Beauty and the Beast

Do you think the revelations and backstory in Chapters 7 and 8 help the story? Why or why not? If you rewrote the novel, would you include all this information? If so, would you keep it at the end or incorporate it into the rest of the story? Why? If you eliminated any information, what would you eliminate and why?

Compare the commentary Barbot De Villeneuve makes on 1740s society to societal norms today. Do you think society has achieved the ideals she promoted in Beauty and the Beast? Why or why not? If not, what changes remain incomplete, and how might society achieve them? If society has reached Barbot De Villeneuve’s ideal, what might be the next challenge for society to tackle, and could lessons from Beauty and the Beast help with this challenge? Cite evidence from the text to support your answer.

Given that the story is a tale of ideals for women, what did you expect from Beauty’s character, and was she what you expected? Why or why not? If so, what parts of her personality made her true to your expectations, and why those parts? If not, what did you expect from her, and how might her character have differed to more accurately reflect who you expected her to be?