Le Prince de Beaumon by Jean-Marie

In many ways, Disney’s adaptation of Beauty and the Beast reinscribes the patriarchal values and stereotypical gender roles of Jeanne-Marie Le Prince de Beaumont’s original version of the tale. This is evident through the representation of the fairy-tale heroine at its center, de Beaumont’s Beauty, juxtaposed with Disney’s Belle. IT is quite clear that de Beaumont’s tale uses Beauty to express female “socialization according to male oriented requirements” (Zipes, 24). Conversely, Disney’s Belle might be seen as a “nineties heroine” (Cummins, 23) and a “new kind of female protagonist who thinks and learns” (Cummins, 23). These observable differences can be seen with Beauty and Belle’s interactions with the male characters of their specific stories; Beauty with her father and the best, and Belle with her father and the beast. The purpose of this Essay is to argue that although Disney’s Belle’s agency might seem obvious, in reality, her story, or “woman’s story” (Cummins, 24) as Sylvia Bryant puts it, functions within “a fairy tale frame of reference” (Cummins, 24) implying that her agency is limited by the same limiting continue as de Beaumont’s Beauty because “the end of the girl’s journey, if successful, will bring her to the place where the boy will fin her” (Cummins, 24).

Zipes explains that Beauty’s “attachment” (Zipes, 120) to her father is positive and “desirable” (Zipes, 120) because during Beauty’s “process of maturation” (Zipes, 120) this bond is “transferred and transformed as it becomes detached from the parent and concentrated on the lover” (Zipes, 120). When Beauty’s father’s life can only be spared if he delivers Beauty to the beast, “Beauty, as a model of humility and obedience, saves her father by agreeing to liv...

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...re their affection for the men in their lives limits their agency as independent agents.

Works Cited

Cummins, June. "Romancing the Plot: The Real Beast of Disney's Beauty and the Beast." (n.d.): n. pag. Rpt. in Children's Literature Association Quarterly,. 1st ed. Vol. 20. N.p.: n.p., 1995. 22-28. Web.

De Beaumont, Jeanne-Marie LePrince. Beauty and the Beast. 1740. Folk Tale.

Beauty and the Beast. Perf. Paige O'Hara and Robby Benson. Disney, 1991. DVD.

Zipes, Jack. "The Dark Side of Beauty and the Beast: The Origins of the Literary Fairy Tale for Children." (n.d.): n. pag. Rpt. in Children's Literature Association Quarterly. N.p.: Johns Hopkins UP, 1981. 119-25. Web.

Zipes, Jack. "Towards a Social History of the Literary Fairy Tale for Childr." (n.d.): n. pag. Rpt. in Children's Literature Association Quarterly. 2nd ed. Vol. 7. N.p.: n.p., 1982. 23-26. Web.