Disney is full of the most wonderful stories of our
generation. But “The Happiest Place On Earth” certainly has some of the most
frightening villains as well. From the insane Cruella de Vil to the pious
Minister Frollo, Disney certainly knows how to play to the fears of all people.
However, not all Disney villains are quite as obvious as the audience is led to
believe at the beginning of their films, at least not until they show their
true colors near the climax of the movie. Many times, they seem like a genuinely
good guy, or just an annoying character that serves to set the events in
motion. “Beauty and the Beast” illustrates this perfectly with Gaston.
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| Who needs to read? Make me a sandwich! |
The story of “Beauty and the Beast” is one about the harsh
reality of prejudice. Our own misconceptions about the original antagonist and
even of the village’s unwillingness to look beyond what they see are brought
into stark contrast with the kind understanding of our hero Belle. Gaston is,
at the beginning of the film, nothing more than a shallow, stuck-up muscleman
who desires to marry Belle. Belle’s father, Maurice, is imprisoned by a selfish
prince transformed into a hideous beast, until she offers to take his place in
the castle. As she and the Beast slowly get to know each other, Maurice runs
back to their village, telling the villagers about the hideous Beast who has
imprisoned his daughter. They don’t believe him, of course, but this is when
Gaston’s true colors begin to show. He threatens to throw Maurice into an
insane asylum if Belle does not marry him, but when Belle proves that the Beast
exists, he immediately rouses the villagers into frenzy, ignoring her desperate
pleas that the Beast is a good person. The villagers are too repulsed by the
Beast to consider him as being anything but a horrid Beast, and immediately
march off to the castle to destroy him. When Gaston finally corners the Beast,
who refuses to fight back, he is completely beyond rational thought, completely
convinced by his own thought that what he is doing is just and right, despite
finding no opposition from the Beast. It is not until Belle shows up that the
Beast regains the will to fight, easily overpowering Gaston, but refusing to
kill him. Even after this deliberate act of mercy, Gaston stabs the Beast in the
back, but loses his balance in the process, falling to his untimely death.
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| Gaston: "Wait, I'm having second thoughts about this." |
One word easily describes Gaston: Hubris. His excessive
pride and overconfidence define him as a character, almost to the point where
he is a caricature of himself, if not for the rage and resentment that festers
underneath, visible whenever he feels threatened. He is the typical manly man,
who has to prove his manliness all the time. As I mentioned earlier, for the
majority of the movie, Gaston is a fairly unimportant character. During the
opening scene, he harasses Belle by showing off just how manly he is, (Did I
mention he’s manly? Just checking.) much to the disappointment of the other
women in the village. He is respected throughout the village, the whole town
showing up to his and Belle’s “wedding party,” and praising him during his fun
character song, “Gaston.” He’s rather unique in the sense that he is one of the
few villains that are accepted by society in general, even though he’s a jerk
most of the time. This relates back to the theme of prejudice and judging
people based on their appearance rather than who they actually are. It isn’t
until we begin to see the Beast as less of an antagonist that Gaston begins his
descent into true villainy. In an act of childish anger, Gaston tells Belle
that if she refuses to marry him, he will throw Maurice into the loony bin. He’s
accustomed to getting everything he desires, and abuses his power over the
villagers to continue doing so. When he is proved wrong, he immediately turns
the situation in his favor by turning the villagers against the Beast. It can
easily be argued that his overconfidence and pride directly lead to his death;
he sees the Beast as a threat to his own reputation, and an obstacle to getting
what he wants, and sets out to eliminate that threat. Even when the Beast
spares his life, his pride cannot allow the slight against him to go
unpunished, and rather than accepting his defeat, he stabs the Beast, hoping to
regain his lost ego. Instead, just like in Greek tragedies of old, his hubris
ends up causing his own death.
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| Also, how the hell does he not have salmonella? |
The music associated with Gaston is also very apropos. In “Belle,”
a song that explains Belle in the eyes of the people around her, Gaston’s verse
is still self-centered, focusing on how Belle would be perfect for him, rather
than merely giving more information about Belle beyond what we can already see.
His vocal range also contributes to his character, a rich bass/baritone voice that’s
practically dripping with resonance and power. His character song, “Gaston,” is
also a perfect song; dedicated entirely to enumerating the wonderful things
about Gaston. With lyrics like, “For there's no one as burly and brawny/As you
see I've got biceps to spare,” it’s hard to see him as a person with even an
ounce of humility, because he very clearly isn’t. But of course, his true
nature is shown in the villain song of the movie, “Kill the Beast.” Underneath
his “charming” exterior is just a man whose hubris has driven him and his
fellow villagers to mania. Even the lyrics bring the fact that they don’t
really know WHY they’re going to kill the Beast to the forefront, “We don't
like what we don't.../understand and in fact it scares us,/and this monster is
mysterious at least./Bring your guns, bring your knives,/save children and and
your wives,/so save our village and our lives!/LET’S KILL THE BEAST!” The fact
that Gaston was so socially powerful that he could convince an entire village
to wage war on something they know absolutely nothing about is scary, to say
the least.
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| He even looks good when he's killing things! |
So Gaston is the perfect villain for a story that’s all
about not judging a book by its cover. There’s a good chance that we all know
someone just like Gaston: a person who is popular, powerful, and so engrossed
in themselves that they don’t care for anyone else, and would be willing to do
anything to maintain that image. He starts off as a minor hindrance in Belle’s
path, but soon grows into a much bigger threat, and is much more realistic
because of it. In the end, the true Beast is the one that masquerades as a
normal person, rather than the one who looks like one.
Next Week: Gilderoy Lockhart, from Harry Potter and the
Chamber of Secrets
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