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Quote: “Often father and daughter look down on mother (woman) together. They exchange meaningful glances when she misses a point. They agree that she is not bright as they are, cannot reason as they do. This collusion does not save the daughter from the mother’s fate.”

I thought of this when I was looking into the relationship between Beauty and her two sisters in "Beauty in the Chad," and how they and their father look down upon Beauty, but then Beauty is insulted with condescension by her father that inadvertently insults her sisters as well.
I haven't read the full novel or any other works by Burstow, but this quote has stuck with me for a years. I remember when I first read it, and I think I felt like I finally understood what it meant to be a woman at that time-- as if the words were finally put together to a feeling.

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Often father and daughter look down on mother (woman) together. They exchange meaningful glances when she misses a point. They agree that she is not brig...

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Beaumont’s Beauty and the Beast also encourages women to take action.

→ Rebuttal– Beauty's refusal to let her father die and insistence to go in his place is almost sacrificial; she wants to throw her life away to prove a point?

Still working

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By using Beaumont’s story as a background to compare a modern retelling against, I will show how the author’s message directed towards young women is affected by the background of the Beast (the love interest she must fight her fears and other unpleasant feelings to develop into actual or situational love) and the familial relationships (the sisters she is contrasted with and the father whose life she saves– these are Beauty’s motivations).

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Modern retellings of “Beauty and the Beast” want to reconstruct the character journey and development of Beauty/Belle to better reflect a feminist narrative that actually demonstrates behavior of a woman going against the grain of the patriarchal society.

→ Why? Page 397 in FFT (Haase): When women realize that there is a great disparity between the “romantic ideals and the reality that “not all men are princes”” there is now an “ambiguity that left them in an unresolved tension between enacting cultural change and adhering to the deceptive ideals of the fairy tale.

Rowe, referenced by Haase, believed that it would take a new fairy tale, fully “rejuvenated” and “fully divested of its idealized romantic fantasies.” This may not be exactly what a retelling of a fairy tale is, but retellings often aim to challenge these basic themes and concepts of love and behavior– what acculturates young minds.

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In Beaumont's Beauty and the Beast, Beauty has two sisters and three brothers. The three brothers only make an appearance when their father returns from the Beast’s castle to say that they will fight the Beast. Later they are mentioned to have enlisted in the army. The sisters appear several times and have conversations with her and asides without her, but they are never given names. The father is also a strong side character, but he is weak-spirited and does not do much– rather his character serves to demonstrate Beauty’s kindness and good character (refer to the idea of behavior being rewarded: Lieberman).

In “Beauty and the Chad,” Beauty has two sisters, Suzanne and Gabrielle. In this case, Suzanne and Gabrielle are favored by their father: they understand when he told a lie to the Beast, and the two sisters and the father look down on Beauty for what they believe is childishness in caring too much about honor. Beauty never wishes to return to her family. Her family is not present at the wedding– there is no punishment for their behavior as there is in Beaumont’s. The author leans away from the reward and punishment lesson in the fairy tale, which is very strongly expressed in Beaumont’s version. There is no impression of reward for good feminine behavior– what Beaumont, as a governess, is expressing to young women is that good character, kindness, being loving and sweet will be rewarded with wealth and comfort (married to a rich man to become the mistress of an impressive home). Brennan’s Beauty, and the conclusion, does not necessarily want to be safe– only happy. She is rather encouraging risk taking, bravery, and boldness for young women, while at the same time being a good friend and person. At the same time as she is challenging what others may think of her– she cuts her hair, defies her father, and feels unlike her sisters and other women– she also must challenge the way she thinks of the world.

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In Beaumont’s Beauty and the Beast, the Beast was not condemned to this animal-like nonhuman form as a punishment, but just by the actions of a “wicked fairy.”

In “Beauty and the Chad,” the Beast was condemned to his form as a punishment for his past actions (inferred to be something careless and harmful to another person as something he did not take seriously). This was common in this town– the Beast was not a one-time thing. Magic was also known and spoken of (by the shopkeeper Aimee(?)) – reference to the metafictional retelling (Tosi).

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How does the Beast’s origin shape the overarching theme in a modern retelling?

How does the level of interaction between the Beast and Beauty and her family and Beauty affect the character of Beauty– her journey, her development– and what does this say about the author’s message directed towards women?

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Beauty’s family changes in different versions of the tale (in some cases she has brothers, she usually has sisters, and she has a father and no mother)

Beauty interacts with and grows to love a Beast