Up@dawn 2.0

Thursday, February 23, 2012

Post #2- midterm. Shannon Mazza(Sec. 8)

Belle: Freedom Through Captivity a.k.a. Stockholm Syndrome


Belle is a daydreamer, a bookworm, and a captive spirit. She's my favorite Princess. I admire her for so many reasons. And, yes, I do realize she's a cartoon character. But Belle represents a conundrum when it comes to her quest for freedom. She found it in captivity.

Belle-her name meaning beauty- is considered an oddity simply because she is an introvert, a deep thinker who is perfectly fine being left alone with her dreams and a book. No one understands her, not even her father who loves her dearly. Belle is very young, probably no older than myself, yet she is vastly mature and holds an understanding of love and compassion that many older than her most likely lack. For her, freedom is not running away from the world she's known, it isn't turning her back on the man who raised her. It's because of him that she fell into the situation which gave her true freedom. For Belle, freedom is simply being able to live a life of adventure and romance. She wants to know someone who could just understand that she isn't happy living a mundane, monotonous existence. And, in a very unexpected way, she finds this life that she has been dreaming of. And she finds love in the last place she thought she would.

When Belle discovers that her father- on his way to an invention fair of sorts- has been lost, possibly injured, she wastes no time in venturing out to find him, only to discover that he is being held captive in the castle of a most frightening beast. As the beast is unwilling to let her father go free, given the fact that he technically trespassed into Beast's home, Belle offers to stay in his place- a selfless act that few would make.

Now a prisoner in a dank and dreary albeit intriguing and enchanted castle, Belle must face each day with the knowledge that she may never see the home and people she so desperately longed to distance herself from, although she didn't think it would happen so soon and in quite this fashion. But, most painfully, she may not see her father again, the only person who was the exception to her discontent.

What's so philosophical about all this!? you ask. Well, think about this in a more modern form. As Belle lives in the castle with the Beast she finds a friend in him, though the relationship wasn't without its vicissitudes- the Beast had a bit of a temper.
Who knew there was a prince under all that fur? Belle certainly didn't. But soon, through some tragedies, a few quarrels, Belle's incredible patience, and Beast's longing for someone to love him, they found a comfort in one another. Today, this is what we'd call Stockholm Syndrome: the hostage falling in love with her captor. I call it looking beyond what the world tells us to see. There are so many ways to love someone. And this story shows that beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder. If Belle had never put aside the prejudices the world had surely tried to convince her of, she never would have found true freedom. And in her blind acceptance of someone who had turned away from the world after showing it nothing but hatred, she found love with someone who actually understood her, someone who could also look past the snobbery of the world and love a girl who, although beautiful, was something of a oddity.

So where does that leave us? With a story about a pretty girl who fell in love with something akin to a werewolf? well, yes. But it also tells us that the world can't determine who you are. It can call you the victim of a twisted romance, or it can call you unbelievably blessed. People can freedom through captivity. Who knew, right?

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