Encyclopedia of fairy-tale heroes: "Beauty and the Beast." The beauty and the Beast

Once upon a time there lived a rich merchant, and he had three daughters. All the daughters were good, but the father loved the youngest - Beauty - most of all. And not only the father.

Everyone loved the beauty for her beauty and kind heart.

One day the merchant went bankrupt, and he and his daughters were forced to move to the village. Of the three sisters, only Beauty was not afraid to work hard.

In order not to experience any more troubles, the merchant went to overseas countries. He saw a lot, and now he found himself in a wonderful palace. How many treats were there on the table!

After eating, the merchant got drunk and went for a walk in the garden. He sees scarlet roses. “Give me,” he thinks, “I’ll pick it for my youngest daughter.” He had just picked the rose when a shaggy monster appeared in front of him.

For picking my flower, you will pay me! - his voice boomed. - Let your beloved daughter Beauty come here instead of you!

Nothing to do. And so it happened.

And Beauty appeared in the Beast's palace. Many days passed, Beauty became friends with the Beast, because he was not at all evil. And the Beast loved the girl with all his heart.

But Beauty missed her home, her father and sisters. One day, in a magic mirror, she saw that her father was sick, and the Beast sent Beauty home for a while.

But remember, if you don’t come back, I will die of grief and sadness! - the Beast said goodbye.

How glad we were to see Beauty at home! No one wanted to let her go back to the palace.

I can’t leave the good Beast, I promised to return! - Beauty said to her family and found herself in the palace.

And - lo and behold! - Beauty's love cast a spell on the Beast, he became a handsome prince.

“Beauty and the Beast” you can remember a summary of the fairy tale by Charles Perrault in 5 minutes.

"Beauty and the Beast" summary by Charles Perrault

What does the fairy tale “Beauty and the Beast” teach?- appearance is not the most important thing in a person, the main thing is his rich spiritual world.

The merchant lives in a mansion with six children, three sons and three daughters. All his daughters are very beautiful, but the youngest, Beauty, is the most beautiful, and also kind and pure in heart. For this, the two older sisters (angry and selfish) bully Beauty and treat her like a servant. A merchant loses all his wealth due to a storm at sea that destroys most of his merchant fleet. He and his children are therefore forced to live in a small farmhouse and work in the fields.

Several years later, a merchant hears that one of the merchant ships he sent has returned to port, having escaped destruction. Before leaving, he asks his children what gifts to bring them. The eldest daughters asked for precious jewelry and elegant dresses, and the sons demanded weapons for hunting and horses, thinking that their wealth had returned. And Belle asks to bring only a rose, since this flower did not grow in the part of the country where they lived. Arriving in the city, the father discovers that his ship's cargo has been confiscated to pay off his debts. He has no money for gifts.

Returning home, he gets lost in the forest, where he finds a magnificent palace with tables laden with food and drinks, which the invisible owner of the palace has clearly left for him. The merchant quenches his hunger and thirst and stays overnight. The next morning, as the merchant is about to leave, he sees the rose garden and remembers that Beauty wanted a rose. After the merchant has chosen the most beautiful rose, he comes face to face with the disgusting “Beast”, who tells him that he stole the most valuable thing in the entire domain, disdaining the hospitality of the owner of the palace, and must pay for it with his life. The merchant asks for mercy, claiming that he only took the rose as a gift for his youngest daughter.

The Beast agrees to give him a rose for Beauty, but only if the merchant or one of his daughters returns.

The merchant is upset, but accepts this condition. The Beast sends him home with wealth, jewels, and fine clothing for his sons and daughters, and emphasizes that Belle must come to his palace of her own free will. The merchant, having come home, tries to hide everything from Belle, but she learns the whole truth from her father and decides to go to the Beast’s castle herself. The monster receives the girl very kindly and informs her that from now on she is the mistress of the castle, and he is her servant. The owner gave her rich clothes and delicious food, and had long conversations with her. Every evening at dinner, the Beast asks Belle to marry him, but each time he is refused. After each of her refusals, Belle sees in a dream a handsome prince, who begs to answer why she does not want to get married, and she answers him that she cannot marry a monster, because she loves him only as a friend. Belle doesn't match the prince and the beast, thinking that the Beast must be holding the prince captive somewhere in the castle. She searches for him and discovers many enchanted rooms, but none of them contain the prince from the dreams.

For several months, Belle lives a luxurious life in the Beast's palace, served by invisible servants, amid wealth, entertainment and many beautiful clothes. And when she gets homesick and homesick for her father, the Beast allows her to visit her father’s house, but on the condition that she returns exactly in a week. Belle agrees to this and goes home with the magic mirror and ring. The mirror allows her to see what is happening in the Beast's castle, and thanks to the ring, she can instantly return to the palace if she spins it three times around her finger.

Her older sisters were surprised to find the younger one well-fed and smartly dressed; they were jealous of her, and when they heard that Belle was to return to the Beast on the appointed day, they asked her to stay another day - they even put onions to their eyes to look like they were crying. In reality, they wanted the Beast to get angry at Belle for being late and eat her alive. Belle is touched by the sisters' show of love and decides to linger.

The next day, Belle feels guilty about breaking her promise and uses the mirror to see the castle. The mirror shows that the Beast lies half-dead from grief near the rose bushes. With the help of the ring, she immediately returns to the palace. Beauty cries over the lifeless Beast, saying that she loves him. Belle's tears fall on the monster and it turns into a handsome prince.

The prince tells Belle that once upon a time an evil fairy turned him into a monster, and that only love could break the curse. The girl was supposed to fall in love with him in the form of the Beast.

The prince and Belle got married and lived happily ever after.

In one state there lived a family of a wealthy merchant, consisting of three daughters and sons. Everyone called the youngest one Beauty because she was beautiful. Her sisters did not like her, since everyone liked her.

Soon trouble came to the merchant's house. During a storm, all his goods drowned, and he and his entire family had to move to a farm and work to earn their living.

The whole year went on like this. The beauty did any work around the house, and even went out into the field to visit her brothers, while her sisters wandered around the yard doing nothing.

Suddenly, the merchant received news of his missing ship, and he again became a wealthy man. Going to the city to get money, he asked his children what gifts to bring them.

The older sisters wanted a lot of elegant clothes, and the younger sister asked for a rose. In the city, their father paid off all his debts and became poor again. Returning home, he got lost and found himself in a dark forest. The merchant felt cold and scared. But suddenly he saw a beautiful castle very close by. When he went there, he saw that there was no one there, and the table with food was set for one person. Without waiting for the owner, the merchant ate and fell fast asleep.

In the morning, without seeing the owner, he thanked him with words, and, mounting the horse that had been prepared for him, went home. Driving past the garden, he picked a beautiful rose for his youngest daughter.

And as soon as he did this, a huge monster appeared and said that he must give his life for the offense he had committed. But the merchant began to justify himself that he did not do it on purpose, but promised to get it for his daughter as a present. The monster let the merchant go, and even gave him a whole chest of treasures, but only on one condition. If he does not want to die himself, then let him send one of his children. In the worst case, he must return on his own.

Arriving home, the merchant told about his adventures. The older sisters began to blame Beauty, the brothers were eager to kill the monster. But Beauty, having a noble heart, went to the forest monster to protect their family from misfortune.

Arriving at the palace, in the large hall she saw a table with prepared food for two people. Suddenly a monster appeared in front of her and asked if he was forcing her to come here. Having heard a negative answer, the monster promised not to offend her.

He did everything for her. I prepared a special room, books, outfits. And Beauty admitted to the monster that, although he was ugly, he was very kind and noble.

One day, looking in the magic mirror, she saw that her father was sick, and she asked to go home. The monster, having sent her to her family, gave her a magic ring with which she can return to him. But if this does not happen, he will die of melancholy.

Beauty's return home inspired the father, but on the contrary angered the sisters. They looked with envy at her expensive dresses and the girl’s even more blossoming beauty.

A week later she got ready to go back, but her sisters did not let her go, and Beauty stayed for a while longer. One day she dreamed that the Beast was dying without her. And she resolutely returns to the castle. There, in the garden, she sees a dying monster. The girl hugged him without being afraid and asked him not to die, because she loves him so much and is ready to become his wife. And as soon as these words were spoken, the gloomy castle turned into a most charming palace, and instead of the monster there was a beautiful king. The magic spell has broken.

The sorceress who appeared appointed Beauty the queen of the castle, and turned the evil sisters into stone statues for their bad character. The beauty and the prince got married and lived in complete harmony.

The fairy tale teaches us that appearance is not the most important thing in a person, but his rich spiritual world.

Picture or drawing of Beauty and the Beast

Other retellings and reviews for the reader's diary

• Summary of Carroll's Alice Through the Looking Glass

  Lewis Carroll's novel "Alice Through the Looking Glass" is completely filled with all kinds of puzzles and fantasy images; it is worth noting how well the author manages imaginary characters

• Summary of Fowles Collector

  Frederick Clegg is a young man who works as a clerk at the local Town Hall. He is in love with Miranda Gray, a student with whom he cannot find a reason to meet.

• Summary of Kassil Street of the Youngest Son

  This work was written in one thousand nine hundred and forty-nine. The story is about life and people during the Great Patriotic War. The work includes two parts

• Summary of Prishvin Mysterious Box

  At the beginning of the story there is a conversation about wolves. An experienced hunter claims that a person has nothing to fear from wolves. After all, a wolf is just an animal, and a person is a rational being and therefore can easily cope with the beast with the help of weapons or his mind

• Summary Ostrovsky How steel was hardened

  Pavka Korchagin is a hooligan and doesn’t really want to study, which is why he is kicked out of school. He is very young and has not even finished school yet. But, nevertheless, he leaves the city when everyone learns the news that the king has been overthrown. The boy is eager to fight, the real one

New readings of classic fairy tales are wonderful. After all, fairy tales live for centuries because they tell about the eternal. At the same time, they have sufficient flexibility to “adapt” to the morals and views of each new generation. The main thing is that while you get carried away with interpretations, you don’t lose the original meaning of the story.

And, since many fans of the genre have gathered here, I propose to plunge into the world of a real Fairy Tale, that is, look into the original sources.

“Beauty and the Beast,” or rather its Russian version, “The Scarlet Flower,” is one of my favorite fairy tales from childhood. Is it any wonder that I began my research of primary sources with her. And I discovered a lot of interesting things.

Most of our contemporaries, hearing the name “Beauty and the Beast,” first of all remember the American cartoon. And indeed, the light, bright story about the cute cartoon Belle and the clumsy, but kind and cute monster is perceived today as almost a classic.

But Hollywood is Hollywood... This cartoon has a very indirect relation to the real fairy tale of Beauty and the Beast. Moreover, the story of our heroes began long before the advent of cinema.

Love relationships between a person and an ordinary animal or a fictional beast-like monster are one of the oldest themes reflected in epics, ancient myths, legends and fairy tales. Initially, it was directly related to the belief of our ancestors in the unity of man and nature, but later, as often happens, it acquired a different meaning.

We will not go too far, recalling the Indian and East Slavic tales of bear people and the hooliganism of Zeus, who appeared to women in the form of a bull or a swan. The purpose of our research is plot number 425C according to the Aarne-Thompson classification, a fairy tale about wonderful spouses, a version that is called “Beauty and the Beast”.

Whoever our Monster has been: an ordinary little animal, such as a lion, ram or elephant, and a mythical animal, and an otherworldly creature like a demon or a ghost.

And what he and Beauty had to endure cannot be told in a fairy tale or described with a pen...

Let's start with the fact that Beauty and the Beast, just like season one Henry from OUaT, had two moms and no dads.

Contrary to popular belief, the world-famous version of this tale was not written by Charles Perrault. It appeared half a century later in a book for children’s reading, “Magazine des enfants,” published in 1756 by the French governess Leprince de Beaumont.

"Adoptive Mother" of Beauty and the Beast - Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont

What is the classic version of "Beauty and the Beast" about? With minor changes, this plot is exactly repeated in most of the group's fairy tales to group 425C. The story can be read in its entirety - it is very short.

The merchant goes on a journey. The older daughters ask to bring clothes and jewelry, and the youngest daughter asks to bring a rose. He fails, he gets “lost” in the forest and stops for the night in a castle, where in the morning he discovers a rose and picks it. Then the owner of the castle (who is also a monster) predicts his imminent death or imprisonment, but agrees that the merchant’s daughter will come in return.

The youngest comes to the monster's castle and happily spends a long time there, observing the life of her family through a magic mirror, but refuses to marry the monster. She then returns home to see her father. The older sisters are plotting against her, and she does not come to the castle on time, but finds the monster already dying. However, her love, confirmed by her desire to marry him, brings the monster back to life and turns him into a handsome prince. And then they get married.

The first officially recognized literary mother of our characters was the Parisian aristocrat Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbeau de Gallon, Madame de Villeneuve, who wrote her fairy tale sixteen years earlier. Alas, I was unable to find her portrait.

The volume of the original version of "Beauty and the Beast" was no less than two hundred pages. The plot is known to everyone - it almost exactly corresponds to the full version of de Beaumont’s fairy tale. The only difference: in de Villieuves, Beauty fell in love with the Beast for his intelligence, and in the revised version, de Beaumont fell in love with him for his kindness. Well, that's right. And there is morality, and you don’t have to worry about Beauty’s future - a kind person, even if he’s a fool, probably won’t offend. And with the smart one, the grandmother said in two...

But Madame de Villeneuve did not limit herself to the story about the magical power of true love. The birth mother of our heroes was a worthy predecessor to the “storytellers” Kitis and Khorovets. Not satisfied with the union of loving hearts, she plunged the heroes into a real whirlpool of events.

As a result, the story included warring fairy clans, lost children, and Belle’s real father, who turned out to be the king of the Magic Islands and the husband of one of the fairies’ sister. This fairy tale has not been translated into Russian, but those interested can familiarize themselves with its TRANSLATION INTO ENGLISH. To be honest, I didn’t get to the end of the story - but I don’t like reading in English either.

Most likely, de Villeneuve was not the creator of “Beauty and the Beast” either - she simply took a folk tale as a basis, processed it, and then supplemented it with her fantasies on the future fate of the heroes. After all, similar stories can be found in collections of folk tales in many countries, including France.

For example, the collection Folk Tales of Lorraine by Emmanuel Cosquin includes THE TALE OF THE WHITE WOLF with many overlapping elements. However, this collection was not published until a century after de Villeneuve's version, so the question of "real authorship" will probably forever remain open. However, this is the fate of most fairy tales.

What this tale tells about and how it has changed over time, we will talk next time. In the meantime, keep our favorite heroes in the form of chibiks. :)

To be continued...

“wrote the Frenchwoman Madame de Villeneuve in 1740, and this was not a children’s story at all. For almost 100 pages, it was told by a maid to her mistress while sailing across the Atlantic Ocean to America. The journey was long, so she managed to tell many stories, but it was this one that people remembered. All thanks to the fact that a few years later Madame de Beaumont reduced the story to a few pages and brought the plot into a more orderly form.

We have selected 8 of the most interesting differences between Disney films and the very first plot.

In film: The Disney version of Beauty and the Beast states that the prince was bewitched because he was arrogant, selfish, and heartless.

In the book: In the fairy tale, the handsome prince was turned into a monster by an evil old fairy. She was offended that he did not want to marry her.

Disney

In film: The appearance of the monster resembles a strange cross between a bear and a ram. Overall it looks more or less impressive.

In the book: The Beast has a trunk similar to that of an elephant, but nothing else is known. Full freedom for imagination.

Disney

In film: a rose is more like a clockwork mechanism, counting down the time until the spell becomes irreversible. If the last petal falls, but a pretty girl does not fall in love with the Beast, then he will walk with a shaggy tail for the rest of his life. So to speak, the situation is heating up.

In the book: The beauty asked her father not to bother with gifts, but to bring her a simple rose. He, having spent the night in a magic castle along the way and was about to leave, saw flowers in the garden and decided to pick a larger bouquet. It was here that the monster grabbed him for stealing. He threatened to kill the merchant for paying with black ingratitude for his hospitality. The poor guy, to be honest, didn’t even understand what he had done wrong. Do you feel sorry for the flowers? In general, we do too. It is, of course, not good to spoil a flowerbed, but death is not an entirely adequate punishment.

Disney

In film: everyone talks about how extraordinary and smart Belle is, but in general her intelligence only manifests itself in reading books.

In the book: Beauty's character is written out in great detail. She turns out to be not only kind, generous and smart, but also rationally thinking: when she and her father are offered to collect gifts, the girl takes a very balanced approach to which gifts should be chosen. She says that it is better to take it in money, because when selling jewelry, you will have to explain where such wealth came from from a simple merchant. A very business-like episode.

Disney

In film: Belle has an admirer - the narcissistic Gaston. The first guy in the village, a successful hunter, a favorite of the ladies and a dunce.

In the book: Beauty doesn’t have any fans, but in her dreams a handsome young man appears to her, talks kindly to her and makes interesting proposals. By the way, some other heroes of the story are also frolicking with might and main in her head.

Disney

In film: The monster in his castle is served by “living” things: the Lumiere candelabra, the Cogsworth watch, Miss Potts’ teapot and Chip’s cup, a chest of drawers, a broom and other former courtiers, as it turns out, turned into objects.

In the book: The inhabitants of the castle are turned into statues in the garden so as not to talk too much. And birds and monkeys served the Beauty.

Disney

In film: Belle and the Beast spend a lot of time together and gradually fall in love with each other.

In the book: The Beast has no right to have long conversations with Beauty that would reveal to her his great spiritual and mental qualities. He generally has difficulty speaking due to a defect in the maxillofacial apparatus - try talking if you have a trunk on your face. But every evening he invites her to go and sleep with him, which the girl regularly refuses. For the time being.

Disney

In film: Belle admits that she loves the Beast, and then he gets covered in light rays and turns into a normal man. Then the wedding and everyone is happy.

In the book: Beauty agrees to go to bed with the Beast if he formalizes this all in a legal marriage. They lie down together and he immediately falls asleep. The next morning she sees Prince Charming next to her. But this is not the end, this is generally only half the story, because his mother arrives closer to lunch. It turns out that she is very grateful to Beauty, but cannot approve of the marriage, because the girl is of humble origin. Such a misalliance cannot be allowed. Then the Good Fairy says that Beauty is actually of a very noble family: dad is a king, mom is a fairy. And a full Santabarbara begins about what ramified intrigues among the fairy community led to the fact that Beauty turned out to be a foundling in a merchant family. In fact, the girl is the cousin of the enchanted prince and their marriage was planned in ancient times.