Brother Grimm's Briar Rose

The use of multiple layers of narrative in Jane Yolen’s- Briar Rose is highly effective in communicating the story and the story and themes concerning Gemma’s past experiences of the Holocaust and Becca’s quest for truth and fulfilment of her Grandmother’s legacy. Yolen uses a number of voices or accounts of events to give the reader a dramatic sense of the extent and the horror of Gemma’s experiences. The fairytale story, Becca’s quest and Joseph Potocki, all add richness of detail to the novel as a whole. Techniques that incorporate this include symbolism, allegory, intertexuality, narrative structure and language.

Children often learn about their society’s ideals of love and relationships from fairy tales. Told from a female perspective, the poem Puce Fairy Book by Alice Major challenges and disproves the unfeasible and degrading expectations that women are held to, specifically by men in relationships. The motivation of the speaker, addressing a male counterpart, is to say that she does not care for other’s opinions of her faults and does not desire such unaccepting people in her life. Major’s use of fairy tale allusions and metaphors play an important role in establishing the central message that is the “perfect” ideological image that society has created for women to conform to are unrealistic and

In the familiar more traditional version, Cinderella is a poor maid girl that, with the help of fairy godmother, gets a chance to meet prince charming. They fall in love, get married, and live happily ever after, and then what? What is a happily ever after? Is this even a realistic thought? In the dark comedic poem Cinderella, Anne Sexton forces the reader to examine this question. Utilizing literary devices such as tone, imagery, and style, Sexton encourages the reader to think about how silly and unlikely a fairy tale ending actually is.

To start the argument, When Briar Rose is struck with a terrible curse and falls into a century of slumber her loved ones in the kingdom respond “[...]he king and the queen, who had just come home, and all their court, fell asleep too; and the horses slept in the stables, and the dogs in the court,[...]” (Grimm 5). At a time where the princess is left in misery the kingdom that adores her follows up with her curse so when she wakes she will not be alone. To oppose, Jordan leaves his wife feeling lonely and cold everyday, leading to her misery and suffering. Going deeper, As the kingdom sleeps, the fairies who swore to love and protect do rightfully so. “A large hedge of thorns soon grew round the palace, and every year it became higher and thicker; till at last the old palace was surrounded and hidden, so that not even the roof or the chimneys could be seen.” (Grimm 6). In a time where the kingdom is vulnerable to attack and other outside forces the loved ones of the area protect it with the magical bush saving them for 100 years. In contrast, Jordan who does not care for his wife in her time of vulnerability to disease, ultimately causes her death. As a final statement, As the curse is put upon the beautiful princess the executive power in the land orders to protect her at all cost “However, the king hoped still to save his dear child altogether from the threatened evil; so he ordered that all the spindles in the kingdom should be bought up and burnt.” (Grimm 3). When his daughter needs it most the king rids of things that are essential to a common lifestyle, a clothing maker in order to save her from potential harm. In The Feather Pillow Alicia can not even get common care as a change of sheets showing how little Jordan cared. Although both show small aspects of love, Briar Rose and The Feather Pillow definitely contrast in showing how

Jane Yolen, in her novel Briar Rose, has used an allegory of Briar Rose or Sleeping Beauty as a metaphor to hide the real experiences and emotions suffered from the Holocaust during World War Two. The development and techniques employed within the story are extremely effective for the use of the allegory.

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,

Powerful imagery is used throughout the entire poem to describe the struggles and loneliness of being a female outcast in society. The first stanza characterizes Sexton as a “possessed witch,” that is “twelve-fingered,” and “out of mind.” After all of this is stated, she produces an image of an abnormal woman that is flawed and completely sways away from society’s view on women. An uncomfortable feeling is stirred within the reader that is similar to that of the woman viewed as an outcast. She also describes herself as “braver at night,” and goes on to paint and image of her flying over houses at night. The scene is easily imaginable, but holds more meaning within. Sexton is alluding to the fact that the darkness is the only way for her to escape her reality that consists of daily judgement from society. This judgement originates from individuals within society that live perfect lives. The lives that they are living are assumed to be normal, thus making anyone swaying from that life an outcast. She also states, “A woman like that is not a woman,

Before addressing the main body of this work, it is necessary to set out an overview of the plot of this book. In order to do it, two parts must be distinguished according to the typography of the chapters: On the one hand, the narration in italics corresponds to the past tense when Gemma tells her granddaughters the tale of “Briar Rose” with some modifications as I will explain in the later sections. The chapters dedicated to this storytelling are intermingled with those which narrate the present time in which Becca, Gemma's granddaughter, begins an investigation and a trip to Poland to discover the past of her recently deceased grandmother. The novel begins in the United States where Gemma visits her grandmother in the nursing home during

In order for women to get ahead in the world, the fairy tales say that they have to be with a Prince Charming type figure that has money and is famous. Most of the fairy tales that were made by the Brothers Grimm have royalty as a factor in the main character's happy ending. Whether it is the poor girl marrying a prince or a princess getting the kiss of life, all of the stories end to perfect leaving so many women with their heads in the clouds. They objectify women by showing them what they need to be to have that happy ending, an encounter with royalty.

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.

Sleeping Beauty is a tale known for a princess who pricks her finger, falls into a deep sleep, and a prince comes and awakens her with a kiss. Anne Sexton’s interpretation of this fairy tale, however, explores incest/rape, and the darker side of the Briar Rose’s life. Briar Rose is an innocent child in the beginning, who is unknowing of the grossness of her father’s actions. Throughout the entire poem, he is very sexual towards her in his actions and the way he speaks. The King had a christening party for his daughter, but was only able to invite twelve fairies. The thirteenth fairy was upset and cursed Briar Rose; she would die on her fifteenth birthday by pricking her finger, however another fairy altered it so that Briar would go into a

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

Angela Carter, an English writer, is best known for her feminist rewriting of classical fairy tales. In her stories she prominently uses themes, such as, virginity, the pornographic image, violence and sex, and many others. Degrading someone to the status of a mere object, in other words objectification, is a theme Angela Carter shows in many of her fairy tales, specifically the objectification of women. According to Carter, the objectification and subjugation of women is part of a “latent context” of fairy tales that she expressed simply by virtue of being a woman. Both “The Tiger’s Bride” and “The Courtship of Mr. Lyon” are fairy tales intertextually linked with “Beauty and the Beast” and show the reader Carters’ views on femininity. Not

When someone mentions the name “Cinderella”, the first thing that usually comes to our minds is the fairytale in which the fair maiden who works so hard yet it treated so poorly gains her “fairytale ending” with a wave of a magic wand. However, the fairytale of Cinderella written by the Grimm Brothers has multiple differences in plot from the fairytale we all usually think of. The plot of the Cinderella written by the Grimm Brothers, written in 1812, is that a young female’s mother passes away early in the story, departing with the message to Cinderella to remain “pious and good”. Cinderella remained true to this message given to her by her mother, and she showed this in her work ethic. Because Cinderella had remained pious and good, her mother, in return, watched over her in the form of the birds above her grave that gave Cinderella help and material things that she needed. In the end, Cinderella has her “happily ever after”, for when the prince held a festival to find a new bride, she was chosen due to her insurmountable beauty. The feminist lens critiques how females are commonly represented in texts, and how insufficient these representations are as a categorizing device. These representations of women often include them being passive and emotional—staying back while the men do the work. Cinderella relates to the feminist lens because she fits into the typical representations of women created by men. Feminist criticism is important to recognize because women are often falsely represented as helpless, thus needing a man to come to their rescue. It is common in literature to see helpless women, crying and begging for help instead of being able to work out their own problems and hardships. Others, however, may believe that it is still important to uphold the fundamentals of the feminist lens because it keeps the man in power, which they say is important in keeping the man the head of the household. Cinderella thoroughly represents the feminist lens because it shows how women in literature uphold the representations of passive and emotional, created by the man.

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”.