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Annotation Assignment
Kenzie Thompson
01-28-24

Dickens, Faith.”’The Guy with the Problem’: Reform Narrative in Disney’s Beauty and the Beast”. The University of
Central Florida Undergraduate Research Journal, Vol. 5, No. 2, 2011, pp 79-85.

Paragraph one:
- Dickens mentions that during the opening number of Disney’s film Beauty and the Beast,
Belle describes moments that occur in her favorite book. These moments foreshadow
what's to come at the end of film and for the “overarching moral”(80). Parts such as “She
meets Prince Charming” and “But she won’t discover that it’s him ‘til chapter three”
foreshadow future events to come later in the film. “Throughout Beauty and the Beast,
the film incorporates the signifiers, as well as the messages, of literary fiction,and, more
specifically, of the novel” (80).
- Dickens then writes that contrary to popular opinion, Beauty and the Beast doesn’t fall
under romance or gothic novels, yet a reform narrative that embodies multiple genres.

Paragraph two:
- Dickens brings up the debates and different opinions on whether or not the film portrays
feminism and individuality, or if it robs women of their values and happiness.
- June Cummins claims that Disney is continuing its previous theme of love and courtship
over values and adventure (Dickens 80).
- Susan Swan, on the other hand, argues that the film’s visuals and plot mirror that of a
Gothic novel.
- Dickens notes that Madame Leprince de Beaumont's fairy tale version of the novel
“Beauty and the Beast” was created around the time that Gothic literature appeared.
- Susan Swan’s parallel between Gothic novels and Disney’s film, separates Beauty and
the Beast from Disney’s previous work.
- Dickens next proceeds to present Swan’s argument and then compares the film to the
male reform narrative.
- Ex. Samuel Richardson’s novel Pamela.

Paragraph three:
- Dickens uses this paragraph to summarize the plot of Pamela by Samuel Richardson.
- Dickens states that the Beast from Beauty and the Beast embodies the narrative of male
reform. He is flawed, yet he ultimately is changed by Belle (The Heroine in Beauty and
the Beast)

Paragraph four:
- In this paragraph, Dickens continues to write about the similarities to the Beast and male
reform.
- She notes that initially Beast just viewed Belle as someone who could fix his problem
rather than the person that she truly is.
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- “Consistent with the male reform narrative, the Beast's inward change is partially
manifested in his view and treatment of Belle” (Dickens 81).

Paragraph five:
- Dickens writes more about Swan's writings and quotes “both partners must seek
wholeness of self before either can find wholeness in relationship” (350). Dickens then
compares Gothic fiction to Beauty and the Beast.
- Belle learns to depict good from bad men in her life. She rejects Gaston even before his
real nature is revealed. Even though Belle initially rejects the Beast, she soon learns that
underneath his appearance, the Beast is good at his core.
- The Beast’s good qualities only surfaced because of Belle's presence in the castle (81).
- Out of all of the skills Belle acquired over the years, the only one that truly mattered were
her manners. With this skill, Belle taught the Beast how to be proper. Once his
appearance changed, so did his personality.
- Dickens notes that the inward and outward accomplishments parallel one another.
- She also notes that when the Beast tried to better himself for Belle, it is implied that Belle
wishes for an ‘domesticated’ male in her life (81).

Paragraph six:
- Dickens explains that Belle goes from wanting to know everything about the world to just
a few things.
- In different types of literature, female knowledge can mean different things. In Gothic
novels, women tend to be well attuned and smart and must stay that way in order to
succeed. “Too much innocence is hazardous… to a heroine's health. She needs
knowledge, not protection from the truth” (Ferguson Ellis xiii). On the contrary, reform
novels require the heroine to uphold her innocence at all costs (Dickens 81).
- Belle is at her closest to being a Gothic heroine when her curiosity of the unknown gets
the best of her but ultimately she gets scared when she gets caught sneaking around by
the Beast and then decides to leave.

Paragraph seven:
- As the story develops, most things that Belle originally prioritized get skipped over or
limited. Ex. Belle's love for books led her to not care that she was not liked in her
community but when she meets the Beast her screen time with books is limited. In the
same way, Belle's desire to explore is cut short. “Although Belle begins the film with
potential for learning and growing as a Gothic heroine, the plot lapses into a pattern in
which Belle must always be the teacher and her subject must always be confined to the
domestic” (82).
- Dickens also goes into detail about how in Belle's mind, those who love books are good
and those who don’t are bad. This is because Belle learns of human characteristics
through her books. An example of this is when Belle and the audience deem Gaston the
“villain” when he steps on Belle’s book. The Beast was considered “good” when he
would read books alongside Belle.
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Paragraph eight:
- In this paragraph, Dickens talks about how Belle wants domesticity rather than
matrimony.
- “ Rather than honoring its heroine’s independent spirit, Beauty and the Beast idealizes
marriage and the domestic role” (Dickens 82).

Paragraph nine:
- Dickens compares Gothic novels to reform literature in how they perceive a “lady in
distress”.
- Gothic novels depict “imprisonment” as negative so the damsel in distress awaits her
Prince Charming who will set her free.
- Reform narrative portrays being trapped as a means for success.

Paragraph ten:
- In this paragraph, Dickens starts to continue to compare Samuel Richardson’s Pamela
and Beauty and the Beast, this time with Belle and Pamela both being able to tame their
“beasts” but also unable to tame the obstacles they face when they try to escape back
home. Ex. Pamela comes face to face with a Bull resembling her master and Belle runs
into wolves resembling the Beast. Both were unable to defeat the obstacles and Belle
even had to be saved by the Beast and return to the castle.

Paragraph eleven:
- Dickens continues the comparison of the two stories, in this paragraph.
- Both Pamela and Belle are symbolized as the “life force” of their partners. When the
women leave, their beasts' health deteriorates. When they return back and the homes
are back to their sense of normal, both men take a transformation.

Paragraph twelve:
- With the same stories being compared, Dickens goes into detail about how Disney gets
rid of sexual acts from the final product of each of their films. In “The Princess and the
Frog” the prince is transformed after he marries Tiana rather than after some violence in
her bedroom. Disney’s Tangled is also almost completely different from the Grimm
Brothers and Basile’s version of the story.
- Beauty and the Beast has scenes that could lead to sexual violence but when you watch
the film you wouldn’t even think that those acts would happen next.

Paragraph thirteen:
- This paragraph is about how lack of sexual violence in Beauty and the Beast leans the
film more towards the Gothic genre, since Gothic novels can make things seem
dangerous even without sexual violence.
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Paragraph fourteen:
- In this paragraph Dickens talks about how even though there is no sexual violence in
Beauty and the Beast like there is in Pamela, the film still promotes the same tension
through Gothic elements.
- Dickens explains that despite his appearance, Belle isn’t scared of the Beast himself but
rather his secret.
- As the Beast changes and shows mental and physical growth the tension and fear that
were originally present, start to dissipate and eventually disappear. (84

Paragraph fifteen:
- “Though Beauty and the Beast has been described as a departure from the ‘cloyingly
sexist’ Disney films of the past (Ames and Ansen 2), this reform narrative model is
problematic from a feminist perspective due to its idealization of the home and marriage,
as well as its portrayal of change as an exclusively male experience” (Dickens 84).
- Dickens notes that since the man is flawed, the woman must compensate by being
perfect.
- She then writes about the moral of the story basically being don’t judge a book by its
cover and says “Thus, male characters enjoy both a freedom of space and a freedom to
adapt and change, while the females must be confined to a mold of flawless behavior for
the reform narrative to succeed” (84).

Page 85 was just a page addressing Dickens' sources for the article.

Final thoughts:
- Personally, I wouldn’t have ended the article so abruptly. I feel like it is missing
something but I'm not quite sure what that is exactly. It feels like the way the article
ended kind of had me questioning the point and drive Dickens was making with this
article. Even so, it was cool to read about things I hadn’t noticed before in the film and
about the elements going into it.