Beauty and the Beast

Beauty and the Beast is very directly inspired from the tale written by Jeanne Marie Leprince de Beaumont, which is a simplified and archetypical version of the story by Gabrielle Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve where the prince is turned to a beast by an evil fairy who fails to seduce him. But, as with most fairy tales, this tale has many versions. One suggests the Beast can t take the girl as she is pure, and forces her to get her hands chopped off, by threatening to take her father. In other gruesome variants, she cuts off her hands to make herself sexually less attractive to her brother or father.