Tulisa Compare And Contrast Essay

1694 Words4 Pages

Both the 1991 animated Disney movie, Beauty and the Beast, and the Indian folktale, The Tale of Tulisa, are examples of Aarne-Thompson Folktale Type 425. Despite their similar classification, both works follow relatively different plots because they are variations of the same Aarne-Thompson Folktale Type. In fact, Beauty and the Beast is specifically AT Tale Type 425C, while The Tale of Tulisa is AT Tale Type 425A. As subsets of “The Search for the Lost Husband,” the basic scheme involves a maiden who falls in love with a man who transforms into his monstrous form; however, this does not account for small details that set the two apart. From her father’s occupation to how Belle does not only see Beast at night, Beauty and the Beast proves …show more content…

In other words, the minute intricacies that make each story unique put on display their distinct cultural views. In The Tale of Tulisa specifically, Basnak Dau becomes a snake after Tulisa forces him to disclose his real name. Therefore, his monstrous form is just a serpent. By contrast, Beast transforms into his monstrous form because he turns away an ugly beggar based on her disheveled appearance. Yet the key difference is that Beast becomes a combination of several animals, which include such things as the body of a bear and the tail of a wolf. The fact that Beast’s outward manifestation consists of numerous species of intimidating creatures says something about American culture. Disney presumably altered this aspect of the folktale to make Beast appear more terrifying to their audience by combining pieces from several frightening animals. The Indian culture, on the other hand, presumably picked a snake as the prince’s monstrous form because one typically associates serpents with evil. When the king of the city sentenced Nur-Singh to death after his neighbors falsely accused him of a crime, the snakes killed all the citizens. When Nur-Singh called upon Basnak Dau for help, the king of the snakes ordered them to revive the dead. This demonstrates how the snakes themselves can be malevolent, considering how they murdered the townspeople, while Basnak Dau is almost an altruistic figure who undoes the snakes’ evil acts. Yet when Basnak Dau returns to the stream after transforming back into a serpent, he loses his kingship and thus all of his power over the snakes. One could assume he now becomes an evil character as well and will stay that way until Tulisa completes the tasks to restore his kingship. Therefore, the choice of

Open Document