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Shrek Fairy Tale Analysis

Decent Essays

Growing up, most people read fairytales such as “Cinderella” and “Little Red Riding Hood”. These stories set up some sort of expectation for what life will be like. However, fairytales are just as messed up as life. DreamWorks created the movie Shrek to make fun of fairytale’s social prejudge and idealism. Shrek uses reversal and irony to create a satire about the flaws of fairytales. In most fairytales, people of royalty are the good guys and monsters are the bad guys. Shrek reverses this by Lord Farquaad being the bad guy and Shrek, an ogre, being the good guy. This makes fun of the fact that in fairytales characters are born good or bad based on race meaning whether they are human or a type of monster. However, most people are a mixer …show more content…

A lot of irony is shown when Shrek recuses Fiona from her tower. One of the examples is when he shakes her to wake her up instead of kissing her. This scene is an allusion to “Sleeping Beauty” and the audience expects him to kiss her like in the fairytale, but instead her shakes her. This example of irony is used to emphasis Shrek is not Prince Charming. However, Shrek still is able to recuse her even though he is not the typical Prince Charming. This shows anyone can be a hero whether they act like the ideal or not. One of the most memorable moments of irony is Fiona’s actions on their second day of travel. The first day she tries to maintain the classic princess persona, but the next day she acts more herself. She is able to gather eggs in the forest, cook them over an open fire, burp loudly, and eat rats. All of these characteristics are not the proper princess ideal. This irony points out that unlike what fairytales say, a person can still identify as something like a princess or ogre, but not certainly fall into the stereotypes. Another example of irony is Fiona’s curse being filled. In most fairytales, when a character is cursed is lifted they become “normal” again. However, Fiona does not turn back into a human she turns into an ogre. This is because an ogre is “loves true form”. Being an ogre is not just “loves true form”, but also her true form. This irony shows that being “normal” is the curse because hiding who

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