Preview

Beauty and the Beast: Story Analysis

Better Essays
Open Document
Open Document
2022 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Beauty and the Beast: Story Analysis
Beauty and the Beauty in the Beast

Once upon a time… The classic opener for any fairy tale, which is no different in the case of Beauty and the Beast. Fairy tales were meant to teach our children life lessons that society, at the time, deems important to learn. They teach us the difference between right and wrong, black and white, good and bad, light and dark, and beauty and ugly. There are many different variations and names to Beauty and the Beast. This famous fable has been passed down and integrated into our culture time and time again, each time adding different lessons that were thought to be important in that day and age. What has changed over the years? How have the fairy tales of Beauty and the Beast affected the children of yesterday, today and tomorrow? I hope to show how fairy tales, more importantly Beauty and the Beast, is helpful to children in many ways, but mostly by teaching them the way that they should act in society. There are three very important lessons that Beauty and the Beast teaches us. First, and probably, the biggest one, is that beauty is only skin deep. It is what is on the inside that counts. Second, which ties in with the first lesson is, don't be too greedy because you will only be looking for the beauty on the out side. Finally, do unto others as you would have done to you, this will make you beautiful on the inside were it counts.
In this paper I am going to take a look at two versions of Beauty and the Beast. Although The Lady and the Lion and Beauty and the Beast are very different, the base story is there. True beauty is determined by what is on the inside and not on the outside. In addition vanity and riches will not make you happy. Finally, to be truly beautiful you must treat people how you would want to be treated.
Before I get into those versions of Beauty and the Beast, I want to talk about those who don't think this fairy tale should be seen or heard by children. One version of this tale is by

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    There is a cliché quote that people say, “Beauty is in the eye of beholder.” But in the essay “The Ugly Truth About Beauty” (1998) Dave Barry argues about how women who spend countless hours on their so called “beauty” whereas men seem not to care. Barry uses juxtaposition and exaggeration to poke fun at men and women behavior and shed light on the harm that the beauty industry is doing. When Barry argues his point of his essay he addresses both genders, but more specifically teenage to middle age men and women, but he writes about it in a humorous and light-hearted manner.…

    • 824 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Pet Shop Boys and Beauty

    • 986 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Beauty, written by Jane Martin in the mid nineteen hundreds, is an ironic play about two successful women, Bethany and Carla. Both women were the same age yet complete opposites. They also had completely different personalities and were unhappy with their lives. Martin casted and characterized them this way to illustrate a few themes. The drama was mainly centered on the theme that no one is ever happy unless they get their wishes granted. However, in these two women’s cases, getting what they wanted caused them to realize there is nothing wrong with being different. These two themes can be seen through the two character’s success, jealousy, and a genie.…

    • 986 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Films that I particularly favor are thrillers. One reason Thrillers become so enjoyable for me, a sense of diversion is created making the viewers more indulge in the movie all the way to the ending. The plots are usually twisted, climatic, suspenseful and intelligence is often use far as the writing perspective to result in an ecliptic viewing of the movie. A really great thriller will usually bring a shock factor by the climax, then the movie will receive a better understanding from the beginning to end. Another genre of films I enjoy are Musicals they are fashionable and express emotions through singing. I am really into lyricism so I enjoy comparing the actual expression of the each character's individual story and the progression…

    • 649 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Appendix L Com/220

    • 1052 Words
    • 5 Pages

    McMicheals, Roger. A Deeper look at Beauty. New York: Graymark, 1995. The quoted material is taken from page 22.…

    • 1052 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Beauty and the Beast” is a classic fairy tale that has been retold through various media such as oral storytelling, written short story, opera, film and musical theatre. With each rendition the story is given a new perspective and a focus on different elements for the reader/audience to consider. In 1946 Jean Cocteau adapted Madame Leprince de Beaumont’s written short story of “Beauty and the Beast” for the film, Beauty and the Beast, starring Jean Marais and Josette Day. Each of these versions offers their own unique approach to the tale and have become classics in their own right. De Beaumont’s story was written so as to have it read and enjoyed by adults and children, whereas Cocteau’s film is aimed primarily at…

    • 537 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The fairy tale Beauty and the Beast opens with the characters of a rich merchant and his six children, three boys and three girls. "The two eldest girls were vain of their wealth and position" (22), but the youngest girl, the prettiest of the three, had a more pleasing personality, humble and considerate. This youngest daughter was so beautiful even as a child that everyone called her Little Beauty. She was just as lovely as she grew up so that she was never called by any other name, a fact that made her sisters extremely jealous. All three girls had numerous marriage proposals - the two eldest always turned their suitors away with the declaration that they had no intentions of marrying anyone less than a duke or an earl. Beauty too always turned her proposals down, but with kindness, answering that she thought herself too young and would rather live some years longer with her father.…

    • 2400 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    But the lessons fairy tales teach are in many cases relevant for adults. Today most people see fairy tales as children’s literature, but this has not always been the case. Once fairy tales were an art shared by people of all ages and social classes. Children often play and make up their own stories, they use their imagination and fantasy is a part of their daily life. The way fairy tales are built up appeals to children because it gives them an opportunity to learn and understand. Children need guidance. One of the ways fairy tales can teach children things and entertain them is by guiding them through the stories. Fairy tales are for everyone. They are stories of the people; their roots grow deep into our roots and society. Though we have changed their original purpose and associated them with children stories, they aren’t any less meaningful. Fairy tales simplicity to read is very much so misunderstood when it comes to morals and meanings as they mean so much with so…

    • 1983 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Beauty Definition Essay

    • 781 Words
    • 4 Pages

    When you look in the mirror, do you see “beautiful”? Did you know that there’s a kind of beauty that isn’t tangible? Beauty is more than one might think; it is more rare. Those who have seen it know it to be something that cannot be captured by a photograph, it must be told by a story. If it has not been clear yet, beauty is not by any means physical aesthetics, but rather it is the actions that make-up an appealing disposition. Through the centuries, so many have wrongly credited beauty to be a person’s looks. The inevitable problem with that kind of beauty is the ever changing idea of what it is, and how it fails to express true beauty.…

    • 781 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In his novel of the retold myth Till We Have Faces, C.S. Lewis takes the roles of beauty and ugliness from fairytales and myths and not only emulates but confutes them. Traditionally the role of beauty is a symbol of good in classic fairytales and ugliness is symbolic of evil. The myth in the novel both proves and disproves this mainstream idea throughout the novel. Lewis creatively integrates a more relatable story by showing the flaw in the assumption that pretty is acceptable and appalling is considered evil.…

    • 375 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    • Reference: Roger McMichaels. A Deeper Look at Beauty. New York: Graymark, 1995. The quoted material is taken from page 22.…

    • 531 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    In Europe, the 1700’s was a different time than present day America in which Marie Le Prince de Beaumont’s and Disney’s version of the text of Beauty and the Beast was written and made. To begin with, Europe in the 1700’s was very religion based, meaning that God always came first no matter the situation and has been a dominant thought in shaping the future for Europe. The order of priorities in that time in Europe was God, the Monarchy or royal family, and then comes the rest of a person’s priorities. A monarchy always has a royal family in which there is a king or queen, princes and princesses and they do little to no work while the poor did all the work. In preset day in America, there are no monarchies in a democracy and the harder a person works in life then the better off that person will be in succeeding.…

    • 1584 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Most people are fascinated in the idea of beauty. It brings your life to a sense of creativity and livens it. Beauty can make a colorful and bright life. In the article “Nature and Panic Can Beauty Save Us?” By C. K. Williams, Williams discusses the importance of beauty and how it impacts us.…

    • 397 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Frog Princess

    • 2861 Words
    • 12 Pages

    Unlike most fairy tales, "Beauty and the Beast" has been a traditional tale where there are two paths to be developed in which Beauty faces challenges and the transformation that is sustained by Beast. Therefore, this shows how two opposing allegorical characters resolve their differences in joining wedlock. The version of "Beauty of the Beast" by Madame de Beaumont shows how Beauty 's happiness is found on her abstract quality of good features. In this version, Madame de Beaumont not only stresses the importance of obedience and self-denial but advocates the transformative power of love and the importance of valuing oneself over appearances. Madame de Beaumont not only shows that looks make a woman happy but character, virtue, and kindness…

    • 2861 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Widely regarded as one of Disney’s more recognised films, the 1991 film version of Beauty and the beast, produced by Walt Disney Pictures, is based on the French fairy tale where a beautiful woman falls deeply in love with a beast. The original, La Belle et la Bete was published in 1740 by Madame de Villeneuve, however, was then edited and rewritten by Madame Leprince de Beaumont in 1757. The tale has gone through many varied and imaginative incarnations, however, it still remains persistent with the themes of envy unrewarded, learning to love what may at first appear as a ‘beast’ and the benefits which virtue and selflessness will give on the individual (Pook Press, 2017).…

    • 1222 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Shrek Movie Analysis

    • 784 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Fairy tales don 't always follow the same boring pattern; beautiful princess falls in love with her prince charming and they live happily ever after. The movie Shrek, an ogre and beautiful princess fall in love, though this beautiful princess has a secret; her secret is that by day a beautiful princess, and by night an ugly ogre, at least in her eyes. Shrek thought she was beautiful as a human and as an ogre; this hidden message is shown as beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Also in the movie, another implied message is that people are prejudice to stereotypes. Though, once you truly know some one, it can be really wonderful and life changing.…

    • 784 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics