Beauty and the Beast: About the Beast

For my last blog post about the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale I wanted to discuss the Beast (or Severin as he is called in my version of the story).

In my previous post I discussed the different ways the Beast was cursed, and how I combined the stories to give homage to Villeneuve and Beaumont–the original writers of Beauty and the Beast. Lots of stories follow the general layout of Villeneuve and Beaumont’s tale. However, the one thing that varies from story to story is Beast’s exterior.

Why?

That’s because Villeneuve and Beaumont are pretty abstract in their descriptions of the Beast. In fact they use no concrete adjectives to describe him at all. He is reported to be beastly, ugly, horrid, etc. You can tell by Beauty’s reaction (and by her father’s) that the Beast is excessively hideous and frighting because it is described how she shakes in terror and almost faints. (As a side note it is worth noting that Beauty is also described abstractly as well. It is only said that she is beautiful, there are no specifics given to her looks, including her hair color.)

Chances are the storytellers were vague because it allowed their audience to use their imagination, and decide for themselves exactly what made Beauty beautiful and why Beast was so frightening.

This is one of the more widely recognized illustrations of Beauty and the Beast by Walter Crane.

Looking at older illustrated versions of the story, most illustrators went with a clothed creature who walked upright on hind legs. Most commonly the beast resembles: a boar, a lion, a goblin, a bear, or a wolf. Typically the beast wears nice clothes–the original Brothers Grimm version of the story mentions that the beast wears splendid clothes which might have started the fad–but beyond that the beast’s looks vary.

So why did I go with a beast who greatly resembles a black jaguar in my retelling? For starters I wanted something that would be frightening and exotic to the people of Loire. Loire’s climate and ecosystem isn’t made for large cats. Wolves and bears yes, but jaguars? No. A black bear they would be familiar with, but a large cat they wouldn’t be, making Severin that much more frightening.

Additionally, my reasons for picking a cat as a beast goes deeper than Loire’s geography. Before I even had Elle and Severin designed, long ago I decided if I did a retelling of Beauty and the Beast I wanted my beast to look like a cat. Large cats are a beautiful example of savage beauty. I didn’t want the beast to look repulsive, I wanted him to give off the feeling that he could rip a person’s throat out. He needed to be potentially dangers, but why? Because ugliness typically doesn’t make people swoon and tremble like Beauty did in the original story. (If you don’t get what I mean go to a zoo and sit by the tiger exhibit. Then picture yourself inside the cage with the tiger as you observe the tiger’s pretty teeth.)

In my book, Severin’s dangerous exterior highlighted the requirement that Elle would need to trust him in order to love him. As a pathological liar, trusting Severin with her life was a revelation. And, yes, I will admit it. I also made Severin a cat because then Elle could make an abundance of cat related inquiries and jokes!

If you'd like to read Severian + Elle's story, here are the links for you:

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Beauty and the Beast: Behind the Story

When I researched the origins of Beauty and the Beast for my book I found a lot of fairy tale commentaries. I know everyone is aware that the main theme of B&B is “Don’t judge a person by their appearance,” but a lot of analysts take it deeper. I thought it might be fun to discuss some of the different opinions about the original fairy tale. (This information is about the traditional story, not my retelling–although it’s similar enough some of the comparisons can still be made.)

Some people think the original versions (Written by Villeneuve and Beaumont, as you might recall from this other blog post.) are actually a social commentary because the stories start in urban settings with Belle and her merchant father. Additionally Belle’s standing in the social ladder (She isn’t a princess like Sleeping Beauty or Snow White, nor is she a lord’s daughter like Cinderella) shows a significant change in society’s social structure. The servants play key roles in the fairy tale when typically they are ignored or painted as background characters in other stories.

Others say the moral of the story actually lies with the Beast–and not just the obvious lesson that one should not be an odious brat to the elderly. The claim is that the secondary lesson of the story is men should not force themselves on women and should instead wait patiently and do their best to woo them, giving the girls the choice to say “yes” or “no” to marriage.

It has also been proposed that Beauty and the Beast is like most of the female/princess fairy tales (like Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty) and is about a girl’s journey to adulthood. When the tale opens Belle’s father is the most important person to her. When the Beast holds him prisoner Belle chooses to sacrifice herself on her father’s behalf. When she tells the Beast she loves him she has made a choice that he is now her most important person–signaling her exit of childhood and entrance to adulthood as she leaves her parents and desire to remain in her childhood home behind.

A rather cynical critic noted that poor Belle gets shuffled between “greedy and needy” males (greedy and needy in that Belle’s father gets sick because he is parted from her for a number of months and the Beast almost dies because she’s gone over a week.) and the real moral of the story is that men are greedy pigs. As humorous as this claim is, I don’t think it’s quite on target–although I will admit the Beast's whole “dying because she’s gone” thing is a bit melodramatic.

If you want a good laugh read Overthinking it’s satire entry on Disney’s version of Beauty and the Beast. It is hysterical, citing Gaston as a conservationist and Belle as a schizophrenic. The author even notes that Gaston’s march against the beast’s castle was clearly a village intervention.

If you're now interested in reading my adaptation of this fairy tale here are the links for you:

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Beauty and the Beast: the Original Fairy Tale

Tale as old as time... but how well do you know the original fairy tale of Beauty and the Beast?

As preparation for writing my own adaptation of the story of Beauty and the Beast I did a lot of research into the origins and oldest versions of this story. And today I'm going to share what I learned in the format of a slightly sarcastic summary. Enjoy!

The story of Beauty and the Beast was written in 1740 by a woman named Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve.  However, the version we know best is the abridged version of the story, which Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont wrote in 1756. I pulled inspiration from both versions of the story.

In a nutshell, in Beaumont’s version of the story Belle–the daughter of a bankrupt merchant–lives in the beast’s castle as collateral damage after her  father picks one of the beast’s prize roses. While staying in the castle Belle is spoiled rotten. Beast gives her the best foods, jewels, an extensive wardrobe, and every thing her heart desires. Each night he asks her to marry him and she says no because “she only sees him as a friend.” (HAH.)

After living like this for several months Belle gets homesick and–with the beast’s blessing–returns home, promising she’ll be back within a week. The beast sends a magic mirror with her so she can see what’s happening back at the castle. Belle’s sisters (she has two) grow jealous of Belle’s lavish lifestyle when she comes home and tells all that has happened to her, and they convince her to stay for an extra day.

When Belle returns to the castle and finds the beast dying of a broken heart. (Apparently he loved her so much he would die if she spent more than a week away from him.) Belle cries and tells the beast she loves him, and he is turned into a handsome prince. He explains that he had to live as a beast until a maiden fell in love with him because he was cursed by a fairy when he refused to let her seek shelter in his castle during a storm.

Villeneuve’s story is basically the same core tale, only Villeneuve dove more into the beast’s past as well as Belle’s. In her version you find out that the beast was not cursed because he was a brat, but instead a wicked witch cast the enchantment on him and Belle is actually the daughter of a king and a good fairy. (She was given to the merchant to take in as his adopted child when her mother died and the king remarried a wicked step mother who wanted to kill Belle.) Villeneuve additionally had a much larger cast of characters that Beaumont culled to make the story shorter, and she wrote about the beast’s royal family.

I wanted to take my version of the story back to the originals rather than base it off the more modern adaptions, so I took elements from both of the stories. My take on Beauty and the Beast has the magic mirror and the beast’s obsession with roses. I also made my story of a similar timeline (months rather than weeks) although Elle’s arrival and broken leg are my own invention. As in the original, Elle is one of three daughters, her father is a bankrupt merchant, and she is given a gorgeous wardrobe and exotic/delicious food.

I gave homage to both Villeneuve and Beaumont by having a wicked witch curse Severin (the beast) to live and act like a beast. I slightly twisted Beaumont’s version so that it was a beautiful enchantress who saved Severin by restoring his mind to him, however, she was unable to change his appearance and as a result placed a spell on him so he could return to his real body if a maiden fell in love with him. Like Villeneuve’s story, Elle is not what she appears to be (although it has nothing to do with her parentage so NO she is not a half fairy.) and I included more information on Severin’s family.

Additionally, as both of these ladies are French I tried to give my story a French feel to it. Most of the character names in my book are French, and the clothing and fashions presented in the book are all from approximately 1650-1750 France, ditto with the foods.

Of course this is my version of beauty and the beast, so my story includes fighting, pending wars, espionage, strong minded characters, humor, and a lot more danger than anything presented in the original stories. I hope you get a chance to read it, and that you enjoy it. Here are the links if you want to get started right now:

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