Animal Imagery In Fairy Tales

The film Brave, which was released in 2012 is a non-conventional animated film set in the Scottish highlands in the 10th century. Fairy-tales were traditionally passed down orally before being written down by scribes such as the Grimm brothers. They were generally used to teach young girls how to behave in order to do well in life. The majority of fairy tales show obedient young girls who grow up with hardship, but live to marry royalty and live 'happily ever after' because they are beautiful and kind. Many modern fairy tales today are inspired by these, but do not completely adhere to the tradition. Brave is a good example of this. It had modernised the usual conventions of fairy-tales. This is through the protagonist, Merida, the lessons

I chose to analyze the movie “The Princess and the Frog” since I knew how sexist Disney princess movies in the past, such as Cinderella and Snow White and the Seven Dwarves, have been, but also the interesting twists that try to hide sexism in the more modern tales. “The Princess and The Frog” really is a classic Disney love story. Tiana is a woman in New Orleans who dreams of one day running her own popular restaurant along the Mississippi River. Prince Naveen travels to New Orleans with the sole purpose of marrying a rich woman to reclaim his part of his family's fortune. His greed is his downfall when he seeks the services of Dr. Facilier, a voodoo man who turns him into a frog and turns his servant, Lawrence, into the prince. In a chance meeting at a masquerade ball, Tiana and frog Naveen meet. Naveen promises to pay for Tiana's restaurant if she would kiss him to turn him back into a human. Tiana relents, kisses him, and then is also turned into a frog. It is a race against time for them to find a way to turn themselves back into humans.

In Jack Zipes’s paper The Cultural Evolution of Storytelling and Fairy Tales: Human Communication and Memetics, Zipes explores the origins of fairy tales, and how they evolved to be what they are today. Through linking biology and literature, Zipes has been able to solidify fairy tales as not just stories, but as a psychological gene that gets passed on. Zipes then took this alongside a set of criteria derived from historical analyses of literature to clarify what a fairy tale is and isn’t. In the context of the literary work A Tiny Feast by Chris Adrian, the usage of Zipes’s criteria clarify that this story is in fact a fairy tale.

Fairy tales are timeless entities that will always be relevant in people’s lives. Fairy tales and stories offer entertainment, advice, and moral examples. The creation of fairy tales is important in the development of social norms. Children everywhere would read fairy tales and learn from them. As a result, these fairy tales are translated into multiple languages and allows people with different backgrounds to understand and relate to the story. People take these stories and adapt them to life around them. Within these adaptations of the same story, it is normal to observe slight differences that contribute as evidence in identifying the culture or societies in which these stories come from. Whether it is the slang of the dialogue or the change of location, modern producers and writers are known to take these classic stories and adding a significant twist to adjust to their cultural agenda. The movie, The Princess and the Frog, is a modern example of writers and directors creating a modern twist to the popular story of the Brother Grimm’s The Frog King. The Princess and the Frog and The Frog King both encode the mores, values, and beliefs of the cultures of the societies from which they come because, even though they both have similar plot ideas, the differences of the location and the differences of the overall specific plotlines attribute to understanding how their own specific cultures influence the adaptation and the actual story.

At the beginning of the movie, Tiana’s mother, Eudora, tells her and her best friend Charlotte a story while working on a gown for Charlotte. “Sometimes [the] mothers, being obligated to work and having no one at home with whom to leave their children,” was the reason they brought their children to work with them (Paradise,64). The story that the two young girls are being told is about a princess kissing a frog to become a prince, to marry, and live happily ever after. Charlotte says that she would kiss one hundred frogs if she could be a princess and live happy and rich, yet Tiana takes no interest to what her mother says. Tiana says that she will never kiss a frog, for she believes she is capable of finding love without such a silly antic. Charlotte is already wealthy yet she wishes upon stars every chance that she gets, but Tiana does not like to take chances. She would rather work toward her dreams or anything that she would wish for because her father pushed work ethic on her

An animal is any “living organism other than a human being” (OED). When the definition of animals directly divides them from humankind, examples of half-human, half-animal creatures are meaningful yet complicated symbols. A Midsummer Night’s Dream plays with the mystical and supernatural by frequently breaking down the barriers between animals and humans. Fairies are neither human nor animal, and they live in a world, Fairyland, which is separate from and invisible to humans. Considering the definition of animal is anything that is not human, the world of fae is unconsciously rooted in animalistic imagery. This world is also home to other half-human creatures such as satyrs, centaurs, nymphs, mermaids and sprites. A Midsummer Night’s Dream thus highlights and breaks down the barriers between the human and non-human world, and with seemingly little purpose. This essay will analyze the use of animal imagery, particularly through the donkey and serpent, to argue that animal imagery intensifies the emotions of the play, from exaggerating comedic elements to accentuating the dark and nightmarish aspects of Fairyland.

Fairytales, arguably some of the most historical forms of literature, have remained popular throughout the decades. Tales such as “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Beauty and the Beast,” “The Frog King” and “The Swan Maiden,” were originally written between the mid-eighteenth century and mid-nineteenth century. Whether it is the fanciful love-story or the magical transformation which attracts and has kept attention throughout the decades, fairytales, specifically those in which either the protagonist or antagonist undergoes a physical change, teach an important lesson to readers. In this day and age, the media has put so much pressure on particularly young women to look a certain way; what seems to be missing is the idea that physical beauty does not necessarily parallel inner beauty. The theme of transformation in many fairytales serves to portray certain truths about

It has been debated on whether or not the transformation from a slam on a wall to a kiss shows female empowerment in the various versions of “The Frog Prince.” Modern writers have expressed their stance on how the kiss functions within the story to “transform” characters and deliver them to their “happily ever after.” Other implications of the kiss would be it’s ability to serve as a means of empowerment for women and whether it aids to overcome the patriarchy. Robert Coover’s and Joyce Thomas’s versions of “The Frog Prince” offer two contemporary perspectives on the transformation of the “prince” and “princess” and the resulting “happily ever after.” Robert Coover’s

“Juana moved to the entrance and looked out. She peered like an owl from the hole in the mountain …” Page 37

In conclusion, the animal imagery employed in Othello and Maus highlights how racial stereotypes create imbalances. Iago’s abuse of the power of these racial labels conveys his desire to influence Othello and to seek revenge, while ironically hinting at the black stereotypes that reside within Iago himself as a white man. Spiegelman’s unique approach to the Holocaust uses animal depictions in Maus, which sheds light on the inhumanity of many Nazis and the way in which they set out to achieve total power. In both texts, the reduction of man to an animal conveys how racism can cast barriers that allows on force to dominate other and this is the reason why Othello and Maus are destined to transcend their stage and time respectively.

To survive a tragedy such as the Holocaust, one must leave all morals behind and release the animal within them. In novels Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began, by Art Spiegelman, and Night, by Elie Wiesel, both authors use literary devices to exemplify animalistic attributes found within the story. Elie Wiesel uses animal imagery to describe the characters in the novel, Night as opposed to Spiegelman, who uses animal metaphor to represent characters in the graphic novel, Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began. Both novels have their unique ways of symbolizing animals, however, Night is much more effective than its counterpart, Maus II: And Here My Troubles Began. In Night, Elie Wiesel utilizes animal imagery to convey the theme

The Frog King has a lot of symbolism and lessons? Written within it. One of the big things I believe this story was written for was to show the young girls reading it that arranged marriage wasn’t that bad. At first the girl is detested by the frog,but is still forced to honor her promise by her father. She still despises the frog until she either kisses him or is thrown against the wall,depending on the version, and changes into a handsome prince. This just goes to show forced marriages can still turn out good and it isn’t as bad as it first seems. I also believe the gold ball could further symbolize arranged marriage. Gold is often a color that is associated with wealth and the girl looses “her favorite toy” which is the golden ball. I believe in some situations this could show how her family lost their wealth and is marrying the daughter off to a “frog king” to get it back. Similar to how the frog retrieves her golden ball, he returns the wealth to her/ her family.

In fairy tales, female characters are objects, and their value centers around their attractiveness to men. Since fairy tales rely on cultural values and societal norms to teach morals or lessons, it is evident that fairy tales define a woman’s value in a superficial way. Fairy tales teach that, typically, beauty equates to being valuable to men because of their fertility and purity; whereas, ugliness equates to being worthless and evil, including being ruined because of their lack of virginity. Descriptions readers see from fairy tales like “Rapunzel,” and “Little Snow-White” revolve around the women’s, or girl’s, physical appearance, and both stories play out to where the women remain in a state of objectification. In addition, they are damsels

For example, with the fairy tale, the frog prince approaches the young princess and asks her if she would like her golden ball and prized possession returned to her, but the frog is sneaky and strategic in his request for her hand in marriage. Furthermore, although the text concludes with a beautiful prince and princess, who live ‘happily ever after’, this conclusion in and during the 19th century would not have been appropriate. Thus, the frog is an

Classic literature will always be remembered and retold over the generations as life lessons and morals that we try to live by. These morals are often used to help children learn these guiding values and morals. These lessons are presented to us as fairy tales and movies or cartoons for children. We never realize or ponder, “where did that moral come from?” or should I say, “who originally created this fable and life lesson that I am watching unfold in a Disney movie?” A fable is short and witty written piece and is deeply riddled with certain messages or lessons using, but not limited to, tales of animals. Fables were for adults but through time have been woven into everyone’s’ childhood. Fables, ghost stories, and urban legends are modern day fairytales or fables. Just as “The Grasshopper and The Ant” and “Tortoise and the Hare” were spread by oral tradition, urban legends and morals are spread in the same manner; thus creating contemporary folklore often with a moral sting in the tail. While it’s true that urban legends are still told while sipping hot chocolate and roasting marshmallows at a campfire, others are spread through classics movies like Walt Disney animation.