I am not very sure.

Being held in a dingy dungeon seems like a picnic as opposed to being blackmailed into a marriage and forced to live with a man who rapes you regularly. Some people really don't seem to realize that Gaston is doing one of the most evil things any villain has ever done...HE IS TRYING TO FORCE A WOMAN TO HAVE HIS CHILDREN AND BE HIS SUBSERVIENT WIFE. He is going to rape her on a regular basis and basically treat her as a sex slave/maid for the rest of her life. RAPE people. As in the second worst crime after murder. Besides, Belle knew she could prove the Beast existed, so why marry Gaston when she can prove her father's sanity? She didn't know he was going to start a mob to kill the Beast.

^ i agree 100%

^same

Agreed with all the points above. Blaming Belle for not willing to marry and be i na sexual/romantic relationship with a man she didn't love or even like would be a victim blaming. I have issues with Belle's character, but those are not among them. She was not in the wrong her,e not in any way.

Agree with all of those views.

I agree with disneydweeb. Plus I wound't wanna marry someone who would rape me. That reminds me of rape, I watched Con Air yesterday and there was a rapist in that.

I dOnt think Gaston would have raped Belle he seems like the type to want Belle to want him even if she needed "incentive". Saying that he would rape her regularly seems a bit extreme and far fetched there isn't enough evidence to support that statement to me. Maybe I am looking at this from another perspective but I don't see the difference in the choices. She cpuldnt tell what her fate would be like if she had chose GastOn or beast. If she was with Gaston some could say she at least would see her father not with the beast did she even say goodbye to him. if she stayed with beast she would miss her father who meant a good deal to her or Marry Gaston and lose some of her freedom

Her father WOULD NOT want that.

I think the real difference is that the Beast had a point (somewhat). It was Maurice who entered his castle in the first place orchestrating the situation. Plus, Maurice was ill and dying, and this was the only way to get him out, fast.

Gaston on the other hand made a plan to specificially get control of her. And there was still a chance that she would get Maurice out of the asylum without agreeing to Gaston terms. So why should she do it when she has still other options?

And yes, I think Gaston would have raped Belle - he wouldn't have seen it that way in his arrogance, but the important part is how Belle would have seen it.

There's a fundamental difference between the two situations, which cuts to Belle's personality.

Belle is naturally defiant. If someone demands something, she will naturally resist.

Beast didn't demand any trade. What Beast actually insisted upon was that Maurice was his prisoner--end of story. Belle was actually defying Beast's demand when she offered to take her father's place.

In contrast, Gaston was demanding a trade. Belle's naturally defiant, so she resisted.

There are other points I could make, such as the fact that marriage is a far more serious commitment than simply agreeing to live in a prison, or that by this point Belle knows that she wouldn't live up to her promise anyway (she ran away from Beast's castle after only a few hours).

But the big difference is simply a matter of Belle's natural defiance.

But she had the solution to this problem!!!!

To add to this Beast didn't want anything from Belle initially, he had a point holding her father as a prisoner because ger father entered his property and it was Belle who came up with that deal because it seemed like the only opinion to get her father out there fast. Beast didn't set it all up as some plan to get Belle and have her as a wife which would mean her being sexually involved with him. So yeah, I think her agreeing to stay Beast's prisoner was a more acceptable option at that point. Also Belle did have other options to not agree on Gaston's terms and get her father out of trouble on her own, it wasn't a matter of life and death when it comes to her dad being in mental institution.

;)

She refused Gaston's proposal because she still believe there would be a way to prove her father's sanity -and there was, she went to get the mirror.