Once upon a time...
Hello tiktakers!
Today we are going to tell you a story, the story of "Beauty and the Beast", which you
will all know for its many adaptations to cinema.
Most of them are based on the softened version of the story made by the French writer Jeanne-Marie
Leprince de Beaumont in 1756.
But this popular legend dates far back, to the Middle Ages, but with a darker and more
creepy plot.
So we'll start by telling you the best known version of Beaumont, and at the end we'll
explain the true story behind this sinister tale.
A long time ago there lived a Merchant widower who had three daughters.
The two eldest were presumptuous and vain, but on the contrary the youngest, whom they
called Bella, was humble and kind.
All of them always had candidates willing to marry them.
But over time bad luck in business caused the Merchant to lose all his wealth, and the
many candidates disappeared, as money was their main motivation to marry them.
Only Bella continued to receive some propositions due to her beauty, but she still rejected
them as well.
On a business trip the Merchant went out one day and asked his daughters what they wanted
him to bring them back.
The two oldest asked for jewelry and dresses, but Bella said she was satisfied with a rose.
On his return, the man was lost in the forest and had to spend the night in a castle that
seemed abandoned.
The next day, before leaving, he took a rose from the garden in order to take it to his
daughter.
Then a hideous beast, owner of the castle, appeared willing to kill him for his boldness.
The Merchant begged forgiveness, begging to see his daughters again, and the Beast offered
him a deal.
He could return home whenever he brought one of them to take his place imprisoned within
the castle.
The man, exhausted, flew home and told his daughters what had happened.
Immediately Bella, who felt responsible for asking for the flower, volunteered to do the
punishment.
The Beast accommodated Bella in the best chambers of the castle to live there her whole life,
and forbid her father to see her again.
Every night the Beast visited Bella's room and asked her to marry him, but she replied
that she would only befriend him.
Several months passed in which the Beast filled Bella with attentions and she corresponded
to him with her approach.
But one day, she saw in a magic mirror that her elderly father was very ill, and asked
the Beast to allow her to see him one last time.
The Beast accepted, in exchange for Bella not spending more than eight days outside
the castle.
Returning home she found her vengeful older sisters, unhappy to be married to ordinary
men, who tricked her into staying more than eight days.
Realizing that she had broken her promise, Bella ran back to the castle, where she found
the Beast dying, nearly dying of grief because she had abandoned him.
Bella knelt before him and shed tears, realizing that she loved him and wanted to be his wife.
Hearing his words, the Beast magically became a beautiful and handsome Prince, who had been
converted to his former state by the curse of a sinister witch, so that no woman would
want to be with him.
Bella and the Prince married and lived happily in the castle with their father, while Bella's
two older sisters were transformed into stone statues, but without losing consciousness,
to witness the happiness of their younger sister.
The end.
As we said, Beauty and the Beast is a popular classic of European legends that has evolved
through the centuries.
It is believed to have its origin in the Greek myth of Cupid and Psyche, but it was not until
the sixteenth century that written versions began to appear, in which the Beast happened
to be a snake, a wolf and even a pig.
The most remarkable was the novel by the French writer Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve
in 1740, which served as the basis for the reduced version of Beaumont.
The plot revolves around a war between kings and fairies, in which Bella is a princess
posing as the daughter of a merchant to escape an evil fairy.
And the Beast is an orphan prince raised by that evil fairy, who tries to marry him when
he is older, and after rejecting her, transforms him into a horrendous creature.
As for its meaning, Beauty and the Beast seems to be a direct criticism of the traditional
convenience marriages of that time, in which young women were forced to marry older men
they didn't know.
But the story also seems to tell those women that if they look inside their husbands they
may find a kind being, or even redemption through their love.
It also tells of a girl who grows up unable to assimilate an intimate relationship with
another man, whom she sees as beasts.
She only considers her father's love as pure, which is why she asks him to give her a rose.
The moment she is able to enter into a loving relationship with another person, Bella achieves
happiness, and this Beast becomes a perfect couple.
While her father gets sick, having lost his daughter's love and interest.
You can see that the classic stories always contain much more history than they seem.
So don't miss the opportunity and let us know in the comments what you would like us to
show you in the next videos.