There are many different renditions
of the tale of Beauty and the Beast from all around the world.
The one that we all know best is from Walt
Disney, based on the fairytale “La belle et la Bête” by Jeanne- Marie Le Prince
de Beaumont. Think back to your childhood, do you recall singing along to “Be
Our Guest”?
Be Our Guest
The film tells the story of a prince
who is transformed into a beast because an old woman beggar offers a selfish,
spoiled prince a rose in exchange for a night’s shelter from the cold. He turns her away because he’s repulsed by
her old and unattractive appearance and he doesn’t appreciate her simple gift: a
rose. She then gets her revenge on him
as she turns around and casts a spell on him, which turns him into the ugly beast;
she did it to show he had no heart or emotion.
The Beast is given a magic mirror and a rose that will continue to bloom
until his 21st birthday. Beast
imprisons Maurice (the inventors) daughter named Belle in his castle. Her father went to claim the prettiest rose
to bring home for his daughter, but instead Belle sacrificed herself for her
father’s freedom. To become a prince again, the Beast must love Belle and gain
her love and respect in return, or he will remain a Beast forever. In the end, the Beast has a sudden change of
heart as he comes to Belle’s rescue after she tried to escape and was attacked
by wolves. She tended to his wounds and
they become friends. His true love for
her is shown when he lets Belle go help her sick father. Even though time is
running out of time to transform back to a prince. Like most fairytales, there is ALWAYS a
perfect ending. Belle falls for him and
he transforms just in time from the Beast to the handsome prince he once
was.
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| Belle reading to the Beast and friends |
The Beast’s clothing includes wearing a white shirt, purple
cape, and torn black/ blue pants. The
color purple may refer to the social class of being “royalty”/ wealthy. The Beast’s is portrayed as grotesque because
of his physical traits like, being strong, heavy fur, and sharp white fangs. But remember the saying; “never judge a book
by its cover.” After the Beast rescues Belle, his dress style changes to be
more refined. He becomes more
disciplined and dresses in his ballroom outfit; which consists of black dress
pants trimmed with gold, golden vest over a white dress shirt with a white
handkerchief, a navy blue ballroom tail coat also trimmed with gold. This accent to his clothing shows that he is
of a high social class. The colors he wears shows that he comes from a
wealthier background. After all, he’s
the prince.
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| Serena and Dan formal outting |
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| Teapot Transformation |
I feel that in this fairytale, Belle didn’t try to change
her appearance to make the Beast fall for her.
Belle has long hair, is slender, big eyes, and the ability to sing. She wore the same outfits, and didn’t act as
if she was pretending to be someone of a different social class. The same night the Beast dressed up, Belle wore
a yellow dress, and the color symbolizes their growing love that was
inextinguishable and strong. The dress
was a typical long gown, with a corset body, as I see it, perfectly French.
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Belle and the Beast dancing the night away
In the
essay, Fashion, Identity, and Social Actors, author Laura Bovone, talks about
“Fashion and Clothing”. In fairytales,
I’m used to the girl being scared of how they look. But in this case, the Beast (male) was
intimidated by his looks. He defies
gender roles/ norms in society because that’s generally known to be a female
norm in society. The Beast dressed nicer
because his clothing clearly shows that he came from a higher social class. The
teapot and candlestick will end up representing the working class through their clothing items after being transformed. In today’s society, people dress in designer
clothing rather than identify by using colors to represent a social class. The clothing that women wear now are not as
conservative, because women want to show off their bodies more. They dress to get attention. As for formal attire, men wear suits, with formal shoes, and women wear dresses of all different lengths, colors, and materials.
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| Blair, Serena, Nate, high society formal wear |
I’ve
come to realize that people need to learn to get to know someone before making
their judgments simply based on their appearance. For instance, once the prince realized that
the old woman was actually beautiful, he quickly tried to take back what he
said. Why are we so quick to judge
someone based on his or her appearance and fashion choices? How do you believe colors represent social
class in today’s societies? Should
social class be considered in making your final judgment about a person?
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| Transformation of the Prince |
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| Belle Meets the Beast |
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