The classic fairytale Beauty and the Beast has been interpreted by different writers and into various forms of media for centuries. The following discussion draws on three versions of the tale.One of them is the first known version of Beauty and the Beast—“Cupid and Psyche”in Apuleius’s The Golden Ass from the second century. In this story, Psyche is the beautiful daughter whereas her bridegroom Cupid is the“beast”in rumours. Another version in discussion is the best known version to Angelo-American audiences, published in Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont’s book for young women, Le Magasin des enfants in 1756.And the last is Angela Carter’s modern version in 1993. This discussion focuses on the ways in which those writers use“the beast”fantasy to comment on female psychology, status and agency in their own societies.
展开▼
