BEAUTY AND THE BEAST // MONSTROSITY
In “animal bridegroom” stories, a young woman is made to marry a beast, treats him well, and is rewarded when her husband transforms into a wealthy, handsome human. This framework exists in folk traditions around the world, although the details vary greatly according to cultural context. The most well-known in the English-speaking world is the French variant Beauty and the Beast, first written by Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve in 1740 as La Belle et la Bête. In this and many later versions the “Beast” is never given any detailed description, leaving illustrators free to interpret his monstrosity to fit their own visions.
In fairy tales, monsters are part of the natural order. Are they scary? Certainly, but no one questions the fact of their existence. Further, the distinction between monsters and beasts can be shaky: monsters may be animalistic and beasts may have human traits. Beauty and the Beast provides an up-close portrait of the monstrous as it appears in fairy tales, and it’s a representation that doesn’t hesitate to overlap with the animal world to the point of conflation.
Shown here, the Beast typically combines animalistic traits with human ones. This can be physical, as many illustrators give him an animal’s head and man’s body. The combination can also cross internal and external lines, as in examples where he has the body of an ordinary animal, but the mind and mannerisms of a man. In looking at the versions of Beauty and the Beast in Dartmouth Library Special Collections, what trends emerge? Where does the art repeat itself and where does it change?
