Beauty and The Monster?

By: Sara Nigro

As I'm sure many of you know, the Disney movie Beauty and the Beast is approaching it's release date as it is about a month away. In the spirit of this upcoming movie, I decided to relate the original of this classic movie to the renown novel Frankenstein that we recently read in English class. So let the comparison begin!

A tale as old as time was written in 1818 by Mary Shelley in which she expressed to her readers how judgemental society is and how the way that we see each other makes us feel as if beauty is only skin deep. Similarly in Beauty and the Beast, the storyline sends the viewers the same message, except the main character Belle proves to the rest of her community that beauty is found within and an outward appearance doesn't change who the person truly is.

The story of Frankenstein is a gruesome one and it doesn't have a happy ending, but it does send a powerful message that is still relevant today and is still being sent through other media pieces such as the upcoming movie. Immediately after Victor Frankenstein completes his creation, he takes it in as a hideous monster and abandons it without second thought that what he has made could have a kind heart underneath his transparent skin. Leaving his monster at "birth" is the start of it changing its good intentions into violent acts of vengeance due to the fact that he believes he truly is evil since he is treated as if he is. Likewise, the beast was previously a human but was turned into a beast as a punishment and so he could learn to love and be loved not just based on his looks. Even the fact that the beasts punishment is becoming a "beast" and looking unattractive, proves how negatively people react to someone repulsive and that it will make others treat him differently. He becomes more savage as others treat him as wild and uncontrollable, even though he is more calm and loving then he appears to be.

Since Belle is the only character in the film that accepts the Beast for who he is from the beginning, the other villagers call her peculiar and find her odd for loving someone whose appearance is ugly while with her beauty, she could have the most handsome man in the village. Everyone else that knows Belle tries to convince her of the evil that the Beast holds and continuously try to attack and kill him despite her standing by his side and defending him at every turn. She sticks up for him because unlike everybody else, she sees the good in all people and finds the love and light that's within him. On the other hand, none of the characters in the novel Frankenstein make an effort to search for the true colors of the monster, so he ends up isolated and is constantly defending himself alone. The villagers in the movie and the novel act the same way and Shelley proves this to the readers when she says, "One of the best of these I entered, but I hardly placed my foot within the door before the children shrieked, and of the women fainted"(Shelley 87) and as well as in the film when the phrase "Kill the Beast!" is shouted persistently throughout the plot. These two quotes are exemplary of how others quickly resorted to violent methods for coping with an unattractive monster/beast, instead of getting in touch with their human nature to see past the darkness and hate that comes along with their primary reaction to the situation.

Although the most noticeable difference between the two media pieces is actually the character Belle due to the fact that without her, none of the other characters would have ever learned to respect the Beast for who he is and the ending of the movie would have ended up with death and loneliness similar to Frankenstein.  Even with this difference, the moral stays the same that society is in a pattern of judging a book by their cover and doesn't bother to look beyond the surface to see what beauty is underneath other peoples skin(fur?). The protagonist of the story Belle, is shown as an example to the others in the movie/story as well as readers and viewers that their are exceptions and that it is possible to change our negative mindset into percipience.