Blog Entry #5

Beauty and the Beast and Cupid and Psyche have a very similar plot outline: the youngest of three sisters goes to marry/live with a man who is said to be anything but human in punishment for a crime that was committed that, although out of her control, she has been selected to pay for it (whether it be that she is too beautiful or that her father has stolen a rose in her name). The heroine is treated kindly, but soon becomes homesick. She returns home only to be tempted by her sisters into breaking a promise she made to her husband/master. Because of her sisters' influence, she soon seems as though she is in risk of loosing her beloved forever, but in the end, they live happily ever after.

While there are several similarities and difference between the two versions, there are two which strike me as particularly interesting. In C&P, Cupid is the farthest thing from a beast. He hides himself from his wife not because he is afraid that she will be afraid, but rather that she will not look upon him in wonder and awe. He wanted them to be equals.

Both tales present heroines who appear to be the image of perfection next to the hidden image of their opposites, but both are quite far from it.

In B&B, Beauty returns home to her sisters and is detained longer than a week due to the attention and love her sisters have finally shown her. It is, perhaps, understandable that she should neglect her Beast due to the mended relationships she believes she has finally formed with her sisters. For as intelligent as Beauty seems to otherwise be, it is strange that she would not see through her sisters' charades, regardless of the fact that she should so desperately want to.

Beauty also continuous denies the Beast's requests to marry him and on the grounds that are solely, as far as we can tell, based on his looks.

Psyche's curiosity continues to get the better of her. She gives in when she can no longer bare not to look upon the face of her husband and then again when she looks into the box which Venus has told her not to open. Psyche seems also unmotivated to even attempt the seemingly impossible tasks which Venus has given her and only returns back to her husband because others have aided her and persuaded her not to give up so easily.

In the end, she is returned to her husband because of what he does and not her own actions. Quite the contrary, her actions would have led herself to her doom, had he not interfered.

Both stories highlight that the Beauty needs the Beast and not the other way around.