“He Was So Different From Herself”: Transformations in the
“Beauty and the Beast” Tales
Lauren Babineau, Class of 2012
Sweet Briar College
According to Bruno Bettelheim in his book, The Uses of Enchantment, children need
fairytales to learn the lessons contained in them about dealing with the issues that they will face
in their lives. This may not be the primary reason that children are drawn to these stories;
however, even if this theory of Bettelheim is not completely true, fairy tales and folklore in
general trace back to oral tradition and these stories can help us identify what was important to
these previous societies through their inclusion of these elements and themes in their versions of
the tales. Fairytales and other similar genres of stories have remained very popular and each tale
has a long history. Some of these stories are more difficult to classify as being specifically a
fairytale or a myth, since there is often some overlap in the common themes and situations used
in these tales. Bettelheim himself supports this belief when he writes,
In most cultures, there is no clear line separating myth from folk or fairy tale; all these
together form the literature of preliterate societies. The Nordic languages have only one
word for both: saga. German has retained the word Sage for myths, while fairy stories are
called Märchen. It is unfortunate that both the English and French names for these stories
emphasize the role of fairies in them – because in most, no fairies appear. Myths and
fairy tales alike attain a definite form only when they are committed to writing and are no
longer subject to continuous change. Before being written down, these stories were either
condensed or vastly elaborated in the retelling over the centuries; some stories merged
with others. All became modified by what the teller thought was of greatest interest to his
listeners, by what his concerns of the moment or the special problems of his era were
(Bettelheim 25-26).
As Bettelheim is pointing out here, a story only survives because of public interest and since that
interest changes over time, each tale must transform with it as societies evolve. As a result, the
many categories of folklore and fairytales develop into large traditions.
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One such tradition is that of the “Beastly Bridegroom.” The category of the “Beastly
Bridegroom” is a large one and it has become one of the more enduring and popular traditions
today. This category divides into several different subcategories, such as tales that contain
“loathly ladies” where the beast is the female and typically maintains a human, albeit hideous
appearance. There are also versions of the tale where instead of the beast being returned to a
human form, the beauty of the story is the one who changes into a beastly shape at the
conclusion of the tale, although these are less common and are found primarily in the last several
decades. This work focuses primarily on three of the more well-known tales, Apuleius‟ Cupid
and Psyche, the Norse tale East of the Sun, West of the Moon, and finally, De Beaumont‟s
Beauty and the Beast. These three tales are compared with each other and also with more
contemporary versions of each one to find how the tales have been transformed with the passage
of time. Detailed charts of each tale and its elements can be found in the appendices at the end of
this work. In addition, in effort to trace how these tales differ depending on when they are
written, several other versions of the “Beastly Bridegroom” tales have been included as well. By
looking at how the tales have transformed in their elements over time, this work sets up further
research into explaining potential reasons based on cultural beliefs for these additions and
transformations.
The majority of the “Beastly Bridegroom” tales that have remained popular in Western
culture can be traced back to the tale of Cupid and Psyche, which is contained in Apuleius‟ work
The Golden Ass, which was originally published in Latin sometime in the second century. This
story is not the original “Beastly Bridegroom” story by any means, especially since in the text
there are several clear indications that this story had been passed down to Apuleius by other
sources. One example of the evidence that suggests that this tale is based on a previous story is
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the prophecy about Psyche that states that “No human son-in-law (hope not) is thine, / But
something cruel and fierce and serpentine; / That plagues the world as, borne aloft on wings, /
With fire and steel it persecutes all things” (4). The fact that Cupid is actually not a winged
serpent makes this prophecy problematic and this discrepancy is never fully explained, thus
leaving a hole in the narrative. This has been attributed to being a reference to an even older
story about a girl who is married to an actual snake, but it is not typically addressed by scholars.
Another time that something similar happens in the narrative is with Psyche‟s child, who is
originally deemed to be a boy by Cupid, but at the end of the story is hailed as a baby girl named
Pleasure. These unexplained inconsistencies in the storyline leads to the theory that this story is
not a story that Apuleius created on his own, since an author creating a completely new story
would be less likely to leave these holes in the plot. Similar phenomenon occurs in other works,
such as in The Mabinogion, where the story has clear links to oral traditions which backs up the
belief that similar things are occurring in Cupid and Psyche. However, while this is clearly not
the original tale, this is as far as scholars have been able to trace the tradition back, at least in
terms of written tales.
Despite Cupid‟s lack of a beastly appearance, this story is cited by most scholars as being
the Ur-text for most of the “Beastly Bridegroom” tales. It is interesting therefore to note that,
according to Ruth Bottigheimer‟s article “Cupid and Psyche vs. Beauty and the Beast; The
Milesian and the Modern,” only one version of the tale was allowed to be published due to the
Spanish Inquisition.
All versions based on a text other than the 1469 Editio Princeps published by Andrew
(Jo. Andreas de Buxis), Bishop of Aleria, were mutilated by the Inquisition, and their
destruction effectively produced a single and uniform canonical source for modern
monster-as-husband tales (9).
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This reduction of the tale into one version makes the stories that are contained in this category
much easier to identify and connect since they are more likely to remain similar to Cupid and
Psyche since no other variations were encouraged to survive. Thus when it comes to tracing
these stories back to their original source, it should be much easier, however, because these
stories are found all over the world and date back to a variety of time periods, they differ
significantly from the Ur-Text. This can be seen as evidence of how the story evolves to fit into
the culture and time period that it is fitting into.
Cupid and Psyche has come to be used as possible religious allegory by C.S. Lewis in his
story, Till We Have Faces. This serves as an example of how this story has been remade for
modern societies, since Lewis published this story in 1980. While Lewis maintains a lot of the
basic plot structure, in order to make it fit into the story he wishes to tell, he must change the
narrator of the story to that of one of Psyche‟s sisters, which raises a point made by Betsy Hearne
in Beauty and the Beast: Visions and Revisions of an Old Tale, when she writes that, “The
narrative voice, while constant as a function, is the most diverse form and thus the weakest of all
the elements in surviving changes of time or culture” (Hearne 127). By switching who is telling
the story, the tale of the “Beastly Bridegroom” can easily switch in tone from romantic to
horrific, especially if told from the view of the father. In addition to changing the narrator of the
tale, Lewis also explores the tensions between mortals and immortal gods much more fully than
Apuleius ever does in his version. Despite these changes, this newer version of the tale can easily
be traced back to Cupid and Psyche and Lewis even has the original tale being told within the
story.
Both East of the Sun, West of the Moon and de Beaumont‟s Beauty and the Beast are
clearly related to Cupid and Psyche, but each varies from it and from each other significantly.
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East of the Sun, West of the Moon, while sticking to many of the same plot elements, has the
heroine being convinced by her father to live with the bear in order to release them from poverty.
She must also journey to win back the beast and is helped in her fight against the troll queen by a
group of Christians. De Beaumont‟s version of Beauty and the Beast has Beauty choosing to
save her father‟s life and she does not have to accomplish any tasks in order to win back her
beast. These differences can be explained at least in part due to the geography and cultures that
these stories are each a part of. East of the Sun, West of the Moon relates not only to Cupid and
Psyche, but also to a Norse saga, The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki. It actually shares more
similarities with this Norse saga than it does with Cupid and Psyche. It is unclear when East of
the Sun, West of the Moon was written, but we know that The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki was
published in the fourteenth century. Both of these northern tales tell of beasts who are bears, the
female heroines are each given warnings and tasks to accomplish, and there are also trolls and
evil step-mothers who curse their step-sons into the body of the beast in this northern tradition of
the “Beastly Bridegroom.” These tales are both are very old, however, we still have this version
of the “Beastly Bridegroom” story remaining popular, since in 2005 Edith Pattou‟s East found
popularity in modern audiences. While many of the elements remained the same in the story,
especially with regards to the trolls and the Northern landscape, Pattou‟s work is clearly a
product of modern society, since her heroine faces the journey to the troll palace without any
help from magical winds and in general is clearly meant to appeal to an independent audience.
Arguably the most well-known version of the “Beastly Bridegroom” story, De
Beaumont‟s Beauty and the Beast, is the version that is most often contained in fairy tale
anthologies. De Beaumont‟s Beauty and the Beast can be seen as a product of her own life
experiences and intentions for writing the story itself. The story was originally published for
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young women in a magazine, first in France in Le Magazin des Enfants in 1756, than in England
in The Young Misses Magazine in 1759. Additionally, as Ruth Bottigheimer states in “„Beauty
and the Beast‟: Marriage and Money - Motif and Motivation,”
For her first publication of Beauty and the Beast in England, she adopted the format of
conversations held by a governess with her young charges, a pedagogic stance that was
likely to find favor with the merchant class to whom she wished to sell her literary work
(Bottigheimer 84)
By having the story be narrated by a governess who is trying to teach her young female pupils
lessons, de Beaumont can teach additional messages to the young women she is trying to reach.
Class issues also play a much larger role in the story than they does in other versions of the
“Beastly Bridegroom” tale. De Beaumont as a member of the middle-class herself can be seen as
making a statement about the foolishness and greed of the rising middle-class. In this and in
several other ways, such as in the conclusion of this version, this story is very much a product of
the society of the eighteenth century. In a society were arranged marriages were still accepted,
Beauty and the Beast, fits right in. While this has been the case in the previous versions of the
tale, there is an additional sign of the changing availability of travel at the end of the tale. In de
Beaumont‟s tale, instead of becoming permanently separated from her family upon the
transformation of the Beast, Beauty‟s family is brought to live with them, thus eliminating the
need for her to ever truly cut all ties to her family. Along those lines, family, while still
contributing somewhat negatively to the tale through Beauty‟s dilemma and betrayal of the
Beast, is more accepted and valued in this work. This can be seen as mirroring what might have
happened to a young woman upon marrying during this time, since unlike in pervious times, the
woman would have far more access to travel in real life.
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De Beaumont‟s Beauty and the Beast, as the most popular and well-known of the three
major tales dealt with here, has the most modern reinterpretations modeled after it. Nonetheless,
Robin McKinley‟s Beauty, which was published in the United States in 1978, can be seen as one
of the best reinterpretations of de Beaumont‟s version. McKinley leaves most of elements found
in de Beaumont‟s version intact and includes things such as the rose, the mirror, the dreams, and
the issue of poverty. However, she does make several notable changes which reflect a more
modern perspective on the tale. Where as previously Beauty is guilty of breaking her promise to
the Beast by returning much later than agreed upon, McKinley has the Beast release Beauty
entirely from her agreement so that she does not truly betray him by returning late. In addition,
there is the element of love in the tale, unlike in the 1756 version were love does not factor into
Beauty marrying the Beast. In de Beaumont‟s Beauty and Beast, Beauty does not agree to marry
the Beast because she is in love with him, but in Beauty, McKinley makes it clear that Beauty is
truly in love with the Beast and is not merely marrying him because she sees him as the better
option.
Over the course of the evolution of the tradition of the “Beastly Bridegroom,” few things
remain the same in each of the tales. In Apuleius‟ Cupid and Psyche, East of the Sun, West of the
Moon, and de Beaumont‟s Beauty and the Beast very few elements can be found that are in all
three. Although there are many things that can be found in two of the three, only about three
things are in them all. One is the character of Beauty, or our heroine. Another is the Beast,
although he does vary in appearance and personality in each of these three tales. Finally, there is
some sort of family for the heroine in each and these families influence the tale negatively each
time. There is one other element that can be found in all three of these tales, and that is the
inclusion of some type of helpers in the tale. For the purposes of this paper, this will be viewed
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as a much smaller issue of importance, since due to the inherent plot structure, where the heroine
must go to live with the beast by herself, there is virtually a requirement for some type of helper
to appear in the tale. The helper or helpers also are often invisible or do not interact with the
main characters very much, thus their personalities are far less developed and therefore we have
their transformation over time being far less significant than that of the other three common
elements.
The heroine of the tale, despite being the character whom many would describe as the
protagonist, does not change much over the course of the tradition. In fact, Beauty is a fairly
static character and only changes enough to reflect the passing of time and the transformation of
both her family and the beast. She is rarely named and is typically referred to as the youngest
daughter or some other generic term. If she is named at all, it is usually some version of
“Beauty.” Even Psyche‟s name merely functions as part of the statement about her relationship
with Cupid since her name, which means “Soul” combined with “Love” results in “Pleasure”,
their child, although this is at least partially due to her role as part of mythology. It is only in the
more recent versions of the tale where the heroine gains a more defined personality and comes to
receive a name.
The name “Beauty” also speaks towards what role the heroine plays in the story. She is
defined by her outer attributes and is praised for something over which she has had no part in.
As Jerry Griswold states in The Meanings of “Beauty and the Beast”: A Handbook,
Beauty may be especially attractive, but after the opening paragraphs her looks are not
mentioned. Instead, her virtues are stressed. She is described as kindly, generous,
humble, hard working, patient, cheerful, etc. In fact, the catalog of her excellences is so
long that some readers may find Beauty an unrealistic character and something of a
goody-goody. But if Beauty seems too good to be true, the fault lies in her lopsided
selflessness (41).
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Here Griswold is pointing out something that modern readers may find especially frustrating
about Beauty‟s character since often she is described as being a kind of paragon of virtue and
duty. Despite these reported virtues, Beauty always makes a mistake and in order to fix
everything, must ultimately choose for her benefit, not merely what is best for others. This is a
difficult choice for Beauty and it is when the heroine has to make these choices in the tales, that
they truly grow up fully. Even though Beauty must choose what is best for herself, she still
thinks of others as well. In de Beaumont‟s version, Beauty‟s choice is prefaced by this
monologue,
Beauty started out of her sleep in tears. “Am I not evil,” she said to herself, “for making
this Beast, who was full of kindness for me, so unhappy? Is it really his fault that he‟s
ugly, and has so little intelligence? Why shouldn‟t I marry him? I shall be happier with
him than my sisters are with their husbands! It is not a husband‟s looks or intelligence
that make a wife happy; it is goodness of character, virtue, unselfishness, and the Beast
has all these good qualities. I do not love him, but I respect and honor him as a friend”
(Hearne 11).
While we can see Beauty thinking for herself and making a definite choice here, she seems to be
at least partially motivated by pity and guilt for the Beast which makes this seem like she is once
again acting out of consideration for others. She does mention how this will benefit her, therefore
making this a vast change from her previous decisions, but it still has hints of her previous
primary considerations for others.
Because Beauty is so often relegated to being such a static character, the beast is the one
who becomes the primary focus of the tale. He is the character that is typically referred to in the
title of each story and in several stories such as, The Small-Tooth Dog, The Fairy Serpent,
Monkey Son-in-Law, etc. the male lead is the only one included in the title. The Beast is the
character that tends to have the most variability. This variability is seen in several elements of his
character. One of the most obvious ways in which he varies is in the shape into which he
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transforms. As indicated in the titles cited above, the Beast takes on many forms in these tales. In
many he resembles the shape of some kind of bear, in others that of a lion or some other type of
fierce, massive animal. Eastern tales tend to portray the beast as some type of reptile, most often
some kind of snake. Other stories, such as de Beaumont‟s Beauty and the Beast, do not clearly
identify what shape the Beast has been transformed into and therefore we have the illustrators of
these stories making a variety of guesses at what the Beast looks like. In Walt Disney‟s film
version of the tale, released in 1991, the illustrators choose to combine a variety of animals in
order to make up the Beast.
In addition to the variability of the shape that our hero takes, the amount that the Beast is
truly an animal also changes from story to story. In some, such as de Beaumont‟s version of
Beauty and the Beast, the Beast becomes very animal-like and loses a lot of his intelligence, even
going as far as to tell Beauty that “„…apart from the knowledge that I am ugly, I have no
understanding. I only know that I am a Beast‟” (Hearne 9). Many other stories follow this
example where the Beast has lost his intelligence with his transformation into a beast. A slight
variation on this is in Madame Gabrielle de Villeneuve‟s version of Beauty and the Beast that
was published in 1740. There we actually have the Beast cursed to be unable to display his true
intelligence in an effort by the evil to make him even less appealing to any potential young
women. This is not true in many of the tales in the tradition and in fact, neither of the other two
stories that are primarily focused on here, Cupid and Psyche and East of the Sun, West of the
Moon, have a “dumb beast” in them. In addition, the inclusion of a “dumb beast” seems to fallen
out of popular reinterpretations in recent years. While Disney does film a scene where it is
revealed that the Beast has forgotten how to read, it was originally cut from the film and only
included in later special editions of the film. Perhaps the removal of the unintelligent beast in
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more modern versions stems from the emphasis on the fact the Beauty falls in love with the
Beast and because of this, authors do not want to show the Beast as “dumb” since that might
make him seem less appealing to our heroine. This can be seen as a social bias by recent cultures
and is one clear indication of how cultural prejudices and perceptions shape these tales. While
for the most part, the modern beast is an intelligent one, there are a few stories that follow the
older tradition of the “dumb beast.” One instance of a modern tale including a “dumb beast” that
is worth noting is in Edith Pattou‟s East. Here the Beast is almost incapable of communicating
with the heroine as evidenced here, “„To talk…is hard… I can only do… little.‟ He paused, took
a breath. „Your questions…I cannot…answer‟” (Pattou 147). Not only is the heroine unable to
communicate with him, but it serves to make her homesick all the faster, resulting in her betrayal
happening fairly quickly. Pattou‟s use of the “dumb beast” is made all the more unique because
of the lack of a “dumb beast” in the story she is basing her own on, East of the Sun, West of the
Moon, since that story does not include a unintelligent beast, as mentioned previously. This
change may be a result of the author attempting to make the story seem more realistic to the
reader since a man trapped in the shape of a bear for hundreds of years would perhaps have
difficulty recalling some of his previous intelligence. If it is, it can be viewed as an indication
that perhaps modern society has more difficulty believing in mythical winds and enchanted
princes than previous societies did. If so, this change, as part one of the most recent
reinterpretations dealt with here, gives the suggestion that readers are moving away from such
unrealistic depictions and perhaps these tales in general.
By having an unintelligent beast, the author can make Beauty‟s knowledge of the curse
even smaller, since she would not be able to receive any indication from the Beast about what
has happened to him. The versions that do not feature a “dumb beast” tend to merely have the
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Beast unable to speak of what has happened to him. Beauty often does not seem to grasp that
there is a man hiding under the monstrous exterior. In some stories this is not the case since the
Beast is able to transform at night by peeling off his animal skin, thus clueing the heroine into
what the Beast truly is.
The reasons for the Beast being cursed often follow similar reasons, especially in the
older versions of the tale. The Beast has typically been the subject of an older female‟s
inappropriate desires, and when he refuses her advances, she flies into a rage and transforms him
into a beast. While this is not the case in Cupid and Psyche, we do still have a female member of
the male‟s family, in this case Venus, who has an unusual amount of jealous about the hero‟s
future partner in this story. In East of the Sun, West of the Moon, we have a step-mother cursing
the young man, although in this case she does not want him for herself. The beast tells the young
woman that,
“I have a step-mother who has bewitched me so that I am a white bear by day and a man
by night; but now all is at an end between you and me, and I must leave you, and go to
her. She lives in a castle which lies east of the sun and west of the moon, and there too is
a princess with a nose which is three ells long, and she is the wife I must have now”
(Hearne 70).
The prince gives no reason for his being cursed and in general there is little to no blame placed
on the beast for his curse. It is generally attributed to his unfortunate luck in these older versions
of the tale, however, as the tradition evolves and the Beast takes on more of a personality, we
have the reasons for him being enchanted explored much more fully. As a result, blame begins to
shift from being placed entirely on the enchanter to being a product of the man‟s mistakes as
well. Depending on the author representing him, the reasons for why he was cursed may or may
not be attributed to his own mistakes and character flaws. Jean Cocteau‟s 1946 French film
version of the tale has the fault placed on the Beast‟s parents instead of the enchanter, but the
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attributing of the blame to anyone besides the Beast becomes even less common in the recent
versions. In Disney‟s version, the Beast turned an old lady away from the door, thus making his
transformation a product of his own faults. In Robin McKinley‟s Rose Daughter, published in
1998, and also in her story Beauty, the Beast is cursed because of his treatment of others. The
Beast gradually has to learn from his own mistakes as Beauty does from hers as the story evolves
instead of merely having to wait for her to free him from the curse. He must free himself from
his curse as well now.
As the Beast‟s appearance becomes less threatening and scary to the heroine, it becomes
his personality that truly needs to be transformed by the presence of Beauty. As Maryellen
Hains points out in “Beauty and the Beast: 20th Century Romance?”,
There have been several 20th century literary versions of the tale that closely follow the
original, but a divide into two categories: those set in a magical reality, dwelling on the
opulence of the palace, and focusing on the Beast‟s physical transformation; and those set
in the modern world, keeping the original pattern of motifs, but inserting contemporary
values, and focusing on the Beast‟s emotional transformation (Hains 75).
The Beast, with the increasing emphasis on his transformation being a product his own mistakes
or problems, must learn from his interactions with Beauty to become a decent human being in
these newer versions of the tale. While he still retains his monstrous appearance, that is not what
Beauty finds unpleasant about him. In fact, Beauty at the end will often state that she does not
mind his cursed appearance, and in some versions not only does he not transform at the end, but
the heroine becomes a beast as well, at least in body. It is only the family that has a problem with
the Beast‟s appearance in more recent versions. The modern heroines quickly become used to his
looks and even grow to be fond of the shape he has been transformed into.
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The inclusion of the family makes up some of the most interesting aspects of the tale and
the evolution of the family and how it affects the way that Beauty ends living with the Beast is
one of the most notable and explainable of the transformations. The transformation of the family
in the narrative shows the affect of time the best since it is the clearest link to what is acceptable
in the author‟s world. The family is very much a product of the world that the author is drawing
on to write the story, often more so than the hero and the heroine. In the tales, the father is either
told directly that one of his daughters can save his life by returning in his stead or he is tricked
into promising the Beast whoever is the first to greet him upon his return to home. The father‟s
character varies in his responses to the suggestion of his daughter be taken by the Beast. In some
versions, he is initially horrified, but quickly agrees to his daughter‟s offer to fulfill his
agreement. Andrew Lang‟s version of the Villeneuve‟s tale in Blue Fairy Book, has Beauty‟s
father saying to the Beast, “What excuse could I invent to bring her here?” (110). This seems to
suggest that he merely is unsure how to convince his daughter, not that he is particularly
concerned with her safety. In East of the Sun, West of the Moon, the father tells the bear to return
in a week and spends that time convincing his daughter to go with the bear.
Because of the greedy and uncaring behavior of the father in these earlier versions of the
story, as time passes and arranged marriages and the use of daughters as property become less
acceptable, we have the daughter choosing to go to live with the Beast herself and even seeing
the experience as an adventure. The father becomes a much weaker character and typically only
agrees out of fear, but with no intentions of allowing his daughter to take his place. In addition,
the Beast becomes more concerned with making sure that Beauty and her family know that she is
in no danger from him. In many versions written in the last forty years, such as Robin
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McKinley‟s Beauty, the Beast tells the father that she would never be harmed by him before he
even asks the father to agree to the deal.
The danger of living with a beast has not always been non-existent. In some versions,
such as Strappolla‟s The Pig King, the beast has killed other women previously, and there is real
danger in her deciding to go with him. Even in Cupid and Psyche, the prophecy has lead
everyone to believe the serpent will devour Psyche and thus when they lead Psyche to the cliff
they expect her to be eaten by the monster and to never see her again. Certainly it seems that
there are stories where the bride is in fact consumed by the beast she agrees to live with. When
we think about Bluebeard, we can see that there is a very good chance that this relationship will
end with the heroine being killed by the monster she is living with, which puts a much makes the
role of the family seem all the more sinister. While the father is typically the one who gets the
daughter into a situation where she must go to live with a monster, it is normally the female
members of the family that get Beauty to break her promises and cause her great unhappiness.
Females in the tales are primarily there to cause problems and are portrayed very negatively as a
result.i The Beast has typically been cursed by a woman and it is only in the stories that have
been written in the past forty years or so that we have even the slightest possibility of the
enchanter being male. Sisters are far more common than mothers in these tales and they are often
the true villains of the tale. Typically motivated by jealousy, anger, or greed, they create the
catalyst that forces their sister to make a choice. In an effort to make Beauty‟s family in general a
more likeable one, with the attempts to take away the responsibility for Beauty going to live with
the Beast from the father, we also have the sisters being portrayed in more positive ways.ii
In addition to these few elements that can be found in all of the tales, there is the
common theme of education running throughout the “Beastly Bridegroom” tradition. Cupid and
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Psyche, the ur-text of this tradition, is told in the collection that it is contained in as a story to
help calm the fears of a young woman who has been abducted by a band of robbers. Not only is
the story itself meant to teach the young woman something, but in addition, in the tale itself we
have Psyche having to learn important lessons throughout the story. She must learn about
obedience and how to cut her ties from her own family. East of the Sun, West of the Moon also
contains the theme of education, since once again we have our heroine learning to face and
overcome adversity in order to win back her prince. She must also learn to trust the beast she
lives with over her family, since when her mother states that “you are very likely sleeping with a
troll,” she is quick to believe her mother and betray the beast. Finally, de Beaumont‟s Beauty
and the Beast has clear themes of education, not only in the tale itself, but also for several other
reasons. First, because the story is written for children and published in a magazine for young
women, it is clearly meant to be helpful for children in addition to being enjoyable for them to
read. Also, the story originally is part of a collection told by a governess to a group of young
women to help them fix their character flaws. In the tale itself, Beauty must learn many of the
same lessons as the other “Beastly Bridegroom” heroines, although there are slight variations
since the lessons do differ over time. These differences relate back to the importance of cultural
views on the messages contained in the tale, since while Beauty in 1756 learns that friendship is
a good reason to get married, Beauty in 1999 must realize that appearances are not particularly
important when it comes to love.
Across the board, the story of the beauty and the beast seems to be about the theme of
education. In the older versions of the tale, we have Beauty as the one who has to be educated.
She must learn about obedience, since often her arrival at the Beast‟s home is partnered with a
command for her to promise not to do something, such as look at him during the night. She must
16
also learn about releasing family ties and also how to begin to think for herself. In addition,
acceptance and the ability to adapt to adversity are both vital to her character. Sometimes the
young woman must also learn about sex and marriage in her encounters with the Beast, however
this varies greatly depending on the tale. Thus these older versions of the story are really about
the education of women and they can be used by the teller to reinforce the importance of learning
these valuable things.
In the more modern interpretations of the tale we have the family members as the ones
who receive the education through Beauty‟s interactions, as well as their own, with the Beast.
The family members are the ones who must learn to trust Beauty and to let her go off on her own
adventures. In Lewis‟ Till We Have Faces, the older sister must help her youngest sister, the
heroine, to complete the tasks set out for her because of her desire to show her older sister her
new home. She must also learn to cope with the loss of her sister and becomes a better person
through the education she receives once her sister is gone. Pattou‟s East also emphasizes the
lessons that the family must learn through the removal of the youngest daughter. Because of this
experience, the mother realizes her own prejudices and superstitions and apologizes for making
our heroine betray the Beast. In addition to the family being the ones to receive the education
throughout the tale, the Beast also becomes a character who must be educated as authors begin to
develop his personality more over time.
In addition to the primary category of the “Beastly Bridegroom” tales, several other
similar, smaller, traditions exist that are worth considering. The “Loathly Lady” sub-category of
“Beastly Bridegroom” tradition contains many of the same elements that can be found in the
“Beastly Bridegroom” tales. It differs in several important ways, since while the women in the
“Beastly Bridegroom” stories are typically only internally unattractive and are motivated by
17
jealousy, etc., with even Beauty having several negative character traits, in the “Loathly Lady”
sub-category of this tradition, we have stories where females are only hideous on the outside and
where the males are the ones who have inner ugliness. Designated as “Loathly Lady” tales, a title
taken from Geoffrey Chaucer and his Wife of Bath’s Tale, these stories appear much less often
and are primarily found to be products of the Middle Ages. The hero does not typically form
romantic relationships with the “Loathly Lady”; it is far more common for the Loathly Lady to
merely serve as a teacher for the young man. This is very different from the “Beastly
Bridegroom” stories, since in those it is very rare for the heroine to not end up with the Beast.
This can be seen as a true representation of how these stories would be played out in similar
scenarios since it would be far more common and expected for the young woman to marry the
older, disgusting man, than it would be for the young man to marry an older woman. There are
some stories that do have the pair end up together. One example of that is Chaucer who does
have his “loathly lady” marry the hero; however, this decision on his part can be at least partially
explained when we look at who he has telling this story. The Wife of Bath is no young lady and
can even be seen as the beginnings of a “loathly lady” herself.
Despite the lack of marriage between the “loathly lady” and the hero in many of these
tales, these stories still fell out of favor. This may be a result of the primarily male authors of
these stories finding tales where handsome young men are put into positions where they must
agree to associate closely with hideous woman to be unpleasant to write. The vast majority
“loathly lady” stories are all very old, and it would be much harder to find a more modern
version of the tale that contains the same set of elements as these older tales do.
That being said, it seems the loathly lady has not completely disappeared, it has merely
been absorbed into the Cinderella story. Cinderella has now become the awkward, geeky young
18
woman, instead of the beautiful, but downtrodden original character. The making of the heroine
into a beauty, or in some other way transforming her to fit in, has become an important and
frequent part of the narrative. Stories such as My Fair Lady, Pretty Woman, and others serve as
examples of how the “Loathly Lady” tradition has merged with the Cinderella one. Whether the
loathly lady tradition will return to its original version, is unclear, however it seems unlikely
upon further study of the tales. While the beastly bridegroom is scary and not fully human, the
loathly lady seems to be far less appealing as a love interest perhaps because she retains her
human shape, merely one that is diseased, hideous, and old. In addition, these tales seem to focus
more on the hero‟s bravery in being willing to engage with the hideous crone, than in any kind of
acceptance of her or her inner beauty. On example of this is in “The Adventures of the Sons of
Eochaid Mugmedon”, when after all the other brothers are unable to bring themselves to kiss the
hag in return for water, Niall replies to her request, “ „Besides giving thee a kiss, I will lie with
thee!‟Then he threw himself down upon her and gave her a kiss.” Niall is willing to do anything
to get his brothers and himself water. This action and his bravery here results in the sovereignty
hag choosing to grant him the kingdom.
Despite all the differences in the two types of tales, the “Loathly Lady” tales, while
typically removing the element of family, do keep the characters of the beauty and the beast and
merely reverse the genders. While the characters remain similar, the beauty, in this case our hero,
becomes the character that is developed more in these stories, while the loathly lady typically
does not have much a back-story that is provided in the tale. While there is a lot of changes and
exchanges occurring in this sub-category, it is important to note that these tales still contain the
element and underlying theme of education. The female serves as the educator in these tales and
teaches the man important lessons that are often crucial to his survival or to his position in
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society. This differs from the “Beastly Bridegroom” stories, where while Beauty does learn
many important things because of her experiences, the Beast does not directly teach them to her.
The male hero is the character that must be taught and as a result it is his character that is
devolved more in the “Loathly Lady” tradition. The beastly character, the woman‟s character, is
not as developed and in tales such as Chaucer‟s Wife of Bath’s Tale or in The Adventures of the
Sons of Eochaid Mugmedon, the lady only appears closer to the end of the narrative.
The “Loathly Lady” tradition is a much smaller tradition than that of the “Beastly
Bridegroom”, especially since we have it virtually disappearing after the Middle Ages. Because
it is smaller and therefore there is less to work with, it is difficult to trace the theme of education
in that tradition. However, if one looks at the Cinderella tales that contain bits of the “Loathly
Lady” plot, there is the issue of the hero having to realize that she has always been appealing in
some way; he must merely learn to appreciate it. This occurs in several stories, one example of
this in a film version is in The Mirror Has Two Faces, where the hero must realize after the
heroine transforms to try to please him that he loves her for what she was before.
Over the course of the evolution of these traditions, few things have remained the same.
However, we have seen that due to the importance of the society and time on different versions
of the tale, the tale must necessarily transform as cultures change. While there is little that
remains in all of the versions of the tale, what does remain are the crucial elements of the tale.
By looking at a variety of these versions of the tradition, it is apparent that a beauty, a beast, and
some type of family are required to make the tale fit into the “Beastly Bridegroom” tradition.
Beyond that, education plays a large role in the tale. It is interesting to note that this category of
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fairy tales has become very popular in the past few decades. This popularity and success of the
tradition may explain why several scholars have proposed that the story of “Beauty and the
Beast” is the fairy tale of modern society, since as Griswold points out, “…in the last two
decades or so, the fairy tale that as spoken to us has not been “Little Red Riding Hood” or
“Hansel and Gretel” or dozens of other possibilities. Instead, our dominant myth seems to be
“Beauty and the Beast” (Griswold 18). Griswold lists many examples of the literature that is
currently popular with modern audiences and suggests that many of these contain the underlying
story of the “Beauty and the Beast.” This suggestion by Griswold certainly bears consideration
and further exploration of the more recent versions of the tale would be useful in seeing how the
tale has come to dominate all of the other fairy tale traditions in recent years. Education has also
become more emphasized in these later works and the belief by many that the tale teaches the
importance of acceptance, especially that of differences may be appealing to modern authors
who, like the previous authors, such as de Beaumont, can take the story and use to it teach their
readers a lesson through the story‟s characters own learning experiences. If this proves to be true,
as is suggested by the small number of modern versions that were available to be read in this
short time, than the theory about education being one of the most important themes and the
reason for the story‟s continued survival and popularity will be shown to be true in today‟s
society, just as it was in previous times.
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Appendix I:
The Main Elements of the Three Tales:
Cupid and Psyche: (~100)
Beast (Cupid or Psyche)
Beauty –Youngest (E)
(F)Family: Parents (-),
Sisters (-)
(M) Mother
East of the Sun, West of
the Moon: (?)
Beauty and the Beast:
(1756)
Beast (bear)
Beast (S)
“Beauty” -Youngest (E)
Beauty – Youngest (E)
(F) Family: Father (-),
Mother (-), siblings (+)
(F) Family: Father (+),
Sisters (-); brothers? (+/-)
Return visit (-) (Trust)
Return Trip(-) (Trust)
(M) Stepmother
(M) Fairy and (F) Fairy
Troll Fiancée
Helpers (+)
Helpers (+) Nature &
Christians
Curiosity (-)
Curiosity (-)
Tasks
Sex?
Death?
Justice
Jealousy/Vanity
Helpers (+)
Disobedience
Tasks/Quest
Rose
Sex?
Duty
Religion – Norse pagan
(Nature) (+/-)
Justice
Landscape (-)
Dreams
Poverty
Poverty
22
Appendix II:
Cupid and Psyche vs. Till We Have Faces:
Till We Have Faces: (1980)
Cupid and Psyche: (~100)
Beast (2)
Beast (Cupid or Psyche)
Beauty (Istra) - Youngest
Beauty –Youngest (E)
(F) Family: Father (-), Sisters
(Mother) (+/-) (E)
(F)Family: Parents (-), Sisters (-)
(M) Mother
Death?
Helpers (+)
Death?
Tasks
Curiosity (-)
Faith v. Reason
Tasks
Differing beliefs
Teachers (+/-)
Justice
Jealousy/Vanity
Sex
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Appendix III:
East of the Sun, West of the Moon vs. Other Similar Versions of the Tale:
East of the Sun, West of
the Moon: (?)
Beast (Bear)
“Beauty” - Youngest (E)
(F) Family: Father (-),
Mother (-), siblings (+)
Return visit (Trust)
Poverty
Trolls – (M) Stepmother
Fiancée
The Saga of King Hrolf
Kraki : (1300?)
Bjorn (+) (Bear Beast)
Bera (Beauty) (Not - E)
Youngest child – Bodvar
(Bear)
Poverty
Trolls: (M) “White” Hvit
(Stepmother)
Religion – Norse pagan
Nature (+/-)Christian (+)
Helpers - Nature (+)
Landscape (-)
Tasks/Quest
Curiosity (-)
“Tasks” (3 kids)
Sex?
Death at the end
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East: (2005)
Beast (Bear) (S)
Beauty – youngest
(F) Family: Father(+),
Mother(-+), siblings(+)
Return visit to family
Poverty
Trolls: Troll Queen
/Fiancée
Troll King (Enchanter)
Superstition (-)
Helpers = Trolls
Landscape (-)
Tasks/Quest
Curiosity (-)
Appendix IV
Beauty and the Beast vs. Beauty:
Beauty and the Beast: (1756)
Beauty: (1974)
Beast (S)
Beast
Beauty – youngest (E)
Beauty – youngest (E)
(F) Family – Father (+), Sisters (-);
(F) Family – Father (+), Sisters (+),
Brothers? (+/-)
Brother-in-law(+)
Helpers (+)
Helpers (+)
Rose
Rose
Poverty
Poverty
Duty
Honor/Adventure
Return Trip(-)/Trust
Return Trip/Trust
Disobedience
Lack of Disobedience
Justice
(M) Fairy and (F) Fairy
(M) Male Enchanter
Dreams
Dreams
Love
25
Works Cited:
Apuleius. Cupid and Psyche. Penguin (Non-Classics), 2006.
Beauty and the Beast. Dir. Jean Cocteau. Criterion, 1946; 2003. Chaucer, Geoffrey. “The Wife
of Bath‟s Tale.” The Riverside Chaucer. 3rd ed. Wadsworth Publishing, 1986.
Bettelheim, Bruno. The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tale.
Vintage Books : Random House, 1977.
Bottigheimer, Ruth B. "'Beauty and the Beast': Marriage and Money - Motif and Motivation."
Midwestern Folklore 15.2 (1989): 79-88.
---. “Cupid and Psyche vs. Beauty and the Beast: The Milesian and the Modern.” Merveilles et
Contes 3 (1989): 4 – 14.
De Beaumont, Jeanne-Marie LePrince. “Beauty and the Beast.” The Annotated Classic Fairy
Tales. Ed. Maria Tatar. W. W. Norton & Company; annotated edition (October 14, 2002).
“East of the Sun, West of the Moon.” East of the Sun and West of the Moon: Old Tales from the
North. Calla Editions, 2008.
Griswold, Jerry. The Meanings of “Beauty and the Beast”: A Handbook. 1st ed. Broadview
Press, 2004.
Hains, Maryellen. “Beauty and the Beast: 20th Century Romance?” Merveilles et Contes 3
(1989): 75-83.
Hearne, Betsy. Beauties and Beasts: The Oryx Multicultural Folktale Series. Phoenix: Oryx
Press, 1993.
---. Beauty and the Beast: Visions and Revisions of an Old Tale. University of Chicago Press,
1991.
Lang, Andrew. Blue Fairy Book. Longmans, 1949.
Lewis, C.S. Till We Have Faces. Harcourt Brace & Company; First Harvest/HBJ Edition,1980.
McKinley, Robin. Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast. Harpercollins, 1978.
---. Rose Daughter. Ace, 1998.
Pattou, Edith. East. Magic Carpet Books, 2005.
“The Adventures of the Sons of Eochaid Mugmedon.” Online. Internet. 2 March 2010.
The Mirror Has Two Faces. Dir. Barbara Streisand. Sony Pictures. 1998
The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki. Trans. Jesse Byock. Penguin Classics, 1999.
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Walt Disney‟s Beauty and the Beast. Dir. Gary Trousdale. Walt Disney, 1991; 2002.
i
See McKinley, Robin. Beauty A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast. Harpercollins, 1978.
---. Rose Daughter. Ace, 1998
Pattou, Edith. East. Magic Carpet Books, 2005.
ii
See Lewis, C.S. Till We Have Faces. Harcourt Brace & Company; First Harvest/HBJ Edition, 1980.
McKinley, Robin. Beauty A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast. Harpercollins, 1978.
---. Rose Daughter. Ace, 1998
Pattou, Edith. East. Magic Carpet Books, 2005.
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