The Notions of Beauty in Beauty and the Beast - Coursework Example

WHAT MAKES ONE BEAUTIFUL AND UGLY by Sur 01 June It is one of the most difficult things today to say who beautiful is and who has beauty indeed; it is even more difficult to state which beauty and of which nature one has. This concept, though being similarly obvious from the material or visual point of view, provides basis for significant considerations of its meaning, essence and sense, as well as its origin, extent and presence with a certain individual. Today’s perception of beauty has significantly been modified by the realms of everyday life and the values which have changed traditional ones moving to materialistic direction, for example, a billion dollars appearance can be referred to as beautiful, however, such idea of beauty explanation is often incorrect. (Dawson, A., 2011). The fact is that this concept is much wider than only things or features which can be visually seen and comprises more complicated and, in most cases, covert factors imparting beauty to someone. Introduction Beauty as a concept and as an object of culture has made a significant interest for human mind since the ancient times. One of the first people who tried to give a definition and investigate into its origin and perception were the ancient Greek philosophers, Aristotle and Plato. (Borghini, A., 2015). Another representative of the ancient Greek philosophy, Pythagoras, along with his school of philosophic thought, considered beauty as the thing related to mathematics, for example, the principle of the golden mean was their reason for the things being beautiful (they suggested that proportion and symmetry made things look proper, therefore, beautiful). (Seife, C., 2000, 32). Further historical development of the concept of beauty contributed to its revealing and discovering its new features. Today’s view of the concept of beauty can be seen in modern works of art, and such form of art as film makes it possible to completely reveal the essence of this concept by means of description of the characters and events which may lead to consideration of what beauty is and what it is not. This work will consider the visual film “Beauty and the Beast” which provides more information on this topic rather than its title only. Beauty and Ugliness Description in the Film The above mentioned film provides specific description of the concepts of beauty and ugliness. The fact that this is an animation film means that the beautiful people, objects and things are initially predetermined to be displayed as beautiful as possible, “…there is an imposed standard of female beauty: female protagonists are all young, with white flawless skin, pretty hair, and petite body structures.” (Gamboa et al., 2014, iii). The negative characters, not only female ones, are, on the contrary, displayed as particularly negative: dark or grey skin, yellow eyes, irregular physique of the body (too slim or too fat). (Gamboa et al., 2014, iii). The film provides also such characters which are definitely beautiful and attractive from physical point of view, such as Gaston, the best hunter who is strong, tall and relatively smart, but, as it is clarified in the course of the film, with ugly soul and egoistic attitude to the surrounding people. The film imparts certain positive features on protagonist characters: they are humble, innocent, with positive attitude to the others and ready to help anyone, whereas the antagonists are radically opposite: “…they are evil, shrewd, conceited, and [go] down to the social ladder at the end.” (Gamboa et al., 2014, iii). Belle, a female protagonist of the film, is the most beautiful character of the movie, both from physical attraction and the inner beauty perspectives. Her appearance aside, which is ideal and meets the generally accepted beauty trends, she is the character who is the most morally conscious, and her deeds and thoughts are aimed primarily at other people rather than on herself: during the entire story, she does everything possible to save her father, even though she sacrifices her own freedom for the sake of his deliberation by the Beast. (Lyric Theatre Company, 2008, 1). Her inner beauty is also reflected in her ways of time spending: while most of the inhabitants of the city take up their routine occupations, she prefers reading interesting books which makes her different from the surrounding people who, in their turn, refer to her as the strange and unusual one. Her imagination which is significantly influenced by the stories read is the thing which gives her eyes the light, and her mind – the ability to think, which, as per Gaston’s assumption, is a dangerous thing for a woman. Belle’s beauty is a factor which determines her attitude to the others: she is looking for people with the same spiritual organization, on one hand, and treats the others in a proper, kind and reasonable way provided that they also do the same. This is proved by the fact that she does not believe Gaston’s physical beauty and does not agree to marry him reasonably arguing that this is not enough for happy life of both of them. On the contrary, she notices his egoism and neglect of the others for the sake of his goals reaching, which is far from the inner beauty of a person. Gaston, the male antagonist of the story, as it was mentioned above, is beautiful in terms of physical attraction which makes local women wish his marrying them, but his attitude towards the others negatively characterizes his inner beauty or even demonstrates its absence at all. He is “…pompous and dim-witted and will do whatever it takes to win Belle’s hand. Gaston has all the confidence in the world, but lacks the humility to balance it.” (Community Children’s Theatre, 2014, 1). His strong voice when he sings and speaks is an evidence of a strong personality, and his leadership qualities help him consolidate people around them when he leads the troops to the Beast’s castle. (Community Children’s Theatre, 2014, 1). This man is low which is proved by the fact that it is normal for him to blame the father of his beloved that he is mentally diseased and to blackmail Belle (he agrees to let the father go if she marries him). This information makes it possible to suggest that Gaston is a dual character in terms of beauty: he uses his attraction for reaching his purposes which, as a rule, is not a problem for him, and when this tactic does not work out, he reveals his ugliness of egoism, readiness to practice blackmail and neglect of the others for the sake of his own satisfaction. This proves that he is an ugly person, and physical beauty is a deceptive thing which works like a trap. The Beast is the character primary association with whose name is being ugly, but this is also a peculiar character whose nature is revealed in the end of the story. It is necessary to mention the beginning of the story when this creature has been a human being – a handsome prince living in a luxurious castle and having anything he wants, but with no consideration of the others, their feelings and personalities. The case with an old woman who asked him for help offering only a rose instead proved his being egoistic and selfish, for what he was reasonably punished, and the punishment complemented his internal ugliness with the physical one – he became a terrible creature with no traces of previous human image. His behaviour coincided with his appearance – aggression, cruelty and evil became his primary attributes, which are far from beauty. This is also a “…complex character: a dictator, a hurt child, a hero, a defender and a smitten prince.” (Sandy Arts, 2014, 1). The development of the story unexpectedly reveals his internal beauty which is a key to the lost physical one: he gradually masters the manners, the behaviour of a male person with a female one, and starts seeing the others around him not only as the targets of his aggressive attacks, but also as the same living things. The case with Belle’s attempt to escape from his castle demonstrated his inner beauty: he defended the woman from the wolves pack, though this fight could be lethal for him. This is an example of self-sacrifice which is a very rare trait of character which, undoubtedly, is a characteristic feature of a big heart and beauty. Description of Beauty in Fantasy Works of Art Fantasy genre is a specific sphere where beauty and ugliness are depicted in a peculiar way, this includes not only the above mentioned films, but also such works of art as literary ones. According to Joanna Penn, “…fantasy is a genre that typically features the use of magic or other supernatural phenomena in the plot, setting, or theme.” (Penn, J., 2013). In this regard, it is possible to state that female characters are portrayed with magic attributes more often than the male ones: witches, fairies, enchantresses are the most frequent characters of fantasy fairytales and other stories. Female characters have always been portrayed with emphasis on their beauty, and this trend has become considerably strong over the last decade. This increasing popularity of female characters in fantasy novels has led to origin of a stereotype that female characters are similar to male ones by their behaviour which often relates to taking actions and practicing physical power use. (Boughan, M., 2011). This, in its turn, promoted creation of visual image which became generally accepted and stereotypical: it is supposed that a woman of a fantasy work of art should be visually perfect, that is, symmetrical body physics, attractive appearance, flawless skin, “she likely has very feminine features, is obviously a woman… and is considered (at bare minimum) attractive by conventional Western social standards.” (Boughan, M., 2011). The authors of fantasy works of art spend much time and considerable parts of their works for description of female characters’ beauty in detail, but there is also a reasonable comment that the characters can also be or become beautiful by means of their personalities. (Boughan, M., 2011). This means that their actions, behaviour, the way they treat the others may impart them inner beauty, which is similar to that of the above mentioned Belle, the female protagonist of the movie studied. Society View on Beauty Modern society has a specific look on beauty. There are stereotypes about beautiful appearance which are often referred to as the ideals of beauty. “Beauty can be interpreted in many different ways across time and culture but… subjective concept has been adjusted”. (James, N., 2013, 1). This means that beauty is a thing which is subjective, that is, everyone decides who is beautiful or not and what type of beauty this or that individual has. According to the stereotypes about female beauty, women should be slim, long-legged, with ideal hairless skin and certain parts of body which are attractive for the opposite sex. (James, N., 2013, 1). The standards of male beauty, however, have become less strict and tend to forgive men’s physical imperfection preserving the traditional features. (Marcotte, A., 2012). Men’s beauty is also subjected to every person’s perception and determination, subjective the same way as the above mentioned women’s one. It is necessary to mention that, even though physical beauty is the first thing to which much attention is paid, the society still divides the beauty into two parts: the inner beauty and the external physical attractiveness. (James, N., 2013, 2). “When I look at girls in society today, it seems like the need to be beautiful is their top priority”. (James, N., 2013, 2). Such state of affairs is a product of the mentioned societal focus on external beauty: women have to be beautiful to attract men, and, as the external part is the most viewed one, they take care of it often paying less attention to the inner beauty development. The thing that should be also mentioned in this regard is that the mass media influence the social views on beauty by means of promotion of the beauty standards. (Atkinson, K., 2013). “For years, the world of media has been working hard to construct the ideal image of what a "perfect woman" is supposed to look like.” (Atkinson, K., 2013). This makes people, mostly woman, take many efforts and spend much time and money on trying to fit their beauty to the standard requirements, which in practice seldom reaches the goal and, on the contrary, creates many problems for those trying to follow the requirements of which origin and appropriateness they do not even think. “Still, girls continue to try and fit themselves into this image of perfection. All too often, it comes at a costly price.” (Atkinson, K., 2013). The effect of such trying is often negative, and it is possible to state that the views that society has on beauty, particularly on its external part, adversely affect women because they impose on them such requirements that they cannot meet and, as a consequence, feel dissatisfied and even not beautiful, which is very seldom the case. What Makes Someone Beautiful and Ugly The mentioned facts enable to state what makes individuals beautiful or ugly. As the beauty can be divided into external and internal, it is obvious that physical perfection, symmetrical body physics, skin, hair, eyes and other attractive parts of human body make the essence of physical beauty, and their opposite characteristic make a person ugly. The state of affairs with the inner beauty is more complicated. The film under research has proven that the ugly appearance does not necessarily mean the same inner world: if the person is generous, kind, with positive attitude to the others, ready to sacrifice him or herself for the sake of the others, this evidences about the inner beauty. In other words, the mentioned traits mean humanity, which “…makes a place beautiful…”, that is, makes the person beautiful. (Taggart, A., 2011). The inner world can also demonstrate the internal ugliness: if the person is selfish, arrogant, ready to use people and offend them for the purposes of his or her own aims reaching, this person is definitely inhumane and ugly, and his or her being physically beautiful does not compensate this significant drawback and does not impart any share of beauty to the inner world (the best example of such case is the above mentioned male antagonist of the movie, Gaston). The mentioned negative features make a human being a beast because such way of behaviour is not typical of a human and cannot be referred to as beautiful, and the visual perfection is usually a trap in such cases. Conclusion Taking the above said into consideration, it is possible to conclude that beauty is a subjective concept and it is up to any individual to decide whether certain people or things are beautiful or not. There is, however, a common thing which makes people beautiful: it is humanity which makes them consider the others and become indeed beautiful this way. References Atkinson, K., 2013. Breaking Down the Medias Distorted Views on Beauty. [Online] (updated 07 July 2013) Available at: [Accessed 01 Jun. 2015]. Borghini, A., 2015. What is Beauty? [Online] (updated 2015) Available at: [Accessed 01 Jun. 2015]. Boughan, M., 2011. Writing Fantasy Gender Stereotypes – Part One: Your Heroine is Too Beautiful. [Online] (updated 4 November 2013) Available at: [Accessed 01 Jun. 2015]. Community Children’s Theatre, 2014. “Disney’s Beauty and the Beast Jr.” Character Descriptions. [Online] (updated July 2014) Available at: [Accessed 01 Jun. 2015]. Dawson, A., 2011. What Is Beauty and Who Has It? [Online] (updated 29 June 2011) Available at: [Accessed 01 Jun. 2015]. Gamboa, J., Habagat, G., Kionisala, C., Salera, C., 2014. Mirror Mirror: Portrayal of Women in Seven Disney Animated Films. [Online] (updated 2014) Available at: [Accessed 01 Jun. 2015]. James, N., 2013. Society’s Influence on the Perception of Beauty. [Online] (updated 2013) Available at: [Accessed 01 Jun. 2015]. Lyric Theatre Company, 2008. Beauty and the Beast Character Descriptions. [Online] (updated April 2008) Available at: [Accessed 01 Jun. 2015]. Marcotte, A., 2012. Are Beauty Standards Higher for Men Now? [Online] (updated 12 December 2012) Available at: [Accessed 01 Jun. 2015]. Penn, J., 2013. Writing Fantasy: A Short Guide To The Genre. [Online] (updated 2013) Available at: [Accessed 01 Jun. 2015]. Sandy Arts, 2014. Beauty and the Beast Jr. Character Descriptions, Vocal Ranges, And Requirements for Consideration. [Online] (updated 2014) Available at: [Accessed 01 Jun. 2015]. Seife, C., 2000. Zéro: the Biography of a Dangerous Idea. London: Penguin Books. Taggart, A., 2011. What Makes a Place Beautiful is the Humanity that Dwells There. [Online] (updated 2011) Available at: [Accessed 01 Jun. 2015]. Read More