If Belle has a character flaw, it's constantly wanting to go where she ought not go because she wants adventure in the great, wide...somewhere.
She doesn't know where. Doesn't have a clear idea. Can't even describe her "dreams." Just "more." She wants "more."
And then she gets it--enchanted castle, new friends, danger, mysteries to unravel--and what does she want? She wants to see her father. What's more...homey, and familiar, and not-adventure-in-the-great-wide-somewhere, than that?
Belle's two moments of big (positive) decision-making are "Take me, instead," and "Of course I came back!"
Both were decisions not to go exploring, looking for some vague exciting something--instead, to give up the chance at "Out There" and "Come back, stay," instead.
She picks self-sacrificial love over "freedom," self-sacrificial love over "more, for myself," and it is always ultimately rewarded. Giving up oneself for others IS the true adventure, it IS MORE.
"For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it; but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it." Matthew 16:24
...I know the writer, and the songwriter, were trying to infuse their worldviews into this story. They couldn't have helped it. And they did their best—Belle wants "more" than what society has planned, I.e. the biggest self-sacrifice of all, marriage...it's that age-old struggle any time a group of people get together to do something, between Truth and Lies, between Good and Evil, between Right & Wholesome Ideas and Corrupt Ideas...but the writer and the songwriter didn't win out. Their ideas aren't the ones that made this story work. Their ideas aren't the ones that won out. Glen Keane, Mark Henn—the followers of Truth infused truth into this story and that's what won out. Belle is not a character who champions selfish ambition, she's a character who champions self-sacrifice. Good always wins.
