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Project gender roles in fairy tales
Feminism in fairy tales
Project gender roles in fairy tales
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The differences between Grimm’s version of “Snow White” and Anne Sexton’s poem, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs,” reflects how society sees women. To start, in Anne Sexton’s version the step-mother is the “fairest of us all” until Snow White turns 13. Then, in stanza 2 line 19 Snow White is “fairer than you [the step-mother],” whereas before Snow White is “no more important than a dust mouse under the bed” (stanza 4 line 6). In Grimm’s version of “Snow White,” Snow White’s mother declares her beauty while she is young; Snow White is “as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as the wood of the window-frame” (pg. 124). The difference in stories shows the significance of women becoming valuable around the time they hit puberty, which supports
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
Both “Lessons from a Mirror” by Thylias Moss and “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” by Anne Sexton provide a unique dialogue with the Snow White masterplot. Both works demonstrate how feminine beauty ideals and assumed purity are inextricably linked to a woman's inherent worth. Sexton accomplishes this while still remaining fairly in line with the masterplot yet her overall tone suggests disapproval of these ideals making her piece read almost as a satire, something that uses humor as a way to criticize a topic. Moss' tone also reads as disapproving but provides more of a response to the masterplot rather than following it, creating a strong feeling of tension in the piece. These two works provide versions of the Snow White tale which manage to relate to the masterplot while also forming a critique of it.
The Glass Slipper Fairytales, the short stories that most children hear as they go to bed, are actually folktales from previous decades. The fairytales today are primarily adaptations of older versions recreated by Disney— the pioneers of this generation. With that said, the modern versions consistently display good triumph over evil, a prince charming that constantly comes to the rescue, and a happily ever after ending. However, the original folktale version didn’t always come with fortunate events, but often were more violent and gruesome. With the fairytale Cinderella, Disney maintains a similar theme as its Grimm version; however, the conflicts, events, and characters that support this idea are rather different.
Over centuries of children have been enjoying the classic fairy tales of the Grimm Brothers and Charles Perrault. The fanciful plots and the vivid details allow children to be entranced by characters and adventures that can only be found in these stories. One of the most beloved fairy tales, which both the Perrault and the Grimms have their own separate versions of, is Cinderella. Cinderella is able to show how both versions are able to feed off the same plots while personifying the century and social economic situation in which they have lived.
Grimm wrote “Snow White” with the intention of socializing children of Germany. Grimm had specific goals with his writing, and when Disney adapted “Snow White,” certain aspects of the tale were changed. Disney sought to showcase the utopian society which he hoped his interpretation of the fairy tale would create. This utopian society which Disney wished to create showed a regression in the realm of storytelling. Instead of focusing on character development and morals, focus was placed on showcasing film techniques. Furthermore, the changes that Disney implemented from Grimm’s version showed a change in the hero of the work. This is especially seen in the comparison of Grimm’s “Snow White” and Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.
This characterization of the woman shows how she overpowers her husband, as opposed to the first wife (Snow White’s mother) who is characterized as being obedient and “sitting and sewing by a window with a black ebony frame” (Grimm 249). This characterization contrasts starkly with the dominant woman who plays the archetype of the evil stepmother. The original mother’s wishes came true as she wished for “a child as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as the wood of the window frame” (Grimm 249). In this imagery, we are given a color palette that represents a beautiful woman (pale white skin, red rosy cheeks and black ebony hair). Anne Sexton never offers a description of Snow White’s real mother, perhaps showing the reader how it is less important whether the mother is evil or good, but rather how the stepmother and daughter relationship became muddled by the fear the stepmother had to have beauty surpass her own.
Through the many years the Grimm brothers were alive, an array of children's literature was produced. Actually, the correct term would be reproduced. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were masters at reproducing and even changing early children's stories so that they had more meaning for the children of the time. More times than not, they censored out sexual meanings and added violence to children's stories that had already been told for centuries. By doing so, the brothers got an effect out of the story that would change it from a story with a subtle theme or moral, to a vivid story of lessons to be learned and consequences to be dealt with. There was one thing about their' writing that was always constant, which was the message they wanted to portray. They often gave stories more than one theme and a lot of the time there were similarities between all the messages. No matter whether the story had a positive or negative story line one message was always the same, children should use their brains to overcome any situation.
In the original Little-Snow White by the Grimms brothers and the readapted Disney version, the stepmother
Over the years, Snow White’s story has been told in numerous different versions then its original version in 1812 by the Grimm Brothers. The main basis of the story has remained the same. Only a few minor tweaks to the story have changed. The three versions of the story that are going to be analyzed are the original story “Little Snow White” by the Brothers Grimm, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” by Disney, and “Mirror, Mirror” by Disney also. They each were created in very different times and the original story has changed over the years to appeal to the audience of that time. No matter how many versions there are Snow White is considered, one of the most cherished fairy tales of all time. They each use different methods to get their story across by using different colors, word usage, and scenes.
There are hundreds of German tales that denote active collaboration. This defines the culture as tight-knit and collaborative in all their efforts. There is, “The Bremen Town Musicians”, “The Seven Ravens”, the “Six Who Made Their Way”, “The Three Little Gnomes in the Forest” and the famous seven dwarfs from “Snow White”. There are tons of examples on how the culture is one of collaboration, where the community helps each other out in the worse of all conditions, and where participation is almost a given. We have forgotten one small fact here, though. The collaboration often happens among men.
Carolyn Turgeon wanted to explore what would happen if Rapunzel grew up to be Snow White’s evil stepmother. This Rapunzel was so different from the lighthearted Rapunzel we saw in Rapunzel Untangled. This Rapunzel is selfish, evil, and jealous. She killed Snow White’s mother, so that she could marry the King and become Queen. Before Rapunzel became queen she was trapped in a tower with her sorceress, Mathena. Mathena taught her to distrust men and she grew up knowing that Mathena was not her real mother. Rapunzel got pregnant before she met the king. She miscarried and had to bury her son. This is what leads her to be increasing jealous of Snow White. In this fairy tale Carolyn Turgeon tried to think what would happen if the princess did not live happily ever after. Rapunzel was not happy with her position as a step-mother and her marriage. She liked the control she was given by being queen. The first half of the story has many elements of the traditional fairy tale as Rapunzel explains how her and Mathena came to live in the tower, how she didn’t have contact with the outside world, and her journey to becoming pregnant. The second half of the novel was a mixture of the fairy tale of Snow White and Rapunzel. The opening and close of this novel was gentle following the normal theme of a fairy tale. There was not much repetition in this story. The law of two still held true for this novel, as Rapunzel would
A lot of the fairy tale stories that we have seen as young adults and even as adults are original folk tale stories that have been modified and rewritten to accommodate our new cultures. Cinderella happens to be one of these stories that have been changed over the years. There are many different versions of Cinderella, an African Cinderella, a Hungarian Cinderella and even a Chinese version. All of the Cinderella’s are similar in plot, but the author dictates the story’s theme based on the people whom he is writing for which completely changes the story’s tone, mood and other elements. While Perrault's version stresses the values and materialistic worries of his middle-class audience, Grimm’s' focus is on the harsh realities of life associated with the peasant culture. Perrault’s and Grimm’s Cinderella’s have the same plot, but their writing style is different which completely modifies the tale.
For example in the Disney film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, After Snow White finds the little cottage in the woods her immediate reaction is to clean the house for the owners of the house, Snow White says upon arrival “we’ll clean the house and surprise them, then maybe they’ll let me stay” snow white believes that she will get keep if she cooks and cleans because that’s what disney believes women do, Snow White then goes on to say “and if you let me stay i’ll keep house for you, i’ll wash, sew, sweep, cook…” she bargains with the dwarfs to be able to stay in their cottage by cooking and cleaning for them but she is practically becoming their maid.
Are girls powerless? And do men control their lives? The story Snow White and the Seven Dwarves by Grimms’s Brothers, is a story about a girl who was born into beauty, which leads her step mother to be jealous to commit horrible crimes to become the fairest of them all. Snow White is given another chance because she can get married to a man that admires her beauty. In the story “Snow White” girls are represented as if they don’t have any control over their lives; in the story men are given most of the power, Snow White is a powerless protagonist, and her problems with beauty make her hated by her step mother. Snow White is manipulated and controlled by men in her life and can’t do anything about it because
Snow White “hides away in the woods waiting for someone to rescue her”. (Nagi, 2014) She couldn’t stand up for herself. It was supposed for women to live for a man. They didn´t have a life or dreams of their own. Young girls were thought that the only