I have noticed a pattern: villains LOVE looking at themselves in the mirror. One of those evil characters being Gaston LeGume, the antagonist of Disney’s Beauty and the Beast.
Beauty and the Beast, set among a small town in France, follows the story of Belle, a beautiful and intelligent young woman, whom everyone around her is infatuated with. Belle seems to have gotten her brains from her inventor father Maurice; someone the townspeople refer to as mad or crazy. As Belle finds her small town too small to hold her larger-than-life personality, she takes refuge in books.
We then meet a character, very far from who Belle is: Gaston. A tall muscular man with long black hair, Gaston walks around with arrows strapped to his back. While, sadly, many of the girls in town gawk over Gaston, a hero of war, his strong front doesn’t fool Belle. Yet, Gaston in a twisted sense takes this rejection as a challenge. He stalks, catcalls, and gaslights Belle in the pursuit of trying to convince her to be his wife. He only sees Belle as a trophy to make himself shine brighter.
It is apparent throughout the move that Gaston believes marriage for a woman is her only dream. The symbolism of him putting his muddy boots on Belle’s precious book shows a next level of disrespect and disregard for women’s intellectuality.
As it’s been established Gaston not only looks down on women but everyone around him. While, ironically, he looks to the townsfolk to lift up his ego, he steps on each of them in the process.
So when he finds out that Belle is in love with someone else, Gaston uses his charm for the worse to recruit the townspeople. He creates an elaborate plan to send Belle’s father Maurice to an asylum, in hopes to force Belle into his grasp, and rally’s everyone to kill the Beast. As most villains do, he met his downfall by falling to his death.
The impressive part about Gaston is he doesn’t have any powers or scary facades. He is even what some may see as handsome and heroic, yet he is wicked in all senses. This is what makes Gaston a pretty good villain as human as he is, there lies an immorallity beyond fixing. Not only does he have an intolerable personality, but also a sort of sinister intelligence people fail to look at. Yes, Gaston is so full of himself it’s hard to see him think, but when it comes to thinking for his own benefit we see a glimpse of his true evil. From his ability to persuade crowds with his charm and his knack for seeking out trouble, Gaston may have some more brain than he cares to show, and this is what makes him a true villain; he wasn’t just born wicked, he is bad by choice.
I give Gaston a score of 6.5 on the evil scale. He is sexist, misogynistic, and narcissistic. These awful qualities merit at least a 5 on the scale. What pushes Gaston up the scale by one and half points is that on top of his disgusting disregard for women and other human beings, Gaston has a corrupt sense for manipulation and backstabbing when it suits him.
Villains come in all different shapes and sizes. Gaston a vessel for evil. A person no one wants to be around, yet somehow, at the same time, a person who everyone cowers behind. Compared to the Beast, Gaston is a full fledged nightmare.
What a fun blog! I love Beauty and the Beast – I could very much relate to the odd girl who always had her nose in a book – and always detested Gaston. He does, however, sing a very catchy song. The muddy boots were an interesting nuance I didn’t think about before. Great job!
If I had to rank all my favorite Disney movies, Beauty and the Beast would probably come out on top. I’ve always loved this story because, despite there being a magical enchantress and a cursed prince, most of the story actually has nothing to do with magic. Belle doesn’t have any special powers, and neither does the villain Gaston. In a lot of Disney movies, the villains are ugly so their face matches their evil nature, but Gaston doesn’t follow this pattern. He’s almost scarier than any other villain because he’s real. Talking lions and wicked sea witches don’t exist, but men like Gaston can be found in almost every culture. Awesome post!