Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast, Story Origins
The story of Beauty and the Beast has been around for centuries in both written and oral form, and more recently in film and video. Many experts trace similarities back to the stories of Cupid and Psyche, Oedipus and Apuleius’ The Golden Ass of the second century A.D.

The tale of Beauty and the Beast was first collected in Gianfranceso Straparola’s Le piacevolo notti (The Nights of Straparola) 1550-53. The earliest French version is an ancient Basque tale where the father was a king and the beast a serpent. Charles Perrault popularized the fairy tale with his collection Contes de ma mere l’oye (Tales of Mother Goose) in 1697. The 17th century Pentamerone is also said to include similar tales.

The first truly similar tale to the one we know today was published in 1740 by Madame Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Gallon de Villeneuve as part of a collection of stories La jeune amériquaine, et les contes marins (told by an old woman during a long sea voyage). Mme. de Villeneuve wrote fairy tale romances drawn from earlier literature and folk tales for the entertainment of her salon friends.

Almost half of the Villeneuve story revolves around warring fairies and the lengthy history of the parentage of both Beauty and the Prince. Beauty is one of 12 children, her stepfather is a merchant, her real father being the King of the Happy Isles. The Queen of the Happy Isles is both Beauty’s mother and the Dream Fairy Sister. Villeneuve also made various digs at the many enforced marriages that women had to submit to, and her Beauty ponders that many women are made to marry men far more beastly than her Beast. The story was 362 pages long.

French aristocrat Madame Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont (1711 - 1780) emigrated to England in 1745 where she established herself as a tutor and writer of books on education and morals. She took Mme. de Villeneuve’s tale and shortened it, publishing it in 1756 as part of a collection entitled Magasin des enfants. Although taking all the key elements from the Mme. de Villeneuve story, Mme. de Beaumont omits some dream sequences and the fact that in the original the transformation to handsome prince takes place after the wedding night. Intended as a lesson for her students, some of the subversive edges were polished off the story. It is pretty well the version we consider traditional today. Mme. Le Prince de Beaumont’s story was translated into English as The Young Misses Magazine, Containing Dialogues between a Governess and Several Young Ladies of Quality, Her Scholars (1757).

The French tradition of the time was to unfold stories in a more everyday situation, with a tendency to substitute dramatic development founded on human emotions in place of actions based on magic forces. They eliminated whatever was bloody or cruel and relied on a story with direct action and without accessory actions, a style sober and unadorned. French storytellers subjected traditional stories to their own classical, logical, even rational taste. Perrault began this trend away from the traditional folk manner, and the ladies who followed him - Mlle. Lhéritier, Mme. d’Aulnoy and Mme. Le Prince de Beaumont - went even further. The lowliest of people in their tales are gentlemen, shepherds are princes in disguise, and the stories are peopled by the upper levels of the court. These influences over the story explain some of the differences we find between today’s Beauty and the Beast rooted in these French tales and more traditional versions.

Since its initial publishing the story has been revised many times. In 1756 the Comptesse de Genlis produced a play on the theme; in 1786 Mme. de Villeneuve reprinted her story as part of Le Cabinet des Fées et autres contes merveilleux.

The nineteenth century saw a proliferation of retellings in France, England and America. 68 different printed editions are listed in the Index to Fairy Tales. Notable versions include the 1811 poem by Charles Lamb, an 1841 ‘grand, romantic, operatic, melodramatic fairy extravaganza in 2 acts’ by J.R. Planchée which premiered April 12, 1811 at the Covent Garden Theatre with Mme. Vestris as Beauty, Walter Crane’s picture book in 1875, and Eleanor Vere Boyle’s illustrated novella of 1875.

Moving into this century we have been treated to the landmark film of Jean Cocteau (La Belle at la Bete), Walt Disney Studio’s cartoon adaptation and a science fiction Beauty by Tanith Lee. A fuller listing follows later.

The story of Beauty and the Beast appears in many other cultures in different forms. Aarne-Thompson lists 179 tales from different countries with a similar theme to Beauty and the Beast. There are usually three daughters, the youngest being the most kind and pure, her sisters displaying some of the undesirable traits of humankind. Beauty often has no name but is referred to as the youngest daughter. (For purposes of identification I shall use "Beauty" when referring to the heroine of the story.) There never seems to be a mother, thus omitting the possible conflicts a mother would have allowing her daughter to leave to live with a monster and allowing a closer relationship with the father who is, in most cases, wealthy. Although the Beast takes on many guises (serpent, wolf, even pig) he is never appealing in appearance but is rich and powerful. Hidden powers seem to guide the humans. At one point the Beauty is separated from her Beast and at that time some ill befalls him. Beauty’s remorse, sometimes as simple as shedding a tear and sometimes as onerous a penance as going to the end of the earth, saves the Beast and his transformation to handsome man is achieved.

Much psychological hay has been made of the story of Beauty and the Beast; the men are all passive, the older women are less sympathetic, the youngest one pure and virginal and even the desired rose has come in for its share of analysis. To the Greeks and Romans the rose was a symbol of pleasure associated with extravagance and luxuriousness. It is considered the flower of romance that ‘blushes with the warmth of worldly delights.’ Is the father dying in a literal sense or is he dying for the love of his Beauty who is now devoted to the Beast?

As stories swap back and forth, new elements are introduced and exchanged. Folklorists have developed a system for categorizing stories, (e.g. the number 425A has been assigned to tale of the type "The Monster or Animal as Bridegroom"). Whatever the varying versions or systematic cataloging, the basic values that the stories convey are similar. The story and its questions regarding human values run deeper than the simple facts and details of the tale and remain timeless. We all have the potential to be beautiful or beastly; how do we overcome our ‘monsters’?

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Beauty and the Beast, The Madame Le Prince de Beaumont version.The rich merchant not only has three daughters but also three sons who have little to do with the story. All the girls are good looking, particularly the youngest who becomes known as Little Beauty. The sisters are vain and jealous of Beauty who is by contrast modest and charming and wishes to stay with her father.

All of a sudden the family loses its money and is forced into a poorer lifestyle which makes life more difficult all around and exaggerates the differences between Beauty and her sisters. Beauty and the three brothers throw themselves into working for their new life while the sisters are bored. The father takes a trip in the hopes of regaining his wealth, and the older sisters demand he bring them expensive garments. Beauty asks simply for a rose.

The father is unsuccessful in his attempt to regain his wealth and in despair, wandering in the forest, is trapped in a snow storm. He comes upon a seemingly deserted palace where he finds food and shelter for the night. In the morning he wanders into the garden where he sees the perfect rose for Beauty. Upon plucking it, a hideous Beast appears and says that for his thievery he must die. The father begs for his life and, the Beast agrees to let him go if one of his daughters will take his place. If she refuses, then he must return to die himself. The Beast gives him a chest filled with gold and sends him home. This treasure enables the older daughters to make fashionable marriages. On giving Beauty the rose, her father cannot help but tell her what happened. The brothers offer to slay the Beast but the father knows that they would die in the process. Beauty insists on taking her father’s place, and so she returns with him to the Beast’s palace where he reluctantly leaves her.

In a dream Beauty sees a beautiful lady who thanks her for her sacrifice and says that she will not go unrewarded. The Beast treats her well; all her wishes are met by magic. He visits her every evening for supper and gradually Beauty grows to look forwards to these meetings as a break to the monotony of her life. At the end of each visit the Beast asks Beauty to be his wife, which she refuses although agreeing never to leave the palace. Beauty sees in the magic mirror that her father is desperately missing her and asks that she might return to visit him. The Beast assents on the condition that she return in seven days, lest he die.

The next morning she is at home. Her father is overjoyed to see her but the sisters are once again jealous of Beauty, her newly found happiness and material comfort with the Beast. They persuade Beauty to stay longer, which she does, but on the tenth night she dreams of the Beast who is dying. Wishing herself back with him, she is transported back to the castle where she finds the Beast dying of a broken heart. She realizes that she is desperately in love with the Beast and says that she would gladly marry him. At this the Beast is transformed into a prince, the Father joins them at the palace and the sisters are turned into statues until they own up to their own faults.

The Prince and Beauty live happily ever after because their "contentment is founded on goodness."

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Beauty and the Beast, Variations on the theme.
The Scarlet Flower - Russia
The Enchanted Tsarevitch - Russia
The Fairy Serpent -China
The Princess and the Pig - Turkey
A Bunch of Laurel Blooms for a Present - Appalachia
The Small Tooth Dog - England
The Lizard Husband - Indonesia
The Monkey Son-in Law - Japan

Some years before his death, the Russian writer Sergei Aksakov (1791 - 1859) included The Scarlet Flower in his Tales of Pelagea the Housekeeper. Beauty is nameless and the Beast is described thus: "His arms were crooked, his hands were the claws of a wild beast, his legs were those of a horse, he had two large humps like those of a camel in front and behind, and he was covered with hair from head to foot. A boar’s fangs protruded from his mouth, his nose was hooked like the beak of the golden eagle, and his eyes were those of an owl."

Beauty’s time at the castle is luxurious and comfortable, and the Beast is always a gentleman to her. She returns only to visit her sick father but the sisters impede "Beauty’s" return to her Beast by setting the clocks back. Her words "Arise my dearest friend. I love you as I would my betrothed!" are enough to raise the Beast from the dead and transform him into a prince of ample wealth. As a child, he had been stolen by a sorceress who sought revenge on his father by transforming him into a Beast.

Many of the Russian ballets are based on this version of the story.



Also from Russia, The Enchanted Tsarevitch which was included in a collection of folk tales by Aleksander Nikolaevich Afanas’ev between 1855 and 1864. The father does not fall upon hard times but in recompense for picking the exotic flower he agrees to send the Beast the first thing he sees on arriving home, which turns out to be his youngest daughter. The Beast is a three headed, winged snake for whom Beauty eventually feels compassion. Her visit home is extended by her greedy sisters so that on her return the snake is almost dead. Upon kissing him he turns into a "good youth." There are many other Russian folk tales of enchanted men saved by women and of women freed by men such as The Snake Princess and Maria Morevna.



A snake is also the Beast in the Chinese The Fairy Serpent where the father unwittingly steals a few flowers for his daughters. The father is only released when he promises that one of his three daughters will return to marry the serpent. The youngest daughter is the one who eventually is selfless enough to go to the serpent and eventually grows to like him despite his appearance. Leaving for a few hours she returns to find the serpent dying of thirst; plunging him into water to save his life she is amazed at his transformation into a strong and handsome young man. Men also appear in Chinese folklore enchanted as frogs and young women as plants.



In the Turkish The Princess and the Pig, the father is a padishah (king) who manages to find the worldly goods for the elder sisters but fails to find a gift for his youngest daughter, in this case fruit. However, he meets the Beast, a pig, when his carriage is stuck in mud. The pig is the only one able to set him loose, but only after extracting the promise that he be given the padishah’s youngest daughter as his bride. Despite trying to trick the pig into accepting another, he eventually takes away the youngest daughter, who in her goodness accepts the lowly circumstances she is forced into. During her sleep her surroundings are transformed into incredible luxury and the pig into a handsome young man.



A Bunch of Laurel Blooms for a Present, from Appalachia, finds the father the debtor of a witch from whom he has taken some laurel blooms for his youngest daughter. It is he who must stay with the witch, but when the youngest daughter hears this she rushes off to take his place. The witch installs her in a house with a large ugly toad-frog whom she learns to love. One night she awakes to see a handsome young man lying next to her with an old warty toad skin hanging on the bed post. This she takes downstairs and burns in the fire. The next morning the young man is still with her and he thanks her for saving him from the witch’s spell. They live happily ever after and the other sisters are jealous. There are similar versions of this story such as the Irish The Three Daughters of King O’Hara where our heroine is punished for impatience in destroying her Beast’s disguise and has to endure a long search to find him again.



The father in The Small Tooth Dog from England is a merchant who is attacked by thieves and whose life is saved by a dog. In return the dog asks for the merchant’s only daughter. The daughter goes with the dog readily enough, but cannot bring herself to be happy with him. In return for being allowed to visit her home, she eventually is able to call the dog "Sweet-as-a-honeycomb." This statement in front of her father is enough to transform the dog into the most handsome of young men.

This nineteenth century folk tale was collected and published in 1895.



The Beauty in the Indonesian The Lizard Husband has six other sisters who in turn are rude and abusive to the mother of a lizard who requests that they consider her son for marriage. It is the youngest, Kapapitoe, who does take the lizard as a husband, but the other sisters heap abuse upon them both. Eventually the lizard and his wife work together to build their own farm and during the process the lizard transforms himself into a handsome man when bathing in the river. It takes his wife some time to accept this change and the sisters, in jealousy, try to steal him away from her. During the night a castle arises in which Kapapitoe and her husband live happily ever after protected from the sisters.



From Japan comes The Monkey Son-in Law. The father is indebted to the monkey for giving him water for his crops. In return one of his three daughters must go and live with the monkey. The youngest is the one who eventually complies. After a year she tricks the monkey into falling into the river to be carried away. She returns home to a thankful father but two rude sisters who are transformed into rats for their disloyalty to their father.

There are other examples that end tragically where the Beauty forsakes her Beast, e.g. the Lithuanian Egle, Queen of Snakes and the French The Ram.

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Beauty and the Beast, Bibliography

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST, VERSIONS IN PRINT

At best this is a partial listing that is subject to change due to books going in and out of print. Even within similar tellings of the tales you will find artistic interpretations that may change the perception of the story.

Beauty and the Beast retold by Rosemary Harris illustrated by Errol Le Cain - Doubleday

Beauty and the Beast illustrated by Cooper Edens - Green Tiger Press

Beauty and the Beast retold by Deborah Apy illustrated by Michael Hague - Holt & Co.

Beauty and the Beast retold by Mary Pope Osborne illustrated by Winslow Pinney Pels - Scholastic Inc.

Beauty and the Beast retold and illustrated by Warwick Hutton - Atheneum

Beauty and the Beast retold by Marianna Mayer illustrated by Mercer Mayer - Four Winds Press

Beauty and the Beast translated by Richard Howard illustrated by Hilary Knight - Simon and Schuster

Beauty and the Beast retold by Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch illustrated by Edmund Dulac - Gramercy Books

Beauty and the Beast translated from Mme. Le Prince de Beaumont by P.H. Muir, illustrated by Erica Ducornet - Knopf

Beauty and the Beast retold by Nancy Willard with engravings by Barry Moser - Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich. The classic story retold in a Victorian New York setting.

Beauty and the Beast retold and illustrated by Diane Goode - Bradbury Press.

Sleeping Beauty and Other Favorite Fairy Tales includes the Mme. Le Prince de Beaumont story of Beauty and the Beast translated by Angela Carter - Victor Gollancz/David & Charles.



RELATED STORIES

The Scarlet Flower, Sergei Aksadov translated by Isadora Levin - San Diego: Harcourt, Brace, Jovanovich, 1989. A long 19th century Russian variation on the theme of Beauty and the Beast.

Finist the Falcon, a story by Aleksandr Nikolaevich Afanas’ev (1826 - 1871) included in Russian Folk Tales - Shambhala Publications, Inc./Random House 1980.

Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast by Robin McKinley - Harper and Row.

Snowbear Whittington: An Appalachian Beauty and the Beast. 1994

Beauty. Short science fiction story, part of Red as Blood or Tales from the Sisters Grimmer by Tanith Lee. 1983 - Daw Books



CRITICAL AND ANALYTICAL PUBLICATIONS

Beauties & Beasts by Betsy Hearne - Oryx Press. Highly Recommended. Some historical perspectives on the fairy tale, many different versions of the story from different lands and times. Extensive bibliography.

Beauty and the Beast: Visions and Revisions of an Old Tale by Betsy Hearne - University of Chicago Press.

A Psychiatric study of Myths and Fairy Tales. Their origin, meaning and usefulness. by Julius E. Heuscher - Charles C. Thomas.

The Uses of Enchantment, The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales by Bruno Bettelheim - Alfred A. Knopf

The Borzoi Book of French Folk Tales edited by Paul Delarue - Alfred A. Knopf.

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