FF Tuesday September 13

Lauren Falkenstein The readings discussed today, September 13, were the different versions of Beauty and the Beast, including the French “Beauty and the Beast”, “The Pig King”, and “The Tiger’s Bride.” We had two separate discussions on the readings, the first one comparing “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Pig King.” The first group compared the Pig vs. the Beast in the two stories. They discussed that some of the similarities between the two are that both are under outside enchantments and want obedience from their wives and do not receive it. However their means of achieving this obedience differs, the Beast attempts to woo Beauty with his possessions and riches, while the Pig King is more demanding and forces Meldina to marry him. The second group compared Beauty vs. the Youngest Daughter, Meldina. The two heroines differed more greatly in that one married the Beast by choice the other was forced for the good of their family, and that Beauty and the Beast involves love, while Meldina only marries the Pig King in order to receive a reward for her and her family. However both betray the Beast and are kinder and more beautiful than the rest of the family. The last group compared the Father and Sisters vs. the King and Queen and said that in Beauty and the Beast there was more affection involved in actions, while in the Pig King it was more to appease the Pig, though this could be because Beauty is much easier to love than the Pig King. Both the father and the King and Queen appear to have a lack of authority over their children as well, turning a blind eye to their wickedness, i.e. the Pig killing two women and the sisters mocking Beauty. The second part of the discussion was about what messages Angela Carter attempted to convey when she rewrote her version of the story, “The Tiger’s Bride”. Beauty, for instance, chose to transform into a “beast,” rather than the Beast’s transformation into a human, showing that humans are animals as well and that women are not just property. Beauty also refuses any clothes or jewels the Beast gives her in order to prove that she does not need such materialistic items to sway her. The change in the father from loving to weak and a gambler, along with Beauty’s outright rejection of her father, suggests that she does not need her father in her life and may make her own decisions, whereas in the French Beauty and the Beast, she is afraid to leave her father and get married. The class was then instructed to read the different versions of “Bluebeard” by next class.