Beauty and the Beast

The focus of the stories that we have read and viewed this week may be on the Beauty or the Beast but the forces behind what these main characters do and why they do them consistently lead back to their parents. In one of the screened versions of the tale, the Beauty’s father is dependent upon her, which is a tradition that reflects French culture during the Enlightenment setting that this story takes place. Back then, someone in the family held the responsibility of caring for their blood elders if they could not afford to hire help. This strong familial tie between the generations demands that the Beauty pledge her allegiance to her father and thus shapes the tale because Belle’s actions or inactions are the result of her making sure that her father is her first priority. This is why Belle would rather “go to the Beast than die of grief from knowing that she sent her father back to him.”

In other tales that we have studied so far, parents have repeatedly shown strong influences over shaping their children’s futures. Sometimes they are a light for their children to guide them in the right direction and other times, especially in the case of step-mothers, parents are a source of strife and provide a sense of resolution for the main characters to react against. Then there is the non-existent parent, which is common in fairy-tales and which provides a sense of emptiness within the main character that allows the reader to sympathize with them. Parents, whether positive, negative, existent, or non-existent profoundly influence the life experiences of their children and in the case of Belle, her father’s impact is great. I think that the beautiful, loving, caring relationship between Belle and her father exemplifies and encourages that child like simple faith in life and love that Cocteau cherished so much.