrated by Mercer Meyer, the prince says a fairy came disguised as an old woman to test him. He failed the test, so she put his whole palace under a magical spell until he could find a woman to redeem him. No description of the test or his failure is given. Disney took this path, intimating the beast had done something wrong and deserved his punishment, rather than follow de Beaumont's version, where no transgression is alluded to. I've never read de Viilleneuve's story, so I'm not sure if the beast transgressed in some way in that version.
LauraMc
Edited by: Laura McCaffrey at: 9/22/03 4:37 am
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Laura
McCaffrey
Registered User
(9/22/03 6:47 am)
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I take it back...
In Mayer's version, in one of the dreams Beauty has about the prince, he describes why he is trapped and apart from her, though she doesn't realize he's the beast. He says he was too vain and proud, and showed no pity or charity to an old hag who visited his palace. She therefore punished him until a someone could find beauty in him. This, if I'm not mistaken, is exactly the explanation used in the Disney movie.
Again, though, I'm not sure if this was Mayer's invention, or in earlier versions of the story.
LauraMc
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moonfaery
Unregistered User
(9/30/03 2:54 pm)
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beauty and the beast
Thanks, Laura.
That now rings a bell, I know that's what I read somewhere. I wonder why that part is left out of beauty and the beast stories more often than not. ? interesting
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duglis
Registered User
(10/3/03 9:15 am)
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The Curse in detail
Laura said:
I've never read de Viilleneuve's story, so I'm not sure if the beast transgressed in some way in that version.
Laura!, Original Poster,
I have read that story and to make a long story short.
The prince was taken away at a young age and raised by a strange fairy who eventually fell in love with him and wanted his hand in marriage (he had become quite handsome). The prince thought this sort of like incest, and also the fairy was ugly, that he refused. The fairy complained to his real mother who
agreed with the prince. As punishment, she made him into a beast and thought that he was insane to refuse the hand of a most powerful fairy such as she.
The curse was as stated, that unless someone would agree to marry him as a beast, he would stay a beast.
Only if someone agreed to marry him as a beast could he
transform back into his old self. The fairy believed this would never happen.
There is much more regarding this including some laws given by the fairy to the beast that prevented him from
revealing who he was or acting intelligent or else the curse would never be lifted. Also, acting to help Beauty
was this fairy's enemy who was a fairy as well. I'm not sure if she was the bad fairy's younger sister or not. I'm not sure.
Anyway..after the Beast becomes a man, the tale really goes into this back story for many many a page. Quite detailed, odd and interesting.
be well! - Douglas
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Laura
McCaffrey
Registered User
(10/3/03 4:08 pm)
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Re: The Curse in detail
Ahh - now that's much more in the style of the salon tales than de Beaumont's. de Beaumont's focuses on Beauty and her "proper" behavior.
Laura Mc
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Yukihada
Registered User
(10/7/03 10:43 pm)
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Beast tales
I find that really only Disney seems to have ever focused on a reason behind the Beast's appearance. i.e repayment for a past transgression. What I find in many beast tales is just as was explained above the focus is not on why the beast but rather on how the beauty. It is her cleverness, her goodness and inner strength that must overcome all physical obstacles including her betrothed's appearance. Think of all the other beast tales out there and you will see this is so...Psyche and Eros (the great grand of the French fairy tale). East of the Sun West of the Moon...
I think it is much more contemporary an idea to want to know all of the mechanics of each and every plot device and character. In these stories he is a beast in an enchanted castle..this is just so. I suppose that really leaves a great deal of wonderment for the audience ..some holes for each of us to individually fill in if we like.
At any rate..it might be fun for you to bring in these other fairy tales if you have time. The myth of Psyche and Eros is well told in the Golden Ass. And there are of course so many beautiful retellings of Beauty and the Beast...from Beast by Donna Jo Napoli..to the Courtship of Mr. Lyon by Angela Carter...to Beauty by Robin McKinley and her subsequent novel Rose Daughter.
At any rate..I expound much so forgive..but what can I say I love the beastie stories.
Yukihada
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duglis
Registered User
(10/22/03 5:31 am)
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Animal Transformations
Yukihada,
I love the Animal Transformation stories myself as well.
Don't know why.
My favorites are
The Frog Prince
The Frog King
Beauty and The Beast
Babiole
White Bear King Valamon
Doug
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Yukihada
Registered User
(11/4/03 12:20 am)
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Re: the beast
I have not read a few of the tales you mentioned and will now have to venture off forewith to find them...away!!
Always in the mood for a new beast transformation. I have to add then The Book of Atrix Wolfe as well not for Atrix's transformation so much but for others. Thanks for more fodder.
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