Introducing
Your new presentation assistant.
Refine, enhance, and tailor your content, source relevant images, and edit visuals quicker than ever before.
Trending searches
Beauty and the Beast Analysis
899
Beauty And The Beast Analysis
Nicholas Flood & Samantha Messina
Main Claim
Freud’s main theories of psychoanalysis and his ideas on how the unconscious affects people are seen in "Beauty and the Beast". When looking at different character’s thoughts and actions we can see how their past experiences have molded who they are now. Gaston, the Beast, and Belle all display an aspect of Freud’s theories like the Electra complex, repression, and psychosexual stages of development.
Psychoanalysis of Major Characters
Belle
By examining Belle's codependent relationship with her father we can see that Belle has an Electra Complex, developed from her growing up solely with him during her childhood. You can see this idea when she becomes attracted to the Beast because he is desperate and aloof, very similar to her father.
Belle
54:05
Analysis
- In Belle's mind, the Beast goes from "coarse and unrefined" to "dear and so unsure".
- This could be because of her Electra Complex, which is some sort of sexual or romantic attraction to their parent of the opposite sex.
- Belle's attraction to the Beast is clearly rooted in her relationship with her father, both of these men are very similar.
Analysis
Beast
In the beginning of the story, the Beast is cursed by the enchantress for his selfishness. Turned into a hideous beast, he becomes motivated to find a woman to love him, but after his initial trauma from the curse, and several years of failure from trying to meet his goal, he grows cold and distant. By using Freud's main idea of repression, we can see how the Beast's traumatic events shaped his attitude and actions when he meets Belle.
The Beast
1:20
Analysis
- Prince Adam is cursed by the enchantress, which is very clearly a traumatic experience.
- The Beast unconsciously represses this traumatic memory, but it still has an impact on his everyday behavior.
- He is nasty and aggressive towards the people that are only trying to help him which stems from him giving up on finding a love to break the spell.
- He is bitter and jealous so when Maurice comes into the castle, the Beast wants to keep him there to make him feel the same way he does.
Analysis
Gaston
By using Freud's ideas about the psycho-sexual stages of development, we can conclude that a disruption in the phallic stage could have led to Gaston’s obvious self-obsession, sexual anxiety, inadequacy, and envy. We can also see that there was a disruption in the oral stage, specifically being overfed, which would've led to Gaston being aggressive, and dominating.
Gaston
27:09
Analysis
- Gaston at first sees himself as inadequate due to the fact that Belle doesn't like him, but, after Lefou comforts him, he is back to his same old self obsessed ways.
- A disruption in the phallic stage ultimately could have led to Gaston's extremely narcissistic personality. Freud believed that a disruption in the phallic stage would've led to a person being self-obsessed, envious, and sometimes feel inferior.
- Gaston mentions that when he was a child, he ate four dozen eggs every morning this makes us believe that he was overfed, leading to his aggression.
Analysis
Main Claim
Psychoanalysis of Minor Characters
Freud’s main theories on the unconscious are present in Beauty and the Beast. We can see this idea when we further examine the characters of Lumiere, Cogsworth, and Mrs. Potts. These three characters are
representations of the id, the ego, and the
superego.
Lumiere & Cogsworth
Lumiere and Cogsworth
Lumiere, characterized by his bold yet thoughtful actions, was originally a butler to the Beast. Though he always has the best interest at heart, he usually jumps to actions and is impulsive. His need for gratification, whether for himself or another, matches the classification for an id's demand.
Alternatively, Cogsworth is more rational with his decisions. He advises Lumiere several times throughout the movie to take caution with what he's doing, mirroring how an ego recognizes other people's desires and that selfishness is not good in the long run.
TITLE
14:34
Analysis
- Lumiere spontaneously calls out for Maurice, wanting to help him, while Cogsworth tries stop him.
- When Maurice is ultimately frightened, Cogsworth reprimands Lumiere for not thinking it through, showing how he tries to help in a more acceptable way.
Analysis
Mrs. Potts
Mrs. Potts is seen as the mother figure of the castle, especially to Belle and the Beast. Because of this, we can also view her as the superego. She is not only looking out for herself, but for Belle and everyone else in the castle. Also, similar to Freud's idea on the superego, Mrs. Potts is constantly striving for perfection.
Mrs. Potts
TITLE
41:03
Analysis
- Mrs. Potts is the big decision maker in the castle, because she is the reasonable one.
- She constantly worries about how other people will feel about her decisions.
- She tells the Beast to be nice to Belle when she is scared.
- Also, in the clip just shown we see Mrs. Potts striving for perfection which is a characteristic she shares with Freud's idea of the superego.
Main Claim
Typically, people cite Belle as being an early feminist character, however, we believe that Belle is not a feminist icon. By analyzing her lack of will to defend herself, her malleable self-perspective, and society's expectations for her, we can see that she is not the new-age feminist that everyone sees her as.
Feminist Analysis
Relationship With Gaston
Belle is seen by the rest of the village as different, especially by Gaston. Gaston is in love with Belle and is constantly harassing her trying to get her to marry him. Belle always tells him no, but when he is mean to her she never really stands up for herself, she only stands up for her father when the villagers call him crazy.
8:25
Analysis
- When Lefou calls Maurice crazy Belle gets mad and yells at him, though when Gaston tells her that women shouldn't be reading, and when he throws her book in the mud, she barely stands up for herself.
- "Gaston you are positively primeval."
- We see this happening a lot during this story: Belle is afraid to stand up to Gaston because she is scared of what will happen.
- In the 1800's, it was unheard of for a woman to fight back against a man, they were just supposed to do whatever they were told. I suppose Belle was just conforming to societies normal gender roles.
Analysis
Self-Perspective
Everyone in the village sees Belle as different, "odd". Belle loves to read, and that was very uncommon for women during this time period. The way that the people in the village judge her, eventually leads her to believe that she really is this odd, strange girl that everyone else sees her as.
9:18
Analysis
- When Belle goes back to her house, she is clearly contemplating whether or not she is as weird as everyone makes her out to be.
- In this scene we see that Belle really does think she's strange when she asks her father.
- Clearly, villagers think that she is different, they have a whole song about it. These villagers' thoughts eventually starts to affect the way that Belle sees herself.
- When we see this happening in The Awakening, it leads to Edna's suicide in the end of the story. Now this clearly doesn't happen to Belle but we can see the same mental impact that other people's thoughts have on both of these leading female characters.
Analysis
Expectations for Belle
As was typical in the late 1800s, the characters have certain standards for women, primarily Belle. Gaston expects her to marry him, even her father suggests it too, the other villagers sing about her abnormality because she reads, showing that they want her to be less resilient, and the residents of the castle expect her to save them. By eventually growing to love and marry the Beast, she fufills the curse and their hopes.
21:12
Analysis
- Belle arrives at the castle, and the people there immediately begin to wonder if she can break the curse.
- The expectations set upon her are matched only by Gaston's desire for Belle to agree to marriage. She obviously turns down Gaston, but ultimately grows to love the Beast.
- As the conflict is only resolved by her marriage, and her achievement in the castle residents' wishes, shows that Belle, though she declined others' expectations, she still lived up to the expectation of fulfilling the curse.
Analysis
Conclusion
In the movie, "Beauty and the Beast" there are many underlying themes that cannot be seen without the help of these literary criticisms. For example, by using Freud's psychoanalytical theory we can look at Belle's Electra complex, Gaston's disruptions in the phallic and oral stages leading to his narcissism, and the Beast's repression. Also, when using a feminist lens we can conclude that Belle is not a new-age feminist icon like many have thought before. These ideas stray from the message that this movie gives to kids but gives us more insight into characters we thought we knew so well.
Conclusion