I just finished Beauty and The Beast, the animated adaptation from Burbank Animation, Australia. This story is a textbook case of Stockholm Syndrome. The Beast attempts to murder Beauty’s father until the father mentions that he has a daughter. Suddenly, the lecherous Beast decides to spare the father’s life if the father gives his daughter over to Beast. So the daughter has to become a hostage in order to save her father.

As Beauty is kept prisoner, Beast manipulates her by going into fits of rage if she doesn’t marry him. This truly is the definition of emotional manipulation. Beast allows Beauty to visit her family, and he threatens “catastrophe” if she doesn’t return. It turns out that this alleged catastrophe is just Beast literally dying of loneliness. Ironically, Beauty’s father was also literally dying of loneliness due to missing his daughter. Thankfully, her visit cured him. Beauty eventually agrees to marry Beast because she feels sorry for him.

The lesson of the story is supposed to be to not judge someone by their appearance. I agree. Judge Beast by his evil actions. He is a monster. Note that he becomes infatuated with Beauty even before he saw her. Would he have felt the same if she were ugly? I have no sympathy for such an evil creature.