Gaston is the main antagonist of Disney's 1991 film Beauty and the Beast.
Personality
Gaston is strong and handsome, and is all too aware of this. He is hailed as a local hero and the "greatest hunter in the whole world", desired by many of the young women of his village (he is even described as "cute, dreamy, and handsome" by the Bimbettes in the first opening number), but he is boorish, uncultured and egotistical (the townsfolk don't seem to notice or care, however). Given his narcissistic nature, he loves to boast about this at every opportunity, especially when the villagers begin singing a song about him to cheer him up after Belle's rejection of him. He was also arrogant, displayed by his conceited proposal to Belle and his belief that he could take down the Beast without aid and his boasting about his strength. The latter, however, could be seen as entirely justified. He also suffers from obsessive love, as described below.
When it comes to women, he is extremely vain and rude, and generally has a low opinion of women, demonstrated by his interest in Belle being solely physical rather than emotional. As a result all his attempts to spend time with Belle end in disaster due to his sexist and chauvinistic behavior. This chauvinism also makes him believe that women are only good for being (unintelligent and readily obedient) housewives and mothers (especially of handsome sons in the latter), something that Belle is disgusted at becoming because she views him as boorish and musclebrained. On the matter of having children with his chosen bride, he doesn't appear to acknowledge the possibility of having daughters with Belle despite claiming to like Belle for her good looks, as he tells her that they will have "six or seven strapping boys" like himself as soon as she marries him. Apparently, he does not know much about reproduction either, as not very many women give birth to many children at one time (assuming that he wants his boys to be born all at once). His male-chauvinistic attitude even leads him to condescendingly refer to Belle as his "little wife", and this whole scenario ultimately leads to him being rejected by Belle and kicked out of her house. ("Little" can also refer to Belle's height, as she is much shorter than Gaston.) Gaston may have also been anti-intellectual, as he indicated that he felt that thinking was "a dangerous pastime." At one point, he mentions to Monsieur D'Arque that he's "got [his] heart set on marrying Belle", meaning that he may actually be in love with her and not merely lusting after her. Similarly, in his debut scene, he sings "Right from the moment when I met her, saw her I said she's gorgeous and I fell," suggesting that he fell for Belle at first sight, which is further supported in a flashback in one of the comics. (However, he was actually perceiving women in a way that was true to the time period of the movie, as women were expected to raise families and be subservient to men at that time, not read or think, due to clear misinterpretation of the scriptures in the Bible, which states that a husband is to love and care for his wife the same as he loves his own body and treat her as a treasure given to him by the Lord, rather than as his personal slave and housekeeper).[1]. Apparently, he didn't really love and care about Belle, he just wanted her as his property and his trophy wife. Ironically, at least in the original film, he completely ignored a trio of blonde busty fangirls who more than met his views on how women of the time should behave.
Gaston also seems to he very petty as he does not want anyone else to have Belle or have her like him in any way at all.
At the start of the film and musical play, Gaston did not seem truly evil, but simply conceited, male-chauvinistic, boorish and rude (he even felt it was not right for women to read, as he desires a woman to be brainless so she can easily obey a man's orders without objection; he also views Belle and all women of his village as "property", as confirmed in his song in the musical). However, Gaston's lust for Belle, combined with her rejection of him harming his narcissistic self-image, ultimately caused him to evolve into a sadistic, murderous monster. This develops throughout the film as he devolves into a cruel, violent, and insane individual. This is first shown when he formulates a plan to blackmail Belle into marrying him by bribing Monsieur D'Arque, the owner of the local madhouse, to lock Maurice up. When this fails, Gaston again uses his intelligence to instill fear into the villagers by fueling their paranoia about the Beast's "monstrous" nature, and easily gathers a lynch mob to attack Beast's castle and leave none alive. In the ending, his cruel nature is the very foil to Beast himself; by killing a true monster like Gaston, Beast is no better, and his act to spare him was Beast's humanity to what Gaston lacks almost any form of.
Appearances
Beauty and the Beast
Gaston's "proposal"
Gaston is the local hero of a small French village at an unknown point in French history (presumably the late 17th to mid-18th century). He owns a large tavern where he and the villagers drink and talk. Inside, there is a large portrait of him along with "trophies" from his hunt consisting mostly of animal antlers. He also says he eats five dozen eggs every morning to help make him "roughly the size of a barge" (even though he later mentions to Belle that he would have have his latest kills roast over the fire). He starts off in the film pursuing Belle throughout the village as she borrows a book from the local bookstore. Their meeting starts off well, but Gaston's remarks about women reading and thinking drive Belle away from him, and she goes home, leaving him disappointed. The next day, however, Gaston organizes a wedding outside Belle's cottage in an attempt to "surprise" her, complete with modern-era decorations and wedding cake. He forces his way into the cottage and attempts to strong-arm her into marrying him, again making sexist remarks about women and housewifery (he even envisions the home they would live in as a "rustic" hunting lodge, with his latest kill roasting over the fire and Belle massaging his feet while their children—six or seven boys—play on the floor with their dogs). While he attempts to corner Belle, she manages to open the door that he has pinned her against. This causes him to lose his balance and fly headfirst into a large mud pond (complete with cat-tail plants) in front of Belle's cottage, where we find out that a pig is there too. Furious and humiliated, Gaston storms off but not before vowing to make Belle his wife regardless of her refusals and throwing LeFou into the mud to boot.
Gaston strikes a deal with Monsieur D'Arque
Later, during the winter, the villagers in the tavern, along with LeFou, sing a song about Gaston's greatness to cheer him up after being rejected by Belle. Maurice suddenly interrupts and warns the villagers about a monstrous beast who has locked up Belle as a prisoner in the tower of his castle. Thinking he is talking nonsense, the villagers throw him out of the tavern, but Gaston realises that he can use Maurice's outrageous claim to his advantage. In a surprising display of animalistic cunning, he bribes the owner of the local asylum, Monsieur D'Arque, to threaten to throw Maurice into the asylum in order to pressure Belle into marrying him. While D'Arque realises that even Maurice's nonsense about a beast and his odd inventions do not make him insane or dangerous, he is willing to accept the bribe. Considering the management of asylums of the 18th century (the time that the film takes place), this is an extremely harsh threat. However, just before Gaston and LeFou barge into Belle and Maurice's cottage, Maurice left for the castle on his own. LeFou is ordered to stay there and wait for their return.
When Belle and Maurice eventually return to the cottage, LeFou immediately informs Gaston, and he sets his plan into motion. With the villagers gathered outside the house, D'Arque has his men drag Maurice towards their carriage, while Gaston makes Belle his offer - he will clear up the "misunderstanding" if she marries him. Horrified and disgusted, Belle refuses, and Gaston allows Maurice to be dragged away. Belle, however, manages to prove her father's apparently insane claims about a beast inhabiting a huge castle in the woods to be true by using a magic mirror that the Beast had given her. Gaston grows even more frustrated after his plan fails and shocked that Maurice was indeed telling the truth but becomes increasingly jealous when Belle begins referring to the Beast as "kind and gentle," realising that she prefers a "monster" over himself. When he refers to the Beast with this insult, Belle angrily retorts back that he is the real monster which makes him snap.
Gaston's final stand.
In his jealousy and pride, Gaston snatches the mirror from Belle and successfully convinces the villagers that the Beast is a threat to the village and therefore must be brought down immediately. Locking Belle and Maurice in the basement to keep them from warning the Beast, Gaston leads a lynch mob to attack the Beast's castle and leave no one alive. Gaston bypasses the ensuing battle between the rioters and castle servants and confronts the Beast alone. He fires an arrow into him, tosses him out of a window onto a lower section of the roof and taunts him. When Beast doesn't respond, having lost his will to live since Belle's departure (to rescue her lost father, who was searching for her), Gaston uses a makeshift club to try kill the Beast. The Beast, however, regains his strength when he sees Belle return (she had escaped from the basement) and viciously fights back.
Gaston plummeting to his death.
Though roughly even with his adversary, Gaston soon learns that he cannot rely on brute strength alone to kill the Beast, and instead begins taunting him in order to infuriate him enough to let his guard down, pushing the final button by claiming that Belle can never love a monster. The plan works but immediately backfires: the Beast lunges forth, snapping viciously at him, and then holds the terrified hunter at his mercy by holding him above a chasm by the throat. With his life at stake, Gaston abandons his pride and pathetically begs for his life, and the Beast accepts, ordering Gaston to leave immediately and never return. In spite of this, when Gaston sees the Beast embracing Belle, his great hatred and jealousy arises again, which leads to his ultimate downfall. Determined to kill his rival once and for all, Gaston stabs Beast in the side with a knife while dangling precariously from the balcony. The Beast swings his arm backwards in pain, causing Gaston to lose his balance and plunge into the deep chasm, to his death.
Comics
Gaston plays a key role in one of the comics produced by Marvel Comics in 1994, three years after the release of the film. In the story "Has Gaston Finally Won Belle's Hand at Last?", he is holding an auction for his perfect wife. Naturally, he is looking for Belle, and she seemingly comes to him having forgone reading and intelligence for being Gaston's "little wife". It is actually one of the Bimbettes in a clever disguise.[2] He also appears as a child in one issue alongside Belle and the Bimbettes, where he is standing on his sled during a snowy day in an obvious attempt at impressing her before he and the Bimbettes ended up crashing into a tree.
Beauty and the Beast (musical)
Donny Osmond portraying Gaston in Beauty and the Beast on Broadway.
Gaston's role and personality in the musical based on the film is pretty much the same—a pompous, sexist, egotistical, boorish, brutish, brainless and chauvinistic caveman who loves only himself. His ultimate goal is the same too—marry the prettiest girl in town and make her his "little wife" and his "property". Instead of ignoring the Bimbettes like in the film, he pays more attention to them but still wants Belle as his wife, making them very upset (to the point of wailing and crying like infants). During the proposal scene (where there's no wedding party outside unlike the movie), Gaston gives Belle a miniature portrait of himself as a present. In addition to the song Gaston, the song Me is performed by him (in which he conceitedly proposes to Belle). The song is of interest because one verse implies that his feelings for Belle are more than for her looks (he even calls her 'pumpkin' as an endearing appellative), but he never says it outright to her. Like in the movie, he dies after falling off the roof of the Beast's castle, but not before fatally wounding him after arrogantly lying that Belle sent him to the castle to kill him.
Notable actors who have played the role on Broadway include Burke Moses (who originated the role on Broadway and in the original London production), Marc Kudisch, Christopher Sieber, Cody Carlton, and Donny Osmond (singing voice of Li Shang in Mulan). Other actors include Steve Condie.
Sing Me a Story with Belle
Gaston made sporadic appearances in Sing Me a Story with Belle, mostly acting as a comedic foil to Belle. Once again, he is trying to convince Belle to marry him.
House of Mouse
Gaston in House of Mouse.
Despite his death in the movie, Gaston gained a recurring role on House of Mouse as a guest character, once again voiced by Richard White. His most notable appearance, in the episode "Daisy's Debut," had a running gag in which he frequently injected himself into other people's conversations to say that "no one [verbs] like Gaston!" This gag would later go through the entire series and would become a memorable catchphrase for Gaston. Notable examples of this is when Daisy compliments Ariel's singing voice. He walks by and says, "No one sings like Gaston!" Another one is when Timon and Pumbaa are making a face in a spoon. Gaston leans over and says, "No one makes faces in spoons like Gaston!" with an annoyed Timon answering back, "Actually no one asked for the opinion of Gaston!"
Gaston was one of the many villains to join the takeover in Mickey's House of Villains.
Kingdom Keepers
Gaston makes a small cameo in the fourth book of the saga. He is seen along with Prince John and the Horned King when Finn and Amanda see all the Overtakers together at Tom Sawyer Island.
Once Upon a Time
Gaston in Once Upon a Time.
Gaston is featured in the ABC series in a very minor role played by Sage Brocklebank. Here, he was engaged to Belle through an arranged marriage, but just like the film, she did not love him because she found him "shallow." Unlike his Disney counterpart he appears to be more noble and focused, as shown when he expressed concern for Belle's agreement to go with Rumpelstiltskin and when she refused his marriage proposal. He attempted to reclaim her from Rumpelstilskin regardless, but was transformed into a rose and given as a gift to Belle. Gaston hasn't made an appearance in the series since.