Beauty and the Beast is yet another beautiful fairy tale that allows the reader to go to a place where they have never been before. Beauty is one of three daughters. She plays a very domestic role similar to Cinderella. When her father's ship sinks and it is destine to ruin his and his families life he decides to go to the city to try and borrow money from the bank, each of his daughters asks him to bring home presents like clothes and riches. Where as beauty asks simply for a single rose. The merchant takes this rose from the castle garden where the beast lives; he is then told that he will be killed for taking the rose after the beast had taken him in for the night when he was getting weary on his long journey back from the city.
In the end the beast is happy to trade the merchant’s life for his daughter beauty. When beauty arrives at the castle she is treated well and given many beautiful gifts. After a period time the beast allows her to return home to her father for eight days but she promises to return back to the beast once the eight days is up, with this promise to the beast she leaves. Whilst she is at home visiting her father she has a dream that something terrible happens to the beast and she must return to the castle. Different versions of the story vary as to whether beauty does return after the eight days or she stays longer as her sisters pretend that they don't want her to leave.
When beauty does eventually return to the castle she finds the beast almost dead it's not until she declares her love for him that he changes from the scary beast into the handsome prince. Explaining that a spell had been cast on him a long time ago. He then proposes to beauty and they live happily ever after.
The themes that run through the different versions include: selfishness, greed, love and death. The story tries to get the reader to realise that beauty really does come from the inside and that know matter what some one looks like on the outside you can always see past that appearance if you really love some one.
Another concept I have found through out various fairy tales is that there is always a single father in these stories, not all of these men remarry some stay single after there first wife just like beauty's father.
