Problem
I. In "Beauty and the Beast", Beast explains that without Beauty's love, he would die of his curse. Beauty agrees to marry Beast, stating that she loves him and will only belong to him. However, in the same sentence she mentions a fact that challenges her love: her stating she only felt friendship before that moment. Disregarding the ending, do you believe Beauty romantically loved Beast to end his curse, or was she helping her friend break the curse by marrying him?
II. In the climax of "The Little Mermaid", it is revealed that no mermaid has a soul, and to gain a human soul to enter the Kingdom of Heaven, they must first earn the love of a human being, dissolve into foam (to perish) and spend 300 years doing good deeds.
Judging by the story's ending, was the Little Mermaid's curiosity about humanity and pursuit of love worth it?
III. Were Beauty and Little Mermaid happy, free, both, or neither? In what ways? (This question requires a short, clear definition of what you believe happiness and freedom mean.)