Looking at the story of beauty and the beast, one can use this example to lean much about the values that certain societies hold at certain times. The story of beauty and the beast has its origins in the early Roman myth of Cupid and Psyche, and since then has evolved into the modern versions that we have today such as the animated Disney film Beauty and the Beast and Barbara G. Walker’s Ugly and the Beast. Throughout time the fundamental ideas of the story remain the same. A selfless and devoted daughter willingly sacrifice

In the Disney version of Beauty and the Beast, beauty is portrayed as more of a bold and outgoing character rather than that of a submissive and obedient daughter. She actually acts very hostile towards the beast at first rather than to sleep with him as Psyche does with Cupid. Society accepts and seems to demand a strong female character in its newer stories. It is no longer acceptable to give a woman a clichéd and docile character. In the story of Ugly and the Beast, Ugly is actually the beauty character. This presents the first and most obvious deviation from the initial form of the story, the idea that the beauty character is flawed and that this flaw in itself brings on a form of purity. This ugliness humbles her and causes her to think more of others than herself, which is true to all of the beauty characters. The second major deviation from the original is that the beast, too, is not a handsome prince under the enchantment of dark magic, but simply just a beast that is very cultured and intellectual. It is interesting to see how these two modern versions relate from the original story of Cupid and Psyche, but how do they relate to each other in the same time period?

The story of beauty and the beast is a window to human nature and society. The way that the beauty character and the beast are presented says a lot about the culture and the people of the times. With stories come cultural relativity causing each new version to become a window into the ideals and beliefs of a time. The basic idea of the beauty and the beast story has remained the same for hundreds of years and yet it is like a skeleton, with the mass of its weight shifting from one area to another to create a totally different type of story. As long as there are people, t

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