While researching the many variations of the tale “Beauty and the Beast” for my Folktale Expert assignment, the themes of fear and courage really started to jump out at me. Fear is as old as the creation of man, and in reality, it hasn’t changed much since then. Circumstances and culture have changed dramatically, but the timeless principles of how to face fear have not.
Just as stories were told from the beginning of time to pass along values from generation to generation, we have fairy tales, myths and legends to help us learn age-old principles about how to react to the things that life throws at us. Here are just a few of my observations of how courage overcame fear in this tale, and if we were to change the characters and setting, it would look very much like life as we know it today.
• The Beast: Surely he fears that he will never find the love of his life who will come along and accept him for who he is. If not, he may be stuck in his beastly state forever. He may also fear that if she does love him the way he is, she could possibly stop loving him when he transforms into a prince. Therefore, it takes courage to speak up and make his request known and be willing to accept the outcome, whether in his favor or not.
• Beauty faces a number of timeless fears – leaving home and going to the unknown, the fear of losing her father, the terror of facing the Beast for the first time, the fear that she may never see her home again (at least not as she did as an innocent child). But she knows that duty calls and she faces it with courage. The outcome is something far greater than she could have ever imagined, but only because she took the first brave step.
• Beauty’s father was caught totally off guard by the Beast and seemed to have turned a bit cowardly when faced with sacrificing his own life. After a good bit of begging, pleading and finger pointing, he finds himself in the difficult position of having to sacrifice his daughter instead. Did it take courage to give her up? Most assuredly. But real courage would not have hesitated long enough to entertain an alternate solution to his dilemma. The most difficult kind of courage to muster is that of giving oneself in the place of another. How would we measure up?
In a blog post by Jared Latigo, entitled Why Courage Requires Fear, he quotes Pastor Ed Litton as saying, “Fear is just a call to exercise courage. Without fear, we can’t have courage. We cannot act courageous in any situation unless we have something to protect, something to honor, something to prove, or something to commit to. Fear is a call to action and that action should be courageous.”
Do you have a fear that has a grip on you today? I know I do. But I have much to protect – my family; something to honor – my Lord; something to prove – that life is glorious and worth living; and something to commit to – serving others each day in some little way that will bring joy to their lives. Therefore, I am called to be courageous, and so are you!
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