Beauty And The Beast By Jeanne Marie Leprince De Beaumont And Little Thumbling Essay

Throughout history, the use of subliminal messaging has been highly prevalent within various forms of media consumed by the human race. Using it allows authors to influence their political or societal viewpoint through implicit methods. Even stories as rudimentary as those produced for the entertainment of children, contain hidden messages deeply imbedded within them. Marxist theory, the analysis of the role of politics, money and power within literary works, allows readers to examine principles promoted by the author; these can be especially demonstrated in Jeanne-Marie LePrince de Beaumont’s Beauty and the Beast. These themes are exemplified through the bourgeoisie mindset of the elder sisters, the proletariat mentality of Beauty and the direct influence of wealth on the prominence of the merchant.

Both Beasts are willing to do and give anything for beauty and the girl to keep them happy. Although Beast kept beauty hostage, he is gentleman enough to give her, her own space if she does not want anything to do with him: “you alone are mistress here; you need only bid me gone, if my presence is troublesome, and I will immediately withdraw” (LePrince de Beaumont 6). Beast being kind to Beauty is important because the goal is for her to want to stay with him forever. Since he shows compassion and

The fairy tale helps the child to understand a balance between the good and the evil; it gives him a hope for a good future.” Fairy tales assure the

In Tatar’s article, An Introduction to Fairy Tales, she draws us in by describing childhood books as “sacred objects.” She takes a quote from Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. describing how the stories give lessons about what a child subconsciously knows - “that human nature is not innately good, that conflict is real, that life is harsh before it is happy - and thereby reassure them about their own fears and their own sense of self,” (Tatar 306). She describes how many adults long for the simplicity of enjoying those stories in their childhoods, only to realize that they outgrew them, and instead have been introduced to reality. The original stories were more for adults rather than for children. Nowadays, stories have been adapted to be more suitable for children. Fairy tales may allow a kid to wonder due to their charm, but they also can

If great writers are able to escape the influences of their era and write in a timeless fashion, then Jeanne Marie LePrince de Beaumont is certainly not a great writer. Beaumont wrote Beauty and the Beast in eighteenth-century France during the reign of Louis XV. It was a time when the enormous bourgeoisie population was slowly growing in independent wealth, yet remained grossly overtaxed and starved. These peasants were systematically excluded from the aristocracy and the workings of government. France was a stronghold of the dying feudal-influenced monarchy system, in which the king declared himself an absolute monarch with the divine right to rule as

The tradition of telling fairy tales to children effects not only the listener but also the reader. Maria Tatar, in her book Off with Their Heads!, analyzes how fairy tales instill and reaffirm cultural values and expectations in their audience . Tatar proposes that fairy tales fall into three different tale-types: cautionary tales, exemplary stories, and reward- and- punishment tales. These three types portray different character traits as desirable and undesirable. Due to the tale’s varying literary methods it can change the effectiveness of the tale’s pedagogical value. In Tatar’s opinion, all of these tales are similar in the way they attempt to use punishment, reward, and fear to encourage or discourage certain behaviors. In the cautionary fairy tale “The Virgin Mary’s Child”, the use of punishment and fear to discourage certain behaviors is enhanced by the Christian motifs and values employed by the tale. These literary devices encourage the audience to reflect on and internalize the lessons that are presented in the fairy tale.

There is nothing more precious and heartwarming than the innocence of a child. The majority of parents in society want to shield children from the bad in life which is appreciated. Within human nature exists desires of inappropriate behavior; envy, deceit, selfishness, revenge, violence, assault and murder. The most well-known fairy tales depict virtue and the evil in life. Even more important, the form and structure of fairy tales suggest images to the child by which he can structure his daydreams and with them give a better direction to his life. (Bettelheim).

Reading fairy tales or seeing them represented has become part of an everyday routine for children. As Baker-Sperry states, “Through interaction that occurs within everyday routines (Corsaro 1997), children are able to learn the rules of the social group in which they are a part” (Baker-Sperry 717-718). For example, through Red Riding Hood, children learn to listen to their parents and to be wary of strangers. Some of these messages are harmful though; not all girls have to be naive and weak while boys are predacious wolves. Not everyone has to play the role that society assigns them.

Bruno Bettelheim, he analyzed fairy tales in terms of Freudian psychology, which is represented in his works of The Uses of Enchantment. Beaumont’s story of Beauty and the Beast is where the first discovery of Beauty’s problem was identified as the Oedipal complex. The Oedipal complex is a child’s desire to have a sexual relation with the parent of the opposite sex, but it is repressed deep in the mind. Beauty in Beauty and the Beast has a special bond of affection with her father; there is the problem that arises within this complex that what if she were to be stuck at the stage of development and never outgrow it. Within the fairy tale written by Jeanne-Marie Beaumont there is the representation of the period where she begins to transfer the affection to someone else. An analysis of Bettelheim’s theory of the Oedipal complex reveals psychological problems of growing up in the written fairy tale and Disney adaptation of Beauty and the Beast.

Belle was kind to the Beast, and then she found her prince. It took courage to look into the eyes of someone that took away everything and see the good.

Different from Anna, yet just as much of a positive role model, Princess Belle takes the lead protagonist role and effectively serves as a beneficial example for little girls. In a pivotal scene, Belle rejects the advances of the town heartthrob and decides for herself to save the Beast. An independent and intelligent bibliophile, Belle successfully pursues her own interests, those related to books and love in particular. True to these favorable characteristics, Belle makes her interests clear to the Beast, and the audience, before choosing to hint any love and attachment. Little girls consequently witness not only the invalidation of the stereotype that girls can not act according to their own interests but also the invalidation of the stereotype that girls lack intellectual potential.

For example, Beauty’s curiosity led her to finding the love of her life; the beast. While Beauty had many characterstics that were peculiar to her town, Cinderella lacked much personality. The moral of the story was having a gracious attitude will lead people to their dreams, hence Cinderella had always been nice and hopeful but lacked other traits like confidence. Therefore, even though Cinderella conveys the importance of the personal traits, kindness and being hopeful, it lacks other personal traits needed for an assertive character such as strength and courage. Another distinguishing feature between Cinderella and Beauty is Beauty’s ability to make her decisions on her own. When Beauty’s father, Maurice, had not returned home, Beauty took the liberty of searching for him herself without anyone’s consent or saying. This scene illustrates Beauty’s independence and self motivation because instead of waiting until her father to come home, she went to look for him alone. Ultimately, she inspires people to strive for independence and not reply on other people because it builds confidence and

We analyze the fairy tales and realize it’s no longer beautiful, but filled with life lessons. The classic fairy tale of “Little Red Riding Hood” by the Grimm Brothers begins with Little Red Riding Hood’s mother who has her take some cake and wine to her grandmother and warns her not to stray from the path. Along the way she meets a wolf who asks her for

As we grow up, we hear fairy tales and we read them into our lives. Every word and every image is imprinted into our minds. The fairy tales we read are never abandoned. They grow with us and our dreams become molds of the many morals and happily ever afters fairy tales display. We tell children fairy tales when they go to sleep and they read them in school and we even have them watch Disney adaptions that reinforce them further. Generally, they were everywhere while we grew up and they continue to be present while children are growing up now. But what influence do these stories have? We casually expose our children to these tales, but in some cases they can have particularly, harmful personal effects on them, although there is nothing completely or visibly “bad” about them or about the characters in them. Before we divulge our youth to these stories, we should assess their substance and see what sort of effect they may be having on them. They have received so much scrutiny and have been studied by many. Recognizing fairy tales effects on the minds of children is vital in their development. This paper will focus on the underlying messages that the average person wouldn’t recognize in these everyday stories. There’s a modern distort with fairy tales because while they still are widely popular with the youth, they influence children’s self images, outlooks on reality and expectations for their futures, especially for young women.

     The classic opener for any fairy tale, which is no different in the case of Beauty and the Beast. Fairy tales were meant to teach our children life lessons that society, at the time, deems important to learn. They teach us the difference between right and wrong, black and white, good and bad, light and dark, and beautiful and ugly. There are many different variations and names to Beauty and the Beast. This famous fable has been passed down and integrated into our culture time and time again, each time adding different lessons that were thought to be important in that day and age. What has changed over the years? How have the fairy tales of Beauty and the Beast affected