Petrus Gonsalvus and his wife Catherine met in 1500s France. Their widely-known story is thought to have inspired Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve's 1740 French fairy tale Beauty and the Beast.
It's a tale as old as time – or, at least as old as the 1500s. But the real couple that inspired Beauty and the Beast lived a tragic life. The real life Beauty and the Beast were Catherine and Petrus Gonsalvus, and they were treated like freaks of nature by Europe's kings and queens.
Hamburger (2015) points out that the design of the Beast in the 1946 film adaptation by Jean Cocteau was inspired by the portrait of Petrus Gonsalvus, a native of Tenerife who suffered from hypertrichosis, causing an abnormal growth of hair on his face and other parts, and who came under the protection of the French ...
In 1740, Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve wrote the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale that's become so familiar, framing it as an allegory of arranged marriage: a beautiful young woman handed off to an ugly, rich noble who demands she leave her father and live with him forever (complete with a lavish bride price).
The Real-Life Couple That Inspired Beauty and the Beast
What is the true ending of Beauty and the Beast?
Belle returns to find the Beast dying, and as he expires, her tears transform him back into a human again. The happily ever after goes off the same way, and Belle and the Beast get the same upbeat finale that the movie delivers.
What was the original ending of Beauty and the Beast?
After Gaston falls to his death, Belle pulls a wounded Beast up onto the balcony and lays him out. He tells Belle he's glad he got to see her one last time before dying. A grieving Belle asks the Beast to not leave her before whispering that she loves him as the final petal falls from the enchanted rose.
The movie's director, Bill Condon, announced in USA Today ahead of the film's release that his “Beauty and the Beast” would introduce Disney's first openly gay character.
Although she would not marry him, the Beast still treated her with extreme kindness, and let her go home to visit her sick father as long as she promised to return in a week. She returned late and found the Beast close to death, then realized she loved him, and agreed to marry him.
Who wrote the original story of Beauty and the Beast?
The Original Story
Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, the little-known author of Beauty and the Beast, was a successful novelist and fairytale writer in mid eighteenth-century France. While her novels are rarely read today, her compelling fairytale has become universally recognized.
Who is the beautiful girl in Beauty and the Beast?
Belle is the female protagonist of Disney's 1991 and 2017 film Beauty and the Beast. She is an intelligent and undeniably beautiful young woman whose traits are looked down upon in her small French village.
There is no exhaustive, systematic study of the appropriation of fairy-tales in Meyer's fiction, although most reviews and scholarly articles briefly point out two major skeleton plots used by Meyer (Beauty and the Beast and/or Cinderella), without mentioning specific versions alluded to (e.g. Sommers; Platt).
Being humble, kind, and caring are inner qualities that result in the love between Belle and Beast and allows Beast to regain his human form and marries Belle.
The idea for Beauty and the Beast functioning as an arranged marriage was drawn from the work of Maria Tatar's introduction to the tale in The Classic Fairy Tales and Maria Warner's chapters on the tale in From the Beast to the Blonde.
Though Beast was likely inspired by the story of the Tsavo Man-Eaters, it is not based on the real-life events. There are many differences between the stories, such as Beast's village setting rather than a construction site and the focus on Idris Elba's character and family.
Who was originally cast as Belle in Beauty and the Beast?
Disney had originally considered casting Jodi Benson from The Little Mermaid as Belle. They eventually decided upon Broadway actress and singer Paige O'Hara in favor of having a heroine who sounded "more like a woman than a girl".
"Emma Watson was our first -- and really our only -- choice for Belle," director Bill Condon said, "for a lot of reasons: her talent, her beauty, her intelligence." He also said that the actress is similar to Belle because she is strong and independent.
LeFou is given more development in this version, with the most notable example being LeFou's feelings toward Gaston are implied to be more-or-less romantic infatuation as opposed to just friendly admiration until the climax.
The original Beauty of Beauty and the Beast did suffer from Stockholm syndrome. She developed feelings for the Beast under duress, alone and unsupported, rather than through genuine connection.
Lumiere holds onto Fifi for while hanging for dear life and tells her he loves her. Before they can fall, Belle, Cogsworth, and a few more servants arrive and get them back to safety.
Cinderella's mother dies and then her father marries her evil stepmother, adding her and Cinderella's evil stepsisters to the family. Lucky for Cinderella, her father doesn't die. Instead, he helps embarrass Cinderella along with her stepmother and stepsisters.
There has also been the suggestion that the story of Snow White originated from the real-life story of a countess and her alleged lover, Philip II of Spain. The countess, named Margarete von Waldeck (1553 – 1554) was supposedly poisoned at a young age, as politics were more important than real love at the time.
In the original story, The Little Mermaid is motivated by a fear of death and desires a soul and an afterlife in addition to love. The original Little Mermaid story is much darker and violent than Disney's version, with the sea witch brutally cutting out the mermaid's tongue in exchange for legs.
