Some thoughts

[butterflydreaming]

 While on a stinky bus earlier today I characterized the odor as a beastly smell. That got me thinking, in beauty & the beast tales, the beast is presented as frightening and having a rough personality, but we are never shown a revulsion to his smell. Stink doesn't play in at all. 

How much more pitiful, someone who feels of musk and unwashed body! Imagine the beauty, even one accustomed to horses and dogs, having to eat dinner in the company of a host who smells like his curse. The beast would smell as bad as he does out of despair. (Why bother acting like a man when he looks like a beast. Also, the smell of sadness.) But even after hope kindles, and he tries to be less a beast by washing (and perfumes?) he would still have the animal smell.

I think this would tie in that much more strongly with the rose, having the rose's scent as a counterpoint. First, the beauty would open the castle to fresh air, dispersing the smells of mildew and beast, and letting in the perfume of the rose garden. Then the smell of the (clean) beast would become familiar. Then some smell could trigger the homesickness that sends her back to her father.

Comments

[mimerki]

Isn't there a version in Grimm's where the transformed prince is a bear and the sisters comment how his fur smells like honey? Or did I make that last part up? (The prince is definitely a bear in Snow White and Rose Red. I just don't know if the fur smelling like honey is really in Grimm or if it's in some other re-telling or if I just made that part up as a kid.)

[butterflydreaming]

I don't recall ever seeing that. ^_^

[buhrger]

this is now my headcanon :-)

acclimation

[erisreg]

i had some friends who lived a stones throw from a refinery, when i commented on the "methane" smell they said they couldn't smell it, they also lived with four dogs which they "couldn't smell",..

i have a hedge of rosa-rugosa, it naturally smells a bit musky, some people see the rose and comment that it smells "rough",.. it's a wild rose but it's oil (which i extract ) has little of the musk edge,..

i suppose it's what your used to, as much as anything..

[free_to_dream]

I always did picture the Beast as smelling like a buck goat-- a kind of sweet yet stinky, musky odor. Some people get quite used to the stink of those bucks, but I never did. Of course, I am quite turned off by the odor of most human males as well :P