love and beauty
Mar. 25th, 2008 05:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bonny_kateSince my previous post about beauty in fairy tales, I have been thinking about the relation between love and beauty. I touched briefly on this relation before, and it is worth considering in more depth. There are two ways in which beauty may be related to love in the fairy tale, or at least two that I will speak of, and I shall call these redemptive and purifying, in order to better differentiate them. They may both, interestingly enough, be found in the different versions of Beauty and the Beast.
The first relation between love and beauty is redemptive. Here, love redeems and transforms the beloved from something wicked or ugly to something beautiful. In this version of Beauty and the Beast, the Beast was turned for his wickedness, and it is the love of Beauty that causes him first to become good, and then to become human (such as in the Disney version, or Beauty by Robin McKinley). The Beast was not beautiful in any way; he was ugly in both spirit and form until the love of Beauty redeemed him. The transformative love of the beloved is, I think, more easily understood than the second relation.
The second relation between love and beauty is purifying. In this instance, the beloved is always beautiful, yet the lover does not realize or cannot see the beauty of the beloved until the lover truly loves the beloved. Love purifies the eyes of the lover so that they can see the truth. The beloved always was beautiful, but was not seen clearly at the beginning. To the lover, the beloved seems to grow more beautiful, yet it is not a change in the beloved, as in the first relation, but a change in the lover that causes this. Beauty learns to love the beast, and then finds that he is not only good, but beautiful in spirit and body (as in Robin McKinley's Rosedaughter). This is also the love of Dante for Beatrice. It is not, in a sense, that Beatrice grows any more beautiful, for she is always as beautiful as she can be (the stability of souls in heaven is established by Dante), but as Dante's eyes are opened, as his soul grows, he is able to see more of her beauty.
Now it becomes a bit more complicated, because both relations are sometimes present simultaneously in fairy tales. The Andrew Lang version of Beauty and the Beast is an interesting example of this. Here, the love of Beauty is redemptive, for it transforms the Beast to a prince, yet it is also purifying, for Beauty must look beyond the form of the Beast and the form of the prince in her dreams. In other words, Beauty's love for the Beast is redemptive for the Beast, and is also purifying for Beauty. I think both relations are also found in Phantom of the Opera.
Love may redemptively create beauty, or love may purify the eyes to see beauty, but beauty is always inextricably linked to love. When Dante sees the Beautific Vision at the end of Paradise, it is a vision of the love that moves the sun and other stars.
The first relation between love and beauty is redemptive. Here, love redeems and transforms the beloved from something wicked or ugly to something beautiful. In this version of Beauty and the Beast, the Beast was turned for his wickedness, and it is the love of Beauty that causes him first to become good, and then to become human (such as in the Disney version, or Beauty by Robin McKinley). The Beast was not beautiful in any way; he was ugly in both spirit and form until the love of Beauty redeemed him. The transformative love of the beloved is, I think, more easily understood than the second relation.
The second relation between love and beauty is purifying. In this instance, the beloved is always beautiful, yet the lover does not realize or cannot see the beauty of the beloved until the lover truly loves the beloved. Love purifies the eyes of the lover so that they can see the truth. The beloved always was beautiful, but was not seen clearly at the beginning. To the lover, the beloved seems to grow more beautiful, yet it is not a change in the beloved, as in the first relation, but a change in the lover that causes this. Beauty learns to love the beast, and then finds that he is not only good, but beautiful in spirit and body (as in Robin McKinley's Rosedaughter). This is also the love of Dante for Beatrice. It is not, in a sense, that Beatrice grows any more beautiful, for she is always as beautiful as she can be (the stability of souls in heaven is established by Dante), but as Dante's eyes are opened, as his soul grows, he is able to see more of her beauty.
Now it becomes a bit more complicated, because both relations are sometimes present simultaneously in fairy tales. The Andrew Lang version of Beauty and the Beast is an interesting example of this. Here, the love of Beauty is redemptive, for it transforms the Beast to a prince, yet it is also purifying, for Beauty must look beyond the form of the Beast and the form of the prince in her dreams. In other words, Beauty's love for the Beast is redemptive for the Beast, and is also purifying for Beauty. I think both relations are also found in Phantom of the Opera.
Love may redemptively create beauty, or love may purify the eyes to see beauty, but beauty is always inextricably linked to love. When Dante sees the Beautific Vision at the end of Paradise, it is a vision of the love that moves the sun and other stars.