Beauty and the Beast-Emma Watson as Belle

Ishika Patel
Proffesor Terryl Atkins
VISA 1500 01
October 28, 2022
Assignment 2 Part A
Analysis of Emma Watson as Belle in Beauty and the Beast

Walt Disney’s 2017 interpretation of Beauty and the Beast was acclimated from the animated 1997. Belle is a Beautiful, smart, and Bookish person. Her fellow villagers are confused by her independent personality. She is tired of the restrictions of the provincial French town, Belle is very curious and wants to escape town. Gaston pursues her relentlessly because of her good looks. Gaston is a douchebag and an egotistical individual who wants to marry Belle. She is very close to her father, Maurice, both of whom she feels isolated from the rest of the city because of their intellectual tendencies, and no one really understands them. Her father is a merchant and when coming back from the trip he goes into the castle along with Philippe to bring belle a rose as a return gift where the beast prisoned him and Philippe escapes. Bravely wandering into a dangerous forest with Philippe (horse), Belle finds her father in trouble and trades her freedom to rescue him. Where she finds out beast’s mother passed away when he was young just like belle’s mother, He was a rude and cold-hearted prince who refused to help an old lady who was a fairy on a stormy night and she transformed him into a beast. While being held captive by the Beast, Belle made the most of the situation to explore the castle, eventually softening the Beast’s cold heart. , her gregarious nature means she quickly bonds with the housekeeping staff, that she is worthy of and loves Beast. Everyone knows that she finds joy in the walls and is deeply devoted to the Beast, she is still fiercely loyal to her father and treats him wholeheartedly. She leaves the castle temporarily to save him. However, when gaston descends on the castle, she bravely rises up and tries to save the beast, but is unable to reach before Gaston stabs him in the back. , she wails over his body and admits to loving him. As a result, the spell breaks, and the beast return to his prince form along with the castle members. The animated version is mostly similar to the movie the difference is that they didn’t show the backstory of Belle’s mother and how belle uses her innovation and intelligence in her daily life as she makes an automatic laundry machine not washing clothes with her hands. In the movie, with the help of the magical book Beast takes Belle to the apartment where her mother died and she grew up they also spend more time knowing each other in the Beast’s library and both were fond of Shakespeare. Belle helps other girls in the town to learn despite the opposition from the villagers. And Maurice is shown to be a scientist rather than a merchant.

Belle’s story lies around constructive feminism unlike other Disney characters, Emma Watson, in the movie is wearing a comfortable dress rather than wearing waist cinched corset which shows the adaptation from being an overly sexualized feminine character to impress society and being comfortable and confident with who you are and what you are wearing. It has an unfeminist act of having big breasts or heavy makeup.
Belle’s character is also shown to be brave and confident to rescue his father and imprison herself. Emma is an activist for equal gender rights as shown to be a feminist character as she rejects the patriarchal notion of marrying a Strong, handsome and wealthy man Gaston as well despite the townspeople disguising her for reading books she’d never let it affect in educating herself and others. The movie is targeted at young women and has a positive influence of Emma’s character as Belle to be comfortable in your own skin and not affected by the societal view of being a beauty and ready to fight back for what’s right. Emma says in one of her conferences “Belle is not only kind of odd and doesn’t fit in, you see her not really a part of a community, in our film, but she’s also actually an activist within her own community. She’s teaching other young girls who are part of the village to read. Moments like that where you can see her expanding beyond just her own little world, and trying to kind of grow it, I loved that.”As we see many people in school, universities or the surrounding environment doesn’t fit in and feels like an outsider. Belle empowers the women who are uncomfortable with their surrounding and doesn’t fit in the world, she encourages women to be fearless and be on their own, pick their own battle and fight against the system to eventually find their own space in the world just like Belle. This movie also shows the inclusivity of culture as it has the cross-cultural dress and inclusion of characters from different cultures and teaches audience to love someone beyond their looks.
To summarise, Beauty and the Beast took many feminist theories and highlighted them in the movie aimed at young women, with Belle serving as a role model. Due to her curiosity about new things and her disinterest in patriarchy and forced marriage, Belle is portrayed as an independent Disney princess. This film is significant in the history of pop culture because it was one of the first Disney films to focus on feminism and spark a discussion about the movement, which sparked many films that followed. It is still a relevant film in society today because feminism is still mentioned and discussed in countless other films, television shows, and other forms of pop culture inspired by Belle’s character in Beauty and the Beast.