(In preparation for the release of my Beauty and the Beast retelling, To Be Loved, I will be re-sharing old Beauty and the Beast posts. So if this post seems familiar to you, you've probably read it before.)
So I saw a live performance of Disney's Beauty and the Beast the other day. I'm going to assume you've all noticed by now that I love Beauty and the Beast, in pretty much all its forms. This was the third time I'd seen it live, and the following night I watched the animated movie.
So everyone has talked about the math. About how the Beast got cursed when he was a child, how it doesn't make sense because he's an adult in the portrait, etc. One change this play made to the original was to take out all the numbers—the Beast wasn't cursed ten years ago, just a long time ago. The rose won't wilt when he turns 21, it'll just wilt when time has passed.
And the play was good! But it got me thinking. And I think this particular version of the story works better if the Beast was cursed as an 11 year old boy, even if that wasn't initially deliberate.
The important thing to understand about the history of Beauty and the Beast is that originally, his shape was meant to be scary and off-putting, but nothing else about him. He wasn't cursed for being a jerk, he was never reported to be a jerk, and curse-related behavioral changes didn't include anything that would make someone feel unsafe.
Disney's Beast is rude, angry, and prone to tantrums. His table manners are atrocious. He can't read, which I maintain is stupid, was rightfully cut out of the original movie, and should never have been added back in, but it was included in this play, so. We're working with what we've got, stupid or not.
The Beast displays behaviors that feel alarming and dangerous coming from a large monster, and would likely also feel that way coming from an adult human in a position of power. He also displays behaviors that would be fairly normal and expected from a spoiled, poorly socialized child.
He was turned into a monster when he was eleven. He was abandoned by his parents at some point, possibly well before the curse, since they certainly weren't in the palace at the time. The only people he's interacted with since he was eleven are servants, who occasionally scold him for losing his temper, toward the end, when their humanity is dependent on him behaving himself, but generally it seems like he's the ultimate authority in the palace, and they take orders from him, regardless of age. There doesn't seem to be anyone else in the palace anywhere near his age range. We've got a lot of people who were adults when cursed, and one child, Chip, who either hasn't aged while the curse has been in place, or was a baby when it first went into effect.
He's had no discipline, no education, no social life, since he was eleven. He has absolutely no emotional maturity, because he hasn't really had the opportunity to gain any. He's throwing the same kinds of tantrums he did before the curse, because he hasn't had any reason to grow out of it. It was naughty ten years ago, it's terrifying now, and he probably doesn't realize how big a difference it is.
Almost as soon as he has someone else in his life who treats him like an equal rather than a boss, and models good, adult behavior, he improves dramatically. He starts making an effort to control his temper, and to be as polite and dignified as possible for a Beast. And he remains sort of awkward in a way that seems consistent with someone experiencing a social life and friendship for the first time—an awkwardness that doesn't make as much sense for someone who was an established adult before his life imploded.
If the Beast was an adult, especially an adult with significant power and authority like a prince, his early Beast behavior is kind of a red flag, and his later Beast behavior is a rapid and confusing shift. If he was a lonely kid, it's all a lot more understandable. Disney's version of the Beast needs to start as a child; it makes his character development and relationship with Belle much more believable.
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