Beauty and the Beast

Beauty spends the next several days exploring the entirety of the palace and finding wonder after wonder. The only thing that dampens her spirits is the Beast’s nightly visit. Each time, he confesses that he loves her and asks her to marry him. Beauty always says no, which never angers the Beast, and his calm acceptance makes her uneasy because “this love made her apprehensive of some violence” (73). When she tells her handsome dream man about her predicament, he advises only that she see past appearances and release him, which frustrates her because the request is vague and offers no way to do so.

In a seemingly empty chamber, she sees a performance, but when she tries to enter the theater hall, she finds that the show is only a projection within a mirror. Still, the mirror quickly becomes one of her favorite pastimes, and she returns often to view the various performances it shows. Try as she might, she can’t interact with the world in the glass, though she can see the appearances and actions in greater detail than she could have if she were really there.

One night, she asks the Beast if they’re the only two in the castle.