Belle has gained a significant amount of intelligence over the years due to her love of books, providing her with an amazing vocabulary, active imagination, and an open mind. She is very confident and outspoken in her opinions, and seldom likes being told what to do. Despite all this, she does not have very many friends due to her smarts and being a free thinker. Unlike most characters in the film, Belle isn't concerned about hers or other's appearances, and is able to look past how people appear and into their hearts. This is how Belle managed to break the Beast's enchantment, and restore love and laughter to the castle.
Belle is somewhat a women's-libber for her time and refuses to be mistreated, undermined, humiliated, demeaned or controlled by any man, especially and specifically Gaston. She is quite obstinate when it comes to stating her points, upholding her opinions, and maintaining her ideas. Ironically, although she decries Gaston's conceit, she also proved herself to be slightly conceited and condescending in her opening song, where she decried her village as the "provincial life," as well as briefly rolling her eyes when the baker had to interrupt his conversation with Belle to get his coworker Marie to finish up the baguettes. Belle's personality transforms throughout the film. At first, she frequently dreams about a life of adventure and romance, not realizing that sometimes adventures might take a turn for the worst. As Belle begins to spend more time with the Beast, and their relationship blossoms into a strong friendship, she begins to fall in love with him without realizing it. As she matures during the course of her imprisonment, her love for the Beast breaks the enchantment. Belle realizes that having dreams is great, but sometimes you need to look beyond them and find what you're truly looking for. |