Belle

Lucky for the Disney audience, there was not another thirty year wait before the next princess. Beauty and the Beast came out in 1991, introducing us to Belle only two years after Ariel.

Belle is the only daughter of an inventor, and they live together in this quirky little house just outside of a small town in the French countryside. The life they have there is…quaint. But it is consistently made more interesting by their eccentricities. Maurice, her father, invents things. Things that don’t always quite work. And that’s not to say that he’s bad at his chosen profession–he’s pretty good actually–but he does have a sort of absentminded-professor thing going on, and I might venture to say that his work environment is sort of hazardous.

Belle, she’s a reader. A bookworm. And I can’t begin to describe how much I love that about her. She’s the intellectual Disney princess. She is the perfect heroine for smart, independent young ladies. And she’s someone I can personally relate to.

I’d like to take a second to point out her hair. In the above picture, you’ll notice that there is a loose strand falling down her forehead. That happens all the time throughout this movie, and it’s something the animators did very much on purpose. It’s actually meant to represent her as a flawed character. It’s subtle, but it’s a constant reminder that Belle is like us: not quite perfect. I’ll also point out that she’s the only one in town to ever where the color blue. That is another small way she is meant to stand out, and I will come back to that detail later.

In the opening song, we get a good idea of how Belle feels about the town, as well as how the town generally feels about her. She sings lines like “I want much more than this provincial life,” and the crowd sings lines like “that girl is strange, no question.” So let’s explore why she is considered strange. After all, it’s widely accepted that she is a great beauty. She’s kind; she has good social skills. There isn’t anything wrong with her.

She’s strange because she’s literate, and not just literate, but outright bookish. And a normal young lady during this time period had little business being bookish. All she should be focusing on is finding a suitable husband and raising a family. And she’s seventeen, so the clock’s ticking. But she shows literally no interest in that sort of thing. What is she doing? She is headed to the town’s small library for presumably the thousandth time. And on her way back from there, one can tell she’s really got this town wired. She barely looks up from the book in her hand as she walks through the crowded streets, and she has got every step memorized. Nothing and no one bumps into her or gets in her way. She had everyone’s everyday movements figured out a long time ago. She’s too smart for this town. That much is obvious right away.

Enter our villain. Gaston is the town favorite. He’s big; he’s strong. He’s the best game hunter around. Gaston is the epitome of everything this society values. In his opening scene, we learn that he has his mind set on marrying Belle. He sees her beauty as comparable to his own, and therefore he considers her the perfect match. He also says charming lines like, “How can you read this? There’s no pictures,” and “It’s not right for a woman to read. Soon she starts getting ideas and…thinking.” He seems as ridiculous to us as he does to Belle, but he’s voicing the popular opinion of the time (which is the really scary part).

Gaston isn’t outright evil. He’s just the guy who is used to getting everything thing he wants. The guy who never learned how to take no for an answer. And though he’s not book-smart in any sense, he’s not a complete imbecile. He’s a skilled hunter and we find out later that he’s not half bad at manipulating people. However, he doesn’t even understand how good his taste in women really is, because he sees the brainy Belle as essentially another trophy. And his hunter’s mentality makes him nearly impossible for her to shake.

Well, destiny intervenes. Maurice gets lost on his way to a fair where he intends to sell his latest invention, and he winds up at this huge, creepy castle. Seeking shelter from the rain (and ravenous wolves), he discovers that the objects inside the castle are sentient, only to be captured by the master of the castle moments later and thrown in the dungeon. His horse, however, finds his way back to Belle and she comes to her father’s rescue.

She finds him, and it’s a rather touching moment. He begs her to get herself out of there, but she refuses to leave without freeing him first. This is a father and daughter desperate to protect one another. In fact, from this point on, both of them are extremely preoccupied with each other’s safety throughout the film.

Well, naturally, the master enters the scene. It’s dark; she can’t really see him, but he certainly sounds intimidating. Nevertheless, she pleads for her father’s release. When it seems to be going nowhere, she offers to take his place. The deal is only sealed, however, after she asks him to come into the light and let her see him.

Belle has spent her entire life reading exciting adventures. But now she’s living one, and she’s discovering that it’s truly terrifying. What she sees before her is an 8-foot-tall, unnatural amalgamation of animals, with the intelligence and mannerisms of a human being. An enormous and formidable freak of nature that could rip her in half as easily as snapping a twig. This is a good moment to appreciate not only Belle’s dedication to her father, but her unrelenting courage. She gets scared, yes, but she doesn’t even come close to panicking. In fact, after her father is sent away, she quickly finds it within herself to talk back to and even defy the orders of her captor.

Something I’m not so sure I would be brave enough to do. The Beast, though we do grow to understand and even like him, is a straight up scary guy. He’s complicated. We do get a backstory on him, which isn’t too common with the princes. He was a young prince who was spoiled and unkind. An enchantress punished him for this by transforming him into a beast, as well as enchanting his entire castle. The only way to lift the curse is to find love, and to be loved in return, by the end of his twenty-first year. The passage of the curse is marked by an enchanted rose, and if he cannot find love before the last petal falls, “he will be doomed to remain a beast for all time.” He is tormented by regret and self-loathing, having fallen into despair over the years, consumed by the hopelessness of his situation.

On top of all this, he has a violent temper and a pretty darn short fuse.

He’s terrifying! Huge and strong and mean, with sharp claws and big teeth.

What makes the difference is that, though he yells a lot in the beginning and is definitely hard to deal with, he becomes protective of her right away. And when the giant scary beast is on your side, suddenly you’re sort of glad that he’s so giant and scary. It’s this moment in particular, when she runs off and gets attacked by wolves, that I really start to like The Beast. It’s a vicious fight. He gets wounded, and I think at least two wolves die. But you’re just so happy he’s there. Belle would not have stood a chance otherwise.

And when it’s over, it’s her turn to save him. When he passes out, she (somehow) manages to get him on her horse and take him back to the castle, where she tends to his bloodied arm.

He’s in pain. He yells a little more. But at this point, she’s lost her fear of him. She even yells back. Again, very gutsy if you ask me. But he responds well to her assertiveness, as well as her kindness, and from this point on they both make a much more diligent attempt to get along.

I’d like to go into why The Beast is protective of her. From the moment she stepped into his castle, before he even knew anything about her, Belle became a manifestation of his hope. Probably his last hope. Something that he had entirely given up. Her beautiful presence interrupted his lonely, miserable existence. All of a sudden, breaking the curse seemed possible. He knew that it was still a slim chance. Not only would he have to fall in love with this random stranger, but this random stranger would have to fall in love with him. And he did not consider that to be likely, given his…condition. He would die to defend this chance, nonetheless.

Destiny comes into play, however, as they turn out to be quite compatible after the temper issue sorts itself out. They spend their days together. She reads to him and even begins teaching him how to read, which he greatly enjoys. And he gives her something that, as a book lover, just takes my breath away every time I see it…

THIS. LIBRARY.

This is the moment when I say, “Marry him!”

Belle is kind. She doesn’t look at him with fear. And she treats him like a human being, something that he hardly even did for himself. It makes sense that she should stir feelings in his heart. And most importantly, he comes to realize that his love for her isn’t about breaking the curse and serving his own needs. It’s just about her, and as they grow closer, he focuses less and less on the curse itself. She lights up his world. Nothing else matters.

And guess who else is wearing blue now. Yes, Belle and The Beast are the only characters in this movie to ever wear blue, aside from Maurice wearing a blue vest at the very end. It’s meant to single out these characters as the different ones. The outcasts. Those who wear blue in this film are all ostracized from society in one way or another, but the way they love one another and embrace each other’s differences is truly beautiful.

So, The Beast comes to understand that real love does not involve keeping your beloved prisoner for your own selfish, curse-lifting needs. When Belle learns (through the aid of a magic mirror) that her father is sick out in the snow searching for her, The Beast releases her and allows her to go to Maurice. Again, he’s given up his hope, but this time, it was a sacrifice made entirely for the sake of someone he loves.

Some pretty shady stuff has been going on in her absence, however. Gaston, becoming only more and more intent on claiming Belle for his own, has made a deal with the local manager of the asylum. He intends to have Maurice thrown into the loony bin unless she agrees to marry him. It’s basically a hostage situation now. And the townsfolk are completely on board. They may not be aware of Gaston’s use of force, but Maurice is weird and therefore should be removed. And Belle, well, she couldn’t do better than Gaston. She should be thrilled that he’s so interested in her. The fact that society is so against scholarship and individualism is the real problem in this movie. Anyone who is too smart or too different is essentially stamped out, which just gives me chills. And the really horrifying thing is that this happens in real life, in real communities. It did back then, and it still does today, making this movie one of the most relatable there is.

When he learns of The Beast (and sees that Belle holds affection for the creature), Gaston stirs up an angry mob to march on the castle. This is certainly a moment in which his manipulation skills serve him well. He has literally no real information about their target, but he has no trouble making the people believe that they have to eradicate this looming monster. Nobody in this crowd is thinking this through. Gaston is thinking a little, but it’s completely self-serving, fueled by aggression, jealousy, and frustration.

In any case, this leads to a pretty epic final battle. The Beast didn’t really care if he lived or died at first. He probably would have let Gaston kill him. But when he saw that Belle had come back to help him, well, his hope returned with her. And he fights with everything he has to save that hope. Both of these men are fighting for Belle, but The Beast is the only one who truly understands why she is so worth fighting for.

In the end, Gaston falls from the top of the castle to his death. It’s important to note, however, that The Beast didn’t throw him off. By that point, while Gaston had become the true monster, The Beast had reclaimed a great deal of his humanity. He showed mercy where Gaston did not. Unfortunately, the villain delivered a fatal blow to the prince before he fell.

We already knew by now that The Beast loved her, and that his love changed him for the better. But this is the moment that really completes it. This is when Belle confirms what we’ve been suspecting. She tearfully whispers those three precious words: “I love you.” And just as she does, the last petal falls.

I want to be sure to point out just how much rides on Belle this entire time. She is 100% the hero of this story. The Beast saved her from wolves, he fended off Gaston, and he provided her with an adventure (and ultimately someone to love). But he was the one who was cursed. He was the one who needed a savior. Belle was the young lady who refused to settle, who simply would not conform to the limiting standards of her society. She had to be brave almost constantly, and in the end, she was the one who made the biggest difference. She’s the modern, quirky bookworm hero, and I admire her so much.

So the curse lifts, and as The Beast transforms into his human self, he is healed. Love and acceptance triumphs over ignorance and violence. This is not a tale of despair and loss. This is about redemption and embracing who we are, flaws and all.

This is Disney. We get our happily ever after. We keep our hope.