Beauty+and+the+Beast

Ally A Brief Summary:

Once upon a time in a far off country, there lived a father and his daughter Beauty, along with his five other daughters and six sons. One day their house burned down, along with all their posessions. The same day he also found out all his ships had been looted and he lost all his wealth and the family fell into great poverty. They worked in the fields for the next two years. One day, the father receives word that one of his ships has been found and they were no longer poor. He sets of to go to the ship, but gets lost and stumbles upon a beautiful castle. Being tired and hungry, he wanders into the house, eats food, explores, the halls, etc until a frightful beast, the owner of the home, discovers him and terrifies the merchant. The Beast is angry and he tells the merchant he will forgive him if he brings home one of his daughters, in this case Beauty. Beauty is brought to the castle, and the merchant returns home with gifts from the Beast. Beauty is nice to the beast and vice-versa. One night Beauty wanders into a room and finds Beast, and he asks her if she will ever marry him, when she says no, he is angered and leaves her, refusing to talk to her for periods at a time. He repeatedly asks her numerous time, and her answer is always no. In Beauty's dreams, she talks to a charming prince about the beast. After a series of frightening dreams involving her family and prince, Beast asks her to marry him one more time, and she says Yes because her feeling torwards him changed. All of a sudden disapered the Beast and the charming prince emerged. The Prince tells Beauty that he was put under a spell and became a Beast, and when he found his true love (Beauty),and the spell would be broken and he would turn back to his normal self. They got married, Beauty's family returned to the castle to celebrate, and they lived happily ever after.

History: //Beauty and the Beast// is a very well known tale and appears is many cultures. The tale has been classified as a "Searching for a Lost Husband" tale, and is one of the most studied areas of fairy tales. Madame Gabrielle de Villeneuve is beleived to have written the first version of //Beauty and the Beast// in 1740. Her version was geared torwards adults rather than children, and was read to her court and salon friends. Her story varies from others because in the end her prince doesn't transform until after the wedding. de Villeneuve's novel was shortened by Madame Le Prince de Beaumont in 1756, and in her revision the prince is transformed before the wedding. The version summarized above is from //Blue Fairy Book//(1889). He brings together elements of de Villeneuve's and de Beaumont's versions into his own account, which is probably the most well known. Disney later turned //Beauty and the Beast// into a children's movie, which skyrocketed it's popularity.

Comparing Versions: In, de Villeneuve's version, she focusses on warring fairies, Belle's family history, and details of how the Beast was cursed. Her version, similar to Andrew Lang's, contains dream sequneces in which Beauty is coaxed and convined that she should look beyond the Beast's appererances and marry him. de Villeneuve's account also has the Beast transform after the wedding of him to Belle. Madame Le Prince de Beaumont cut out alot of storylines from de Villeneuve's version. She did not write about fairies, family origins, nor dream sequences, etc. Her version was a little bit more child frindly, and focussed heavily on Belle's virtue. When Andrew Lang wrote his version, he took bits and pieces from de Villeneuve's and de Beaumont's stories. He kept de Villeneuve's dream sequences, but decided to edit out fairies, family origins, nor dream seqeunces, etc., just like de Beaumont had.

Interpretations: The are many different ways to interpret the story and messages sent by the story itself. One of the main ones is to look beyond appearances, and love for ones true self, not just for their appearance. One of the main messages sent by de Beaumont's version is that an "industrious, self-sacrificing young women will find the most happiness" (SurLalune), which is what exactly happens to Beauty in the end of the tale. If one tried to interpret Disney's version, one would see how you don't just have to have be attractive to be happy,that brains are also a key ingredient to a satisfied life.

Allusions: The are many allusions and symbols used in Beauty and the Beast. When Beauty's father stumbles upon the castle, its dark and dreary outside, which mimics his feeling of being scared and afraid. Beauty's dream represents how she wants to escape from the life she is living, so she does so through he dreams. The rose represents a "death clock" for the Beast, every time a petal falls, less time he has to live until he finds love.

Annotated List of Modern Adaptations of the Tale: Books:
 * Asaro, Catherine. //The Quantum Rose.// New York: Tor, 2000.**
 * Cohen, Barbara. //Roses.// New York: Scholastic, 1985.**
 * Dickerson, Melanie. //The Merchant's Daughter//.** Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2011.
 * Dokey, Cameron. //Belle: A Retelling of "Beauty and the Beast".// New York: Simon Pulse, 2008.**
 * Flinn, Alex. //Beastly//. New York: HarperTeen, 2007**
 * Holder, Nancy. //Spirited.// New York: Simon Pulse, 2004.**
 * Lackey, Mercedes. //The Fire Rose.// New York: Baen Fantasy, 1995.**
 * McBain, Ed. //Beauty And The Beast.// New York: Henry Holt, 1982.**
 * McKinley, Robin. //Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast.// Harpercollins, 1978.**
 * Block, Francesca Lia. "Beast." //The Rose and the Beast//. New York: Harper Collins, 2000.**
 * Brooke, William. "A Beauty in the Beast." //Untold Tales//. New York: Harper Collins, 1992.**
 * Lee, Tanith. "Beauty." //Red as Blood: Or Tales from the Sisters Grimmer.// New York: DAW Books, 1983.3**


 * Music:**

**Biro, Daniel. //Beauty and the Beast.//**
 * Menken, Alan, Howard Ashman, Tim Rice. //Disney's Beauty And The Beast: The Broadway Musical//**


 * Film:**
 * //Beauty and the Beast// (1946). Jean Cocteau, director. France. French title: //La Belle et la bête//.**
 * //Fractured Fairy Tales: Beauty and the Beast// (1959-60) (TV). In //Rocky and Bullwinkle//. Jay Ward Productions**
 * //Cannon Movie Tales: Beauty and the Beast// (1987). Eugene Marner, director.**
 * //Walt Disney's Beauty and the Beast// (1991; 2002). Gary Trousdale, director.**

My Own Modern Rewrite of the Tale: One upon a time, one of the richest oil company ownership Dubai, Ahamd, cheated another rich oil owner, Bashir, one of the youngest owners in the world (he was only 28), out of some of his money one day. Bashir told Ahmad he would blackmail him unless Ahmad brought him his most beautiful daughter, India, to live with him for a while. India grew up knowing all about the dirty secrets and scandal that cam with owning and oil company, so she understood her fathers plight. She went to live with Bashir, and she was actually looking forward to it because apparently Bashir had one of the largest private book collections in the world, and she loved to read. Living with Bashir wasn't to bad, he was kind and gentle, and it wasn't too awkward because he was only three years older than India. The only things bad about him is that he was not attractive whatsoever, he was short and squatty, a little plump, and even had a unibrow, and his arms were covered with chicken pox scars form when he had the disease during his childhood. India was always a dreamer, and at night she would have magnifencent dreams were she would talk to the man of her dreams. One day Bashir asked to marry her, and India said no-this process repeatedly happened. One day however, she finally said yes. He kissed her, and all of a sudden, Bashir turned into the man in her dreams, and she was stunned. Bashir told her his family came from a odd religious sect of Islam, were when they are born, the priest casts a spell on the newborn that is supposed to make them gorgeous. His spell went bad, and made his really ugly instead. But when he found his true love, the spell would be broken and he wold finally become handsome and gorgeous. India fell in love more with Bashir over the next few months, and they eventually got married and lived happily ever after.