In Disney’s 2014 production Maleficent, a beautiful fairy falls in what she thinks is love with a human boy. On her sixteenth birthday he gave what he called “true love’s first kiss”, and Stefan's ambition got in the way of him and her having a relationship together. Stefan being a human fell in the ways of the normal, and carried on with not visiting Maleficent in the moors, Maleficent grew angry and confused more and more each day. Some people can argue that Maleficent is an evil person, or even a good character. In this particular film Maleficent is both. All though she did many villainous things, her heroic things outweigh her villainous things.
For example, one of the heroic acts that Maleficent performs is when she saved Aurora from
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She feels she needs to get revenge on Stefan for leaving her alone. So she could be thought out as an evil villain, but there is more. She heard about King Stefan’s new baby from her “wings”, also being a crow she saved from a farmer killing. Maleficent thought this was the right time to seek her revenge, so she went to the palace and placed a curse on baby princess Aurora, “The princess will indeed grow in grace and beauty, and beloved by all who meet her. But before the sunsets on her sixteenth birthday she will prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and fall into a sleep almost like death, a sleep from which she will never awaken...etc The princess can be awoken from her death sleep, but only by true love’s kiss…” Maleficent realizes that true love’s kiss doesn’t exist so she planned it all out as a mischievous proposal… or so she thought.
To resolute Maleficent was in fact both villainous and heroic from all of the things she did the reader can definitely tell that her good “deeds” (I guess it could be said that way),outway her bad things. When she saved Aurora from falling off a cliff and when she tries to lift the curse multiple times that was acts of heroism. When she cast out the curse on the baby princess, that was an act of evil. So there seems to be NO way to debate that she is not both villainous and
Although the fairytale does a good job at separating male and female roles. It is clear that the creation of Snow White and the Evil Queen are quite different (as far as stereotypes go). Snow White, having typical feminine stereotype, is portrayed as gentle, kind, sensitive, and dependent by not being able to protect herself from the Evil Queen. On the other hand, the Evil Queen is more masculine because she is aggressive, independent, insensitive and cruel because of her confrontations with Snow
Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, and many other Disney movies all have one thing in common, they feature a female lead who needs a male figure to save them. However, things started to change after the release of Mulan in 1988. Movies that were only representing female leads as weak and always needed to rely on someone, started to feature females who showed off their more masculine side. Mulan was one of the first animated films that had started to dive into that, not to mention it was based on a true story, making it even more powerful. In the article “Post-Princess Models of Gender: The New Man in Pixar/Disney”, authors Ken Gillam and Shannon R. Wooden explore Pixar movies show male characters who were not afraid to show their emotions
By making the other princes fail in their quest to save the princess, it made the princes rescue seem effortless and flawless. The only thing he had to do was kiss the beautiful Briar Rose to break the spell. “As soon as he kissed her, Briar-rose opened her eyes and awoke” (Grimm). One of the genre characteristics at work here is the presence of magic. He was able to break through the magic sleeping curse just by using a simple kiss. Fairy tales let us see the that when the hero fixes the big issue, even by doing the simplest thing, everything will be great
Heroes can be anyone who set there mind to it. One woman can be a heroine to all the
Disney’s 1998 classic tale, Mulan, is renowned as a timeless film, one that inspires young girls everywhere. It is by far the most girl-power filled film in the Disney Princess franchise due to its eponymous heroine who goes to war in place of her father by impersonating a male soldier. Not only does she singlehandedly save the whole country of China, but she also manages to get a husband in the process, with whom she lives happily ever after. Although this sounds like the perfect tale of girl power, some more sinister themes lay beneath the innocuous, picturesque surface.
In the article Construction of the Female Self: Feminist Readings Of the Disney Heroine, Jill Birmie Henke, Diane Zimmerman Umble, and Nancy J. Smith are looking at the female self and how it was developed based on two theories: Standpoint by Parker Follet and the psychological development of girls by Gilligam. That by examines gender identity especially girls and how media exposure affects them through analyzing five of Disney movies: Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, The little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Pocahontas. They segmented the article into three titles: The Oxymoron of Power and the Perfect Girl where they introduced the two theories in which they built their critic on, Construction of the Female Self where they talk about the evolution in the female character from Cinderella to Pocahontas, and Construction of Self in Relation to Others where they talk about the evolution of the self in relation to others from power-over to power-with until power-to. Finally they concluded that even if the female character in Disney’s movies was changing to become more
A Midsummer Night’s Dream, by William Shakespeare, is a play that illustrates a good picture of woman’s lack of freedom. It is a story of several couples, among which there is a fairy king, Oberon, who proves his sovereignty over the queen of the fairies, Titania. The two have an ongoing conflict about who should keep the Indian boy, whose mother had recently died. Titania doesn’t want to give him up because she and the boy’s mother knew each other very good; whereas Oberon has no relations to the boy, but really wants him as a servant. Ultimately, Oberon wins the boy by using a trick of his on Titania, revealing her weakness. Shakespeare uses Oberon to show this power of man over woman and to expose woman’s unheard, meaningless, and feeble opinions through Titania. In several scenes throughout the play, the female character, Titania, struggles to do as she desires; however, Oberon takes things under his control and helps to portray the female as weaker than the male.
Everyone knows and loves the enchanting childhood fairytales of magic, princes, and princesses, but very seldom are privy to the detrimental impacts of “happily ever after” on the developing youth. Fairy tales are widely studied and criticized by parents and scholars alike for their underlying tone and message to children. Peggy Orenstein, feminist author, mother, and fairy tale critic, has made it her personal mission to bring these hidden messages to the surface. In the article, “What’s Wrong with Cinderella?” Orenstein dissects the seemingly innocent tale of love and magic, and the princess many know and love, and points out its flaws and dangers. Fairy tales, Cinderella in particular, are not suitable for children because upon deeper evaluation,
Because the pointed cape implies motion, Maleficent looks as if she is ready to pounce on Sleeping Beauty or grab her immediately after she touches the spindle. It shows that Maleficent is in suspense and on the edge of her feet waiting for Sleeping Beauty to touch the spindle.
In a society unbridled with double standards and set views about women, one may wonder the origins of such beliefs. It might come as a surprise that these ideals and standards are embedded and have been for centuries in the beloved fairy tales we enjoyed reading as kids. In her analytical essay, “To Spin a Yarn: The Female Voice in Folklore and Fairy Tales”, Karen Rowe argues that fairy tales present “cultural norms which exalt passivity, dependency, and self-sacrifice as a female’s cardinal virtues.” Rowe presents an excellent point, which can be supported by versions of the cult classics, “Cinderella” and “Snow White”. Charles Perrault’s “ The Little Glass Slipper” and the Brothers Grimm’s “ Snow White” exemplify the beliefs that females are supposed to be docile, dependent on the male persona and willing to sacrifice themselves. In many cases, when strong female characters are presented they are always contradicting in these characteristics, thus labeled as villainous. Such is the case of the Cinderella’s stepsisters in Perrault’s “Cinderella” and the stepmother in the Brothers Grimm’s “Snow White.” These female characters face judgment and disapproval when they commit the same acts as male characters. With such messages rooted in our beloved fairy tales it is no wonder that society is rampant with these ideals about women and disapprove of women when they try to break free of this mold.
Fairy tales are given a bad reputation because of the mature themes in them. "Are Gory Fairy Tales an Evil?" notes that, "Parents and educators . . . have been troubled by the stories of blood, cruelty, revenge, and murder that are included in our fairy-tales. . . . Many stories set forth in grotesque form stories of ill-will, deception, robbery, and murder--even cannibalism," (285). These critics fail to mention the positive themes such as, justice, love, identity, honesty, and acceptance. Most stories have negative situations. There would not be much to a story if everything in it were good. What makes these stories so spectacular is what the characters must overcome or realize in order to have their happy ending. In the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, a prince was transformed into a beast by a fairy because he was cruel. He was turned into a beast so that he would have to learn how to be nice so that maybe one day someone could fall in love with him even though he was hideous. If that were to happen, the spell would be broken (Goldenburg and Killion 6). The imaginative part of this story, with the spell and enchantment of the castle, takes the readers to a place where they can imagine and dream of things they may have never dreamt about before. This story also demonstrat...
For instance, Sleeping Beauty. Aurora literally falls asleep, and does absolutely nothing whilst the prince tries to save her. Additionally, Cinderella does nothing for herself in her film. She conforms to being a slave in her own household, her MICE maker her a dress she that couldn’t make herself, and when that doesn’t go well she just sits and cries until a fairy godmother shows up and gives her a dress so she can go to the ball. And if that wasn’t enough, Cinderella didn’t even have enough courage to tell the prince who she really was, and just waits until he comes to her house to save her. Cinderella is so dependent on other people to save her that she does nothing for herself in the movie.
It tells the story of Princess Aurora, King Florestan's daughter. The fairies have been invited to Aurora's christening, and each one in turn dances and gives a magic present. However, the wicked fairy, Carabosse, interrupts the ceremony and is furious that she wasn't invited. She announces that one day Aurora will prick her finger on a spindle and die. Everyone is horrified, but the Lilac fairy still has her present to give. She modifies the spell so Aurora will not die, but will fall asleep and be woken only by a prince's kiss. At her 16th birthday party, princess Aurora pricks her finger on a spindle brought by Carabosse in disguise and, with the whole court, falls asleep for 100 years. Prince Florimund, with the help of the Lilac fairy. Makes his way through the enchanted forest to awaken Aurora with a kiss. At Princess Aurora and Prince Florimund's wedding, the fairies dance and celebrate with Puss in Boots and Red Riding Hood.
Disney and old fairytales threaten gender politics and ideal women roles by giving certain stereotypes for domestic and personality traits. Fairytales that have turned into Disney productions have sculpted domestic roles for women that consist of cooking, cleaning and caring for the children. Disney has also created these princesses with personalities that are shy, passive, and vulnerable. The cause of these stereotypes are making individuals obliterate their own identities and becoming clones from the mold that was prepared for
is viewed. Many things that a person can do can be constituted as heroic helping someone in