Beauty and the Beast is probably one of the most well known fairy tales that the Grimms" reproduced. In it"s original form it was a long, drawn out story that was catered to adults. The Grimms" changed the story to be more understood by children and made it short and to the point. Unlike many of the other fairy tales that they reproduced, Beauty and the Beast contains many subtle symbols in its purest form. It shows a girl and how she transfers to a woman; it also shows that beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The one major thing that separates this story from all the rest is that Beauty gets to know the Beast before marrying him.

             The story starts out simply enough. There was a merchant who had three daughters and was going to the market. He asked each daughter, "what they wanted from the market." The two older daughters were very vain and each wanted material things. Beauty, who was the sweetest of the three asked for a rose that was picked for her by her father. The man gets stuck in a storm and finds himself at a castle where he spends the night. The0re seems to be no one around but there is a wonderful dinner set upon the table. The merchant looks around the house and when he finds no one, he eats the meal. Then since he is weary from his trip he spends the night in the house, the next morning he is served breakfast but again no one shows. So he leaves the castle. On his way out he passed a garden filled with roses and he went to pick one, this is when the beast appeared. He said that the merchant was ungrateful because not only did the beast give him shelter, he gave him food. The Beast condemns the merchant to death. When the merchant explains why he was picking the rose the Beast agreed to let him go, under the condition that, he bring his daughter to serve his time. When the merchant gets home he tells this story to his three daughters and Beauty being the generous person that she is agrees to go to the castle for her father.