Essay on Beauty and the Beast

Words: 1879
Pages: 8

Beaumont vs Disney: A Comparative Look into a Classic Fairy tales and stories are something that has been around since the beginning of time. Tales were passed down from generation to generation, and in the case of fairy tales, these stories were not at first geared towards any age group, but instead for anyone, for entertainment purposes. Growing up, one of my favorite tales was Beauty and the Beast. If you ask children if they know this story, I would guarantee almost one hundred percent of them would. However, I’m sure the story they would know is that of the Disney version. In my lifetime, the majority of fairy tales I know are the Disney version. There is more than just Disney’s version of Beauty and the Beast, for example, the …show more content…
In both stories, the girl gives herself to the Beast in place of her father. Both stories also have the girl and the Beast getting to know one another, becoming friends, and eventually falling in love, however, the context in which this occurs is a little different. When the girl is allowed to go back and see her father/family, Disney’s tale has the village on a hunt for the Beast where Belle finds him almost dead from a stab wound and kisses him which then transforms him into the Prince. With Beaumont, Beauty goes home and in order to come back home to the Beast, she just needs to put her ring on her nightstand when she goes to bed. In doing so, Beauty returns to the castle to find the Beast dying among the rose bushes from being lonely and lovesick, thinking Beauty would never return. All Beauty had to do was say she would marry him and the spell was broken. The endings are the same, in that the girl and the transformed Prince live happily ever after. Anyone can read the two versions and decipher the similarities and differences, but what are the true meanings behind these stories and what are they trying to get the reader to think about? Does Beaumont’s “Beauty and the Beast” show characteristics of what a fairy tale should consist of according to Bettleheim? Disney encompasses what Bettleheim discusses that children need to deal with problems instead of have them sugar coated. Bettleheim suggests that