Re-watching one of my favourite movies as a child had me questioning why I saw Belle and Beast’s relationship as the perfect romance…
Now we all know the story, but here’s quick summary for those who don’t. Let me relay my interpretation …
Beast started off as a handsome prince that may have looked like the actor Luke Pasqualino.
He is vain, rude, dismissive, shallow and prejudice and treats his servants like trash, however one night an elderly “unattractive” woman who has gotten herself lost, comes to his castle to seek shelter from the storm raging outside. Instead of offering her (who could have been someone’s sweet grandmother) a place to rest, he cusses her out. Calling her old and ugly and how dare she knock his door and expect anything from him…
She was like “Are you sure? Are you sure you won’t let me in?”
He said “Of course I am! I don’t talk to ugly women! Now move from my door right now…”
The next thing you know, she pulls out a glittering wand and transforms into her real self, let’s say a dead ringer for the gorgeous Sabrina Carpenter.
And the Prince is embarassed and ashamed of himself and so so sorry, and says “Please, I didn’t know you were beautiful, please come in, get dry by my fireplace..”
The enchantress is not impressed.
“So now I can come in, because you think I’m pretty, when before I couldn’t come in at all? Alright bro….”
Then she shakes her wand and says
“I will make you so ugly that you will not be able to look at yourself in the mirror. I curse you, so that you can know how it feels to be treated as ugly as you treated me…The only way you can look like yourself again is if someone falls in love with you, looking like that…” she points as his new appearance. “You don’t have long left…” She laughs, as she gives him an enchanted rose that counts how many days he has left to be loved, or else be a monster forever.
He begs and begs but it is too late.
He is now a wild boar like beast, large and hideous and awful to look at.
His servants have been transformed too; into things they were known to be good at, teapots, winding clocks and ever lit candles.
The Prince, now a Beast, knows he will never be loved looking as he does and goes into deep depression, becoming worse of a man than he was before.
Then there is Belle, the town oddball, bookworm, feminist and daydreamer who happens to be beautiful too. Because she doesn’t focus on her appearance or want a man, the town shuns her, apart from the sleazy Gaston that just wants to bed her to prove a point.
Her dad is lovely, but an inventor, decades ahead of his time, always making things the world is not yet ready for, and so the two are known as the town weirdoes.
To cut a long story short, after a series of unfortunate events, Belle’s dad is held hostage after stumbling near the Beast’s Castle.
Belle has to go and rescue him, exchanging her dad for herself.
There, she has to put up with all types and manners of verbal abuse as she gets to know the Beast.
Belle throughout the film, is sincere, calm and genuine. But as the Beast falls in love with her… Is he truly learning his lesson from the enchantress??
You see, Belle was beautiful; most men found her stunning, without ever speaking to her or getting to know her.
The Beast gets to know her in the short time they are together, but does he fall for her due to her appearance? If you think about it how will we ever really know?
We, as an audience, know Belle is sincere, but how do we know the Beast is?
If Belle had come to the castle and looked like an old hag or had been plus size or a plain-jane, would the Beast pursue her around his home? Would he gift her a library?
Another pressing question is, would the Beast also be so desperate for love, if he didn’t have a “timer”, in the form of the enchanted rose, counting down his fate, as each petal dropped, reminding him of his impending doom to permanently be cursed as an animal?
Is the Beast genuine?
I ask this because, many little girls grew up idolising Disney films and most definitely the “Beauty and the Beast” animated movie.
We winced as the Beast screamed at Belle so loud the castle shook, but smiled as they fell for each other during a snow fight.
Why was this abusive individual seen as romantic?
This was my favourite cartoon as a child. I was always making justifications for the Beast, at school when girls in my class found him too scary. I kept saying “He’s not horrible. He’s had a hard life, be nice to him…”
I actually disliked the enchantress. Can you imagine?
As teens, my friend put on Beauty and the Beast for her little sister.
The child sobbed and hid behind a pillow as Beast raged in the film.
We laughed at her and said “Don’t worry, he’s nice!” filling up the poor child’s head with the wrong damn message.
How many times have we heard as little girls “Oh, he just likes you!” when little boys punched us in the arm or yanked our hair at school?
How many times have we seen an abusive, angry, male and immediately thought “But he hasn’t met me. My love can change him…”
How many times have we thought guys were just needing “time” when they ignored our text message and left us on read for weeks, despite being online? Or perhaps that’s just me!
