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Beauty and the Beast is a short story written by Marie Le Prince de Beaumont. She was a French woman, who lived in London when this story was published. The main characters in this story are Beauty, her father the merchant and the Beast. Beauty was the youngest daughter of the merchant. She was called Beauty because she was so beautiful, but throughout the story, she also illustrates inner beauty as well. The Beast is described as a horrendous, terrifying, beastly creature but throughout the story he shows kindness to the merchants youngest daughter.
The theme of the story is very simple. People should not always judge someone by appearances. Looks could be very deceiving and you should always consider ones personality, character and how they treat you and others. Regardless if a person is physically beautiful, that does not mean they truly are inside. Their character could turn out to be most vicious and evil once you became acquainted with them.
So you always must be careful and not go by appearances, As the saying goes, you should not always judge a book by its cover. The story begins by the merchant stumbling on this beautiful castle, while making it back home, through a snowstorm. He was cold and hungry and found warmth and food in the castle. At first, he tried to look for the castle owners, but could not find them.
After finding warmth and food, the merchant fell asleep and woke up the next day refreshed and ready to journey back home. As he was walking out of the castle, he came across a red rose and since he remembered that was what his daughter Beauty requested from him, he decided to take one for her. Upon doing so the horrifying Beast appeared before him and was very angry. He was angry because the merchant decided to take one of the Beasts roses, without even asking him.
The merchant explained to the Beast that he was purely harmless, that he was taking a rose for his beloved daughter. The Beast then told the merchant he had to come back to his castle and bring back one of his daughters to live and stay with the Beast willingly and if none of his daughters chose to, then he would have to come and stay with him. The merchant then left the castle to return home, but feeling upset about what the Beast wanted him to do. On telling his family, his daughters blamed Beauty for the mishap that had happened to their father. As Beauty was a fine character she volunteered willingly to go to the castle to live with the Beast so her father could be safe at home.
Upon meeting the beast, Beauty is appalled at his beastly, horrifying appearance at first. But then throughout the story, he is very nice towards her and shows her generosity. Beauty also has certain dreams while she stays in the castle. The first dream she has is about a gorgeous prince and she falls in love with his appearance. The other dreams she has tells her messages like not to let appearances deceive her and do not trust her eyes too much.
She becomes eager to find the prince and thinks maybe the beast has him captive but she has another dream that tells her that he might be disguised as something else. The beast shows her kindness and actually gives her everything she asks for, even when she requests to see her father and family again. He allows her to go back and visit them but she must return to the castle in a month or he will die of grief. Beauty promises that she will return and by this time she finds out she has feelings for the Beast, regardless of his beastly appearance. While she is away from the castle, she has these nightmares of the beast dying of grief and she decides to return to the castle right away, for she was scared something horrible might happen to him.
When she returns to the castle, she frantically looks for him and finds him lying in a cave. She cries out that she does not want him to die and realizes that she loves him. He then awakes and tells her he will be all right. He then asks her to marry him and she finally agrees too, then the beast turns into the prince that she has been dreaming about, breaking the enchanting spell the prince was under. The mother of the prince and enchanting fairy lady appeared at the end of the story and they know that Beauty is truly genuine in loving the prince, for she loved him when his appearance was the beast.
In this short story written by Marie Le Prince de Beaumont the main theme is that you should never judge someone by his or her appearance. Looks could be very deceiving, furthermore, finding out how the persons personality, character and how they treat you and others are what is important. It is what is inside a person that counts. Bibliography:
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