The most uplifting interpretation of Beauty and the Beast that I ever saw was the movie made by Jean Cocteau in 1946, La Belle et la Bête. It made an unforgettable impression on me when I saw it, aged 19. Cocteau’s version was a highly moral fable, for it was about character and trust.
The Beast is ugly, but he has a gentle and loving nature, and Beauty, who at first resents him, nevertheless comes to appreciate him for his kindness and good character. When love turns Beast into a handsome young man, Beauty is somewhat disappointed. She had grown to love Beast for himself alone, ignoring his appearance.
This could be a vital message in an era when young girls are being made permanently anxious about how they look. But sadly, Beauty and the Beast is being re-interpreted in different, and distorted ways. The actress Emma Watson is altering the story in her forthcoming movie to make Belle more “actively feminist” – in her spare time, the heroine will now invent a washing machine (which is somewhat unfair on the male engineers who actually invented the washing machine).
Another current report, in the Times Educational Supplement, claims that the fable “promotes domestic violence” because the Beast may be seen as a brute who holds a young woman prisoner.
I find these interpretations shallow and superficial. Great minds – from Carl Jung to Bruno Bettelheim – have analysed the meaning of these old fables and legends and often seen in them lessons for life that can help children understand moral and psychological meaning.
Jung thought that Little Red Riding Hood was a helpful warning to young girls that there were bad men (the wolf) as well as good men (the forester) in the world. Bettelheim said that Cinderella – which goes back to ancient Chinese sources – was about the psychological quest to connect with “a true self”, as well as teaching children that humble friends (Buttons) can be better people than those who judge everything by materialistic measures.
These fables are often about something much deeper than a frothy presentation would suggest.
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Recently, I referred to Cardinal Nichols’s apology for any part played by the Church in forced adoptions 50 years ago. I then received an interesting letter from a woman who told me her own story.
“In 1966, I was working overseas when I met the man who is now my husband,” Betty writes. “In summer 1967, I realised I was pregnant, came home to England and went into a mother and baby home in Hampshire, as I needed a base. The nuns were very supportive. The unit conducted its own deliveries. As I was there for three months and I’m a midwife, I was able to help other mothers … giving parentcraft classes and discussing the choices they were making.” Betty herself had a “trouble-free labour. My midwife nun assisted me with breast-feeding.”
She continues: “The majority of the girls had decided to have the baby adopted. They had to care for the baby for six weeks before the process … Adoption days were heart-breaking.”
Betty was to marry the father of her child, so adoption wasn’t contemplated for her. “The pressure to adopt came from outside the M & B home,” she writes, “usually from parents. But I have learned over the years than any chance to knock the RC church will be exploited.”
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The food writer and critic AA Gill chose to break the news of his serious cancer diagnosis in a restaurant review, announcing simultaneously that he had proposed marriage to his partner Nicola Formby, with whom he has two children.
The marriage vow contains the words “in sickness and in health”. And when ill-health strikes, we come to understand the value of the commitment.
Adrian Gill felt he hadn’t been a successful husband previously (he was formerly married to Amber Rudd, now the Home Secretary), which was why he had held back for a third time.
He also disclosed that he has “always been religious” and likes to go to church. This surprised me, as my very slight acquaintance with Adrian Gill led me to suppose that he was of a sceptical turn of mind. You never can tell what a person’s interior life is like, and illness often shows a deeper side.
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