LIT2000 Fictional Analysis Paper

Paper can be found here.

In “Beauty and the Beast,” Joseph Jacobs proves the existence of varying types of love, and the difference between familial and romantic love. In the Gothic Fairy Tale, the Beast is characterized as having inner beauty through his interactions with Bella. In doing such, Jacobs casts the Beast as an antihero as an example of Romantic characterization. Despite the Beast’s terrible appearance and how the Beast effectively indentures Bella, she comes to understand the quality of care the Beast had put her through (Jacobs 3). By treating Bella with invisible servants and communicating with her in his garden, the Beast enables Bella to overcome her “fear of the beast” (Jacobs 3) and she effectively glorifies him. As these interactions occur before the Beast reverts to his human form, Bella comes to recognize the value of the Beast’s inner beauty before coming to see his true outer beauty – therefore fueling a subset of the fairy tale’s theme of romantic love.