Marguerite

Marguerite is a character who was deleted from the final version of Beauty and the Beast, and would have acted as the co-antagonist alongside Gaston. She was cut after the rewrite because Linda Woolverton wanted to place more focus on Gaston as the main antagonist, especially his strained relationship with Belle.

Background[]

Marguerite is the snobbish sister of Maurice from the 1989 screenplay for Beauty and the Beast. She moves in with Maurice to help him out with taking care of Belle and Clarice (or at least, that's what she says). When Maurice loses his ships at sea, thereby losing his fortune, she along with the rest of the family have to move to a small cottage in the country which she doesn't like one bit.

Role in the film[]

Marguerite is first seen in the alternate beginning pulling up to Maurice's mansion in a carriage laden with luggage as her family is playing in the yard. After telling her footman to unload her belongings around the back of the house, prodding the horse with her parasol to get it going and remarking "idiot" as the footman trips when the carriage starts moving, she saunters up to her brother and explains why she has come. A few days later, after the family has moved into the cottage, Maurice receives notice from two soldiers that his taxes are overdue and he will lose the house if he doesn't pay them. Marguerite remarks that she knew this would happen and suggests that to get money, Maurice should either sell his late wife's music box that Belle has just received for her birthday, or marry Belle off to someone rich. After Maurice leaves to do the former, Marguerite invites Gaston to come to tea so that he may attempt to persuade Belle to accept his previously rejected marriage proposal. Later, when Belle states to Gaston that she will need time to think about whether or not she will become his wife, she attempts to flatter him by complimenting him on his new wig and states that Belle is just shy and needs more time to think about it. As Gaston leaves, Marguerite asks him if he will back the next day, although he makes it seem as though it's unlikely. Marguerite is last shown telling her nieces that Maurice is getting what he deserves by being lost in the storm because he ran off and left them alone with her.

Gallery[]

Trivia[]

Marguerite was the closest characterization to Belle's wicked sisters in the original tale. Incidentally, the 1988 draft actually featured them, but when it was rewritten for the 1989 on, they were replaced with and condensed into Marguerite.
- Ironically, the name "Marguerite" was used for one of the wicked sisters in the Faerie Tale Theatre version of the story.
Had she been kept, she would have predated Scar as being the first Disney Villain or at least antagonist to be a blood relative to the main protagonist, being Belle's aunt. She is also the second villain/antagonist to actually be considered to have blood ties to the main protagonist during development, after Ursula (who was initially considered to be King Triton's sister and thus Ariel's aunt), although unlike Ursula, Marguerite was cut from the film altogether.