Beauty and the Beast by Mme Le Prince De Beaumont :: essays research papers

saucer and the BeastbyMme Le Prince De Beaumont     The fairy tale Beauty and the Beast opens with the characters of a rich merchant and his six children, deuce-ace boys and three girls. "The two eldest girls were vain of their wealth and position" (22), but the youngest girl, the prettiest of the three, had a more pleasing personality, humble and considerate. This youngest daughter was so beautiful redden as a child that everyone called her Little Beauty. She was just as lovable as she grew up so that she was never called by any other name, a fact that made her sisters extremely jealous. All three girls had numerous marriage proposals - the two eldest forever and a day glowering their suitors away with the declaration that they had no intentions of link uping anyone less than a duke or an earl. Beauty too always turned her proposals down, but with kindness, answering that she thought herself too young and would preferably live about years long er with her father.     "Then through some unlucky accident the father lost all of his fortune and had zilch left but a small cottage in the unpolished"(22). When the father told his children that they would all leave town and move to the country cottage the two eldest daughters replied that they would not leave and go with him. They thought they had green goddess of gentlemen who would marry them but soon found out that the men they had turned down so harshly now had no pity for them. On the other hand, many still had feelings for Beauty and several men offered to marry her yet she still refused, stating she could not think of leaving her father on in his troubles.     At first Beauty would sometimes cry in secret over their misfortune, but in a very little(a) time she decided, "All the crying in the world will do me no good, so I will try to be quick without a fortune" (22). After settling into their cottage, the mercha nt and his three sons began till and sowing the fields and working in a garden. Beauty did her part to serve well out rising at four oclock every morning to smartness the fires, clean the house, and fix breakfast for her family. When all her work was done, Beauty would deviate herself reading, playing her music, or singing while she spun. The two eldest girls, however, did not know what to do with their time each day they had breakfast in bed, not rising until ten oclock, and then they spent their days benignant themselves and grieving for the loss of their carriage and fine clothes.