Beauty and the Beast is a 1991 Walt Disney film, while a new adaptation starring

Emma Watson and Dan Stevens was released lately. Given that the story is set in mid-
1700s France, it is apparent that it will depict how people go about their daily lives, their
morality, and, most importantly, their culture. With the bustling town flourishing well, to
how its economy would actually be pretty decent considering the time.

Before the French Revolution, Belle and her father lived in a "provincial town" on the
French coast, so what was life like in France at the time? It was controlled by King
Louise XV from 1715 to 1774, who had unlimited power and was backed by the Catholic
Church of France. In the novel, it is clear that their France is likewise a monarchy, with a
designated leader or, in this instance, royalty ruling the country for life. In contrastN, the
Philippines is a highly democratic society that has been that way for generations.

After a while, the provincial town Belle would be staying in would be at its peak, as its
water trade would have benefited significantly during their meeting. Their harbors would
be able to accommodate more ships and create larger trade openings. That's definitely
one of the main reasons why the town bustles the way we see it in musicals all the time.
Beast would be a part of the aristocracy. With seeing how his castle was only tidied up
properly in the middle of the movie, you’d think his castle would be one that isn’t as
dashing as others during the time. However, it did fit this period as his castle offered
many Baroque-style features. Needless to say, their economy was prosperous and their
politics would be obvious from how the Beast was haughty in the beginning. Nobels at
this time period had the same arrogant personality, even limited cases of slavery
continued until this century in some of France’s Mediterranean harbours in Provence.

The characters would also highlight how gender stereotypes were imposed during the
time period, with Gaston being the most prominent example. During the first song in the
film, "Belle," he is introduced. While wandering around town, she talks about how the
day-to-day routine has remained the same, and he struts in to woo her. He approaches
her and implies that her hobby isn’t normal, rather “It’s not right for a woman to read,
soon she’ll start getting ideas and thinking.” Coming off as the typical sexist douche that
was normalized in this time. As the film progresses, he continues to try to push her to be
with him, even staging a wedding before proposing to her. When he finally decides to
propose, he storms into her home and attempts to hurl himself at her. Women of the
time would not have had the same luck as Belle in escaping; regrettably, permission
was not widely honored. After this, he tries to drink his sorrow away while spreading it to
the folk on how ‘she humiliated him publicly.’, playing the victim and insinuating that
accepting his rushed proposal was an obligation.

Belle’s father, Maurice was also quite a character. She sees him as a genius rightfully
as he would create inventions to help with current daily life, one of his inventions was to
assist the labor of cutting wood logs and it ended up successful. The people,
unfortunately, see him as someone mad and insane in the head. This was transparent
when later in the movie, he was seeking help to save his daughter, however the people
just see this as one of his many crazy antics. Instead of helping this poor man, they
laugh and a few scenes after they try to send him to an asylum. To Gaston, this was an
opportunity to blackmail her. When Belle finally convinced him the Beast was real, they
ended up being one of his targets as well, as anything they “cant understand is scary.”
This mindset is what leads to many discrimination, not just to animals but even amongst
humans. Regrettably, this mindset still carries on to modern day.

Moving on to the main character, Belle. She was portrayed as someone unique for
having been stuffing her nose to books almost everyday. Much like her father, to the
people this was utterly odd behavior. She constantly stands her ground on refusing
Gaston and to me, this is an amazing trait to show to young children. Belle, like every
other woman of the time, was another victim of gender inequality.

The movie had much more depth in it now that I watched it at my current age, I could
easily attach similarities from it and to real life. Their morals had a lot of flaws but that
was to be expected from a story set in the 17th century. It rendered an accurate picture
of social norms and passed that was an excellent fairy tale.