'Briar Rose And Charles Perrault's' Sleeping Beauty In The Wood?

Most modern fairytales are expected to have happy endings and be appropriate for children, nonetheless, in past centuries most were gruesome. Consequently, fairytales have been modified throughout time. The stories “Beauty and the Beast” by Jeanne-Marie LePrince de Beaumont and “The Summer and Winter Garden” by Jacob and Wilherm Grimm share similarities and differences. The two stories are distinct because of the peculiar year they have been written in. LePrince de Beaumont’s story is written in London of 1783 and Grimm’s in Germany of 1812. At the time, wealthy people in London, were educated and had nannies who would read to their children; whereas, in Germany, the Grimm brothers created their own interpretation into a short story.

Fairy tales have existed for years, some starting as oral stories for decades before ever being recorded on paper. These tales continue to hold an importance in the present such that they reflect the changes in time and progression of thought and ideas. Over time, many fairy tales are retold for various reasons including reforming them to be used for new audiences to make the story more relatable or to convey a different point of view to various specific audiences. This can be seen in various renditions; Andrew Anderson’s Shrek can be compared to Steig’s “Shrek!” and Perrault’s “Sleeping Beauty in the Wood” and evaluated as a retelling of either based on specific criteria. Although some may argue that William Steig’s “Shrek!” appears more closely similar to Anderson’s Shrek, as evaluated from the presence of similar characters, general plot structure, and targeted audience, the movie Shrek is more closely a retelling of Charles Perrault’s “Sleeping Beauty in the Wood.”

In the folktale “The Blue Beard” written by Charles Perrault, conforms to both Dworkin’s and Lurie’s representations of fairy tale heroines. Perrault states, “The fatal effects of curiosity, particularly female curiosity, have of course long seen the subject of report” (133). Andrea Dworkin author of “Women Hating” and Alison Lurie author of “Don’t Tell the Grown-Ups” explain their different views regarding the heroines in fairy tales.

In The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood by Charles Perrault, the message is quite different. This version is gruesome and should not be watched by children. This version of the tale could be viewed that killing is okay if a person does not like someone or is jealous of something that person has. Cannibalism and killing are the two main themes in this version of Sleeping Beauty. It is clear that that this fairytale was made for people who enjoy reading gruesome stories.

More specifically this tale takes place in the Victorian Era, in which many of the characters do not reflect the values that were taught open them this time period. Where aggressive and dominating behavior is seen as masculine, and sensitive and submissive acts are considered feminine, Carroll paints a picture of a society where these qualities are switched. The Victorian Era was a strict time for women, where they were expected to act “proper” at all times, especially in public and in the presence of men, emphasizing that a woman was expected to be innocent and almost completely arrogant of intellectual opinion at all times. Additionally, Charles Perrault’s “Sleeping Beauty in the Wood”, demonstrates the traditional expectations upon males at the time, portraying masculine characteristics through the prince. He is shown as a power figure, as his relationship with sleeping beauty expresses his need for dominance as she is the damsel in distress. The tale reads, “A young and gallant prince is always brave, however; so he continued on his way, and presently reached a large forecourt” (Perrault 51). Due to the expectation of bravery, independence and assertiveness upon males, the prince had saved the princess from the 100-year slumber, satisfying his masculinity. Furthermore, an English poet named,

As a child, I was told fairytales such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs every night before I went to sleep. Fairytales are an adventurous way to expand a child’s imagination and open their eyes to experience a new perspective. Modernizations of fairytales typically relate to a specific audience, such as adolescence, and put a contemporary spin on the old-aged tale. Instead of using whimsical themes heavily centered in nature, the contemporary poems connect with the reader in a more realistic everyday scenario. Also, many modernizations are written in poetic form to help reconstruct a flow in the piece and to develop or sometimes completely change the meaning from that of the original fairytale. Comparing Grimm’s Fairytale Snow White

The tradition of telling fairy tales to children effects not only the listener but also the reader. Maria Tatar, in her book Off with Their Heads!, analyzes how fairy tales instill and reaffirm cultural values and expectations in their audience . Tatar proposes that fairy tales fall into three different tale-types: cautionary tales, exemplary stories, and reward- and- punishment tales. These three types portray different character traits as desirable and undesirable. Due to the tale’s varying literary methods it can change the effectiveness of the tale’s pedagogical value. In Tatar’s opinion, all of these tales are similar in the way they attempt to use punishment, reward, and fear to encourage or discourage certain behaviors. In the cautionary fairy tale “The Virgin Mary’s Child”, the use of punishment and fear to discourage certain behaviors is enhanced by the Christian motifs and values employed by the tale. These literary devices encourage the audience to reflect on and internalize the lessons that are presented in the fairy tale.

The story of Cinderella has become a classic fairy tale, known around the world, and past down from generation to generation. Yet, over the years, the story has been rewritten to better relate to different cultures. While some things never change, authors still manage to convey different messages by making the story their own. This can be clearly seen when the Grimm brothers version of Cinderella is compared to Charles Perrault’s version of Cinderella. While the core of the story does not change, the moral, tone, and “magical” aspects of the two stories are clearly shaped by the different cultures in which they were written in.

In Margaret Atwood’s poem “There Was Once”, Atwood uses irony to point out the societal problems within the genre of fairy tales. Charles Perrault, the author of the short story “The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood”, writes about fantastic creatures, magic, and love, following the generic conventions of fairy tales. When compared to Perrault’s short story “The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood”, Atwood’s poem both compliments and contrasts Perrault’s. These two texts, although similar, offer different views on the genre of fairy tales.

When imaging the ideal audience of fairytales, children are quick to come to mind, although, our perception of Little Red Riding Hood as an innocent fable is far from the truth. Alternatively, the origins of this story are derived from Italo Calvino’s “The False Grandmother”, a story immersed in symbolism and metaphorical symbols intended strictly for a mature audience. The preceding tale was “Little Red Cap “written by Charles Perrault and then later the “Little Red Riding” written by the Brothers Grimm. Although the details of these tales vary, they all maintain similar storylines. The stories revolve around the young female character Little Red Riding Hood who is sent off on a mission to bring her grandmother a basket of goods. During her adventure she encounters a wolf who engages in a hot pursuit to eat both the Grandmother and Little Red Riding Hood, only to succeed in the earlier rendition of the story. In this essay I will prove that when the Grimm’s Brothers and Perrault’s Little Red Riding Hood stories are critically analyzed, it becomes evident that they are inappropriate tales for children as they exemplify the consequences of a minor transgression by Little Red Riding Hood as being the misleading cause of the violence and seduction that occurs thereafter.

Gabriel Garcia Marquez is not the first author to reinvent classic European fairy tales. Yet his short story "Sleeping Beauty on the Airplane," alternatively titled "The Plane of Sleeping Beauty" is a remarkable retelling of the Grimm Brothers' original "Briar Rose." The original story includes themes of jealousy, fate, and romantic love. Marquez abandons jealousy, as there is no evil queen spinning a trap for the princess. Therefore Marquez's "Sleeping Beauty on the Airplane" provides a unique lens for viewing and revisiting the Grimm Brothers' "Briar Rose." Marquez's story distorts the original fairy tale, highlighting the power of unrequited physical attraction between strangers.

Most fairy tales involve characters with heroic tasks to complete in order to grow. They might have legendy strength, or a genie to help them. Sleeping Beauty is different because it involves long periods of concentration. Sleeping Beauty has been argued to represent the time period before and during adolescence. Children often need to go through a period of deep thought. Some may mistake this for inactivity, but their minds are still developing. Many children will make up for this inactivity after puberty, and will become successful in life (Bettelheim 225).

We have often seen numerous folktales that appear to be similar among different cultures. Often at times, the characters or locations change to accommodate the surrounding culture, but the message or moral of the story stays the same. In the case of the story, Sleeping Beauty, we notice that the earlier versions of the story are more crude and “adult” and as time passed on, the story evolved to become more suitable for a younger audience. Sleeping Beauty became a story of “rape, adultery, sexual rivalry, and attempted cannibalism” (Hallett, 1) to the clean and innocent Disney version we know today. The three versions of Sleeping Beauty that I will compare are Sole, Luna, E Talia (Sun, Moon, And Talia) by Giambattista Basile, The Sleeping

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

Charles Perrault’s Cinderella or The Little Glass Slipper was published in 1697. It is considered to be one the most prevalent reinterpretations of the classic story. Perrault’s version was “addressed largely to an adult and highly sophisticated audience” (Cullen 57). For this reason, Perrault seldom emphasizes the details of Cinderella’s mistreatment and instead shifts the stories’ focus on the moral and materialistic concerns related to his audience in order to “to please [his] aristocratic audience” (Tatar 189). Accordingly, Perrault portrayed Cinderella to be dependent, self-sacrificing, and “exhibits