In the fairytale Beauty and the Beast, a father has a beautiful daughter, Belle. Unlike her egoic sisters, Belle is kind and selfless. The father suffers calamity. During this period he encounters a beast who threatens to kill him unless one of his daughters comes willingly to live with him. When Belle discovers this, she insists on going to live with the beast. She is terrified, but eventually her fear turns to love which breaks the curse, turning the beast back into a prince. They live happily ever after.
Imagine that the father, Belle and the beast are all one person: you. The father represents your adult self. Belle represents your beautiful inner child. And the beast represents your base, animal nature.
To be human is to experience the inescapable situation that's fictionalised through this story. No matter how much we try to bury it in the shadows, we are the beast. And the deeper we try to bury it away, the more tormented and distressed it becomes. But we are also the beautiful child, who comes here with the precious gift of love. Our job as the adult is to recognise and figure out how to unite these two, seemingly opposite, sides of ourself.
The story holds all the clues. And "happily ever after" is code for enlightenment.