Respecting elders, primal sexuality &c.

I think the reason parents always figure into the Beauty and the Beast stories is because they are ultimately about courtship and marriage and during the time these were originally written it was not acceptable to marry in the middle and upper classes to marry without the consent of parents. In most of the beauty and the beast stories, it is the father's action that sets in motion the relationship between Beauty and the Beast, even though it is usually a transgression initiated by Beauty's request (once again, no one should listen to a woman...I say this jokingly, but it does seem to be a major theme of fairy tales), it is the man and the beast that determines the terms of the situation, and nearly every action Beauty takes is dictated by her devotion to her father or in following the orders of the beast. Only in the Disney version does Beauty make decisions on her own (going to search for her father, going into the forbidden wing and then trying to run away), but that is a modern retelling of the story. I think that the story would unintelligible without the inclusion of parents, because the family was a central part of the social structure, and it was probably very rare for someone to marry without the consent of their parents, so even while Beauty ends up with a "Beast" it is still something set up and condoned by the family. Tatar discusses that this is possibly a representation of what used to happen in arranged marriages, that women would end up with abusive husbands without having any say in the relationship.

I think the presence of parents also removes some of the threat of eroticism within the story of the blushing maiden in the presence of a beast that is not actually physically described, and therefore could be anything from a ruthless man to an actual animal. The asexualized nature of the parents, as scions of societal organization who have sex for procreation an not the fulfillment of primal desires. If there was not the parental element in the story, if Beauty just stumbled upon the castle, what hope would there be for propriety on any person's part? One might actually be able to assume that without the social organization provided by the parents, the beast would immediately eat--or, worse, have sex with--the virginal Beauty, who represents a precious commodity in a culture based on the family. The parents create the social structure that dictates the proper behavior of Beauty and the Beast (or at least try to in the Pig Prince stories).