Popular Culture Review Vol. 16, No. 1, Spring 2005 | Page 135

Yep, Gaston’s Gay
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rich enough to have a staff to work for her. If anything, Belle is rebelling against
her class- not her gender-identity. After all, she longs to live off her father’s
prize money and she reads stories about princes falling in love with girls such as
herself. The idea that she is a feminist simply does not fit.
All of this comes together when Beauty finally meets the Beast. But if
it is true that Belle is selfish, why does she agree to take her father’s place in the
Beast’s dungeon, thinking she will be locked up forever? Belle is, indeed,
making a trade, but she is not really planning on trading her own freedom for her
father’s. Her scheme is to trade her father’s protection (and potential prize
money) for the Beast’s royalty and riches.
Seeing that this is so is key to unpacking the true meaning of the
narrative, so let us take a moment to make a case for such a reading. Before
Belle will agree to switch places with her father, she asks the Beast to step into
the light. When he does, his outward form is exposed. He is towering and
muscular, frightening and furry. Belle recoils a bit, but this is an act—as is much
of what follows. In fact, when Belle first asks the Beast to show himself, she
does so with an arched eyebrow and in a sly voice. At this moment, we see in
Belle’s demine demeanor a flash of recognition and insight. What she is
recognizing is the nature of the story in which she now finds herself a player.
She knows that this is not a true Beast but an enchanted prince. She knows that
the prince is rich and powerful, with servants ready to attend to her every need.
She knows that she can get everything she wants out of life if she simply plays
along, moves the narrative forward, and helps break the curse. And we know
that Belle knows all of this because the filmmakers go out of their way to show
us that Belle’s favorite book is—somewhat postmodemly—Beauty and the
Beast.
In the opening scene of the film, Belle takes a moment from insulting
all of the townspeople to stop into a bookstore and charm its owner into giving
her a copy of her favorite book for free.7 It is a book she’s read twice before, we
are told, and while she speaks to the shopkeeper, wanders around town, and sits
down near the central fountain to read it again, she points out what her favorite
parts are. “Daring sword fights, magic spells, a prince in disguise,” she sighs.
All of these elements will play out in Belle’s real life, making it easy for her to
recognize the narrative in which she later becomes involved. That is, when Belle
meets the Beast, she knows very well that she is finally going to have her shot at
being a princess. Belle has been studying that book. “Here’s where she meets
Prince Charming,” she sings early on while leafing through its pages by the
fountain, “but she won’t discover that it’s him ‘til chapter three.” No such
surprises, then, for Belle in real life. Perhaps the prince does not get turned back
into his human form until the third act of the movie, but Belle is obviously well
aware who he is at the start. To make it all the more clear, we are even shown a
page in Belle’s book with a picture from the story she is reading. As Belle sings
about the prince yet undiscovered, she points to a plate in the book depicting a