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Aayush Tuli
Professor Judith Miller
Texts and Ideas - “Making Sense of Doubles and Masks”
October 28, 2020
Beauty and the Beast and sexuality

The Disney film Beauty and the Beast from 1991 is a fairytale that has proven to endure

the test of time, maintaining a very similar plot line to Jean Cocteau’s 1946 La Belle et la Bête,

while adapting to be relevant to different audiences. Bruno Bettelheim’s The Uses of

Enchantment, which takes a Freudian approach to interpret various fairytales, including Madame

Leprince de Beaumont’s Beauty and the Beast, is useful when determining the differences

between Cocteau’s and Disney’s adaptations and their audiences. Disney is known for its

animation and reimagination of classic fairytales. However, these seemingly juvenile and

frivolous animations are actually teaching the viewers important lessons. Bettelheim discusses

the benefit of fairytales for children in overcoming or confronting unconscious pressures and

issues of growing up through becoming familiar with similar problems proposed in fairy tales

(Bettelheim 6). Bettelheim provides an example of this through his psychoanalysis of

Beaumont’s Beauty and the Beast as a tale of Beauty overcoming oedipal or unconscious sexual

desires for her father. Using Bettelheim’s insights, I argue that Cocteau’s film is targeted for an

older audience and is also primarily centered on Beauty’s maturation, and her ability to

overcome her oedipal desires for her father. In contrast, in Disney’s version, which targets a

younger audience, Beauty is already mature. Therefore, I argue that Disney’s film is more

focused on the Beast’s maturation. The once arrogant prince, whose awful personality is

personified by the Beast’s hideous physical characteristics, matures into a kind, loving prince

only after he learns how to love and is loved in return.

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In the beginning of Cocteau’s film, Beauty is interrupted while cleaning by Avenant who

asks Beauty to marry him and promises her a better life. Beauty rejects Avenant’s proposal,

explaining that, independent of her desire for him, she “must remain a maid and stay with her

father.” Later, when Beauty is explaining to her father what transpired, she says “No father, I’ll

never leave you,” highlighting her disinterest in leaving her father to find a potential romantic

suitor. Throughout Cocteau’s film, Beauty and her father have a close bond, especially compared

to her selfish sisters, Adelaide and Felicie, who ask their father for extravagant gifts compared to

Beauty’s simple request for a rose. Using insights from Bettelheim, Beauty and her father’s close

relationship throughout Cocteau’s film can be considered oedipal. Bettelheim argues “that a

child’s oedipal attachment to a parent is natural, desirable, and has the most positive

consequences for all if, during the process of maturation, it is transferred and transformed as it

becomes detached from the parent and concentrated on the lover” (Bettelheim 306). Thus, in

order for Beauty to overcome the psychological problems of growing up, like oedipal desires for

her father, she must relinquish childhood dependencies and transfer her attachment with her

father to a more age-appropriate suitor, like the Beast (Bettelheim 6).

After getting lost in the forest, Beauty’s father stumbles upon a massive castle and falls

asleep. When he awakens, he remembers Beauty’s request and decides to take a rose from the

castle’s garden. When the furious Beast appears, he threatens to kill Beauty’s father for theft but

then suggests that one of his daughters may take his place, which Beauty does. Thus, “it is the

father who causes the heroine to join the Beast; she does it because of her love for or obedience

to her father” (Bettelheim 282). Beauty’s father is hesitant to accept her going to live with the

Beast but is eventually convinced that she should do so, much like a daughter would only marry

her suitor if, despite hesitation, her father agrees to her doing so (Bettelheim 283).
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Later in the film, the Beast, covered in blood, stumbles into Beauty’s room, which

suggests a young adult’s first encounter with sex. Beauty, not yet ready to partake in sexual

activity nor transfer her attachment for her father to the Beast, orders the Beast out of her room.

The beast’s giant stature, comically broad shoulders, immense amount of hair and fits of rage

signify the behavior and physical appearance associated with maturation, which Beauty is not yet

ready to undergo. Beauty must help the Beast tame these sexual urges until she is able to come to

terms with her maturation and can reciprocate the same feelings, eventually seeing the Beast’s

sexual urges as desirable. Only after Beauty overcomes her fear of sex, represented by the Beast

throughout the film, the Beast’s desires and sexual urges no longer seem animalistic but, to the

contrary, ordinary and natural (Bettelheim 6).

When Beauty discovers that her father is ill, she is thrown into a conflict between her

love for her father and the Beast’s needs, choosing to desert the Beast and attend to her father

(Bettelheim 306). Soon after leaving the Beast and returning home, Beauty realizes she cannot

bear to see the Beast distraught and declares her love for him, a “symbol of the loosening of ties

to her father and transference of her love to the Beast” (Bettelheim 306). Thus, La Belle et la

Bête suggests “for love, a radical change in previously held attitudes about sex is absolutely

necessary” (Bettelheim 282). When Beauty first sees the Beast, she faints at the sight of his

monstrous appearance, but over time she begins to grow attached to the Beast. This shift in

attachment represents the start of Beauty transferring her attachment from her father to a more

appropriate love interest and overcoming her view of sex as loathsome and animal-like

(Bettelheim 284). In the end, Beauty’s oedipal desires and attachment to her father transforms

into to a different form of attachment for the Beast (Bettelheim 307). Overall, Cocteau’s film La
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Belle et la Bête is not just a tale of Beauty’s maturation and her overcoming her aversion to sex,

but of her own growth in the process (Bettelheim 307).

The major difference between Cocteau’s film and Disney’s adaptation is the portrayal of

Beauty. Unlike Beauty in Cocteau’s film, Disney’s Beauty is characterized as an intelligent, non-

conforming young woman who has grown weary of the provincial life she leads. Disney’s

Beauty, contrary to Cocteau’s, has dreams and desires unconnected to her father and men in

general, longing to escape her “provincial life.” Disney depicts Beauty as an educated reader,

endows her with a sense of curiosity, a longing for adventure and gives her a bold attitude. The

townspeople often refer to Beauty as “peculiar” because of her love of reading and her unusual

unimpressed attitude towards Gaston, Disney’s adaption of the Avenant character from

Cocteau’s film. Although Beauty also rejects Gaston’s proposal, much like her rejection of

Avenant in Cocteau’s film, her reasoning differs between the two films. In Cocteau’s film, she

rejects the proposal because she is not yet ready to transfer her attachment for her father to a

more appropriate love interest. In Disney’s film, Beauty is already mature and independent; her

reasoning for rejecting Gaston’s proposal was simply because she was uninterested and believes

she deserves more than being the little wife who massages Gaston’s feet as he expects her to do.

Although Beauty and her father also have a close bond in the Disney film, especially

since Beauty is an only child, Bettelheim’s argument of oedipal desire does not fit Disney’s

adaption because Beauty is already mature and has aspirations apart from her father. Unlike in

Cocteau’s film, where the prince who becomes the Beast is punished for his impure desires,

Disney’s adaptation changes this and is more focused on the Beast’s transformation and

maturity. Thus, the beast can be considered just as much of a protagonist in Disney’s adaptation

as Beauty can. In this adaptation, an enchantress disguised as a beggar offers the Beast, who is a
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cold-hearted, selfish prince at the time, a rose in exchange for shelter. When he refuses, she

transforms him into a beast, and his servants into household objects, until he learns to love and

earn their love in return by the time the last rose petal falls. The Beast’s physical appearance,

which represented Beauty’s fear of sex in Cocteau’s film, now represents the Prince’s arrogant,

egotistical personality, which must be changed in order to disenchant the spell. It is Beauty’s

affection and devotion that transforms the Beast and only her that can disenchant the spell and

help the beast mature (Bettelheim 283).

In the beginning of Disney’s film, the Beast is portrayed as monstrous and angry,

resenting his new appearance and doubtful he will ever find anyone to love him. Unlike the

prince before his transformation, Beauty is able to recognize the fact that outer appearances do

not reflect inner beauty. Shortly after living and spending time with the Beast, Beauty comes to

the realization that “there’s something sweet and almost kind” about the Beast, highlighting her

recognition that the Beast’s personality has begun to change and mature from the asocial,

aggressive and selfish prince he once was (Bettelheim 6). The Beast’s maturation becomes

evident when he frees Beauty, releasing her to be with her father who is ill, despite knowing that

he has probably ensured his own demise in the process. In this act of kindness, the Beast is

willing to put Beauty’s priorities over his own, a true symbol of love and maturity. Beauty even

acknowledges the Beast’s maturity when saying “He’s different now, he’s changed somehow”

(Disney). However, it is not enough for the Beast to have matured and love Beauty, he must be

loved in return. Once Beauty declares her love for the Beast, his transformation is complete. The

Beast, once he has reinvented himself to the extent that he is actually loved in return, reverts to

his former physical self so that the two may live happily ever after (Bettelheim 283). Overall,

Disney’s 1991 version of Beauty and the Beast is primarily about the Beasts maturation,
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although Beauty plays a significant role. The once selfish, cruel prince matures to a loving,

caring Beast who loves Beauty and is loved in return, just in time to disenchant the spell placed

upon him and return to his human self (Bettelheim 309).

Another major difference between Cocteau’s film and the Disney adaptation is the age

difference between their audiences. Cocteau’s film is intended for adults, whereas Disney’s

adaptation primarily targets children. In Cocteau’s prologue to La Belle et la Bête, he writes,

“Children believe what we tell them. … I ask of you a little of this childlike simplicity.” Cocteau

is suggesting that although his film is intended for adults, they must watch the film with a

childlike mind in order to accept the simple plot of the fairytale - not to judge a book by its

cover. Since Cocteau’s fairytale is directed towards adults, it is not surprising that larger issues

of sex and oedipal desire are brought to light. In contrast, the humorous characters, musical

compositions and subplots throughout Disney’s Beauty and the Beast are used to keep children

interested and engaged. For example, Lumiere and Cogsworth, among the many other characters

of the castle, all awaiting their freedom, the talking household welcoming Belle with a lavish

song and dance to greet her for the first time, Gaston plotting to marry Beauty, and Belle’s father

attempting to convince the villagers that a beast is holding Beauty captive in his castle, are

among the many subplots used to keep Disney’s younger audience engaged. Nevertheless, both

Disney and Cocteau created worlds of fantasy and magic in order to enrich the lesson they hoped

to portray to their audience through subconscious messages relayed through their imagination.

Furthermore, the rose in both films symbolizes different meanings, adapting to the

different audiences. In Disney’s Beauty and the Beast, the rose represents the Beast’s curse,

serving as an hourglass function until the Beast’s maturation and until he acquires the ability to

love and to be loved in return. The rose is a reminder of the Beast’s selfishness and cruelty, that
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he must change in order to end the spell and learn his lesson. Furthermore, the rose symbolizes

the obstacle the Beast must overcome in order to be free of his curse. Without any fear or

obstacle, the lesson cannot be successfully learned, because the experience and struggle will

never occur in order to drive improvement. Bettelheim argues that in order for this lesson to be

effective, the story must captivate the viewer’s fears and dilemmas. Although the story is

lighthearted and phantasmal, it effectively captures the fears of its audience and does not belittle

the very important terror of the subconscious. In Cocteau’s La Belle et la Bête, the white rose has

a more oedipal significance, representing Beauty’s virginity, purity, and chastity. As Bettelheim

states, “the wishing of the rose, the giving and the receiving of it, are images of Beauty’s

continuing love for her father, and his for her- a symbol that this love had been kept alive by

both” (Bettelheim 283). Moreover, this continual love for one another permits for an easy

transfer of attachment to a more appropriate love interest, like the Beast.

Disney and Cocteau both made impressive films that got across their valuable lessons

through fantasy, challenges, and the characters Belle and the Beast. Cocteau’s story of Beauty’s

maturation and her ability to overcome her oedipal desires is adapted into Disney’s story

centered on the Beast’s maturity, which portrays the maturation of the former arrogant prince

into a caring, loving Beast, who is then returned to prince form when the love is reciprocated.

Cocteau’s 1946 film La Belle et la Bête evolves into Disney’s 1991 version of Beauty and the

Beast, both providing a deeper meaning, and a way for their audience to work out unconscious

pressures and fears. Throughout The Uses of Enchantment, Bruno Bettelheim discusses the

benefits of reading fairytales like Beauty and the Beast, which “helps children fit unconscious

content into conscious fantasies, which then enable them to deal with that content” (Bettelheim

6). Thus, a child facing a similar oedipal dilemma as Beauty or undergoing maturation and
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personality changes like the Beast can use these films to understand how to cope with their

problems. Although fairy tales take place once upon a time, they resonate with their viewers on a

subconscious level at all times, because overall, they are about overcoming difficult situations

that many readers or viewers can relate to. In summary, although Cocteau’s and Disney’s version

of the fairy tale follow a similar plot line, Cocteau’s film emphasizes Beauty’s maturation

through overcoming her aversion to sex within the oedipal process of maturation while Disney’s

film emphasizes the Beast’s maturation from an arrogant and selfish beast to a caring and

considerate prince.
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Works Cited

Bettelheim, Bruno. The Uses of Enchantment. Penguin Group, 1978, doi:10.2307/815727.

Cocteau, Jean, director. La Belle Et La Bête. Discina, 1946.

Trousdale, Gary and Kirk Wise, directors. Beauty and the Beast. Walt Disney Pictures, 1991.