Beauty and the Beast Belongs to the Oral Traditional Tales - Essay Example

?“Beauty and the Beast” ‘Beauty and the Beast’ perfectly falls into the genre of fairy tale as it has appealed to many young minds through the elements of surprise, sympathy, beauty, power, supernatural elements and a final happy ending. It is stated that the fairy tales have their origin in the oral traditional tales told to the children by older women. The first book of fairy tales got published in 1550 in Italy and a decade later another collection of fairy tales appeared in France. In England many of the stories were rewritten in easier language for children. These stories never faded over time and now children are being told these stories via films by Walt Disney rather than by their parents (Montgomery, H., ed, 2009). ‘Beauty and the Beast’ also belongs to the oral traditional tales which later appeared in many versions. The first version of this fairy tale was presented in the form of a novel by Madame Gabrielle de Villeneuve in 1740. Her story was not meant for children rather it was told to her salon and court friends and it seemed to them as a story derived from old traditional tales. The story does not come to an end when the prince gets transformed and Villeneuve pays more attention towards introducing in detail the parentage of the main characters and the reason of the curse that befell on the prince. There is a detailed account of the dreams that Beauty has about the prince which guide her not to be deceived by the fake appearances, which is interesting. The best translation of her story in English language has been found in Jack Zipes’ ‘Beauties, Beasts and Enchantments: Classic French Fairy Tales (SurLaLunefairytails.com). Jack Zipes, who has most extensively published his academic writings regarding fairy tales and has focused much on children’s literature, states that the fairy tales initially did not aim the younger audiences and rather they were told amuse the adults. It was later in the 1920s that these stories started to be considered suitable for children as these stories carried the elements of delight and instruction side by side. It was realised that children might or might not understand the hidden message but they certainly carried a moral impact which was clearly apprehended by adults. (Zipes, J., (2006). Zipes says that these stories were more a source of entertainment for the peasants and their children, people belonging to middle class and court, travellers and soldiers. Later priests included these stories in their sermons as some examples to convey the moral messages and introduced Christian values in them. For the higher class the stories involving love, power and marriage were told because they suited their interests and entertainment was the purpose (Zipes, 2006). In 1756, Madame Le Prince de Beaumont presented another version of the tale in the form of a short story. This version is considered as the best known version particularly for the younger audience. Beaumont enhances the virtue of Beauty and shows how the sacrifice of a woman is rewarded. The magical atmosphere has been maintained in the story that attracts children (SurLaLunefairytails.com). Another version of the story was presented by Andrew Lang in 1889 in his ‘Blue Fairy Book’ which is an amalgam of the both above versions as the best of them is added into it. The extra story line has not been added and the sequence of dreams has been given space. This is noteworthy that after the publication of the versions of the ‘Beauty and the Beast’ offered by Madame Villeneuve and Madame Beaumont brought it great popularity and now it has emerged in plays, poetry, novels, short stories, novellas and films (SurLaLunefairytails.com). About the variations in the story of different versions of the fairy tales as mentioned above about ‘Beauty and the Beast’, Zipes, in ‘The Oxford Encyclopaedia of Children’s Literature’ says that no fairy tale is supposed to be ‘pure’ with some particular oral tradition as these stories are contaminated by the cross-cultural and inter-cultural exchanges (Zipes, 2006, p. 43) The well-known trait of a fairy tale, that we also observe in ‘Beauty and the Beast’ is that it starts and ends with particular set phrases ‘ once upon a time’ and ‘they lived happily ever after’. The story of a fairy tale also presents some good and evil characters and the good wins over at the end, or a cruel stepmother who is later shown in misery, or a prince that appears in disguise and whoever helps him unknowingly or without the greed for his wealth is rewarded for his good deeds. Moreover, the setting of the fairy tales is not specific and realistic (Montgomery, ed, 2009). ‘Beauty and the Beast’ aptly fulfils the vague definition that describes some characteristics of a fairy tale. In the case of ‘Beauty and the Beast’ we see that the transformation of the beast to prince is linked to the goodness of Beauty that she fulfils the promise of her father to stay with a beast forever and her willingness to stay with him can be approved by her kindness to him that would lead him to accept his proposal of marriage and finally transformation into the prince- a happy ending. The setting of the story also carries magical and unrealistic effects as we see that cold, snowy winter all around but when the father of Beauty approaches the castle of Beast, there is spring all around and the castle seems to exist in wonderland. ‘Fairy tales’ as the name denotes, brings forward the question of the presence of fairies in these tales. The answer to this question from all the commentators would be ‘no’. Angela Carter, in her introduction to ‘The Virago Book of Fairy Tales’, writes that though her book contains a few such stories which have fairies in them, there are more essential elements common in the fairy tales which are talking beasts, supernatural elements and the laws of physics are not followed accurately regarding the sequence of many events. According to her, ‘fairy tale’ is figuratively used for a great number of narratives that carry a great deal of variety that started from once upon a time and are still continued to move from one individual to another by word of mouth. The origin of these stories is hardly known and they are presented in new versions by every person who tells them, they are a source of constant enjoyment particularly for the poor (Carter, 1990, p. ix). So fairies are not an essential part of the fairy tale and the story chosen does not contain any fairies but still it befits the genre of ‘fairy tale’. Another question asked regarding the nature of fairy tales is whether they are similar to folk tales or not, as fairy tales are a part of folklores. Marcia Lane is of the view that a fairy tale carries a magical sensation with its mysterious or supernatural element and it is always described in past tense and has no ties with the real world in particular. She further defines that myth is a story which has its origin attached to the start of this world and legend is a story which holds the name of a definite person who belongs to real world and it may involve some magical occurrence too. Fantasy is a story that occurs in the future. Fairy tales can be spiritual but they are never religious (Lane, 1993, p. 5). In ‘Beauty and the Beast’, we observe that the good characters do not seem like they are preaching, rather they win the hearts of the readers by their kind natures. It is her loving and kind nature that Beauty saves her father’s life and later while visiting her family with Beast’s permission, she dreams the Beast dying and suddenly decides to go back again to save his life. Tolkien presents a different view regarding the elements that constitute a fairy tale. According to him, these fairy tales are not supposed to be about elves or fairies rather it is ‘Faerie’ which is a state or realm to which the fairies belong. ‘Faerie’ holds many other things beside dwarfs, fays, elves, witches, dragons, trolls and giants; it contains the moon, the sun, the earth, the sky, and all the things that are the present in it such as the trees, the stones, the birds, the food and even us, the mortal beings, and we are fascinated by these beauties. Tolkien further says that a fairy tale is that story which may aim at presenting adventure, fantasy, morality or satire, it always holds the element of ‘Faerie’. Faerie may be translated as magic but this magic is of specific power and mood which is quite different from vulgar devices of the magician, laborious and scientific. Even if there is satire in the story, it is taken seriously without being explained or made fun of and the magic present in it is never the target of satire (Tolkien, 1966, p. 9-10). In ‘Beauty and the Beast’ we come across such details that enchant the readers and take them to a magical realm, for example, the fragrance of flowers, the cool breeze, the chirping of birds, the music produced by instruments themselves, sequence of magical dreams, the talking birds, the delicious food, the abundance of jewels and the magnificent rooms, but the sympathy for the sad Beauty and miserable Beast never fades. Tolkien further analysis the content of a fairy tale and acknowledges that there is an abrupt turn in the story which matches to the reader’s heartfelt desire and it provides joy splitting the web of a fairy tale and brings piercing amusement (Tolkien, 1966, p 69-70). We see that in ‘Beauty and the Beast’, the story finally shows a twist and Beauty sees the beast from a different perspective and accepts his proposal which in return brings consolation and amusement to the readers in the form of transformation of the beast into a charming prince. Fairy tales carry a moral purpose in them which has been vanished in many other forms of literature which is meant for children. John Ruskin proclaims that these stories may seem broken and futile courses of old times but they do teach children and there is no substitute for them, animate the material world which has mortality, save children from cold scientific stuff, inducing in them the pleasure to hold for later life and preparing them for the fate of good and evil (Ruskin, 1875, p. ix). Andrew Lang, in an introduction to his book ‘Green Fairy Book’, says that these stories do hold moral lesson in them and want their audience to be unselfish, courageous, kind and courteous but the children felt more inclined to the diversions presented in the story than the lesson to be learnt (Lang, 1949, p. xii). In ‘The Use of Enchantment’ Bettelheim claims that fairy tales have also been used as a kind of therapy to enable children to face the fears in quite manageable and controllable ways (Bettelheim, 1976). Zipes is of the view that Bettelheim has exaggerated the therapeutic function of these stories (Zipes, in Montgomery, ed, 2009). Zipes acknowledges that more recent children’s literature has started to resemble adult literature as it contains provocative and frank language that describes many social problems which include terrorism, abuse, homelessness and drug addiction and concept of non-traditional notion of expanding family that has stepparents, single parents, lesbian and gay parents (Zipes, et al., 2005 p. xxix) Zipes is of the view that while deciding a book to be suitable for children, we have to see that certain things which are purely of adults’ interest or things that society do not approve of, should not be included in children’s literature such as sexuality and murder. The brutal and savage myths and certain stories that hold incest, rape, murder, social crimes etc, have nothing to do with children (Zipes, 2006 p. 23). To conclude, keeping in mind the analysis of many important critics and writers of children’s literature, we can claim that ‘Beauty and the Beast’ is a perfect fairy tale that is suitable for children as it not only amuses them but also silently instructs them that virtue has its own reward and judgement based on appearances can prove to be wrong. References Bettelheim, B. (1976) ‘The purpose of fairy tales’ in (Montgomery, H. (ed) (2009) ‘Week 3 Once Upon a Time’ Abingdon, Routledge/ Milton Keynes, The Open University, p. 53. Carter, A. (1990) ‘Defining fairy tales’ in (Montgomery, H. (ed) (2009) ‘Week 3 Once Upon a Time’ Abingdon, Routledge/ Milton Keynes, The Open University, p. 47. ‘History of Beauty and the Beast’ in SurLaLune fairytales.com, Available at www.surlalunefairytales.com/beautybeast/history.html Lane, M. (1993) ‘Defining fairy tales’ in (Montgomery, H. (ed) (2009) ‘Week 3 Once Upon a Time’ Abingdon, Routledge/ Milton Keynes, The Open University, p. 48. Lang, A. (1949) ‘The purpose of fairy tales’ in (Montgomery, H. (ed) (2009) ‘Week 3 Once Upon a Time’ Abingdon, Routledge/ Milton Keynes, The Open University, p. 53. Montgomery, H. ed, (2009) ‘What are fairy tales: Week 3 Once Upon a Time’ Abingdon, Routledge/ Milton Keynes, The Open University, p. 45. Montgomery, H. (ed) (2009) Defining fairy tales: Week 3 Once Upon a Time’ Abingdon, Routledge/ Milton Keynes, The Open University, p. 47. Ruskin, J. (1875) ‘The purpose of fairy tales’ in (Montgomery, H. (ed) (2009) ‘Week 3 Once Upon a Time’ Abingdon, Routledge/ Milton Keynes, The Open University, p. 53. Tolkien, (1966) ‘Defining fairy tales’ in (Montgomery, H. (ed) (2009) ‘Week 3 Once Upon a Time’ Abingdon, Routledge/ Milton Keynes, The Open University, pp. 48-9. Zipes, J. (2006) ‘Comment’ ‘in Montgomery, H. ed, (2009) ‘Week 3 Once Upon a Time’, Abingdon, Routledge/ Milton Keynes, The Open University, p. 46. Zipes, J. (2006) ‘What are fairy tales’ ‘in Montgomery, H. ed, (2009) ‘Week 3 Once Upon a Time’, Abingdon, Routledge/ Milton Keynes, The Open University, pp. 46-7. Zipes, (Reader 1, p. 34) ‘The purpose of fairy tales’ in Montgomery, ed, (2009) Week 3 Once Upon a Time’, Abingdon, Routledge/ Milton Keynes, The Open University, p. 54. Zipes, J. (ed) (2006) ‘Fairy tales and folk tales: The Oxford Encyclopaedia of Children’s Literature (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006). Zipes, J. (2006) ‘Content, censorship and understanding: Purposes and Histories’ Reader 1, p. 23. Zipes, J. (2005) ‘Analysing what is suitable for children’ in Montgomery, ed, (2009) Week 2 What is Children’s Literature’, Abingdon, Routledge/ Milton Keynes, The Open University, p. 44. Read More