A New Perspective on a Disney Classic: Beauty and The Beast
Beauty and The Beast is a Disney classic that is enjoyed by millions of young children around the world. The storyline is based around the main character Belle, who lives in a small town with her father. One day her father has to go through the forest for work, when he stumbles across a huge mansion. His curiosity wins him over as well as his desperate need for warmth, so he walks into the palace where he is immediately captured. Belle soon hears of this information and goes to save her father, when she is forced to switch places with him as her last resort. Belle is soon held captive, but she starts to build a relationship with the Beast, who is revealed to be a young prince who was cast under a spell. Belle learns that the only way he can be saved is through true love and slowly they build a relationship, which ultimately leads to his curse being broken and them living happily ever after. Sounds like a nice fairytale, but is this truly the case?
Although this is a movie made for the purpose of entertainment, there are many false concepts and unrealistic ideas that may impact the way young audience members perceive the world.
The first issue that can be argued is that the Beast’s behavior towards Belle and her elderly father, in the beginning, was borderline abusive. The Beast locks her in a jail cell against her will. He brings her basic necessities, like food and water, but besides that she is left in complete isolation. Later in the story, as the two characters build more trust, we see that she gains more privileges and liberty, and is able to explore different parts of the castle except for The West Wing. As the rules that The Beast sets for Belle start to loosen up, we notice a budding relationship between them. Belle continuously tries to help The Beast become more kindhearted and thoughtful. Despite her efforts, he pushes her away because of his stubborn views on the world, and there was no changing them. She shows him affection and empathy, but he continues to ignore her gestures. The Beast’s behavior shows that no matter how hard Belle tries, he mistreats her and isolates her.
This idea can teach young viewers that what Belle was going through was acceptable because at the end of the story she is able to break the curse and is rewarded with a handsome, young prince who magically appears in front of her. She also has the privilege of living in a beautiful castle. This can completely change a young girl’s expectation of reality.
Later in the story, Belle and the Beast have a huge argument which leads to Belle leaving the palace and attempting to go back home, but out of nowhere wolves appear and try to attack her. Moments later the Beast fights them off to save Belle, but in doing so he is severely injured. Belle wonders for a couple minutes about what to do. Quickly, she decides to help the Beast because of the risk he took on her behalf. Belle surprisingly looks past all of his previous negative behaviors towards her, and only focuses on this one moment. This could potentially mislead younger audiences and teach them that they always have to overlook many negative actions because of one positive one. These inconsistencies can change our ideas about a person, but there’s no guarantee that they won't go back to treating someone negatively again.
Along with Belle and the Beast, we are introduced to the castle’s servants who were once humans dancing in the ballroom, when they were turned into objects because of the unfortunate curse. While these characters represent humor in the story, there is a problem with their intentions. When Belle enters the pictures, they realize that it’s a perfect opportunity for the curse to be lifted for them as well, so they try their best to make it work. Although they didn’t make it obvious they were using her for their own benefit, it seems that it still might have been their underlying intentions. They soon learn that the Beast lets her go because of his love for her, which immediately interferes with their plans, but they realize that taking advantage of a person is never the solution to getting their way. On the other hand, the story would’ve been completely different if the animated objects had talked to Belle about their ideas and they had come to a mutual agreement about their intentions.
Belle’s personality completely changes once she meets The Beast, she was once an independent character, but once she stepped foot into the palace she became helpless. Belle was considered an outlier because she didn’t follow the town’s expectations for her, mainly falling for Gaston and marrying him. Seemingly the town couldn’t figure out why Belle didn’t want to be with Gaston. This potentially makes her an outlier because the other girls in the town all wished to marry Gaston, except for Belle. Another reason she is considered an outlier is because of her love and interest towards books. Although being an outlier is always considered a negative and terrible thing to be, sometimes it can help us realize how we can become a better version of ourselves. Belle was shown hopeless and unfazed by the situation she was in, sort of powerless, but she wasn’t always like that. She had the choice of who she wanted to marry, the ability to decide what she wanted to do with her life, and the power over what to think because of all the reading she does. “I want adventure in the great-wide, somewhere, I want more than I can tell… For once it might be grand to have someone understand, I want so much more than they’ve got planned!” This quote shows that she is a strong and independent woman who can make her own decisions and choices, but it’s a little strange that she suddenly became powerless and a prisoner, not even fighting for herself, which she is capable of doing. Despite the fact that Belle did choose to be a prisoner, she never really listened to what people had to say regarding her life, however being thrown in a prison cell had a completely different effect on her.
In the beginning of the story we are introduced to the witch who had cursed the prince. She was an odd and eccentric person, never really mentioned in the story and when she was it was about how she was rejected by society because of her strong character and abnormal looks. The views that people had didn’t affect the witch, she was shown as quite a powerful woman. She had the ability to change the lives of all those at the prince's party with her curse. The witch has multiple layers to her character that are unfolded, this being one of many. On the outside she’s shown as unusual and weird, but understanding her character as an independent and powerful person changes things. Depending on how you may view the witch, it’s possible to see her as a symbol of freedom and capability because she’s not one of the people that are trying to change themselves to fit into society, she’s being herself along with the many magical powers she holds.
The message that I’m conveying is that young audience member’s shouldn’t grow up either wanting to be the princess or the witch, not always loved by society or rejected. Finding that balance in this case is important because Belle and the witch both have some admirable qualities along with their own shortcomings. In the real world nobody’s perfect, just like Belle and the witch. A person should be able to have these combined attributes, the love and care that Belle gives along with the independence and strength that the witch holds.