Give Me Back My Beast

 

Everyone prefers the Beast, right? That’s been the case for at least 80 years, since the Cocteau film. There are two major angles we can approach the Beast preference from, and we’re going to start with the more obvious approach: the Beast is more attractive, the Beast is more exciting, the Beast is more familiar. We just like him better.

I’ve seen a few people on the internet mention that it’s kind of crappy to want the Beast back rather than be happy for him that he’s finally released from a terrible curse. And yeah, it is kind of bad if Beauty herself is saying “I liked you better before. I liked you been when you were trapped and suffering.”

But again, the Beast is familiar. How would you feel if you woke up one morning and your spouse had been body swapped with a total stranger?

I think it’s perfectly natural and expected to find the change off-putting and uncomfortable at first. It’s probably a little uncomfortable for the Beast, too, after all the time he’s spent adjusting to his new body.

Of course the real difficulty here is that the curse was restricting the Beast’s behavior as well as adjusting his appearance, which means that from Beauty’s perspective, he maybe hasn’t been body swapped so much as swapped out entirely for a different guy.

However. There is, in the original book, one character who actually asks for the Beast back:

“Generous Fairy!” exclaimed the Prince, clasping his hands in supplication, “for mercy’s sake, do not allow Beauty to depart! Make me, rather, again the Monster that I was, for then I shall be her husband. She pledged her word to the Beast, and I prefer that happiness to all those she has restored me to, if I must purchase them so dearly!”

Background here is that his mother the queen does not approve of him being with a woman who isn’t a princess. Beauty immediately goes, “Oh, yeah, I’m not worthy to marry a prince, I’ll just go home now.” (Which for the record does seem to be a genuine feeling of unworthiness and not an excuse to bail because her Beast is no longer a Beast.)

The prince didn’t seem to like being a Beast. But he certainly likes being with Beauty more than he likes not being a Beast. I just think it’s funny that someone does ask for the Beast back in the original text, and that someone is the Beast himself.

Next week we’ll look at the other reason we might want our Beast back.

 

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