From Cupid & Psyche to Cocteau’s film and finally to Disney’s portrayal of this classic theme, not much has changed in the idea of Beauty and the Beast. All versions of this story have stressed the importance of being good and have even dwelled on the importance of looking behind appearance to see a person’s true nature. In order to convey his ideas and themes, Cocteau uses the beast as a lurking figure whose lack of appearance on the screen ultimately has a great effect on the viewer. The Beast that Cocteau portrays is a model for modern storytellers and has been vital in stressing the theme of genuine nature versus appearance throughout society.
In Carter’s “Tiger’s Bride” masculinity plays a bigger role than femininity does and showed in many ways. The father of the narrator in this story gambles his daughter on a deck of cards to the Beast. He has a very bad gambling addiction and when he loses his daughter, he then becomes concerned. He does not have his priorities straight because he was willing to gamble his own daughter. This shows society how females are just objects in a male’s life and that they value them close to nothing. He only becomes concerned after he loses his daughter and then says the line about how she is his pearl … He shows no fatherly characteristics, he cared more about other things then his own family. He also shows how the only women in his life, since the mother is absent that he has possession over her. He owns her therefore he was allowed to put her up when he was gambling. He shows his lack of caring and loving his daughter. This demonstrates to society ho...
In Laura Mulvey’s “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema”, she presents a number of very interesting facts regarding the ways that the sexual imagery of men and women respectively are used in the world of film. One such fact is that of the man as the looker and the female as the looked upon, she argues that the woman is always the object of reifying gaze, not the bearer if it. And “[t]he determining male gaze projects its fantasy onto the female figure, which is styled accordingly. In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to be connote to-be-looked-at-ness” (487). Mulvey makes the claim that women are presented and primped into this role of “to-be-looked-at-ness”. They are put into films for this purpose and for very little other purposes. However, this argument cannot be incorporated with The Treasure of the Sierra Madre; the existence of women in the film is extremely insignificant to an extent that could be considered absent. “In a world ordered by sexual imbalance,” male serves as the dominant figures with which the viewer can identify, women only appear in the film for a very short moment of time. For instance, the appearance of women is only shown when Howard rescues the ill child in the village and his return to the village for hospitality reception...
In addition, this film explores a new way to love, breaking the trope of Disney’s traditional and antiquated love stories. Beauty and the Beast is not about love at first sight, but rather a more realistic representation of love, when two equal people learn to know and appreciate one another. As Charles Solomon explains in his insightful article "Animated Heroines Finally Get in Step With the Times” in the Los Angeles Times:
De Beauvoir wants to expose the persevering myth of the "everlasting ladylike" by demonstrating that it emerged from male distress with the certainty of his own introduction to the world. All through history, maternity has been both loved and scolded: the mother both brings life and envoys demise. These secretive operations get anticipated onto the lady, who is changed into an image of "life" and in the process is ransacked of all distinction. To show the commonness of these myths, de Beauvoir concentrates on the depiction of ladies by five present day scholars. Toward the end of this segment, de Beauvoir looks at the effect of these myths on individual experience. She reasons that the "unceasing female" fiction is fortified by science, therapy, history, and
From Angela Carter, “The Tiger’s Bride,” in The Bloody Chamber and Other Stories (New York: Penguin, 1993) came a tale like no other. “The Tiger’s Bride” was a version of “Beauty and the Beast” that has very few similarities. “The Tiger’s Bride” is the story of a young girl named Belle who’s father lost her to a beast in a hand of cards. The beast was very well disguised, not one hair or limb on his body was visible to the human eye yet people knew that there was not a human under all of those clothes and the strong odor of his cologne. Belles father is lost in his habit or gambling and has lost sight of his priorities and lost the only thing he had left in the world. He didn’t know what was to become of his daughter who could become a slave in many ways. And as he left her, she left him and she also had nothing to live for. As in many of Carter’s stories nakedness is a continuous symbol of many different things. The bea...
The fairytale The Beauty and the Beast is illustrated as a love story, however when looking deeper into Belle’s nature it seems to be that she is affected by several disorders throughout the film. In Beauty and the Beast, we see Disney once again sugarcoat personal problems in order to present a young audience with a one dimensional and simple female hero. Belle has clearly shown symptoms of Schizoid Personality Disorder, Stockholm Syndrome and Schizophrenia which can be treated by a biological therapeutic approach or a psychoactive drug approach and therapy.
“Cat People,” first released in 1943, was a movie, which changed the prescribed gender roles common in America cinema during the mid 1900’s. During, the films release woman were often mainstreamed as passive objects in which it was the man’s duty to protect. Despite the prescribed gender roles of the time, Irena’s character was the counter opposite figure for the ideal woman. Not only did she refuse the advancements of the men around her, she also have into her more animalistic nature (the leopard). Rather than conforming to the domesticated ideal, Irena fought against the masculine authorities around her.
Through the three revisions of Beauty and The Beast, the fairy tales retold share many similarities as well as many differences according to their time period. In all three versions femininity and masculinity are presented in many ways. Femininity is shown through all three main female characters, Belle from the famous Disney film “The Beauty and The Beast”, the narrator in “Tiger’s Bride”, and Psyche in “Cupid and Psyche”. In all three versions, the female characters breaks society’s expectations of a typical woman. In CP Psyche stands up to Cupid’s mother Venus and accomplishes these activities usually performed by males. She shows society that women can overcome male activities and have strength to complete the same tasks. She breaks tradition of the male character fighting for her because in this version she takes on the hero role and fights for Cupid. This was not something ordinarily done by woman characters during this time. In TB the narrator breaks the tradition of the innocent stereotypical woman figure. The narrator exposes and does things most woman would never have the nerve to do. She shows society that women can fault their beauty in other ways. Even if society does not make it acceptable to have sex before marriage, she shows that women can expose their body and beauty in many ways. In DB version Belle is a great example that women should not be looked at as dolls and let males have control over them. She shows society that woman can be independent and educated. She does not get married to the most handsome male in town however she goes after someone who deeply cares about her. She displays a great example of how woman have their own mind and can think for themselves. Woman are allowed to make decisions and have ...
Sarah Parrish says, “Plastic surgery can't make you younger or more beautiful, because beauty is in your eyes, isn't it? It's in your soul; you can't strap it on.” Who ever said Barbie was perfect as ice cream on a hot, summer’s day? In today’s society, adolescents are profoundly influenced by the media; this includes celebrities, social networking, blogs, and more. However, beauty has always been heavily valued. In literature, being attractive frequently indicated an admirable protagonist, while hideousness indicated an abominable antagonist. Because cosmetic surgery is promoted throughout the world, teenagers have no choice but to promote cosmetic surgery, too. The demand for cosmetic surgery is inevitable and gradually increasing. According to the National Clearinghouse of Plastic Surgery Statistics, Americans spent $11.5 billion for 11 million cosmetic procedures in 2006, a 48% increase over the number performed in 2000. Social media is propaganda for cosmetic surgery, they paint a dainty, unrealistic, picture, however, they seem to caper the negative effects. What is the cost of beauty? Cosmetic surgery has harsh effects in the long run, is addictive, and is only temporary.