Transforming beauty: Re-telling “Beauty and the Beast” in the nineteenth-century novel

Christine Butterworth McDermott, Purdue University

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to trace how the French fairy tale “Beauty and the Beast” is re-told in English and American novels of the nineteenth and early twentieth century. Traditionally, tellers of fairy tales have used symbolic narratives to expose real world problems. In this same way, by borrowing from “Beauty and the Beast,” nineteenth-century authors metaphorically encode their concerns about the moral, economic and emotional complications of love, marriage and sexuality. Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre , Emily Brontë's Wuthering Heights, Louisa May Alcott's “Behind A Mask,” Henry James's Turn of the Screw and Edith Wharton's Summer all explore the cultural division between the “angelic” woman and the “bestial” male, with particular emphasis on how women negotiate this split. When looked at psychologically, these novels indicate that the Beast, or the Other, is a critical aspect of the feminine psyche and in order to achieve a healthy ego, one must accept the Beast. The novelists looked at in this study subversively suggest, through their promotion of the Beast, that the view of women as paragons of virtue, a view perpetuated in the nineteenth century, is disastrous. A woman who has no knowledge of the darker side of human nature is an invalid or worse, a monster. These authors' radical testaments to the intrinsic necessity of the Beast challenge the nineteenth century's view of domesticity. With their use of “Beauty and the Beast,” the writers here present important alternatives and advocate for the broadening of gender roles.

Degree

Ph.D.

Advisors

Rowe, Purdue University.

Subject Area

Literature|British and Irish literature|American literature

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