“Beauty and the
Beast” (1991) is a beloved classic Disney fairy tale enjoyed by both the
children and the adults through generations. It is a romance between a
beautiful young woman and a beast-like creature who used to be a prince but
cursed by a sorceress. In this research, this treasured piece of literary text
will be analyzed from the perspectives of two literary theories: Liberal
Humanism and Deconstruction (Post-Structuralism).
Even though the
expression “Deconstruction” does not have a proper definition, in fact, quite
difficult to define, roughly it can be said that it is the re-imagination of a
literary text from an alternate point of view which the author or the creator
might not have initially expected to do. It is one the central factors of
Post-Structuralism. For example, while decoding Beauty and the Beast from a
liberal humanist approach, it is already established that Belle, who is the
“beauty” of the story is the supposed casualty of the Beast’s actions. But the
deconstructive approach questions that notion. Even if on the surface, Belle is
portrayed as the victim, is there genuine evidences for her to be the real
victim? As a matter of fact is the Beast an oppressor or the back story of the
Beast substantially more vile than really depicted? To be fair, the whole film
is a concoction of unaddressed mental disorders and unusual preferences of a
mate.
The Mental
Disorders of the Beast
According to the
short prologue at the beginning of the movie, it is established that the curse
put on the Beast by the sorceress in disguise must be removed before he reaches
the age of twenty-one. To keep track of his age, he is given a special
enchanted rose which will bloom until he reaches near the end of his curse
period and it will wither away after he exceeds the time limit of his curse.
Near the end of the film, the viewers can see that the rose has already began
to wilt, meaning that, the Beast is already nearing his twenty first birthday.
Now, from the lyrics of the song “Be our guest”, it is found that they have
been put under the curse ten years ago – “Ten years we've been rusting…Needing
so much more than dusting”.
This means that
the Beast was, at most, eleven years old when he was tested for his humanity by
the sorceress. The Beast was a mere child at the time of encountering the
sorceress, who was in the guise of an elderly woman. Not only that, the parents
of the Beast were non-existent throughout the film. Presumably the prince, who
is later turned into a Beast, has been an orphan from an early stage and he has
been being raised by the other members of the castle. It is natural for any
child to act defensive in front of a stranger (the sorceress was in fact a
stranger to him) and refuse any offering from them. The fact that the prince
was an orphan indicates that he, as a child, was already dealing with a severe
trauma. It is highly likely that he did not receive lessons on manners and
etiquette being a child who lost his parents. Hence, the test by the sorceress
was nothing an additional torture on a mere child who was already traumatized
with the loss of parents.
The curse itself
was dehumanizing. The prince was turned into a beastly looking hideous creature
at the age of eleven. To make matters worse, he locked himself into his castle
along with all the other cursed members of the castle. But can he be blamed? If
he tried to socialize with other people, chances are he would be misunderstood.
In fact, this is exactly what happens at the end of the film. The mob from the
town of Belle arrives at the castle to murder him just based on their judgment
of his appearance without giving it a second thought. Hence, the Beast was not
only suffering the loss of his parents, but also loneliness due to his
inability to socialize because of his appearance. Under these circumstances, it
is quite natural that any sane person will go insane if he is faced with trauma
after trauma. In fact, throughout the film, the Beast showed clear signs of
Anxiety and Depression.
When Belle’s
father, Maurice, and the Beast come face to face for the first time, the Beast
shows insecurity about his appearance through anger. The Beast mistook the
horrified look on Maurice’s face as a means to mock him (“So, you have come to
stare at the Beast, have you?” told to Maurice by the Beast). Hence, the reason
for the Beast to lock Maurice up was not trespassing but his own insecurity. In
this one single scene, the Beast shows three symptoms of Anxiety – feeling of
tension or restlessness, panic and troubles of having a rational thought. He
also shows a sign of depression in this scene, which is, severe anger.
In another scene,
when Belle goes to the forbidden West Wing of the castle, she comes across a
disheveled room full of broken furniture, shattered mirrors and torn tapestry.
It indicates that the Beast has underwent several instances of a melt-down. He
shows several symptoms of Depression and Anxiety in this scene. For example,
the feelings of helplessness and hopelessness, self-loathing and reckless
behavior. In fact, at the climax of the film, the Beast shows suicidal
tendencies as well. When Gaston was constantly attacking the Beast, he took no
attempt to protect himself from his attacks. Only after Belle arrived in the
scene did he tried to save himself from Gaston’s attacks.
The reasons behind
the mental conditions of the Beast can be traced to the other members of the
castle. Throughout the whole movie, it is seen that the Beast was not properly
respected by his subjects. All of the servants and workers at the castle
constantly violated his orders. For example, they threw a feast for Belle, even
though, the Beast ordered them not to give any food for her. The Beast’s order
might have been cruel. But he was a prince with royal blood and his subjects
were supposed to carry out his orders without a question. But, in reality, they
barely paid attention to his command.
Even Belle refuses
to listen to him. The Beast clearly forbade her to go to the West Wing. Yet,
she went to the prohibited part of the castle, not paying any heed to the
command of the Beast. It should be noted that, Belle was a guest at the castle
and a guest should respect her host. One may argue that Belle was a captive.
That might be true, but throughout the film, there were no clear indication of
Belle being a captive. She was allowed to roam freely within the castle and
there was this one scene, where she even fled the castle and fell prey to the
wild wolves. The Beast was the one who came to her rescue. The Beast a savior,
not a captor. In fact, near the end of the film, the Beast even lets her visit
her father as per her wish. So, Belle was more of a forced guest, not a
captive. Therefore, Belle’s action of visiting the West Wing was a sign of
disrespect towards the Beast, who was her host.
All in all, the
Beast was a young man who was bombarded with all sorts of trauma from an early
life which led him to develop all these mental disorders. The Beast is simply a
boy trapped inside the body of an enormous Beast who never had the chance who
grow up in a healthy way. In addition to that, his problems intensified by
being surrounded by people who neither addressed his mental conditions nor
listened to him. He was expected to act his age when in fact, he never had the
chance to grow into his age mentally. The Beast was not evil. The Beast was
lonely and in need of therapy.
What made Belle
stay with the Beast?
Contrary to the
popular belief that Belle fell in love with the Beast due to his change of
heart, the reality is a little more complex than that. In order to understand
that. Belle’s character has to be analyzed briefly. In the opening song of the
film, Belle states multiple times that “there must be more than this provincial
life”. She expresses her wishes to travel and learn about the world outside her
small town. In addition to that, she is quite interested in reading books and
books during the time shown in the film are quite expensive, whereas, Belle
comes from a poor family. It is not possible for her to pursue her dreams of
traveling the world because she cannot afford them. Being married to Gaston is
not an option either. Because, Belle knows that Gaston will simply treat her
like his possession and never pay any heed to her wishes, no matter how rich he
was.
Moreover, Belle
wishes for a fairy tale-like romance in her life. She is looking for something
grand and unexpected. Here are a few lyrics of the song called “Belle”:
I want adventure
in the great wide somewhere
I want it more
than I can tell
And for once it
might be grand to have someone understand
I want so much
more than they've got planned
Belle is looking
for an adventurous life somewhere other than her small town as well as a
partner who can understand her. Gaston may lead an adventurous life, but he is
very much rooted in that particular town and he is very demanding much to the
distaste of Belle.
Meanwhile, the
Beast is someone Belle could actually rely on. Not only could the Beast afford
all the expenditure of her travels, but also he learns to respect her wishes.
Initially, the Beast may have been very impolite towards her. But eventually,
Belle realizes that the Beast is good at heart. More than that, the Beast is
essentially more capable to fulfill her dreams than any other man. In addition
to that, the Beast is also capable of owning an enormous library which is
another of Belle’s priority.
Belle cannot
necessarily termed greedy. She simply had more expensive wishes. She realized
that being with the Beast will be more financially secure and beneficial for
her. Hence, the Beast’s sudden change of the heart was not the only factor which
attracted Belle towards the Beast. His financial stability played another key
factor which made Belle stay with the Beast. However, there could be one more
reason, Belle was attracted to the Beast.
Belle Has
Unusual Sexual Preferences
Promising
financial security and having a kind generous heart cannot be the only factors
that make a person in love with someone. A person has to be sexually attracted
to a potential partner in order to fall in love expectantly. But, the Beast
never appeared as a human in front of Belle. Moreover, she was unaware of the
curse from the beginning. She did not know that the Beast was a cursed man. To
Belle, the Beast was simply an animal-like creature with some human attributes.
Yet, she managed to fall in love with him in a non-platonic way. This indicates
that Belle has zoophilic tendencies.
A human’s sexual
attraction to an animal is normally known as zoophilia. Throughout the whole
movie, Belle showed signs of such tendency. Here are a couple of lyrics of the
song “Something There”:
She glanced this way, I thought I saw
And when we
touched she didn't shudder at my paw
Belle began to
fall in love with the Beast long before he showed any signs of being a human.
The Beast does speak a language, but it is not possible for a person to fall in
love with an animal or an animal-like creature just because he shows some
human-like traits. For example, some parrots can speak. But no one is having
any sexual attraction to them just because it can talk. On the other hand, some
dogs are trained to walk on two legs. Furthermore, dogs are more comforting and
lovable than some human beings. But, it is rare that a sane person is sexually
attracted to a dog simply because it shows love towards that person. In her
book, Roth (1991) quotes Stephanie LaFarge, who is an assistant professor of
psychiatry at the New Jersey Medical School, and the Director of Counseling at
the ASPCA, “…and zoophiles, who form an emotional and sexual attachment to
animals”. This means that a person who is sexually attracted to animals is a
zoophilic person. Unless a person is sexually perverted, aka, having bestial tendencies,
it is not possible for her to be attracted to an animal. Yet, Belle is shown to
be falling love with the Beast.
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