Beauty And The BeastBeauty and the Beast is a traditional English fairy tale. The first published and widely supported version of the fairy tale was a rather meandering and 'added to' rendition by the popular author Madame Gabrielle Barbot de Villeneuve. The original tale was first published way back in 1740 as La jeune américaine, et les contes marins. The best-known written version of the fairy tale was an abridgement of the original work by M. Villeneuve, in 1756. This version was published by Madame Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont. The version was the published in the Magasin des enfants, ou dialogues entre une sage gouvernante et plusieurs de ses élèves; which was an English translation that appeared a year later. The urban opening of the fairy tale is unusual and so is the chosen social class of the characters. They have been carefully chosen not to represent neither the royals nor peasants. Some adaptations do reflect the social changes that occurred at the time of the original version of the Beauty and the Beast. The story has been read over a passage of time in a number of diffferent ways and in different ways. The Beauty and the Beast is at times interpreted as a young woman's story, as she comes to terms with her blossoming youth and awareness of the effect her presence has on others. The content of the story Beauty and the Beast deals with the pure love for her father and how she finds sexuality bestial. This establishes her as a young maiden who believes that a man who feels sexual desire for her is not a beast. She represents the woman who is capable of regarding and relating to the the desire of sexual relationship as human and capable of achieving unconditional happiness. Another interpretation of the story is that the Beast who is brutal in essence is changed on account of a woman's love. The beast is then transformed into a handsome prince. At times, the tale has also been presented as a commentary on the very controversial arranged marriages. Especially, an arranged marriage to a much older man and thus the comparison that it could easily seem like marriage to a beast. |