'Since you will not, good-night, Beauty,' he said.Īnd she answered, 'Good-night, Beast,' very glad to find that her refusal had not provoked him. 'Say 'yes' or 'no' without fear,' he replied. 'Oh! What shall I say?' cried Beauty, for she was afraid to make the Beast angry by refusing. Andrew Lang emphasized the power dynamics in 1889's Blue Fairy Book: Even in his nightly request that Beauty marry him, he defers. And that first dinner is marked by the Beast's deference to her wishes. Beauty's earliest surprise is how much power she wields. Let her be free to choose whether she will come or no…') Later, the Beast asks Beauty herself if she comes willingly. (In Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch's 1910 version, it's still more explicit: The Beast warns Beauty's father to 'be honest with your daughter. The Beast is clear that Beauty must know what she's getting into.

The most powerful force in Beauty and the Beast isn't magic, or even love, but consent. Most retellings of Villeneuve's version are careful to keep it. The story needs no quest it has a marriage. A merchant family's city-to-country exile is an everyday misfortune, the bulk of the story takes place in the Beast's house, and Beauty's only magical task is to return from a family visit in the time she's promised. But while Beauty and the Beast bears some parallels, it's emphatically more domestic in scope. There are echoes of earlier stories in Beauty and the Beast, most obviously the Cupid and Psyche myth, with its enchanted groom, quest, and magical tasks. To understand the importance of this, look backward.

Beauty and the beast gabrielle