Beauty: A Retelling of Beauty and the Beast

When her niece is given the name Mercy, Beauty thinks privately that the Huston family “already had more than enough virtues personified” (50), confirming that the women in Beauty are named after desirable virtues. From a young age, Beauty senses names ought to reflect their owners as individuals. She sees little to appreciate in the virtue of honor, so she claims the name Beauty instead, as if that will influence her future attributes. When she’s older and decides the name doesn’t suit her because she thinks she’s too plain-looking, Beauty begins to hate the name. She feels it draws more attention to her plainness, which is why she says to Beast, “I hope you weren’t misled by my foolish nickname” (117). Nobody else seems to question the appropriateness of the nickname. In Blue Hill, for example, it “had been adopted without the flicker of an eye” (39). This establishes Beauty’s character flaw—her unrealistic self-image—as well as the role of perception in defining beauty; factors that develop a thematic comparison of Outward Appearance Versus Inner Beauty.

Beast’s arc develops the symbolism of names in the story too. He tells Beauty to call him Beast when they first meet, and later reveals he doesn’t remember the name he had before being turned into a beast. He hasn’t abandoned his inner qualities, like kindness and loyalty, but his perception of himself has changed. He hates to look in mirrors and forgets his human name, because even he is influenced by his monstrous form. This fact emphasizes the powerful effects of outward appearance. However, offering to let Beauty choose his new name is an acknowledgment that appearance is not the most important aspect of a person. Therefore, a name based on appearance is not an accurate representation of one’s identity.

Beauty and her sisters choose names for their animals—like Greatheart the horse and Orpheus the canary—carefully, reinforcing the idea that names are meant to align with character and to represent identity. Names that personify virtues, then, symbolize the importance of character over looks, of substance over style. Traits like honor, grace, and hope are forms of inner beauty. Over the course of her character arc, Beauty’s actions prove the aptness of her given name, Honour. When she chooses to return to the castle instead of staying with her family in order to keep her promise, her father points tells her, “[y]ou were well named” (228), meaning her choice is an honorable one. By demonstrating honor and loyalty to Beast, she reveals How Romantic Ideals Mirror Family Values. As Beauty becomes more and more honorable, her outward appearance grows more lovely to match her inner beauty, until both her names are accurate representations of her identity.