Gifts

(Karen Clews)

Proverbially there is no such thing as a free lunch. How many gifts are given in each story and what are there implications? Can they be distinguished from donations and sacrifice? Are there any gifts in the story that are mistaken or abused?

In Beauty and the Beast the father asks his daughter what gifts they would like on his return. Although the sisters ask for expensive gifts, Beauty requests a rose. This can be seen as an attempt to enable her father to give the gift he wants to give without costing him more than he can afford. In inability for the father to give gifts highlights the importance of the giving of gifts as well as receiving them. As the father and the head of the family it is important that he can offer gifts to his daughters. Ironically it is the gift of the rose that causes the father to have his life put in danger. Again Beauty gives her father the gift of aid by taking his place in the Beast's house.

Beauty repeatedly gives selfless gifts, such as going to the Beast's house in place of her father and coming back to the beast after seeing her father. This ability to give something away for the good of others regardless of the consequences for her self is eventually rewarded with the Beast's transformation. Her actions actually enable herself and her father to improve their lives. This ability to give without prejudice can be seen as sacrifice. Perhaps the lack of expectation involved, and the disregard for consequences move Beauty's actions from gifts to sacrifices.

Beauty's father takes the gift of hospitality unquestioningly and without restraint. This is greeted with more kindness from the 'stranger'. By taking the rose the father is punished, he has abused his position as the receiver of the gift. Although the rose is seemingly small in comparison to the other gifts (warmth, food and a bed etc) it was not offered. The father has over stepped his role as the receiver of the gift and taken what has not been offered. Up until this point gifts, large and small, have been given to the father without expectation of return, however, the breaking of this bond is punished severely. The importance of the correct behaviour of the receiver of the gift is highlighted here and not just the giver's reasons for giving.

In The Tiger's Bride gifts are seen as quite a negative concept. Hospitality is given in expectation of another gift (Beauty's unclothed breast) and Beauty's father actually requests a gift, distorting the concept of 'giving' a gift. The meaning of this gift is to show forgiveness, however, as it has been requested and is given spitefully this meaning is destroyed. Beauty signifies this physically by pricking her finger and bleeding on the gift. The Beast gives the father the gift of money at the end of the story, however there is an alerter motive to this gift, that is, to divert the fathers attention away from Beauty's absence. The father's greed allows him not to recognize this and only concentrate on the gift that has been given to him, not on what he has lost.

The only positive gift that is given in The Tiger's Bride is the gift of discovery for Beauty. She is able to recognise her true self and leave behind her old oppressive life. However, even this gift can not be seen as completely altruistic. The Beast gains an equal and a companion that will change his existence too. The concept of the true altruistic gift is contradicted in this story which seems to concentrate on the reasons, sometimes good some times not, behind the giving of gifts.