Fairy Tales: De Beaumont's Beauty & the Beast, Does Romance Blossom Due to Niceness or Mutual Interests?

Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont was not the first to produce Beauty & the Beast. The tale goes back to Cupid & Psyche, which de Beaumont acknowledged. She also based her tale on a much longer version by a fellow French woman, Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve.

In any case, de Beaumont deserves credit for delivering the best-known version of the tale. The abridgement is impressive in that she retains the classic elements without sacrificing context or, for that matter, psychology. The father doesn't agree to give up his daughter but, rather, intends to return to the Beast after saying farewell to his family. The sisters remain unnecessarily horrible (in other versions, they encourage Beauty to stay away from the Beast because they miss her) but their horribleness has a source, at least. They feel entitled to the lifestyle and wealth that their father lost. 

One major difference resides is the characterization of the Beast. The Beast does not have a temper but rather a mild, even soulful (depressing) attitude. He does ask Beauty to marry him. He also mopes away when she says no. (Seriously: he mopes.) 

In addition, he lacks what de Beaumont refers to as "wit." He is actually rather dull--as befits his "beast's" nature.

The first characterization makes the point that the Beast may look beastly but is in fact kind and non-pushy. 

The second characterization is harder to fathom outside of de Beaumont's time period. Nearly every retold version of the tale, including Disney's good and bad versions, makes the point that Beauty and the Beast become friends. They have something to talk about. 

But de Beaumont was coming out of the high-energy culture of salons and courts in France where being "witty," making clever jokes at other people's expense (think, Twitter), was all the rage. Her point: a loving heart from a non-intellectual bloke is a better choice than being someone's verbal whipping post. 

On the one hand, a non-shrewd Beast removes some of the worries over Stockholm Syndrome: Beauty isn't being forced to fall in love with a crazy, clever, insidiously charming whack-job of a kidnapper. 

On the other, at the end of de Beaumont's tale, I was at a loss to understand WHY Beauty would want to marry the Beast (in a modern version, she should just say, "Thank you" and go get a career). It seemed like she was forcing herself to rise to a socially acceptable definition of "good" rather than falling in love because she actually missed the bloke. 

Beauty & the Beast is a fantastic tale precisely because it raises the above issue. Unlike other tales in which the move up the ladder IS the reward, Beauty & the Beast tackles the state of the relationship itself. 

And that, of course, was de Beaumont's point.