When I was young my favorite Disney movie was Beauty and the Beast. Disney's version of this French folk tale came out in 1991 and my parents proceeded to buy the VHS for their future little bundle of joy. Beauty and the Beast became my go-to movie whenever I was bored, sick or just in the mood to watch a dancing fork. When I learned how to read my mother bought me an encyclopedia set and in one of those books contained the orginal version of Beauty and the Beast. I hunted down the different versions of Beauty and the Beast because I always loved the moral behind the story, the idea that love does not have to be born only from beauty, lust and glory. Before I knew it had been enchanted with the different retellings of this classic children's story.
Beauty and the Beast can be traced back to Charles Perrault a French author in 1697. Perrault helped lay down the foundation for literary genre that is now fairy tales by publishing eight short stories in a book titled Stories or Tales from Tales, with Morals: Tales of Mother Goose. He composed his very own version of Beauty and the Beast where the readers are left guessing if the prince truly does transforms back to his human orm or if he only appears to have become the handsome prince in the eyes of his Belle.
Hans Christian Anderson, author of The Little Mermaid, wrote his own version of Beauty and Beast as well. His retelling has the beast, now white bear, returning to human form at night so that he may be with Belle. Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Gallon Villeneuve another French author wrote her own version of the story to entertain her salon friends in 1740. In Villeneuve's version the beast is raised by an evil fairy so that she may seduce him once he reaches adulthood. When she fails and the beast rejects and proceeds to fall in love with Belle she turns him into a beast. Belle discovers she is royalty and the fairy tries to kill her; to save Belle the beast gives her to a merchant man to pass as his daughter to conceal her identity.
The best widely known version of Beauty and the Beast was adapted from Villeneuve's version by Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont in 1756. She shortened it and left out the back story, she also ended her version at the transformation of the prince.
The multiple versions do not widely differetiate from one another; the moral of the story is always the same. Belle sees past the beast's monstrous apperance, the beast learns selflessness and tenderness and in the end love conquers all.
My favorite interpretation of this story is the Walt Disney movie adaptation. I really loved the use of the French words as names. Of course Belle in French is "beauty" and the title of this tale is "Beauty and the Beast." Another is Lumiere, the walking and talking candlestick with the heavy French accent. It is ironic that Lumiere is a candlestick as "les lumieres" in French translates into "the lights."
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