I learned from AestheticRealism the reason fairy tales have been loved throughout the centuriesby children and adults alike is because they deal with ethical questionsthat affect people every day. And some of these stories belong to the greatliterature of the world because of how richly they put together opposites,such as, good and evil, the strange and the ordinary, surface and depth,appearance and reality--opposites which we want to make sense of in ourown lives. "All beauty," Eli Siegel explained, "is a making one of opposites,and the making one of opposites is what we are going after in ourselves."
I will comment onan 18th century version of a French fairy tale which I love, and which,is important in terms of ethics, and can teach us about what makes forhappiness. Beauty and the Beast is about a subject which hasmade for wonder and excitement in people over and over--what appears tobe on the surface is not what actually is in reality. This storyis critical of a woman's desire to think that what is on the surface isall there is. It shows powerfully, that the deeper you go and the moreyou want to know, the more meaning and value you will find.
There is uncertaintyas to its original author. The story I will quote from is by MadameLeprince De Beaumont, written around 1740, and translated by Ronald Duncan. Beauty and the Beast is about a rich merchant, his three daughtersand three sons. The two older daughters are outwardly beautiful, but theyare vain and selfish. The youngest daughter, who is called Beauty (la Belle)is beautiful outwardly, but also inwardly--she is kind and wants to havea good effect on others. When her father's fortune falls on hard times,Beauty has good will. She rises at 4 in the morning to begin cookingand cleaning for the family. Madame De Beaumont writes:
"When her work was finished, shewould read, play the harpsichord or sing at the spinning wheel. Buther sisters were bored to death; they rose at ten in the morning....andpassed their time bemoaning the loss of their beautiful clothes.... "Lookat our younger sister," they said to each other; 'she is so vulgar andstupid that she is satisfied with her unhappy position.' "What Beauty stands forthroughout this fairytale is described by EliSiegel in the international journal TheRight of Aesthetic Realism to Be Known, issue 274:
"The most beautiful thing a personcan do is to be interested in justice so much that his care is a deep causeof his happiness."On learning that oneof his ships had recently come into port safely, the merchant sets outto claim it. The older daughters beseech him to "bring them backdresses, fur tippets, headdresses and baubles of every kind." Beauty,not wanting anything except the safe return of her father, but also notwanting to offend her sisters by not asking for anything, asks for a rose.
At the harbor themerchant finds his goods have been taken by his creditors and he beginshis return home as poor as before. Losing his way through a dark,snowy forest, he sees a light which leads him to a great castle. Upon entering it, he finds a blazing fire and a table set with food andwine. He eats and falls asleep. The next morning the merchant setsout and on seeing a bower of roses and remembering her request he plucksone off for Beauty. At that moment the merchant hears a terriblevoice and sees a Beast who is so hideous he nearly faints. The Beast says:
"How ungrateful you are....I savedyour life by taking you into my castle, and in return...I find you stealingmy roses....You must die to expiate this crime....I will forgive you oncondition that one of your daughters comes here willingly to die in yourplace."The merchant returnshome and after telling of his unhappy adventure, Beauty slips out in themiddle of the night and returns to the castle in her father's place. She meets the Beast for the first time. The story continues:
"When Beauty saw the Beast's hideousface she...tried to control her fear, and when the monster asked her ifshe had come willingly, she replied tremblingly that that was so. "Thatis good of you," said the Beast, "and I am much obliged.... Good night,Beauty." "Good night, Beast."The next day Beautydecides to explore the castle. She wants to find things to be pleasedby, even as she is afraid that the Beast may kill her. De Beaumontwrites:
"...to her surprise, she saw a door,on which was written Beauty's [Room]...and was dazzled by the elegancewithin. But what pleased her most was a huge bookcase, a harpsichordand several volumes of music. "They don't want me to be bored," shesaid quietly."Beauty is trying to like things around her. And she feels she is being thought of deeply--her mind is being valued--notjust her outward appearance. Every evening when Beauty has dinnerthe Beast visits her and she looks forward to their talks. And shedoesn't stop at how the Beast looks??she wants to know him One eveningthe Beast says to her:
"I suppose you find me very ugly,don't you?" "That is true," said Beauty, "for I cannot lie; but Ithink that you are very kind....I must confess that your goodness pleasesme,...I like you with your face better than those who, beneath a man'sface, hide a false, corrupt and ungrateful heart." ...Beauty...hardly fearedthe monster any more, but she nearly died of fright when he said to her:"Beauty, will you marry me?" She said, trembling, "No, Beast." ...Everyevening the Beast came to see her and spoke to her...with much good sense....Eachday Beauty discovered fresh signs of the monster's kindness."In 1979, the late SheldonKranz, Aesthetic Realism consultant and teacher of the course "Literatureand the Self," discussed Beauty and the Beast which he said wasgreat and explained:
"[Beauty] comes to see that under[the beast's] physical ugliness there is something that is really verybeautiful but it takes perception. It's a way of saying you've gotto like the world even if it doesn't look so beautiful [at] first."Every evening the Beastasks Beauty if she will marry him. And she refuses, though it distressesher that he is pained by this. She tells the Beast she will never leavehim altogether, but she asks to see her father again, and promises to returnin a week. The Beast agrees to let her go and says she need onlylay her ring on a table when she wants to return. If she does not keepher promise, he will die of grief. The next day she awakes in herfather's home. Her sisters visit and are furiously jealous of herhappiness.
In a class Eli Siegelonce said to me: "The whole purpose of life is to be exact aboutvalue....if you aren't exact, you're rooking yourself." Beauty'ssisters in their inexactitude, have rooked themselves. They havemarried men for their handsomeness and wit and found them vain and sarcastic,and both women are miserable. They plot to have Beauty stay pasta week with the hope that the Beast, in anger, will kill her. Theyfeign such sadness at her leaving that Beauty agrees to stay. Thenin a dream she sees the Beast "lying prostrate on the grass about to die."...
"How wicked I am, she said to herselfto make a Beast suffer so when he has been so kind to me....It is neithergood looks nor wit in a husband which makes his wife content; it is goodnessof character, virtue and obligingness, and the Beast has all these goodqualities...."She puts her ring on the table and returns tothe Beast's castle. Beaumont writes:
"She found the poor Beast lying unconscious,and she thought he was dead. She threw herself on his body, no longerfeeling any revulsion at his appearance. Hearing his heart still beating,she took some water from the stream and sprinkled it on his head ....No,my dear Beast, you shall not die, said Beauty, you shall live to marryme; for I now give you my hand and swear that I will be yours alone.....Nosooner had Beauty said these words than the whole castle lit up; fireworks,music, everything announced a festive occasion. To her amazement,the Beast had disappeared and she saw at her feet a prince more beautifulthan Love himself, who was thanking her for breaking his spell....[ThePrince]married Beauty, who lived with him a very long time in perfect happiness,because their happiness was founded on virtue. "
No comments:
Post a Comment