The Archetypal Themes Of Feminism In Beauty And The Beast

The Original 1991 Beauty and the Beast movie has many symbols. One of them is Lumière the candle holder. In about half way through the movie Belle goes to the west-wing when it is forbidden. When she enters the beast’s room she sees a flower but right when she was about to touch it the beast comes in and gives a big roar to frighten her off. It is then when she wants to escape and go back home with her father. When she was grabbing her coat to exit you hear her share a small piece of dialogue with the Lumière and Cogsworth. In this dialogue they asked Belle where she is going and she says she can’t be there another minute. With the cold wind coming in from the outside Lumière’s candles extinguish. Showing that the hope to turn back into their

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.”

Nowadays, when we hear Shrek we think of him as an icon of the internet. In a world where appearances seem to be societies focus, Shrek 2 reminds us that looks are fleeting, but what is on the inside is what is important. Shrek 2 is a movie written in 2014 that follows the main character, Shrek an ogre, on his journey in the kingdom, Far Far Away as he tries to acquire the approval of his wife’s, Fiona also an ogre, parents which are the human king and queen of Far Far Away. Overwhelming, the movie is able to depict a fantastic children’s romantic fairytale by teaching a life lesson in the use a medieval style with numerous references to pop culture and iconic soundtrack.

Children’s movies can often hold important and informative life lessons. In the case of Shrek, we learn that “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” and to “never judge a book by its cover.” That is all fine and dandy, however this winsome story of a misunderstood ogre, a talkative donkey, and a beautiful princess delves into concepts that go much deeper than that of a cute children’s anecdote. Throughout the course of the movie, points are made dealing with attraction and intimacy, specifically the “halo effect”, cognitive dissonance, and most prominent of all, prejudice, discrimination, and the social identity theory. After making a harrowing escape with the princess from the fire breathing dragon, Shrek and Donkey find themselves in an

Shrek began as an animated movie from DreamWorks Studios in 2001 based on a children’s book of the same name. It was a huge success, spawning three sequels, a spin-off, and the musical adaption reviewed here. The movie, about the eponymous ogre hired to rescue Princess Fiona by Lord Farquaad, is an irreverent take on traditional fairy tale conventions, and subverts many of the most common archetypes found in fairy tales. Though tongue-in-cheek and at times slightly crude, the themes of reserving judgment and the value of friendship are distinct throughout.

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.

“Beauty and The Beast” is a classic well known romantic Disney movie that depicts the gender role of men and women in society. The film is based upon a smart young female protagonist named Belle who is imprisoned by a self-centered young prince after he has been turned into a beast. They both learn to love each other in the end and throughout the film there are several examples shown portraying the roles of gender. In the film the main characters Gaston and the Beast portray themselves as rude, conceited and more important than the woman even though the main character Belle is a woman whom is considered odd, yet smart, and unrelated to most women in society.

Shrek and Reversal of Fairytale Tradition Shrek directed Andrew Andamson and Vicky Jenson by contradicts the traditional view of a fairytale characters and settings. Although your first impressions may lead you to believe that that the story is totally different to a traditional fairytale looking more closely you find that there are a few similarities. This essay will be looking at the characters and the different presentational devises used to show how fairytale traditions are reversed. The presentational devices which are looked at are camera angles, lighting and music. In a traditional fairytale you would expect to find a prince and a princess who fall in love and live happily ever after.

Shrek is the answer to the dissatisfaction of “disneyfied” fairytales, by subverting popular tropes and offering an alternative for those who, generally in the Disney model (which continuously dominates popular culture), do not exist or are not “deserving” of a protagonist role. Interestingly, Shrek may have even inspired the modern revival of classic Disney fairy tales in which many of the ridiculed absurdities, such as certain superficialities and twist on who is actually the “good person”, are altered to a modern audience’s changing taste. Not only is Shrek entertaining, smart, and embraces the idea that appearances can belie personality, Shrek is influential and perhaps the most popular “fractured” fairy

Fiona, starting out as a beautiful princess and turning into an ogre herself, gives the same example of gender representation as Shrek. One very interesting thing about her character in addition to her perfect behavior as a princess and expecting Prince Charming to rescue her, which represents her feminine character as typical, is her masculine characteristics that are much unexpected, such as burping and fighting like men when she gets attacked by Robin Hood and his men in the first movie. Also, the way in which she is scared that that Shrek would not like her as an ogre, is something that is unusual, however, shows some feminine aspects of society, such as being afraid for not being accepted or liked based on appearance. Her support towards Shrek in the second movie when she rather walks away and cry by herself, also underlines her femininity, through the scene of her Feminine speech where she is trying to encourage the good relationship between Shrek and her family, inviting everyone into conversation. Hence, her character displays the idea of a shift from masculine to feminine characteristics which clearly demonstrates that sometimes gender characteristics might shift according to personalities, and people should not really stereotype gender because it is relative to the individual. As far as

Another Disney film that continues on the false ideals shown in The Little Mermaid is Beauty and the Beast. The characteristics of Gaston and the relationship between Belle and the Beast illustrate many gender misconceptions, but for the purpose of this essay we’re going to focus specifically on the “Gaston” song and the images it conveys. After being rejected by Belle, Gaston grudgingly retreats to a pub and sulks in front of a fireplace presumably “heartbroken”. His friend, in hopes of boosting his ego and mood, bursts into a song filled with unrealistic male stereotypes. He claims that Gaston is the most admired man in town and implies that in order to be liked by everyone, you must be like Gaston. He sings that “no one fights like Gaston” or “hits like Gaston,” which suggests that men must be able to fight and win all of their battles. He also goes onto say “Who plays darts like Gaston?” and “Who breaks hearts like Gaston?” This implies that men are expected to be experts at darts, a typical “bar-scene game.” and that it’s normal to break hearts like Gaston and to take pride in doing so. Straying away from the lyrics themselves, we can also give notice to the images being displayed during the song. Gaston has “beautiful” women surrounding him for a large duration of the song and in one scene he picks three of them up on a bench using one hand. Like the recurring scene we saw in Ursula’s unfortunate souls, it once again invokes the idea that in order for a male to achieve the affection of women, he must be strong, muscular, and handsome — how many men do you know that can lift three women on a bench with one hand? Moving on, Gaston’s attitude throughout the clip also demonstrates that men should be angry, narcissistic, and self-centered. He states that “no one says no to Gaston” and that it is acceptable for him to treat others badly just because he was just rejected by Belle. Some other stereotypes displayed through the film would be of the relationship between Belle and The Beast. The Beast can be characterized as once more as a strong, muscular, short-tempered, and emotionally closed-off male individual. Belle, on the other hand, is seen as the most “beautiful” girl in town and is judged for her

The portrayal of women, gender roles and stereotypes in Disney films has long been a controversial topic. Disney’s 1959 animated film, ‘Sleeping Beauty’, and Robert Stromberg’s 2014 live action remake, ‘Maleficent’, each provide a different take of Charles Perrault’s 1697 fairy tale, ‘La Belle au bois Dormant’ (‘The Sleeping Beauty’). The comparison of Aurora, one of the main characters from both films, brings into light the stark contrast in portrayals of gender roles as well as physical ideals and stereotypes in women. Emphasis or lack thereof on physical characteristics and gender representation from both texts challenge and reflect ideals and stereotypes that are impactful to the audience.

`Shrek' is the ultimate fractured fairy tale, a film that manages to simultaneously honor and lampoon the conventions of its genre without becoming smug or condescending in the process. For while it is sardonic, `Shrek' is never cynical, so confident and assured are its makers in establishing and maintaining just the right tone for a revisionist exercise such as this one. The film certainly conveys a modern sensibility, yet it is a gentle sort of iconoclasm that allows us to enjoy the more conventional aspects of the story (the happily-ever-after ending, for example) even as we are laughing at the obvious absurdities contained within them.

     The classic opener for any fairy tale, which is no different in the case of Beauty and the Beast. Fairy tales were meant to teach our children life lessons that society, at the time, deems important to learn. They teach us the difference between right and wrong, black and white, good and bad, light and dark, and beautiful and ugly. There are many different variations and names to Beauty and the Beast. This famous fable has been passed down and integrated into our culture time and time again, each time adding different lessons that were thought to be important in that day and age. What has changed over the years? How have the fairy tales of Beauty and the Beast affected

Fairy tales are full of tropes and stereotypes that exist from story to story, one of the main ones being the “happily ever after” ending. Most fairy tales, especially the traditional Perrault or Grimm versions, fall prey to this trope where the main goal is for the princess to find her prince, get married, and live happily ever after. Many critics, particularly feminist critics, find this trope to be problematic because of the extreme emphasis placed on marriage as women’s main, if not only, objective in life. Karen Rowe, for example, states in her essay “Feminism and Fairy Tales”, that “fairy tales perpetuate the patriarchal status quo by making female subordination seem a romantically desirable, indeed an inescapable fate” (342). In other words, Rowe relates the “romanticizations of marriage” portrayed in fairy tales with promotions of “passivity, dependency, and self-sacrifice” expected of women in their everyday lives (342). However, it can be dangerous to assume that every fairy tale conforms to the singular promotion of marriage as women’s only option. While early fairy tales such as “Cinderella” and “Sleeping Beauty” tend to glorify the romantic ideal of marriage, and in turn female subordination, contemporary tales and adaptations such as Brave and Frozen, are working to give women a more powerful position.