Our first encounter with Belle in 'Beauty and the Beast' finds her intellectual, somewhat animus-possessed, and with a weak relational function - the opposite from the usual female standpoint. She has been altered from the natural state.

Belle lives with her father, indicating an underdeveloped state of individuation, but on strengthening her ego he disappears into her unconscious. This denotes a high tide of consciousness, and as a result regression inevitably follows.

As the symbol of her unconscious, Belle is forced to relocate her father. But when she finds him, his authority has been totally usurped. The masculine component in Belle's psyche has multiplied, and now includes a new, powerful and terrifying archetype: the animus, as made manifest by Beast.

As the gateway to the collective unconscious and wholeness, Beast is awesome and magical: he has the power to eliminate Belle, presumably by possession.

Is this where the individuation process differs for the sexes? Whereas men are drawn by the ever-beautiful anima figure, women are repulsed by the brutality of their animus. What men gain by simply surrendering to their libido, women must achieve by an extremely courageous act of will.

Showing extraordinary courage, Belle decides to stay with Beast and confront the terrors of the unknown. In doing so, she awakens her relational function, and a synthesis between Belle and Beast occurs. She depotentiates him with love.

In this unified state, Beast can no longer act autonomously, thus freeing Belle from negative projections and the fear of inflation. As a result, the curse is lifted from Beast and he resumes his true form - that of a handsome prince.

And what of the magical rose?

It appears in alchemy as a symbol for the albedo and the rubedo, and its function in 'Beauty and the Beast' seems to be that of time-piece. Perhaps its presence implies that individuation requires a temporal ingredient.

As the alchemist wrote:

The "opus ad rubeum" takes place in the second house of Venus.

viz. the opus is completed in the seventh house, associated with marriage and partnerships.

'Beauty and the Beast' is a wonderful tale. It exists to help women understand themselves, and men to understand women. Its origins must be that collective creativity whose output can only be described as 'genius'. Undoubtedly Belle will exist in the future: can she exist now?

Photo: Josette Day and Marcel André in Jean Cocteau's 'La Belle et la Bête' (1946)