Tale as old as… this now overused phrase.
Girl gets imprisoned by Selfish Beast, eventually falls for Selfish Beast, Beast transforms
into now NOT selfish (?) Handsome Prince, happily ever after!
Well… not quite.
Beauty and the Beast’s older tellings actually have a lot more… ahem.. juicy... details
and romance and unselfish Beasts than we find in Disney’s version, and, contrary to MOST
EVERY OTHER CREEPY FAIRYTALE ORIGIN, this one holds up to (and even surpasses) the modern
retelling in “respectable interactions.”
I love these tales, and I hope you do too!
So, Let’s go seek Adventure in the great wide somewhere!
And, along the way, we'll find out just who is the real beast in Beauty in the Beast...
(Now, I have to say that there are quite a lot of modern retellings of this tale.
I’m using Disney’s as a reference point because a lot of people recognize it at a
glance or are familiar with it enough through osmosis.)
They do take a lot of liberties with the story, which suits it just fine I think!
This story has roots and versions as early as 4000 years ago, and lovers transforming
into beasts is not an uncommon theme in tales!
Today, we are traveling back to around 1697, when Charles Perrault wrote his tale, “La
Belle et la Bête” (Or beauty and the beast) then we fast forward to 1740 in which French
novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve penned her… more saucy… (and less religious)
version of the tale.
This was abridged and published by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont 16 years later in 1756
(and is extremely similar to Perrault’s), and in 1889 it appears in Andrew Lang’s
book as the one we are mostly familiar with today.
So, What we have now is from a centuries long game of telephone, each telling losing a bit
along the way (and adding something else as well!) between these works, there are also
other variants and versions, as well as operas and plays, too!
In this video, I’m focusing mainly on Villeneuve and Perrault with some Beaumont for good measure!
And, of course, I do need to mention Madame D'Aulnoy, who predates Perrault, as many of
her tales have set the stage for this beautiful story!
Once Upon a Time…
In Villeneuve’s tale, our heroine is of course the youngest, most humble and beautiful
child of 12(!)
TWELVE.
Imagine.
(Both Beaumont’s and Perrault have it as a mere 6 - 3 sons, 3 daughters.)
Their father insists they all be “well-read” (perhaps where Disney got the bookworm side
of Belle) Anyway, the youngest is so beautiful, that everyone literally calls her “beauty,”
or, in the French, “Belle” (That stayed in Disney!)
Beauty has suitors, who she turns down to stay with her father, who is a wealthy merchant
(not an eccentric inventor).
Unfortunately, his fortune gets lost at sea, so he has to move the huge family to a smaller
house in the country.
The tales go into great detail about all the new work the children have to do to keep the
house running, but my favorite bit is that Beauty, enjoying it, sometimes SINGS to her
spinning.
She is actually… super content with the provincial life!... or at least is determined
to make the most of it...
One year later, the Father goes on a promising business trip and, (like IN EVERY TALE EVER)
asks all his children what they’d like as gifts.
Predictably, they all ask for expensive jewels and dresses, but Beauty humbly asks for nothing
but his safe return, infuriating her haughty and jealous siblings.
She is prevailed upon and then asks for only a beautiful rose, like none from around there
(And this rose did make it into the Disney tale, but in an enchanted-timer kind of way!)
The business venture turns out to be unsuccessful, and the father’s journey home is not easy
- in Villeneuve’s tale he gets lost at sea, and in later tales it’s in a woods 30 miles
from home, but regardless he seeks refuge in a seemingly empty castle, where a roaring
fire awaits and a meal is laid out for him (perhaps by the invisible owner, he thinks?!)
(maybe this is what inspired Disney’s enchanted servants?)
Next morning he awakes, drinks some chocolate (um… yum!?) sees the most beautiful rose
in a garden, and plucks it!
The castle’s owner, a “hideous Beast” confronts him for stealing his most prized
possession, after partaking in his hospitality.
I’m sorry, but there is something so sweet about a huge beast tending and delighting
in roses.
He can’t be that bad!?
The merchant explains the flower is a gift for his daughter, and the Beast is willing
to trade the merchant’s imprisonment for the imprisonment of one of his daughters on
one condition: the merchant must be absolutely honest about what the trade involves.
No sugar coating it or anything.
The beast insists that the woman fully consent to the situation.
I kinda love the beast for his presenting his invitation with complete transparency
to the daughters.
No illusions, no trickery, wysiwyg.
Which, I find rather refreshing… both today AND ESPECIALLY in an older tale!
I mean, still NOT condoning it or anything but…
Anyway, the father IS willing to stay, but the Beast sends him home with a chest full
of treasure for his family, just in case the daughters refuse and the father has to return,
at least the family will have some money.
Ahh, what a guy.
Disney’s beast is a selfish child, essentially, who plans on keeping Belle’s father prisoner
for no other reason than ego, really.
Only when Belle comes to investigate does he accept her in his place.
He is gruff and grumbles at his servants coaching him to be more kind, although he does try!
He does have a BIT of a temper… that gets... tempered over time…heh.
In almost complete contrast, earlier “Beasts” insist on NOT being called “my lord,”
hate compliments, and value, above all, “people who speak what they think.”
The merchant returns home, and hearing her father’s plight, it is Beauty, of course,
who loves her father too much for him to suffer for her rose, who agrees to the Beast’s
terms.
(Her brothers are all for Killing the Beast, just like Gaston in Disney).
Before she leaves, her father confides in her about the Beast’s gift of treasure.
She kindly advises him to keep it secret from the sisters and to arrange marriages for them,
so they can be comfortable.
(They didn’t like roughing it in the country) They, however, are so “hard hearted” that
they rub onions on their eyes to feign sadness at her departure.
She does not cry, for fear that grief will overtake her.
Disney hints at some Bluebeardian type of beast with his forbidding Belle to go into
the West Wing (What, is he hiding 6 previous wives in there or something?) but this is
actually NOT in the original tellings.
The Early Beast welcomes Beauty to the castle with fireworks in the shape of her freaking
initials.
(Awesome!)
On her first night in the castle, a woman appears to Beauty in a dream and tells her
that her sacrifice for her father will have its rewards,” In the following months, she
has the run of the lavish castle, and explores every nook and cranny - massive libraries,
intricate aviaries, and more!
She is not barred from the West Wing or any such place, and in fact, is given a book upon
which is written "Wish what you like, Command what you will, You alone are Queen and Mistress
here."
She wishes to see her father, and lo, in a Magic Mirror (Oh!
That made it in!)
She sees a vision of her father.
She enjoys meals during which she is “entertained with a delightful concert, although no creature
was visible” - (Oh!
A creepy “Be our guest?!”
Spooky!
Sign me up!)
She has delightful and candid conversations with the Beast, and finds him more humane
and kind than many men.
In Villeneuve, each night the Beast asks Beauty to sleep with him, (who boy - very direct!
Very saucy!) at first she was afraid he would be angry if she refused, but he assures her
that whatever her answer is, he will be kind... and is!
(In Beaumont’s tale, he asks her to marry him each day) Beauty keeps refusing him in
both tales, but the Beast is considerate of her boundaries, and the two do grow fond of
each other over the course of 3 months.
Beauty has nightly… ahem… dreams...of a handsome man, and begins to fall in love
with this stranger… a dream fairy keeps showing up and telling her not to be fooled
by appearances… but no connection is made.
One day, Beauty sees, via magic mirror, that her father is ill with the loss of her.
She asks the Beast to let her visit for a week (or, in Villeneuve, 2 months?) and, although
he says that the grief of not having there will kill him, he will do anything for her
happiness.
She is transported by magic ring into her bedroom at home, and trunks of diamond encrusted
dresses follow her there, courtesy of the Beast!
She wants to give some to her unhappily-married sisters, but the gowns disappear at her very
thought.
It’s clear they are only for her.
Her sisters, jealous, conspire a way to keep Beauty home for longer than she had planned,
so that the Beast WILL die of grief for her.
They, for once, treat her so kindly, that she stays for 10 days! (or, in Beaumont, another
week)
(In Villeneuve, her sister’s are ABOUT to be wed, and once Beauty shows up, their suitors
only have eyes for Beauty, which, understandably, annoys them.
In this tale, Beauty’s brothers love her too much to send her back to the Beast.)
Anyway, after too much time has passed, Beauty dreams of the Beast, laying, dying, on the
castle grounds.
Her heart aches - it is clear now that she loves him!
So, she sets her ring out, falls asleep, and wakes in the castle, where she dresses to
impress the beast… then waits until 9 OCLOCK in the evening (when he usually swings by
for conversation and marriage proposal) to seek him out?!
Where is the urgency here?
When he doesn't show, she fears she has caused his death, and runs, yelling for him, through
the castle.
She finds him, as in her dream, lying in the garden, and rushes to him and throws water
at him to revive him.
Says he: "You forgot your promise; in my grief at losing you, I determined to let myself
die of hunger; but I die happy, since I have had the joy of seeing you once again."
To which Beauty replies: "No, my dear Beast, you shall not die.
You shall live to be my husband!”
She now realizes what she thought was friendship was actually Love!
All of a sudden there are FIREWORKS! (hmm) And the castle LIGHTS UP, music plays and
a celebration unfolds.
The beast disappears, and a very handsome prince is at beauty’s feet!
(In Villeneuve’s tale, this is the prince Beauty kept “dreaming” about nightly,
so she’s pretty happy about this!)
He reveals the terms of his curse by a “Wicked Fairy” who had transformed him into a Beast
until a damsel would consent to marry him.
He could not mention the curse until now, and he could only use his good heart to woo
a lady.
This is like, exactly the opposite of Disney, who has their enchantress as “good” and
the beast as “deserving of punishment for his unkindness…?”
The prince there was cursed because he was a brat!
This guy was the whole package all along?!
ANYWAY in both Perrault and Beaumont, Beauty and the Prince stroll through the castle,
and Beauty is delighted to see that the woman from her dreams, apparently a famous fairy
(who we didn’t know that about until the end of the tale?) has brought her entire family
to the castle to celebrate!
The fairy turns Beauty’s sisters into statues - and their consciousnesses are preserved
beneath the stone which encases them, to forever witness Beauty’s happiness… they will
be unable to change back unless they admit their many faults, and the fairy has every
notion that they will remain statues forever.
The End.
Villeneuve’s ending is slightly different and gets very technical with Beauty’s eligibility
to marry the now-transformed prince.
After the curse is broken, the dream fairy and the prince's mother show up in a golden
carriage.
(What timing!)
The queen had to leave to fight a war, leaving her son in the care of the evil fairy who
tried to seduce him (when he was old enough) and then cursed him when he rebuffed her).
This Queen will not allow Beauty, someone with no connections or status, to marry her
son.
The dream fairy then reveals that Beauty is her niece whose real father is not the merchant,
but the Queen from Happy Island’s brother.
Wowza that feels way random and like a stretch?
Anyway, they get married and Happily Ever After!
So, with the original tales and Disney’s more modern interpretation, and heck we’ll
throw in Rumple too for good measure (he’s the stand in for Beast in Once upon a Time
I’m pretty sure)…
The TRUE beast of Beauty in the Beast is…
MRS.
POTTS!
I mean, she 1.) has a favorite child, Chip, who seems to be the only one she lets out
of the cupboard 2.) if they were all locked up in that cupboard when the spell was broken…
wouldn’t all those now transformed children also now be… broken?
THEY WOULDN’T FIT in that small cupboard!
Broken bones and such galore.
How cruel, Mrs. P, how cruel!
But in all seriousness, the Beast in the older tales is far more “humane” than most of
the humans, and that was kinda the point!
In the end of their tale, Disney makes this point clear at last too with their character
of Gaston acting more selfish, rash and unkind (in all of his super-toxic masculinity) than
the changed Beast.
And it’s not just Gaston - the whole village goes along with the unjust locking up of Maurice
and the plot to eliminate the Beast, not to mention the self-serving asylum caretaker.
I rather admire the Beast in the older versions (apart from the whole “keeping Beauty as
punishment deal…)
But, what are some of your thoughts?
Which version of the tale do you prefer?
Let me know in the comments below!
Oh!
And before I wrap up our adventure today, I wanted to let you know that I’ve started
a second channel, a bit late, where I tell 2 stories per week!
It’s more free-form, and I’ve got fairy tales, ghost stories, and, currently reading
the full “Alice in Wonderland!”
So, if you can't sleep, and need more stories more often, consider checking it out!
I’ll see you there, night owl supremes!
Thank you for stopping by and watching this video!
If you want to know the second the next one comes out, please be sure to subscribe and
click the notification bell in all its sub category glory!
(YouTube has been weird lately) Ok, I’ll see you soon in the next video.
Goodbye!