The Grimm Brothers: Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

Fairy tales have been passed down from generation to generation, each person in one way or another altering the tale to reflect a piece of their life in the work . The Brothers Grimm wrote hundreds of fairy tales in their life time and in these works they used their childhood experiences as reference. Because of the hardships they faced growing up their tales take on a more gruesome approach to fairy tales. Because their mother was their only caregiver growing up, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm reflect their fondness towards her through the strong willed, independent female characters in their fairy tales. Female heroines are rarely seen in modern day fairy tales, but as a result of their childhood the Brothers Grimm utilized them frequently

Fairy Tales are not just stories that parents tell to their children, but stories with hidden valuable messages which are mostly left on a side. In the article “An Introduction to Fairy Tales,” Maria Tatar clearly explains how people need fairy tales in their lives. Tatar also states how fairy tales have the ability to take the listener, especially children’s, into a journey in which they can play with their imagination so that they can discover their deepest fears and wishes. Personally I agree with the author, because of the fact that in an individual’s lives as they get older, they will try to define themselves, sometimes comparing their own life with a character from their favorite story or Fairy Tale.

Most people cannot imagine coveted childhood fairytale with pure sadistic characters, blood, death and neglect. Disney motion pictures have depicted their classic fairytales by painting picture of princess with a loving parent, a dead parent, and a wonderful outlook on life with just the hope of dreams coming true. Many people cannot fathom the idea of a beloved fairytale containing the dark acts of rape, torture, and cannibalism. After all, Snow White’s apple was just meant to put her to sleep; and Sleeping Beauty did find her prince right? Wrong. In the original Grimm Fairytales Snow Whites apple was meant to kill her for good and Sleeping Beauty’s prince was

How many little girls dream of being Snow White? How much money did Disney’s Tangled make? What little girl hasn’t dressed up as Cinderella or dreamed of meeting her very own prince charming? These popular fairy tales were created by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. Their primary motivation when starting their collection of fairy tales was to preserve culture rather than entertain, but entertain is what they did. These fairy tales, and versions of them, have remained popular for a very long time, outlasting most other works of literature. The Brothers Grimm adapted these well-known stories from around Europe to reflect their own personal views, Germanize them and remove some of the more disturbing details of the original stories. In the same way, these fairy tales have been altered again and again to be acceptable to society. Fairy tales similar in theme can be found across the world. The Brothers Grimm versions are the most familiar because their emphasis on German culture and Christian morals is very similar to American culture and values. The adaptability and skillful incorporation of morals and issues considered socially unacceptable in an entertaining story, has allowed the Brother’s fairy tales to last throughout the ages.

Rapunzel, written by The Grimm Brothers, is a peculiar tale about a traded princess locked in a tower by her wicked guardian, enchantress. One day a curious prince comes across a tower and finds Rapunzel ,but is later punished for his inquisitive decision by enchantress, she takes away his sight. They later meet again and Rapunzel's tear heals the prince ,and they go back to the kingdom where all is well. As the story meets time more authors remake Rapunzel into a less gruesome tale ,but as for the Grimm Brothers their intentions are to scare children. This tactic is originally used by French and Italian authors of Rapunzel during the 17th century, but the Grimm brothers wanted to bring this idea to their homeland, Germany. “The Grimms, along

Fairy tales have always been revalent in our society and throughout history. From entertaining children to demonstrating why one should stray away from immoral things, these classic stories are rooted in a rich history. Originally fairy tales were used as warning for adults, hence the gruesome elements found in the original stories, but they have since evolved into tales that children of all ages can enjoy. Because of the deep history and ability to be related to, cultural importance has been put on these narratives. The social significance is implied through the numerous retelling of specific “classic” fairy tales and the hype around those classic characters.

In the Brothers Grimm fairy tales, feminism or lack of feminism has an evident role. When people read the Brothers Grimm fairy tales, they expect a happy tale but once they get to the end of the story, they are often thrown for a loop. Women and men play different roles throughout the fairy tales but, for the time period in which these stories are written, the gender roles are very stereotypical. In some of the stories, females are not put up on this pedestal but in others they are. Depending on whom you ask, some people believe that women should be held as an equal to men.

Whether Female antagonists within fairy tales are portrayed in a positive or negative light their roles within the stories are very important if not crucial to the development of the protagonists. Karen Rowe in “Feminist and fairy tales” explains the divide between different female antagonists. Female antagonist come in all forms, Faeries, ogresses, evil queens, and evil witches step mothers and or step sisters. For the most part these characters are often divided between good and evil, or light and dark, but what is often realized, is that there isn’t much of a combination between the two groups in which an antagonist falls in between both categories. In this essay I will lay out the thematic roles of these different types of female antagonist’s portrayed within fairy tales.

Fairy tales have always been focused towards children ever since Walt Disney took over the industry of remaking these stories. He took out all of the gore and some of the violence to make it more acceptable for children. With Anne Sexton's version of Cinderella, she brings back the gore and violence to its full capacity just like with the original Brothers Grimm story. Sexton's poetic version of Cinderella gives a humorous and eye-opened twist to this classic fairy tale. What brings all of these stories together is the way they all socialize women to make them naive. With this in mind, fairy tales do humiliate and objectify women to get them to accept violence within society.

Imagine if the Little Mermaid, Ariel, had her tongue cut out instead of her voice taken away, or Pinocchio hanging himself. All the fairy tale you think you know are all different than the original. People always believed in happy endings; Cinderella getting her prince, Sleeping Beauty waking up and even Beauty getting her beastly prince. Each story had a purpose, but to know its real purpose you need to know the original stories; the difference, the similarities and the influence they had on people.

Fairy tales bring forth imaginations and emotions that are relatable and relevant to those who read them. They help us to navigate challenges by solving problems and learning how to overcome and cope with life's difficulties. The foundation of most fairy tales include a hero or heroine that is considered the underdog as the reader is roots for them. When looked at more closely the role that men and women play in fairy tales influences our perceptions and thoughts related to what is considered the norm. These stories have tendencies that closely correlate with problems and situations that people commonly have in their lives, so it is unreasonable to think that they don’t define our outlook of gender roles in today’s society. Women are typically

In fairy tales many of the sexist tropes have seeped into our modern day children’s books and movies

The original story by Giambattista differs from Disney’s new interpretation in that it explores rape. In Disney’s version of sleeping beauty the princess named Aurora is awakened from a true loves kiss. The story is told to children all over the world and is seen as appropriate for them. The original version of this story involves Talia, the princess, being raped. The Prince laid the dead princess on her bed “where he gathered the first fruits of love” (Basile). This version of the story is grossly inappropriate for today’s modern generation of children and is far from the happy ending we are used to. Fairy tales where not originally intended on being entertainment for children however through constant revisions they seemed to target their imagination, essentially causing them to be successful tales. Clearly the earlier version of sleeping beauty contains ideas that are not yet suitable for

Over time, many versions of common fairy tales have been released. Each one comes with unique differences, that separate them from the others. Snow White is an example. Commonly, what comes to the minds of many individuals when they hear the title “Snow White”, is Disney. They have the basic beautiful princess in a sticky situation, accompanied by their trustful sidekicks, in this case seven dwarfs. However, Walt Disney was not the creator of this story, or the evil queen constantly muttering ,¨Mirror, mirror, on the wall…”. It seems as though many in this world have fallen in love with this portrayal of the tale. Believe it or not, these ideas are based directly off a German version published by the Grimm Brothers. Both are very alike, and unlike too. Similarly, new versions, released in movies, have also changed the depiction of the common “Snow White”. These differences may be related to how society is beginning to view people, women, and heroes, or someone who is brave and courageous. This has helped shape these newer versions of the all-time classic.

Fairy tales are something that everyone has read or seen, they all seem to have important lessons at the end of each one to teach young children some of the lessons they need for life. These fairy tales when we were younger all seemed innocent and something we all hoped that would happen to us. Little did we know as we got older that the fairy tales we all knew and loved when we were younger, weren't as innocent as they seemed.