Analysis Of Snow White Vs Jane And The Dragon

Disney’s Cinderella demonstrates that, whatever the intention of its makers, modern day fairy tales function in our society as hidden instructions for morals and behaviors that we give children. On the surface, it seems to be a simple story about a young woman whose wishes come true. However, the story also reflects cultural expectations of women’s behaviors and goals and defines expectations of “goodness” for women. Power belongs to men in “Cinderella”, and it is depicted as a female ambition and goal. The storyline describes the rise of the submissive haracter to becoming a Princess; she is portrayed as a passive character who waits for the Prince to come for her. While waiting for her Prince Charming she also bears the mistreatment from her stepmother and stepsisters. While masculine power is taken for granted in the figure of the Prince, becoming his wife is the only way women have to share this power. The

Andrea Dworkin explains women are characterized by beauty, passivity, and innocence. She argues that fairy tales creates stereotypic roles.

Original fairy tales restrict the opportunities of female protagonists, allowing their fate to be controlled by male characters and society’s restrictive expectations of women. Authors such as Perrault of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’ were quick to provide advice to their suggestible female readers in moral that girls should not try to drift from the path that society has laid out for them. Thus they became ‘parables of instruction’ (Carter) to indoctrinate the next generation in the values of a patriarchal society. Fairy tales of this time consistently remind us that those of the female sex will not prosper if they choose to ignore and defy the social constructs. Pre 1900s, the roles of women were entirely predetermined. A clear female dichotomy was established portraying them as either ‘the virgin’ or ‘the whore’. Stereotypical perceptions of women reduced them to biological functions and stated that they should acquire the role of wife and mother – objectified to such an extent where they were essentially their male counterpart’s possession. Both authors scorn the importance placed on domesticity and conformity, stressing the vital nature of being able to choose and uncover the consequences of societal ignorance. Carter highlights to her literary audience a passive generation of women who face the inability to vocalise their thoughts and opinions in the context of oppressive patriarchy. Within her work ‘The Company of Wolves’ “The

Reading fairy tales or seeing them represented has become part of an everyday routine for children. As Baker-Sperry states, “Through interaction that occurs within everyday routines (Corsaro 1997), children are able to learn the rules of the social group in which they are a part” (Baker-Sperry 717-718). For example, through Red Riding Hood, children learn to listen to their parents and to be wary of strangers. Some of these messages are harmful though; not all girls have to be naive and weak while boys are predacious wolves. Not everyone has to play the role that society assigns them.

The original story Little Snow White uses the stereotypical idea that women cannot go out and make money for their families. For example, in the story when the dwarfs first find Snow White living in their home, they make a deal with her in return for her to be able to stay with them: “If you will keep the house for us, and cook, sew, make beds, wash, and knit, and keep everything clean and orderly, then you can stay here.” This agreement isn’t fair. They go out and make money while she does the chores. The stereotype they have shown is that all women can do is stay home and clean. Snow White is forced to stay home and clean the entire house everyday while the men go out into the world and make money. This is how Little Snow White incorporates gender roles and labels into the personality of the female protagonist.

Clarification of her beauty is there to aid the reader in understanding that she is good and valuable. Furthermore, her hair not only symbolizes beauty but fertility and sexuality; proving that she is an object. Once she loses her hair, it is evident that she also loses what makes her of value to men, which in this case is the innocence of her untouched beauty or her virginity (pg. 35). In addition, the story “Little Snow-White,” presents an initial description about Snow-white centered around her beauty: “as white as snow, and as red as blood, and her hair was as black as ebony” (pg. 124). Because of this description, the reader defines Snow-white’s importance with the base of her pure white skin, passionate red lips, and seductive black hair. These three characteristics show the value of Snow-White to the prince, who begs the dwarfs for her coffin. While persuading the dwarfs to give over Snow-white, he attempts to trade objects to compensate the dwarfs (pg. 130). To young women, values defined in fairy tales depict a horrid, demeaning view of

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

In well-known fairy tales the males and females characters are often portrayed in the same light. The male characters are often described as the hero with strong masculine traits while the female characters are portrayed as the damsel in distress. Throughout the years fairytales have been casting the same stereotypes for their characters. In the story Beauty and the Beast the author de beaumont depiction of what an ideal woman is lays in Beauty. She is meant to embody the role of a feminine, humble caretaker, lover, and savior. The author depicts males as provider’s, however, it is clear that the men in the story are dependent on a positive female figure for life. Beauty’s disappearance threatens both her father and beast with death, symbolizing

Perrault perfectly embodies the ideal female cannon in his fairy tale “ The Little Glass Slipper”, the Brothers Grimm also embody this cannon in their tale of “Snow White.” They embody this cannon and its ideal virtues in the character of Snow White, who much like Cinderella is trusting, passive and dependent on the care of the dwarfs and the handsome prince. Snow White’s dependency is first showed when the Brothers Grimm write “Snow White was so beautiful that the huntsman took pity on her and said: ‘Just run away, you poor girl” (84). The Brothers Grimm show that Snow White is not in control of her own life, she has to depend on a man in order to live. During one of the queen’s murder attempts Snow White falls for her tricks and falls as if dead. The Brothers Grimm record that when the dwarfs came home “She didn’t move in the slightest, and they were sure she was dead. They lifted her up, and when they saw that she had been laced too tightly, they cut the staylace in two. Snow White began to breathe, and little by little she came back to life” (86). Through this seen the Brothers Grimm insinuate that females are dependent on men in every -and -which way. By making Snow White dependent on the

But in fact we use the stories that we tell children, and especially those that we tell over and over, to instill messages, to teach cultural norms, to establish the roots of what we hope will be proper behavior as the children grow up. Fairytales are a form of propaganda. The traditional fairytale almost always reflects (and therefore works to reproduce) the power relations of patriarchy; its rigid sexual patterns teach that fear and masochism are tenets of femininity and all of the symbolic inversions that occur are not chances to upset the standard patriarchal hierarchy but are instead ways of maintaining it (Bacchilega, 1997, pp. 50-1).

Once upon a time in a land not so far away, the society of man created the idea that it was a woman’s job to conform to the ideologies generated in fairy tales. From women depending on their prince charmings all the way to romanticized sexual abuse and lack of consent, stories like Cinderella and Snow White radiate sexism within an array of scenes of the stories and films. Not only does this affect the way that men view women, but it has had a relatively negative effect on the ways that many women view themselves. Many fairy tales have made their way into mainstream culture, and today many young girls and boys grow up hearing and seeing the subliminal messages in fairy tales. As more and more fairy tales make their way onto the big screen, it can be seen that all princesses seem to share a common feature other than their crowns and lack of self worth without a man by their side; their tiny waists. In recent years during the 21st century more and more people in the media have been calling out fairy tales for their anti-feminist attitudes with sexism, body standards as well as societal comments about women being dependent on men.

Despite gender, living conditions or cultural backgrounds most people grow up reading or hearing stories of heroism and damsel in distress scenarios. Anne Sexton turns stereotypes on their head in her satirical poems of classic fairy tales, including Snow White and The Seven Dwarves and Cinderella. Snow White and the Seven Dwarves tells the tale of a young princess with hair as black as coal and skin as pale as snow, whose life is thrown into turmoil at the hands of her overbearing stepmother. Cinderella tells the story of a young girl who she spends her life is yearning for the prince’s ball, and similar to Snow White, Cinderella’s stepmother is influencing her life, however she is a positive character throughout the story. This sheds light on the stepmother in Snow White’s piece as despite the fact that Snow White’s stepmother clearly does inherently evil things, a re-reading demands a re-examination of why. It is throughout these tales’ where stepmothers are only trying to protect their children from the world around them, however in Snow White an outside motive, the beauty provided by the mirror and the pride manifested by poison, creates a barrier between the queen and her stepdaughter, thus giving her the title “Evil”.

Children fairy tales are some of the first books we’re introduced to growing up. Typically, the princess is saved by the heroic prince and they lived “happily ever after”. Some may think our life should be like a fairy tales while others don’t. These tales created gender roles in which appeared to be very important. In the Grimm Brothers fairy tale, “Hansel and Gretel”, the parents leave the children in the forest to starve due to not having enough money to buy food in order to sustain life. The children later find a house deep in the woods where an old, evil witch lures them in and tried to eat Hansel and Gretel. They eventually kill the witch and find their way home to their father with no stepmother to be found as she has died while the children were away. In the fairy tale, “Hansel and Gretel” gender and feminist criticism are highlighted throughout the tale by defining characteristics, consequences from their actions, and societal roles and expectations that were both prominent in German history and modern society.

The same is shown for the king. “Now set yourself to work, and if you have not spun this straw into gold by an early hour to-morrow you must die” (Rumpelstiltskin, Grimm 192). This quote shows an innocent girl being threatened by a man that she will die if she does not do what he asks. This man does not get punished, much like the other man, but yet the female who did nothing wrong to start with was about to be punished by having her newborn taken away from her in the story (Rumpelstiltskin, Grimm 193). These portrayals of women as being useless and helpless are solid examples of how people are treated differently depending on gender in fairy tales.

In fairy tales many of the sexist tropes have seeped into our modern day children’s books and movies