The Art of Retelling Fairy Tales: A Study of “Beauty and the Beast” Fairy Tale, Robin McKinley’s Beauty: A Retelling of the Story Beauty and the Beast (1978) and the 2017 Disney Adaptation

Abstract

This thesis seeks to investigate how female characters are represented in classical fairy tales and in their retellings. The study uses the famous fairy tale “Beauty and the Beast” as a case study. Three versions of this fairy tale are examined: James Planché’s English translation “Beauty and the Beast” (1858) as a classic, its retelling by Robin McKinley under the title of Beauty: A Retelling of the Story of Beauty and the Beast (1978), and its Disney adaptation of 2017 entitled Beauty and the Beast. In addition, the study explores whether the female characters of each narrative are empowered or disempowered. Furthermore, this research traces the message evolution of the classical fairy tale throughout its retellings. Following the analytical and the comparative methods, the present investigation is conducted through the use of two literary approaches. From the one hand, feminism is imperative to this study since the protagonist is a female herself, and because the study tackles female representation as well as female (dis)empowerment. From the other hand, the historical approach permits the assessment of message evolution. The study concludes that while female characters are positively represented as well as fully empowered in McKinley’s retelling because it is a highly feminist tale, their representation and empowerment is only partial and delusional in both the classic and the 2017 adaptation. Finally, though the fairy tale versions are produced in different periods, developed differently and written to accomplish dissimilar purposes, the key message of the classical fairy tale is still the same in both retellings: it did not change but it rather evolved.