Film Theory: Beauty and the Beast's OVERLOOKED Tragedy

For years, we've always thought that the Beast in Beauty and the Beast was made into a monster so he could learn a lesson about respecting others and loving people for what's on the inside...but we've been wrong the whole time! Dissecting the film's lore, it becomes clear that the Beast isn't the evil prince he was made out to be, but actually just a little boy who was deceived at a time in his life when he was the most vulnerable. Fans of Beauty and the Beast have loved this story for so long...but have overlooked ONE crucial plot detail!

Thanks to Loyal Theorist @ThePiggyReview on Twitter for bringing this one to my attention!

Like the theme song? Thanks to Carf Darko!

SOCIAL MEDIA:
Twitter: @MatPatGT

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[gurglequeen]

Even if the Beast was older when this went down, it was smart to turn he enchantress away. He's a prince, heir to the throne, you don't just let some random stranger into your castle. They could have been an assassin or something.

[butterflygirl]

funny thing, I have a book that is a twisted version of Beauty and the beast (yes it's a disney book, it's called As old as time) that actually acnowleges this. they declare the sorsceres crazy because she did this.

[Marie]

Maybe that sorceress is evil. She also seems to have wiped the memory of the Prince from the villages minds as everyone seemed really surprised to find a castle in the woods.

[katlovedart]

It makes even more sense if you stop to think about when the story takes place. It take place in the French countryside roughly 10 years after the french revolution. It as absolute plusable that his parents were killed in the beheadings, thus leaving the servants to raise him. That would then mean that he wouldn't have EVEN KNOW HIS PARENTS, since he would have been one at the start of the French Revolution. Knowing that this takes place shortly after the start of the revolution would also explain why the enchantress was so cruel to him. The common people of France didn't like the royals AT ALL(hence the beheadings). She was simple looking for a reason to punish a young prince, a young BOY, who was born in the wrong place, in the wrong time.


But that's just a theory, a COMMENT THEORY! Hope you enjoyed.
Also, let me know what you think, this is my first comment theory.

[veronicalawson]

Me as a child: well that's what happens when you judge someone for their appearance.

Adult me: so you cursed an 11 year old child just for turning you away when you are a stranger at night? And to top it off you curse everyone in the castle as well? And you are supposed to be a good fairy? Lady I think you have problems.

[FrankLightheart]

You know, it's funny. Even when I was a kid and I saw this movie for the first time, I was struck by the Beast's lack of manners or even basic knowledge of table edicate. Sure, he'd been a beast most of his life, but he should at least know how people eat at the table from the memories he's had as a human. Especially a prince of all people!

But if the prince had been ten or eleven years old when he first got cursed, then it all makes sense. The beast doesn't know how to eat like a human because he was too young to remember it before he was transformed. Bell had to teach him everything about human interaction.

[pandagacha]

"Every last inch of me is coverd in hair" yet he doesn't have a beard

[adellemacleay]

Personally i think that the enchantress is evil because
a. whos going to let a random stranger into their home?
b. she cursed all he servants who had done nothing wrong
c. she made it virtually impossible for the beast to break the curse by making everyone forget about the kingdom, setting a time limit, and making it so that the girl has to love him in return. he can't control if someone loves him back for gods sake. and isn't the point for him to learn to love?

[khlo]

The prince got turned into a beast because he wouldn't let a creepy stranger into his house who just so happened to knock on his door in the middle of the night while it was raining.

[Nerdicaful]

I hold this theory as a fact. The witch that turns him was hateful as hell, punishing this little boy...for being a little boy! He fucked up! And it makes sense given how innocent the Beast is throughout the movie. He's very awkward with everything, because mentally, he's still pretty much a kid. He never got that chance to grow and develop -with- his age, since it pretty much stopped once he was transformed. Which makes Belle considerably older and wiser in a sense. She basically has to take care of him and show him the ropes. She has to show him how to be an adult because he never learned how as a Beast.

[Double_Jae]

1:38 I don’t know bout you Matt, but personally I tend to eat with a knife and fork rather than a clock and candlestick. You do you matpat, you do you.

[Darkside...]

Imagine growing up that way, being alone, and feeling more worthless than normal in the crucial years of development. Not only that, but he also had no one to properly raise him since everyone was a teapot or something.
That's gotta be some serious PTSD.

[MrOrmanley]

Another thing: If the old Lady was a sorceress all along, she should've had the means to get by without bothering people at the dead of night, and instead just, dunno, teleport herself home, summon a pumpkin house or whatever, conjure a warm fire and food etc.
So this woman DELIBERATELY came in the dead of night and transformed herself into the most hideous form she could to provoke a rejection of her offer, and then came down on him like freaking "HOW DARE YOU JUDGE ME ON MY LOOKS".
Sounds like she planned the whole thing from the get go, fully expecting the prince's behavior, which makes it likely she knew him and/or his parents before and harbored a grudge for some thing or another.
The moral part (him apparently misjudging her) was probably her way of adding injury to insult. This way he's not only cursed, but ridden with guilt as well (I'm a monster for having been rude to her, and now I'm at fault for my servants fate as well).
Imagine living in a forgotten, big, cold, castle with your only company being people being miserable because of your plunder.
Psychological warfare lvl: 9001

Also: Kinda ironic, how she reproaches him about being judgemental, and she's rotten to the core herself, laying those traps and cursing people willynilly. Imagine her going from house to house like that, cursing every child unwilling to give shelter to a bum at midnight in return of a FOR A FLOWER?!

Sorceress? Witch is more like it!

[kyradavis]

My family and I came to this conclusion while watching the film for the first time in years. I feel worse for the beast than ever. He was only a child. What a monster that sorceress was.

[animagusurreal]

In the stage version, it's mentioned that the servants were cursed because they somehow played a part in making the prince spoiled and selfish. Apparently including Chip, (who was at most a newborn infant when the curse was cast), and the dog. Yeah, what did the dog do to deserve to be turned into a footstool?

[jlmmedia]

Watching this in 2020, it definitely feels weird watching a 5 min film theory, compared to the 15 minute theories of today.

[tyrantqiu]

She curses him by growing up as a monster....






As if puberty didn't suck enough

[JP_AZ]

What other witch "sorceress" changed herself into hideous old women offering a harmless red object....hmmmm. Sounds like Disney Villianry 101 to me. Yes the poor prince was cruelly tricked by a evil witch!

[Emberilliance]

Wasn't this theory basically confirmed in Beauty and the Beast: The Enchanted Christmas when they showed the actual flashback of the Prince as a boy?

[codelerias]

"He's just a little kid who never got a chance to grow up"
Me: *FNAF Intensifies*