Beauty and the Beast: Love Transforms

6 Feb 2003 Beauty and the Beast: Love Transforms
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/fairytales_myths_fables_&legends/98630

The origins of Beauty and the Beast are traced back as far as the story of Cupid and Psyche in Apuleius' The Golden Ass, otherwise known as The Metamorphoses.

Ashlimann:Cupid and Psyche
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/cupid.html

Plotinus:Cupid and Psyche
http://www.plotinus.com/myth_cupid_psyche.htm
illustrated version

Beaumont reduced Villeneuve's story, cutting out the supernatural and putting more emphasis onto marriage and morality for young English ladies. Women should sacrifice themselves to marriage.The opening sounding something like a mix between the trials of Job and Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austin:

“All at once the merchant lost his whole fortune, excepting a small country house at a great distance from town, and told his children with tears in his eyes, they must go there and work for their living. The two eldest answered, that they would not leave the town, for they had several lovers, who they were sure would be glad to have them, though they had no fortune; but the good ladies were mistaken, for their lovers slighted and forsook them in their poverty. “

Ashlimann: Beauty and the Beast by Jeanne-Marie lePrince de Beaumont
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/beauty.html
full text of Beaumont's version

Edmund Dulac: Illustrations for Beauty and the Beast
Sur LaLune Fairytales
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/illustrations/beautybeast/dulacbeauty.html

However, Beauty receives many suitors, who were willing to forego a dowry, in spite of the hardship encountered by by the loss of her father's fortune, due to her amiable and industrious nature. The conflict lies in the emotional attachment to her father in opposition to a future husband. Beauty is a daddy's girl. In Cupid and Psyche, the conflict arises between Venus and Psyche for the Cupid's attentions. Venus is intensely jealous of the young woman who attracts the eyes of men and orders Cupid to entangle her in some slovenly affair to get her out of the public eye and circulation. As a poor wife, she would be barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen with a parcel of rugrats tugging at her hem. Instead Cupid falls for her himself with the one command that she should never see him.

The theme appears also in Lohrengrin, where Leonora is rescued by the nameless knight who must remain unnamed. However, the jealous Ortrud contrives to cast doubt on Lohrengrin's character by insinuating that no honest or trustworthy person can remain nameless or anonymous. Leonora succumbs to the temptation and asks the forbidden question which causes the swanboat to arrive and ferry him off. In Cupid and Psyche, the sisters whisper that Psyche has been sleeping with a monstrous serpent who will devour her and insist that she must kill it some night when her husband is asleep. Psyche succumbs to the temptation. In lifting a lamp to view her sleeping partner, Cupid vanishes, returnign to his mother's home. Her faithlessness has destroyed the sanctity of their relationship. From this point, Psyche must seek Cupid and endure task after task to prove her love and win him back. Trust, once broken, is not so easily regained.

In Beauty, the conflict arises from Beauty's yearning to return to her father's house. She is given up to the Beast and in return the Beast satisfies the financial needs of her father through lavish gifts. Although, the Beast provides everything she needs, she has little value on their relationship. He appears at dinner. Her character changes radically from the responsible daughter in her father's house to the self-indulgent child in the Beast's palace. She has almost no interest in him. Unlike Psyche, she doe not endure any ordeals or tasks. She is required to do nothing. Symbolically, she delights in the caged birds of the aviary, desiring them to be near her room. Her wish is indulged. She is cruel without understanding her own cruelty. She cannot see that no bird belongs in a cage and she does not comprehend that the Beast likewise is trapped in his body. Self-centered, she scarcely acknowledges his affection or attention although surrounded by it. When he proposes, she brushes it off easily. Although she lives in his house, eats his food, wears the clothig he provides, she has no use for him. He recognizes the disdain and allows her her desire to return to her father, knowing that no marriage can ever survive if the wife desires to remain a child. She wants all the superficial comforts without the emotional commitment. She is a parasite thriving on his misery, oblivious of the pain that she causes. The Beast, though, needs acceptance, to be loved for himself and not as an idealized fantasy of a child's mind.

The tension builds through the conflict of interest between the father and the Beast. Similar to the Psyche story, the sisters contrive to detain her, hoping to separate her from the Beast. Estimating the value of the Beast, not through his appearance, but through his wealth, they envy Beauty's life. Only when she dreams that the Beast is dying, she recognizes her own ugliness. Through the self-acknowledgement of her selfishness and self-centeredness, she is able to change her attitude and accept the Beast for himself, thus causing the final transformation from beast to prince.

Only when we can accept others for themselves, and not what we would like them to be, the frog transforms into a prince and we find the beast, a gentleman. It is with the internal eye that we discover the true beauty of a person. When we no longer dwell on the packaging, love becomes binding so that we are able to endure through hardships, preserving the love that transcends our superficial needs and natures.

Thus Shakespeare sings:
“My mistress' eyes are nothing like the sun”

Shakespeare's Sonnets: Commentaries upon Sonnet 130
http://www.shakespeares-sonnets.com/130comm.htm
with illustrations and examples of other sonnets giving a catalogue of charms

Eleanor Vere Boyle: Illustrations for Beauty and the Beast
Sur la Lune Fairytales
http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/illustrations/beautybeast/boylebeauty.html