Belinda is upper class, high-strung and conceited. She is lovely and used to being told she is beautiful. She is the type of girl one would expect to have "a favorite curl". When she hears of the party where her curl will meet its doom, she is reluctant to go, but she can not stand not being there to be admired, so she goes anyway.
She is used to being the center of attention. She enjoys flirting, but until the Baron becomes one of her beaus, she never really entertains the idea of giving in to love and marriage. Neglecting Ariel's (her fairy guardian in charge of her hair) advice to beware of all men, she plays cards flirtingly with two suitors, the Baron being one of them. The Baron is aided by Clarissa, a jealous "friend" of Belinda's who slips him the scissors with which to steal the curl.
Belinda, usually well behaved as society girls are, flies into one of the most outrageous rages ever recorded. She goes so far as to throw snuff in the Baron's face and to stab him with her hat pin. Ouch!
However much she rages, he at first will not return the lock of hair and then, having lost it, can not return it. Belinda's usual vanity and pride return, however, when someone says she saw where the lock of hair went...it traveled to the stars and was made into a constellation where everyone for eternity can admire its beauty.
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