The Man Without a Brain
Introduction
Among the villains in the Disney animated canon, there are those that are truly intelligent in terms of brains and intellectualism if they possess a great deal of knowledge due to being educated and having undergone many different experiences in life. Some of them are even more intelligent if they possess high skills in manipulation, calculation, and cunning, and a good example of this kind of villain is Hans. However, for other villains, even if they are manipulative, calculating, and cunning, it does not always mean they are intelligent, and one shining example of this type of villain is Gaston.
Yes, despite what anyone believes, and I cannot stress this enough, Gaston is NOT intelligent. He is calculating, cunning, and manipulative, yes, I’ll admit that. But intelligent? NO!!! Throughout the film, Belle proves herself to be far smarter than him due to her intelligence being based almost entirely on strong intellectualism, logic, knowledge, and wit. The benefits Belle has gained from reading books over the years include an elevated vocabulary, an open, unprejudiced mind, and the ability to be a quick-thinker, which proves useful when it comes to her making retorts with little hesitation. But none of these things apply to Gaston. Heck, while you can describe Belle as the one with beauty and brains, Gaston has beauty AND brawn…but no brains! He has built up all his major muscles, but his only muscle that he’s never bothered to exercise is his mind! 😆🤣
What makes Gaston stupid is how overconfident, proud, egotistical, narcissistic, and arrogant he is as a very handsome, strong, muscular man with superb skills in hunting and killing animals. He seems to believe that all he needs to be a “good” man is his handsome appearance and great physical strength, and so he dismisses reading, intelligence, ideas, and anything and everything related to intellectualism as stupid and unnecessary. Gaston carries such a high, superior opinion of himself which is further exacerbated from the townspeople admiring him and regarding him as the best, most popular man in the village. This status has him extremely convinced that he really is the best of the best, and so much so that no one can ever surpass him or refuse him for anything. He particularly has so much of this pride since his good looks and superficial charm has almost all of the young, attractive, single girls in town falling at his feet and swooning over him. (On the side, Gaston’s overconfidence and arrogance in his strength makes him foolish enough to underestimate the Beast’s great size and strength during the climax.) But while Belle is the only woman who never shows any interest in or attraction to him, Gaston is fully convinced, to the point of being extremely delusional (as part of his stupidity and another result of his overconfidence), that Belle is truly no different from the other girls and is in love with him, too.
Unlike everyone else in town, and especially unlike the Bimbettes, Belle, from the very beginning of the film, is the only person who is not immune to Gaston’s arrogant, vain, egotistical, pompous, misogynistic nature, and easily sees all of his faults behind his handsome, muscular appearance. Because of her smarts, she never judges people based on their appearance, but by their character. Despite being a handsome man, Gaston gives off a lot of personality traits that Belle easily recognizes and detests, so she does not see him as a catch nor does she want anything to do with him. But little does Belle know that she is the only woman on whom Gaston has set his sights and that he strongly desires her hand in marriage.
So now I want to talk about the moments in Beauty and the Beast that best show how Gaston isn’t smart and how his overconfidence, pride, and arrogance constantly gets the better of him, especially when he is outsmarted by Belle. It has turned out to be longer than I anticipated, so I have decided to add the “Keep reading” feature. Hold on to your hats, and enjoy reading what lies ahead! 😁😄😉