Grimm's Fairy Tales [Day 1]

1. The Disnefication of the Tales

After reading these fairy tales, I find it very strange that some of these stories have become Disney-fied. Disney has done an excellent job of toning down the horror of some of these stories, but the more I thought about it, the more shocked I was that they would make these stories into movies for children. Out of the ten stories for today, I thought that "The Frog Prince", "Briar Rose", and "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" had become the most Disney-fied.

"The Frog Prince" was the one most recently made into a Disney movie ("The Princess and the Frog", or whatever it was). I have not seen it, but I'd imagine it couldn't be so bad, because the story itself is not as chilling as the others. The princess lies to the frog to get her way and then refuses to be his companion, but the worst part in the entire story was near the end, right before the frog turned back into a prince. "This speech put the King's daughter in a terrible passion, and, catching the Frog up, she threw him with all her strength against the wall, saying, 'Now, will you be quiet, you ugly Frog!'" (pg 17). I'm not the biggest fan of frogs and other such creatures, but animal cruelty in any sort of way really bothers me.

It took me a moment to realise that "Briar Rose" was actually "Sleeping Beauty", until I remembered an old book I had that told the story but first referred to the princess as Briar Rose. This story was probably the saddest of the Disney movies, because the poor girl has to sleep for all those years. As I read, I thought back on the movie, and it just occurred to me now how scary Maleficent actually was. She had that horrible strange headpiece, and was generally creepy. It's funny how we don't notice things like that when we're younger.

I have the biggest problem with "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs" as a Disney movie. Snow White is only seven, and yet her stepmother is already so jealous of her that she has to have her killed. "Her envy and jealousy increased so that she had no rest day or night, and she said to a Huntsman, 'Take the child away into the forest, I will never look upon her again. You must kill her, and bring me her heart and tongue for a token" (180). That is supremely horrible of someone to do to a poor seven year old. How is she supposed to fend for herself in the forest? Most people aren't so lucky as to stumble upon the cottage of seven little men. And furthermore, what cautious woman would ever stay in an unknown man's cottage? The Disney version leaves out the fact that Snow White is a girl and depicts her as an older, more mature 'maiden'. The movie also happens to conveniently leave out that the witch tries to take Snow White's life two times before the apple, and also fails to mention that the Prince doesn't rescue her with a kiss - he begs for her coffin "'for I cannot live without Snow-White'", and while it is being carried to the castle, the piece of poisoned apple pops out of her throat. The real tale is clearly not as glamorous as Disney wants us to believe.

I think that Disney has helped these stories become 'internationalized' because, honestly, what girl doesn't want to be a princess? I spent countless hours when I was younger parading around in my aunt's old bridesmaids dresses and hideous 80s prom gowns and wearing my grandmother's wedding tiara. I even had a princess birthday party in the first grade, and everyone had to come dressed as a princess (even my little sister, who was only 3 at the time). Even still I wonder what it would be like to be royalty, to have fancy balls and meet princes. But if our mothers had read the actual fairy tales to us when we were little, there would be a much smaller number of girls who wanted to be a princess. I was an avid reader as a child, and read basically everything, but if I had read any of the real stories (and not the watered-down picture books), I would have had nightmares for weeks. I'm still afraid of the dark now, and I can only imagine what reading about a stepmother eating her daughter's heart would have done to me.

I think these stories have become universal because there is no one setting for them. The Brothers Grimm don't come right out and say, 'This story took place in the German wilderness'. We can assume the setting is in Germany, but they could technically be set anywhere we wanted. Also, the stories are fanciful and entertaining. There are princesses across the world, and every girl has at least once dreamed of becoming one herself, or meeting one. I also think the main theme across these stories is that the good always succeed. Snow White lives, and ends up with the Prince. The King's daughter, after she smashes the frog into the wall, lives happily ever after with him. And, of course, Briar Rose is awakened by the Prince, and lives happily ever after. Although no one can always live happily ever after, as we would like, the stepmothers are shut down and the poor princess comes out with the victory.

2. The Function of Gender, As It Applies to Women

I'm going to take a slightly different path with this question. I understand that men have a role in these stories too, but I feel the roles for women are much more restricted. I also feel that women often get a negative association in these tales. The three stories, in my opinion, that highlight the role(s) women play are "The Twelve Brothers", "Little Red Riding Hood", and "The Handless Maiden". And, obviously, any story with a wicked stepmother falls into this discussion.

There are clearly only four roles a female can play in these tales: maiden in distress, a banished girl, an evil, jealous stepmother, or a witch. In "The Twelve Brothers", the sister is really given an unfair and difficult position. "One day the King said to his consort, 'If the thirteenth child, whom you are about to bring into the world, should be a girl, then shall the twelve boys die, that her riches may be great, and that the kingdom may fall to her alone'" (pg 38). How unfortunate would it be to be that daughter? She's basically being doomed, by her own father, from birth. She goes out to save her brothers, and then ends up being sentenced to 7 years of silence because she makes a mistake and changes her brothers into crows. Of course, she narrowly escapes burning to death and the story ends with a happily ever after. "Little Red Riding Hood" is one of the scariest tales that any child would read. You think you're going to see your grandmother, and you walk in the house and become lunch for a wolf. Little Red is younger than the typical princess, which makes it a little scarier I think. In "The Handless Maiden", the girl is forced to have her hands cut off and wander the world. "Thereupon she laid down both her hands, and her father cut them off" (pg 115).

The term 'fairy tale', in my opinion, implies the female gender. In our culture, no man wants to be referred to as a fairy, because it has come to have a seemingly negative connotation. We also never see fairies depicted as men. For example, we have Cinderella's Fairy GodMOTHER, not godfather. We also have the tooth fairy, who is always depicted as a woman. We have come to accept that if you are a fairy, you must also be a woman.

I think women are given a negative depiction in many of these stories because throughout history, women have consistently been given negative roles. We, because of Eve, are still CLEARLY the reason why men make mistakes and are lead astray, and we use our womanly enchantments to do this (because OBVIOUSLY we all possess the magical abilities of casting spells and enchantments on innocent men). When a woman is given male freedoms, like Chaucer's Wife of Bath, she is looked down upon as rebellious. These stories do not exactly help the image of women. Yes, the Brothers included the Evil One, who comes as a man, but they also have the stepmother-witch who tries to take Snow-White's life three times, and also the old woman who lets Briar Rose prick her finger on the spindle. Even the acts of these evil women are gross. For example, the stepmother in Snow White: "The Queen meanwhile, supposing she had eaten the heart and tongue of her daughter-in-law, did not think but that she was above all comparison the most beautiful of every one around" (pg 182).