The Narcissism Portrayed in the Disney’s Beauty and the Beast

 

            A bad judgment can make other people become down. Nobody can judge other. Because as a human, people have their own strength and weakness. Whatever they are, people have to be confident as they are. But, how if people become so much confident about their own selves and only think about their own self, or usually called narcissism. As can be seen in the Disney’s movie Beauty and the Beast, a man character named Gaston had a narcissism attitude in himself. This movie tells about a girl named Belle who accidentally met a Beast in a cursed palace due to her father became a prisoner of the Beast. Then Gaston was a man from the same town with Belle, he fell in love with Belle and wanted to marry Belle, because only Belle was as beautiful as himself. Thus, this essay is made to discuss the narcissism in the Gaston Character of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.

            According to Mehdizadeh in 2010 and Oltmanns, Emery, & Taylor in 2006, cited in Biolcati1 and Passini in 2018, “Narcissism is commonly defined as a pervasive pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and a hyperbolic sense of self-importance.” Narcissism also can be defined as a self-centered or selfish (Holtzman and Donnellan 2015).

            The character Gaston in the Beauty and the Beast has narcissism in himself, especially self-admiration can be seen from the scene,

Lefou  : Woah!  You didn't miss a shot, Gaston!  You're the greatest hunter in the whole world!

Gaston : I know!

Lefou  : Huh.  No beast alive stands a chance against you! Ha ha ha! And no girl, for that matter!

Gaston : It's true, Lefou.  And I've got my sights set on that one!  (He points to Belle)

Lefou  : The inventor's daughter?

Gaston : She's the one!  The lucky girl I'm going to marry.

Lefou  : But she’s...

Gaston : The most beautiful girl in town.

Lefou  : I know, but...

Gaston : That makes her the best.  And don't I deserve the best?

Lefou  : Well of course, I mean you do, but I mean...

Gaston : Right from the moment when I met her, saw her.  I said she's gorgeous and I fell. Here in town there's only she who is beautiful as me. So I'm making plans to woo and marry Belle (Gaston is so busy admiring his own reflection, he doesn't notice Belle walk past and away. Lefou pokes him to get his attention, and when he does, Gaston hurries after Belle).

Then another narcissism from the character of Gaston especially self-centered or selfish can be seen from the scene,

Seconds later, Gaston and Lefou arrive with D’Arque.  They enter the house, looking for one of the residents.)

Gaston : Belle!  Maurice!

Lefou  : Oh well, guess it's not gonna work after all.

(Gaston grabs him around the neck and walks back outside.)

Gaston : They have to come back sometime.  And when they do, we'll be ready for them.  Lefou, (He drops Lefou into a snow drift by the front door.)  Don't move from that spot until Belle and her father come home!  (Gaston jumps back on the wagon which leaves.)

Lefou  : But ... but ... aww, nuts!  (He pounds the side of the house with his fist, causing a pile of snow to fall on his head).

            In the Disney's Beauty and the Beast, there is a character who showed a narcissism in himself. He is Gaston. He was a man character who wanted to marry Belle. He thought that only one girl who deserve him and is as beautiful as he is Belle. Narcissism itself can be defined as an excessive attitude about self-admiration and ego-centrism (Mehdizadeh, 2010; Oltmanns, Emery, & Taylor, 2006). Gaston's narcissism can be found in the scene when Gaston was talking with Lefou. Gaston said that Belle is the luckiest girl in town so she can get him. The Gaston told Lefou that he wanted to marry Belle because she was as beautiful as himself. On these scenes, Gaston who is talking to Lefou, was looking at the mirror to admire himself due to his good looks and his own face until he didn't notice that Belle was walking near him. These scenes obviously showed that Gaston has narcissism in himself, especially self-admiration. Narcissism also can be defined as a self-centered or selfish (Holtzman and Donnellan 2015). Gaston as a character also showed a self- centered attitude. It can be seen from the scene when Gaston and Lefou came to the Belle's house to meet Belle and Maurice then bring Maurice to the psychiatric hospital, but they found nothing. Gaston commanded Lefou to stay there outside the Belle's house among the cold wind and the snowy weather. Then he went away and left Lefou alone. So, these scene showed that Gaston is self-centered and selfish. Humans are a social beings, so we cannot live alone, sometimes we need anyone else. So, we can't be selfish. Also, being confident of ourselves is good things but become excessive confident or too much self-admiration isn't a good thing. Everything has its own portion. Everything that is either too much or too little is not good thing.

            In conclusion, in the Disney’s movie Beauty and the Beast tells a story about a girl named Belle who accidentally met a Beast in a cursed palace due to her father became a prisoner of the Beast. Then Gaston was a man from the same town with Belle, he fell in love with Belle and wanted to marry Belle, because only Belle was as beautiful as he. Thus, Gaston has the narcissism in himself. In simply way, Narcissism is an excessive attitude of self-admiration and self-centered or selfish. Being confident of our own selves is good, but if it is excessive, it becomes bad. This essay hope that everyone can become confident as they are without being narcissist.

Reference

Semenyna, Scott. “Narcissism.” Springer, February 2018.

Biolcati, R., & Passini, S. “Narcissism and self-esteem: Different motivations for selfie posting behaviors.” Cogent Psychology, 2018, 5, 1, 1437012. https://doi.org/10.1080/23311908.2018.1437012