Beauty and the Beast: The Historical Relation of the Tale

Madame de Villeneuve’s The Story of The Beauty and The Beast is a fictional story. Set in France during the eighteenth century, in a town near the countryside. The story is told in third person point of view. Although it is fictional, many things can be learned from The Story of beauty and The Beast. For instance, though The Beast had a rough exterior he was kind and gentle. He just needed a chance to show it. In the beginning, it was scary being held captive by a horrific beast, a happy ending can start when least expected. And the most important, the theme is that true beauty comes from within, it is about showing kindness to others and selflessness.

Summary. Set in the eighteenth century, there was a war between two empires. Beast was a prince, both his parents fought in the war, his father, the King, tragically died in battle, and his mother, the Queen, had to assume his command as ruler and commander. The Queen leaves the Prince with an evil fairy unintentionally. The fairy tries to get the Prince to marry her for her service all the years. Both the Queen and Prince refuse. She got mad and turned the Prince into a horrific beast, with a spell that can only be broken with true love and kind of heart. A Good fairy takes over watching the Beast and searching for that true love.

Meanwhile, Beauty grows up in a wealthy merchants’ house. They have a financial downfall and become poor. Father goes in search of wealth, finds a way to Beast castle, tries to take a rose to Beauty, who previously asked for one, Beast gets mad, then captures him. Beauty takes his place. Falls in love with Beast and the spell is broken after some dramatic incidents. But. In the end, it is said that Beauty is royalty. Beauty’s father was actually a King in a neighboring town, who was the brother of Beast’s mom. Beauty’s mom was not the Queen because she had previously died, but the Fairy Queen who is Good fairy’s sister. To cover up this affair Good fairy took her niece to a merchant’s house and replaced a dying baby with her in the night. So Beauty is part Royalty and Fairy and Beast’s cousin and now wife and lover.

Historical relation. The history of beauty and the Beast was in 16th-century France with 'beast' Petrus Gonsalvus, his original name Pedro Gonzalez, and his beautiful wife Catherine. Petrus Gonsalvus inherited a rare genetic condition called congenital hypertrichosis. The night of King Henry II’s coronation he received a remarkable gift, a wild-man or a half-man half-animal locked in a cage. These creatures were thought to be very ferocious and mischievous, especially at night. He was brought to his dungeon for further observation and experimentation, which concluded that he was no wild-man but rather a young boy covered in large amounts of hair. His name was Pedro Gonzalez, he was 10 years old, and he had been seized from his home in the Canary Islands.

The king was so pleased with his new gift that he renamed him Petrus Gonsalvus and used him as his own experiment. King Henry II raised him as a nobleman and gave him a position on the court. Sadly, the king died and his widow Catherine de Medici became ruler. Cathrine also used him as her own experiment. She was determined that Petrus should marry, and have children, to see if more ‘beast’ could be reproduced. He married another woman named Catherine. They had seven children. Four of their children had hypertrichosis and possible one of their grandchildren. They were forced to tour Europe and show off themselves and their children. The last historical record of them was that they had settled in Parma, Italy, in the financial care of Duke Ranuccio Farnese. Then the children sent off as gifts to different individuals. Their graves are unknown because it's suspected that they probably were not given human rights as they were not considered fully human.

Henry's reign was marked by wars with Austria and the persecution of Protestants, mainly Calvinists also called Huguenots. Then the Italian War, when Henry declared war against Holy Roman Emperor and Charles V. Henry and Catherine de' Medici bore ten children. Francis II, married Mary, Queen of Scotts and was briefly the successor of his father King Henry II. Elizabeth of France, married Philip II, King of Spain. Claude, married Charles III, Duke of Lorraine. Louis, Duke of Orléans, died at age one. Charles IX, became King of France after the death of his brother Francis II. Henry III, was briefly King of France and also Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Margaret, married Henry III, King of Navarre. Hercules became later known as Francis, Duke of Alençon and Anjou after the death of his older brother Henry III. Victoria died within months of being born and Joan was stillborn.

In the 16th century, people with special and different particularities like giants, little people, and others who differed physically from the norm were viewed more as curiosities to be traded and viewed. And as a status symbol among the wealthy rather than as human beings. The rarity of Pedro’s condition made him even more of an extraordinary prize to King Henry II. The story of Pedro demonstrates the power royalty had and how people of the lower class were treated and viewed for the benefit and pleasure of others. Pedro was never considered a free man or a slave. Though he was able to live the life of a wealthy nobleman, they were still considered inhuman or treated as less than human by others.