The Fairy Tales “Beauty and the Beast”, “The Frog King”, and “The Pig King”

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Introduction and summary of stories

In modern society, the stories about true love beyond Beauty are the most persistent and loving. The tales are embraced universally because of their message on what true Beauty and love entail. Many tales and films loved by children have always adopted the animal bridegroom concept, which is evident in Beauty and the Beast, the frog King, and the Pig King (Tatar 30). There are repeated patterns from all these tales; motifs in the story include transformation, Skin, choice, civilized, wild, and fear. This paper expounds on the various motifs found in the three stories.

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm wrote the Frog King in 1812. It is a story about a young, inexperienced princess who came across a frog while playing in the garden. The prince promises to live with the frog, but she has no intentions of keeping her promise (Tatar, 48). The frog appears as the princess is dining, and her father insists she has to fulfill his promise. She does this unwillingly, and when the frog tries to climb her bed, she pushes it, and the frog s the wall, transforming into a prince.

On the other hand, the Pig King, written by Straparola, displays a bride who readily accepts the deformation of her husband. The story starts when the queen is badly in need of a son. An enchantment is performed, and she gives birth to a bin in the form of a pig. The pig then fell in love with a beautiful poor maiden unwilling to marry him. The maiden tried to kill the pig, but it discovered and killed her first same to his second wife (Tatar 44). However, their younger sister willingly accepts to marry the pig, and the pig’s skin changes, and he becomes a beautiful young man.

In De Beaumon’s tale, Beauty and the Beast, a young, beautiful daughter sacrifices herself to protect her father from a beast. Despite the girl’s fear of the Beast, she grew fond of him and formed a different perspective, leading to her marrying him. The girl is rewarded as her unkind sisters are punished. All these stories have different characters but share the same message, themes, and motifs, which differ depending on the tale’s meaning.

The motif of Choice in Beauty and the Beast, the Frog King, and the Pig King

In the three tales, choice cuts across all the characters present in the stories. The choice is the act of selecting something from the option provided. In all these three stories, the choice is presented as a motif despite the lady in Beauty and the Beast and the Frog King having no option but to accept their groom due to situations that force them to. The youngest lady married to the pig was willing to marry the pig, which displays a considerable difference (Tatar 31). When the queen gave birth to the pig, the king thought of getting rid of him. However, the king thought and decided otherwise. He chose to raise the boy, which signified the big decision he had to face in the process of doing what was right.

‘’…. and, seized with pity and grief, he decided that the son should be brought up and nurtured like a rational being and not as a brute beast,” (Tatar 47)

Love, one of the themes in all three stories, is articulated as a motif magnified through choice (Tatar 38). The Beast chose the beautiful young girl, the frog chose the princess as she promised to live with him, and the younger sister willingly married the pig (Tatar 48). One may ask why the Beast chose the beautiful young girl; Beauty is not all that matters. The girl was friendly, cheerful, kind, and brave. The horror of the Beast did not make her fearful, but she was just afraid of him. The Beast had a lousy temperament of being easily irritated and easily angered, which created a drift between them. Beauty and the Beast tale demonstrate the act of choice by doing well through conscience, everyday goodness, and morality (Tatar 41). Beauty and Beast made decisions that required them to choose what was best morally. The beautiful young girl is also left with a choice to make regarding his husband’s appearance and what is to be done despite her being married to a total stranger.

“I would rather die myself than cause you pain,” said Beast. “I will send you back to your father,’’(Tatar 39)

The motif of Skin in Beauty and the Beast, the Frog King, and the Pig King

In all three tales, the bridegroom had an animal-like appearance. The motif of interest here is the Skin. The outward appearance of these beautiful men in the animal skin displayed volumes when the ladies accepted them. The animal skin in the tales, Beast, pig, and frog, showed that Beauty truly lies in the eyes of the beholder. One has to keenly observe an individual to know them well (Tatar 41). Being confined to animal skin and nature resulted in the men sometimes not being loved by their wives. As the Beast’s life was linked to a rose, the end of the rose meant the end of him, but the pig had nothing tied to his life, indicating different adorations.

In Beauty and the Beast, the skin motif indicates Beauty is a skin-deep factor, and a person’s inner Beauty should be considered mostly compared to the outward appearance (Tatar 42). The outer Skin of the animal represents the misconception people have in their daily life. The outside look of a person should not be used to judge them as one may be misperceived. Individuals tend to be different on the outside; in reality, they are far from what they are perceived to be. Beauty can perceive the true character of the Beast despite his outward looks and behavior. In other people’s view, the Beast is a villain associated with a dark side or scary traits, but deep inside, he possesses unique traits.

‘’Having made this decision, the two nasty creatures returned to Beauty’s room and showed her so much affection that she nearly wept for joy,’’(Tatar 40)

The motif of Transformation and Dissolution the Beauty and the Beast and the Pig King

Transformation is changing one’s appearance, including physical and mental change, whereas dissolution is ending something. In the three tales, The Beauty and the Beast, The Pig King, and The Frog King, a black stage transformation exist in which an impure body is destroyed, putrefied, and changed into its original form. Through this, a new form is reborn from the process. The heroines in these stories have their worlds crushed and are presented with intense hardship, a feature represented by darkness. In The Beauty and the Beast tale, Beauty’s family experiences misfortune in the tale Beauty and the Beast. Their house burns to black ashes, and the misfortunes flow from her father’s business, scrapping them of their luxurious lifestyle;

‘’Out of the blue, the merchant lost his fortune, and he had nothing left but a small country house quite far from town.…by working there like peasants, they could make ends meet,”(Tatar 32)

In this state, the family experiences birth transformation and dissolution. All the unnecessary items are taken away, and they start a new simple life. Still in the transformation and dissolution journey, the tale’s character is broken down and purified, characterized by water or white substances such as snow. For example, the beast castle had snow on its doorsteps, attracting Beauty’s father. In Beauty’s relationship with the Beast, the transformation is observed when the Beast saves Beauty, an act of kindness that the Beast never showed Beauty. This leads Beauty to stop running away from him rather than return to the castle to tend to the Beast’s wounds. Beauty’s soul changes from extraordinary spirit to warm, and vice versa for the Beast. As the two got along, the Beast tried to eat humanly like Beauty, but all he did was make mistakes. On the other hand, Beauty strives to eat like the Beast, but their dishes in harmony click on the table. In The Pig King, the pig moves from being dirty to a loveable husband;

”….he straightaway shook off from his body the foul Skin of the pig, and stood revealed as a handsome and well-shaped young man.., (Tatar 46)

Transformation and dissolution represent the various stages one faces before the final product or desire is achieved. Different characters have flaws and weaknesses that have been shaped as time passes. Their transformation and dissolution represented one being with a brighter future (Tatar 47).

The motif of Fear in the Frog King, the Pig King, and Beauty and the Beast

The aspect of fear is represented in all spheres of the three tales. In The Frog King’s tale, as much as the princess accepted to keep her promise to the frog, he feared his father and the frog.

The princess began to cry and was afraid of the clammy frog…..The king grew angry and said: “You should not scorn someone who helped you when you were in trouble,” (Tatar 49)

In The Pig King story, the two older sisters unwillingly marry the king in an enticing agreement despite their fear. In the Beauty and the Beast tale, Beauty did not fear the Beast, but she was afraid of him. The Beast or the frog in arranged marriages demonstrates the fears most women have concerning marriages, whether forced or not. “…ear and the animal bridegrooms that are Beast, frog, and pig in the three tales, are portrayed as possessing animalistic traits” (Tatar30). In society, this represents the fears women harbor concerning their future husbands.

Women victims of arranged or forced marriages have little or no information about their husbands. In The Beauty and the Beast story, Beauty does not know the character traits of her husband, the Beast, and even what their union entails since she was young (Tatar 33). When the Beast approaches, his appearance alone displays all the fears a woman could have imagined concerning their husband. His appearance was scary, full of demands, uncouth, and uncivilized.

”Beauty could not help but tremble at the sight of this horrible figure…The monster asked her if she had come of her own free will, trembling…”(Tatar 37).

The Beast demonstrated a lack of respect for not only people but also others and his wife. It can be said that the Beast represents all the possible threats one can imagine in marriage. However, as the story ends, the uncivilized traits are transformed, and he becomes kind and acquires more human-like traits. What he desires more is love from his wife.

The motif of Civilize and Wild in The Beauty and the Beast and The Pig King tale

In Beauty and the Beast, the Beast displays wild and uncouth behaviors that demonstrate how uncivilized he is when he meets Beauty. At the end of the tale, he reveals his kindness and gentle soul, resulting in his wife overseeing his ugliness, resembling the act of civilization. Beauty embraces his character, respect, and love and overlooks his appearance. Through this, the Beast is transformed into a beautiful prince. Beauty civilizes the Beast and makes him human again by loving him. When the Beast changed and became human, he abandoned his Beast’s ugly physical appearance (Tatar 30). His physical appearance after the transformation matched his inner personality.

In The Pig King‘s tale, killing the 2 sisters and constantly playing in the mud showed how wild the Pig king’s behaviors were. The acceptance and willingness of the younger sister to marry the pig without ill motive civilized the pig (Tatar 44). The change from the villains represents the civilized trait that one possesses despite the wild and uncouth traits exposed in their outward looks. Remaining king, faithful, obedient, and virtuous enables one to conquer their wild self and embrace civilized traits.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the tales; Beauty and the Beast, the Frog King, and the Pig King have several features in common. The male animal character as the bridegroom provides clear motifs that range from their natural Skin, their behavior, the process of transformation, how they instill fear in their spouses, and the choices characters had to make. All these motifs provide significant moral lessons to today’s society. These stories gather audiences from all over the universe.

Work Cited

Tatar, Maria. The Classic Fairy Tales: Texts, Criticism. Norton, 1999, pp. 25–50.

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