The annotations for the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale are below. Sources have been cited in parenthetical references, but I have not linked them directly to their full citations which appear on the Beauty and the Beast Bibliography page. I have provided links back to the Annotated Beauty and the Beast to facilitate referencing between the notes and the tale.
1. Merchant: The
daughter of a merchant, Beauty is a member of the middle class, not a
member of the nobility.
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2. Six
sons and six daughters: The number of siblings varies between
tales. Often in modern day versions, the brothers are not mentioned, but
the sisters--usually two--are jealous and selfish. Disney's film version
omits all siblings and provides a new menace in the form of Gaston. Gaston
is a blood-thirsty man who wants to marry Belle since she is the prettiest
woman in town and thus the best wife for him.
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3. House
caught fire: All of the misfortunes in this paragraph are
beyond the control of the family and point at the unfairness of life.
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4. Hundred
leagues: According to Webster's Dictionary, a league is
roughly 3 miles, so the distance is about 300 miles or 483 kilometers.
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5. Cottage: A
cottage represents the simple and carefree country life or a humble life
(Olderr 1986). This is obviously the type of life the family is least
accustomed to living. The cottage represents their fall in fortunes from
a grand house to a simple home.
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6. Forest: According
to Jungian psychology, the forest is a representation of the feminine
principle and is identified with the unconscious. The foliage blocks the
sun's rays, the sun being associated with the male principle. The forest
symbolizes the dangerous side of the unconscious, its ability to destroy
reason (Cirlot) and (Matthews). It is a recurrent image in German fairy
tales.
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7. Servants: In
past centuries, the middle and upper class households had servants, even
if only one. The lower class usually worked as servants. The family's
inability to have even one servant illustrates their total poverty.
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8. Youngest: Fairy tales often contain multiple siblings in which the youngest becomes the protagonist. Traditional folklore is primarily interested in only children or youngest siblings. Either the youngest is the most beautiful and worthy--often female protagonists--or the youngest is stupid and lucky--often male protagonists. In either scenario, the youngest achieves good fortune through an adventure and/or magical helper. "It is the modest, the humble, and often the dispossessed who are elevated to noble rank" (Tatar, 2002, 235).
The youngest is the least experienced and
perhaps most protected of the children in a family. The youngest is also
the child least likely to receive a financial inheritance in the days
when the eldest son received the bulk of a father's estate. The youngest
would consequently find it necessary to know how to fend for themselves
in the world by marrying well or choosing a career.
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9. Beauty: Just like many fairy tale heroines, Beauty is named for a physical trait, in this case, her beauty. However, it can be argued that she is named for her inner beauty which is shown in contrast to her sisters' vanity. Beauty is virtuous which will allow her to ultimately see beyond the Beast's physical appearance.
In Robin McKinley's novel, Beauty,
the name is ironic in part. While modestly virtuous, Beauty feels she
is anything but beautiful and finds herself transforming and growing into
a physcial beauty by the end of the story.
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10. Harvest
time: The gathering of a crop of any kind; the ingathering
of the crops; also, the season of gathering grain and fruits, usually
late summer or early autumn (Webster's Dictionary 1990).
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11. Rose: Roses symbolize love, completion, perfection, beauty, female sex organs, and the heart (Olderr 1986).
The rose is a common element in the Beauty and the Beast tales. Beauty usually requests a rose from her father, hoping to ask for a gift he can afford whatever his success in reviving his business. Ironically, Beauty's request for the rose will be the most dangerous and costly gift the father tries to produce.
Thomas Mintz views the rose as "representing both the Beast's masculinity and Beauty's femininity, the thorns signifying the former, and the seeds and color of menses/defloration the latter" (Mintz 1969-70).
In later versions of the story, primarily
Disney's film, another rose symbolizes the Beast's life. The Beast has
been given a fixed amount of time to have the spell broken which is represented
by the rose. The rose will die when the time is up.
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12. Six
months: In the time before cars and airplanes, trips to
other towns were often expected to last for months with time for traveling,
visiting and conducting business at the destination.
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13. Snow: The
passing seasons play an integral part of the story, often contrasting
with the season in the Beast's garden. Snow represents death, blindness,
nothingness, purity, chastity, frigidity, and virginity (Olderr 1986).
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14. Castle: The Beast's castle is one of our first hints that he is not all that he appears. How did the Beast acquire the castle? Is he the enchanted owner? The castle has magical, invisible servants which keep it running smoothly.
In Disney's film version, the servants have
been transformed into cute, animated versions of common household objects.
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15. Orange
trees: An orange tree symbolizes generosity (Olderr 1986).
In this case, the orange trees also show the unusual nature of the grounds.
It is warm enough for the trees to exist in this world which is too cold
for orange trees under normal circumstances.
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16. Silence: One
can imagine a deafening silence, filled with the suspense of searching
for an inhabitant, be it human or animal. In a large castle that should
be bustling with life and activity to keep it in good shape, the silence
would be terrifying. The silence also foreshadows that the Beast does
not have all of the traits of a beast, including noisiness.
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17. Beast: The Beast is the animal bridegroom, an animal with human abilities, grotesque in appearance. He is usually wise and kind as a result from his suffering but in de Villeneuve's version he is required by the enchantment to appear stupid. He can only win Beauty with gentle stupidity, more like a dumb pet dog. In Disney's version, the Beast is a beast in personality, too. He is quick to anger and has a hard time controlling his temper. Beauty and the Beast's relationship is much more volatile in the film than it is in the traditional versions of the tale in which the Beast woos with courtly manners.
In some interpretations of the tale, the Beast represents anti-social, uncivilized behavior which Beauty tames with her virtue and self-sacrificing nature. The tale becomes a tale about socialization with this interpretation.
Illustrations of the Beast are wide in interpretation.
He is most often given a lionlike appearance, but has resembled a bear,
warthog, elephant, and other ferocious animals. See some of the illustrations
for the Beast on the Illustrations
for Beauty and the Beast Page.
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18. Give
me one of your daughters: In the days when many marriages
were arranged, the giving of a daughter in marriage was common. Women
rarely had any influence over the choice of their husbands by their parents.
Marriages were often made for political or social reasons, especially
in higher society. Since the thought of being given to a man (especially
a beast) is scary, this story deals with the issues of learning to love
one's spouse after marriage. Beauty comes to love the Beast after living
in his house.
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19. She must come willingly: This point is made in many versions of the tale. Beauty must replace her father willingly and cannot be forced to go except by her own conscience.
In From the Beast to the Blonde, Marina
Warner theorizes that many fairy tales were created to comfort daughters
who faced arranged marriages and leaving their homes to live in the unknown
household of their in-laws. While the daughter is reluctant to leave,
she is ultimately rewarded with a happy marriage through her honor of
her parents and the initial sacrifice of her desires.
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20. Promised: Promises, while important today, were more powerful in the past when honor was a great motivator. Also, before the time of literacy among the masses and written contracts, verbal promises were given greater weight. A promise was a contract and actionable by law if broken.
Folklore emphasizes the importance of a promise
by meting punishment upon those who do not keep their promises. While
the temptation is for everyone to stay home and try to forget about the
Beast, the family fears retribution for a broken promise.
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21. Father: The father is one of the three consistent characters in the Beauty and the Beast tales, along with Beauty and Beast. Sometime he is strong and other times he is weak. In Disney's film, he is an absent-minded inventor.
The father represents Beauty's childhood and her love for her family. Some scholars have interpreted Beauty's deliverance to the Beast as a traditional marriage contract in which the daughter does not choose her husband, but must marry to form an alliance her father deems as necessary for himself, his family, and/or his bank account.
Note that while the father gives up his grown
daughter, making the image more comfortable than a young child, he is
like the father in Rapunzel, giving
his daughter's life to spare his own. The father in Rumpelstiltskin also gives up his daughter in exchange for his own life.
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22. As
you have come of your own accord, you may stay: Betsy Hearne
writes: "Notably absent from 'Beauty and the Beast' is the motif
that so often appears in other subtypes, the requirement that the female
obey the male in not looking for him or betraying the secret of his identity.
No tasks are set for her. She is allowed to come and go, is indeed asked
at first whether she came of her own free will, and is requested to return
for the Beast's sake. The Beast assumes a passive role and Beauty an active
one" (Hearne 1989, 16).
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23. Gold: Essentially, the Beast is buying Beauty from her family with what can generously be called a wedding dowry. Beauty's self-sacrifice is not just saving her father's life, but is returning her family to a life of comfort and wealth.
Marina Warner interprets the tale as the historical storyteller's way of assuring young brides that arranged marriages in which they must go live with their husband's families can be survived and even happy. The bride must leave behind her old family and embrace her husband as a loving wife. Mutual affection and attachment between the husband and wife will lend itself to a happy marriage and life for the young bride (Warner 1994).
In two modern interpretations of the tale, the father loses Beauty to the Beast in a high stakes card game. The first is Guy Wetmore Carryl's How Beauty Contrived to Get Square With the Beast and the second is Angela Carter's "The Tiger's Bride" in The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories.
Gold represents virtue, intelligence, superiority,
heaven, worldly wealth, idolatry, revealed truth, marriage, and fruitfulness
(Olderr 1986).
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24. Dreamed: Beauty's
dreams are a device introduced by de Villeneuve to tell Beauty to look
beyond appearances. The dreams, while frustrating in their message, do
not have a nightmare quality, merely comforting Beauty that all is not
as it appears. They foreshadow, like many other elements in de Villeneuve's
version, the Beast's transformation for Beauty and the reader.
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25. Brook: Sometimes the brook is also referred to as a canal in various translations. In de Beaumont's version of the story, Beauty will later find the Beast dying beside the canal in the garden.
A brook can symbolize deceit, spiritual guidance,
morning and vulva (Olderr 1986).
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26. Prince: As a romantic fairy tale, it is normal that the Beast, as foreshadowed here, is really a prince. Most versions of the tale do not show the Prince's image to Beauty to foreshadow the Beast's transformation. Ironcially, many readers express disappointment in the "everyday" appearance of the Prince as a result. In some versions of the tale, especially those in which the Prince is not as blatantly foreshadowed, Beauty appears almost disappointed in the Prince's appearance, missing the appearance of her beloved Beast whom she has accepted as her lover and future husband.
The Disney film returns to de Villeneuve's
devices by revealing the Beast's true appearance in a portrait to Beauty
although she is unaware of the connection at the time. This foreshadowing
helps viewers accept the human prince over the carefully drawn and crafted
Beast they have come to love during the course of the movie.
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27. Do
not trust too much to your eyes: Here is the central theme
of the story. Although many later versions of the story omit the dream
sequence and blatant messages to Beauty, the theme has stayed the same
throughout most of the retellings.
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28. Mirrors: A
mirror has many symbolic meanings of truth and representation of a person's
heart. In some versions of the tale, no mirrors exist in the Beast's palace.
One explanation is that the Beast cannot tolerate looking at himself and
the physical monster he has become. In the past, mirrors were expensive
and a luxury reserved for the wealthy.
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29. Bracelet: The
bracelet is a device used by de Villeneuve so Beauty can wear a physical
representation of the Beast's true form. Beauty becomes accustomed to
the Prince's likeness, lessening the surprise when her lover is transformed
from Beast to Prince.
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30. Portrait: In
the time before photography, painted portraits were important to families
to preserve the memory and image of their ancestors. Portraits were limited
to the wealthy due to the expense and time needed to create one. The portrait
is a device used by de Villeneuve to introduce Beauty to the Beast's true
form and foreshadow his transformation. Most later versions of the story
do not use this device.
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31. Musical
instrument: Owning numerous musical instruments would be
a luxury often reserved for the rich in past centuries due to their expense.
Women of refinement would often learn to play the piano, harp, pianoforte
or similar instruments for entertainment and personal improvement. An
accomplished young women might play more than one instrument.
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32. Library: The library appears in many versions of the tale. This is one of the few tales in which such a room is described. The library is important as a place for Beauty to find entertainment and leisure as well as education and stimulation.
Beauty and the Beast provides a subtle support of education for women. Betsy Hearne points out that Beauty is educated and "does a lot of reading in her spare time." In contrast, Beauty's sisters do not read, study, or work in any way. They remain empty-headed and wait for suitors to propose marriage. "They are not satisfied with what they get, having neglected their inner development" (Hearne 1989, 18).
The description of the numerous books, "everything
she had ever wanted to read, as well as everything she had read"
and more, is a book lover's fantasy and has made this tale a favorite
among bibliophiles. In her novel, Beauty,
Robin McKinley includes books yet to be written in Beauty's time in the
library. Essentially the library is a repository of every book ever written,
past, present and future.
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33. Do you love me, Beauty? Will you marry me? This question is a common refrain in many versions of the tale, usually asked daily after dinner but before Beauty retires to her room to sleep. The question inspires both pity and fear in Beauty and the tale's readers. No one is sure whether the Beast will be angered by a negative response, but Beauty cannot bring herself to answer anything but no despite the possible harm she might receive as a result. Later, as the story progresses, readers wonder if Beauty will change her mind and marry the Beast who is kind and gentle to her.
In the original story by Villeneuve (see SurLaLune's History of Beauty and the Beast), instead of asking Beauty to marry him each night—a familiar refrain in modern versions of the story—the Beast asks Beauty, "May I sleep with you tonight?"
From the introduction to Beauty and the Beast Tales From Around the World:
The question, while risqué, is not merely suggestive or erotic. It implies control and choice for Beauty over her own body and sexuality, something that was not legally hers or that of any woman who was handed over as property in marriage to a husband in centuries past. The Beast is no true beast since he never forces his physical desires upon her despite any rights implied by her presence in his home in what today may be considered a common law marriage, although the construct didn’t exist in Villeneuve’s time.
34. Garden: The garden is an important element of the tale, appearing in most versions. It represents the magical field and boundaries around the Beast's castle, immune to the seasons and growing impossible and beautiful fruits and flowers.
A garden symbolizes the conscious, the soul,
nature subdued, feminine fertility, happiness, Paradise, salvation, purity,
the world, and the place of mystic ecstasy (Olderr 1986).
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35. Birds: Beauty's love for the birds shows her kindness to animals great and small. In her Beauty, Robin McKinley tells how the Beast has scared away all living animals from his estate. Beauty attracts animals back to the castle, beginning with birds, as she makes the castle her home.
Talking and singing birds represent amorous
yearning. A bird can symbolize air, wind, time, immortality, the female
principle, aspiration, prophecy, love, and freedom (Olderr 1986).
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36. Pantomime: A
pantomime is a performance using gestures and body movements without words
(Webster's Dictionary 1990).
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37. Beauty
had quite ceased to be afraid of him: Beauty has come
to know the Beast. He continues to physically appear as an animal to her,
but she now knows his personality. In a sense he is no longer the Beast
because he is now her friend. Her lack of fear also leads to her ability
to love him.
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38. Ring: The magical ring is a common element in Beauty and the Beast stories. The ring magically transports Beauty to and fro to visit her family, but also serves as a physical reminder of the Beast while she is away from him. That rings are common symbols of marriage is not an accidental coincidence.
A ring represents continuity, wholeness,
marriage, an eternally repeated cycle, a contract, union, power, bond,
fertility, female love, eternity, justice, and delegation of authority
(Olderr 1986).
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39. Sisters: In
later versions of the story, the sisters are often kind and entreat Beauty
to stay home out of love. In other versions such as this one and de Beaumont's,
the sisters are mean and jealous, scheming to see Beauty's good fortunes
destroyed.
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40. Cave: Although de Villeneuve uses a cave, in most versions such as de Beaumont's, Beauty finds the dying Beast in his garden which is usually dying with him.
A cave can represent the secretive, security,
impregnability, the unconscious, the womb, mother, Hell, resurrection,
burial, fertility, the human mind, the heart, refuge, primitive shelter
(Olderr 1986).
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41. Dead: In
the earliest versions of the tale, the Beast is usually dying from grief
over Beauty's continued absence. He has given up the will to live, fasting
himself to death in de Beaumont's story. In later versions, of which the
Disney film is a prime example, the Beast has been given a time limit
to find a woman to marry him out of love. The time limit is almost reached
when Beauty appears in time to declare her love and save him.
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42. Fetching some water from the nearest fountain, she sprinkled it over his face: In later versions, Beauty often tries to revive the Beast with a kiss or simply weeps over him while declaring her love. As soon as her love and/or promise to marry him is declared, his physical transformation into human form takes place.
Both de Villeneuve and de Beaumont describe Beauty's search for water to sprinkle on the Beast and her active attempts to revive the him. In de Beamont's version, the prince is transformed when the water is poured on him.
As can be seen in this version, the prince is not transformed until the evening when he once again asks Beauty to marry him and she finally answers in the affirmative. This time of transformation is not de Villeneuve's choice however. In her original story, Beauty agrees to marry the Beast. They immediately watch a display of fireworks that start when she accepts his hand. She then retires to bed and once again dreams of the Prince who is happy she has accepted the Beast much to her own consternation. When she awakens the next morning, she finds the Prince in the bed beside her, asleep. She compares his face to the portrait on her bracelet. He finally awakens and explains the enchantment and transformation.
Marina Warner comments on the parallism between
the Beauty sprinkling the Beast and a sacramental baptism. Essentially,
Beauty is washing the Beast clean of his animal nature (Warner 1994).
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43. Can
you really love such an ugly creature as I am?: The
most common theme and moral attributed to this tale is that beauty is
not skin deep. Love should be based on the inner beauty of a person, not
his or her physical appearance. Beauty falls in love with the Beast despite
his appearance, thanks to his tenderness and own love for her. In Beauty's
eyes, the Beast is no longer ugly.
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44. In his place stood her long-loved Prince: In most versions, the Beast's transformation is physical. In a sense, his transformation is purely physical since he has not changed, but only convinced to Beauty to see him as he really is. In some versions, such as in the original by Villeneuve, his intelligence has been stunted during his enchantment, but is returned when he is physically transformed.
Some modern day authors have chosen to keep the Beast in his beastly form, allowing his transformation only to be in Beauty's eyes as she grows to love him. In Robin McKinley's Rose Daughter, Beauty is given the choice between her lover staying in beastly form or returning to human form.
From the introduction to Beauty and the Beast Tales From Around the World:
Beauty finally agrees to sleep with the Beast and marry him in the original Villeneuve. The Beast then sleeps beside her during the night, although no other activities beyond Beauty’s mysterious dreams are described. When she awakens the next morning, a man—one whom she has come to love in her dreams—is sleeping beside her instead of the Beast. ....This major change was certainly made to accommodate a stricter moral code as well as an audience that was younger than the one Villeneuve originally wrote for.
The transformation scene in this annotated version of the tale more closely resembles that of Beaumont. The sleeping transformation is rarely seen in English translations of even Villeneuve's tale.
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45. Queen: The queen is the Beast/Prince's mother. In this as in many other fairy tales, Beauty will become royalty for her generous and loving actions. Beauty has her happy ending by finding her prince hidden inside the guise of a beast.
In de Villeneuve's version of the tale, the
Queen is against the marriage since Beauty is a commoner and not part
of the nobility. Once Beauty is revealed to be descended from royalty,
the Queen gives the marriage her blessing.
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46. Fairy: The fairy is present in both of the versions by Villeneuve and Beaumont. She plays a critical part in taking care of the prince from a distance while he is enchanted and providing answers to Beauty's questions later. She is essentially a fairy godmother to both Beauty and the Beast.
A fairy represents the supra-normal powers
of the human soul; latent possibilities; the personification of stages
in the development of the spirit; and the lesser spiritual moods of the
universal spirit (Olderr 1986).
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47. Marriage was celebrated: In Beaumont's version of the tale, the fairy turns the jealous sisters into statues as punishment for their mean hearts. The statues will stand at the portal of Beauty's palace until the day when the sisters recognize their faults. The fairy predicts they will remain forever as statues.
Note that in Cupid
and Psyche, this tale's predecessor, "Psyche is brought to happiness
by obedience and trial; hers are outer obstacles while Beauty's are inner
conflicts resolved by free will" (Hearne 1989, 19). This is perhaps
the most significant difference between the stories, making Beauty
and the Beast the preferred story with our modern sensibilities.
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