Beauty and the Beast

In 1756, 16 years after Barbot De Villeneuve first published Beauty and the Beast, Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont abridged the story and published it in a magazine geared toward young ladies of the upper class. At the time, Leprince de Beaumont was working as a governess in England and was influenced by the lifestyle of the well-to-do. Whereas the original version of the tale focused on the Beast’s transformation and had much to say about the status of women (specifically how few choices and rights they were afforded in regards to marriage), Leprince de Beaumont’s adaptation didn’t question societal norms, and rather than centering on the Beast’s curse, her version was a moral story for young women. Barbot De Villeneuve emphasized the ideal reality in which women could choose whom to marry and whether to stay in an unpleasant or frightening situation. By contrast, Leprince de Beaumont aimed to convince young ladies that the man was who he was and that rather than wish for things to be different, a proper lady’s place was to see past the ugliness to the good man beneath, whether or not this even existed.

Beauty and the Beast is heavily influenced by animal bridegroom stories, such as East of the Sun and West of the Moon, in which a woman is sold to a white bear who transforms into a man by night. Such tales are known for their explicit content, something Leprince de Beaumont omitted from her abridgement because she deemed it improper for young ladies to read. In the years following Leprince de Beaumont’s 1756 retelling, the fashion of fairy tales moved to a younger audience, and many stories, including Beauty and the Beast, received new life because of this audience in the following centuries. In addition, the story made its way around the world, garnering tales inspired by Chinese, Indian, and African folklore, among others.

Today, some of the most well-known versions of the Beauty and the Beast story are the Disney adaptations. Rather than a moral or sensuous tale, the animated Disney version strips away many of the elements present in either Barbot De Villeneuve’s or Leprince de Beaumont’s versions. Whereas both the beauty and beast had lessons to learn and growth to achieve in the earlier versions, the Disney movie presents an intelligent, well-read young woman (Belle) who barely struggles to see past the Beast’s ugliness. The 2016 live-action movie brought back some of the original elements, including Belle’s desire for a rose leading her to the Beast’s castle, and offered Belle more character growth. Present throughout all versions is the Beast’s arc of transformation, and the many changes—throughout both the abridgement and the adaptations—speak to the innate adaptability of fairy tales and how they reflect (and sometimes challenge) societal and cultural norms as they’re told and retold in different places and passed down over generations.