What Fairy Tales Tell Us Lorie Summary

The fairytale “Beauty and the Beast” by Jeanne-Marie LePrince De Beaumont was produced in France in 1756. The story is about a wealthy merchant with six children, three boys and three girls. With the story’s primary focus on the girls, we learn that the youngest of the daughters, named Beauty, was admired for her kindness and well behaved manners. Due to Beauty being the town favorite, her sisters grew jealous and hated her. When Beauty’s father falls in debt with a Beast, her father sends her off to live with the Beast. In the end, Beauty gets to know the Beast and accepts to be his wife. Although, Beauty and the Beast have their ‘happily ever after’, social and economic complications hindered their relationship.

Beauty and the Beast is a “Tale as old as time” or at least as old as 1740 which is when the first publication appeared (De Villeneuve). The original author, Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve, wrote 362 pages which Jeanne- Marie Leprince de Beaumont later abridged (De Villeneuve). Countless people know the general story of Beauty and the Beast: A beautiful girl saves her father by becoming a prisoner in an enchanted castle. She and the master, a hideous beast, become acquainted. The beast wants the girl to be content, even when her request is to leave, so he lets her go. When the girl returns, the beast is in grave danger. Tearfully the girl confesses her love for the beast, and he transforms into a handsome prince.

Overall, the emphasis that fairy tales place on physical appearance can be very detrimental to a child (particularly a girl’s) development and ideas of reality. To add, fairy tales, although perhaps unintentionally, depict that attractiveness determines who is good and who is evil. The protagonist is often the princess, who is described as the prettiest in the land. The antagonist on the other hand is often less attractive and more than likely labeled ugly (Schussler). Because fairy tales often depict good conquering evil and evil succumbing to its immorality, this therefore shows the reader that ugly people are punished. This also can influence a girl’s self-esteem, considering that the created sense of beauty is impossible, thus they may feel inferior (Danish). Grauerholz hypothesizes that “[t]hese powerful messages that say women need to be beautiful may compel some women to seek beauty at the expense of other pursuits, such as careers or education” (Grauerholz). The exaggerated emphasis on beauty has potential to be a very limiting factor for young girls. However, the stereotypical beautiful princess is not the only gender stereotype that plagues women in the tales.

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.

There is nothing more precious and heartwarming than the innocence of a child. The majority of parents in society want to shield children from the bad in life which is appreciated. Within human nature exists desires of inappropriate behavior; envy, deceit, selfishness, revenge, violence, assault and murder. The most well-known fairy tales depict virtue and the evil in life. Even more important, the form and structure of fairy tales suggest images to the child by which he can structure his daydreams and with them give a better direction to his life. (Bettelheim).

The history of the fairytale and the portrayal of the character reveals the significance of women’s role in society and femininity. In similarity to other fairy tales, having a happy ending is always desired, but the characters

The "beast motif" conveyed in these fairy tales relate to gender and sexual awareness. These fairy tales “explore the performativity of gender identity and ... rethinking of sexuality” (Korneeva

The ‘latent content’ of fairy tales as defined by carter is the objectification and suppression of women. In this case female sexuality is not seen as empowering as they strip themselves as a ‘response to male arousal’ as stated by Patricia Dunker. Though this can be applied to the heroine and the Marquis, towards the denouement, the heroine is no longer passive and acts upon what society tells her not to do and uses women’s sensuality as a form of empowerment as seen in The Tiger’s Bride where the heroine ultimately rejects the role of a woman by metamorphosing both violently and sexually by ‘lick(ing) the skin off’ her into a tigress. The heroine’s father considers her as one of his belongings ‘careless of (your) treasures’ and so gambles and loses her to the Beast.

A fairytale is a story that has folkloric characters and magic. They originated from oral storytelling and have since been written down to be preserved. Fairytales with similar plots, characters, and motifs are found in many different cultures. For example, the story of Cinderella. This classic fairytale has been around for a very long time and is constantly being remade. Even though there are different versions of this story, they all follow the same basic idea or motif. In this essay I will be discussing fairytale motifs as seen in Grimms’ Household Tales and “Cupid and Psyche” using the information I learned in class. Typically, when you think of a fairytale you think of them being for children. But, if you really pay attention to the

Beauty’s role in beauty and the beast glorifies her as a sweet girl who can find light in any darkness. She prefers to move forward in life rather than sulk in misery. Being such a positive female character allows her to fall in love with a man who is not of the society standards of handsome, name Beast. She was more intent on focusing on what he had to offer as a person. Karen Rowe states in “Feminism and Fairy Tales” “such alluring fantasies gloss the heroine's inability to act self-assertively, total reliance on external rescues, willing bondage to father and prince, and her restriction to hearth and nursery” (Rowe). The heroine being beauty in this case, doesn't have opinions or rights because her character wasn't created to. Rowe believes that fairytales have paved the way for our expectations towards what women and men should be doing and what romance is. Rowe argues that “These "domestic fictions" reduce fairy tales to sentimental clichés, while they continue to glamorize a heroine's traditional yearning for romantic love which culminates in marriage” (Rowe). Beauty’s character found herself in these “sentimental cliches” with her

However, few realize that there are many communal ideas imbedded in the plots that often go unrecognized. Fairy tales, more often than not, highlight a multitude of social aspects which might seem inappropriate for children. Constantly evolving, fairy tales, as indicated by Yolen and Zipes, illustrate the sexist views of the dominating class, the societal beliefs as they change throughout history as well as the community’s values especially during crisis.

Lyon”. Carter retells the well-known fairytale “Beauty and the Beast,” but her version is far from “classic.” It is a tale of self-discovery and rejection of female objectification. In the beginning of Carter’s retelling of the classic fairy tale “Beauty and the Beast,” Beauty is seen as a penniless, helpless girl, whom the rich, powerful and world-weary Beast forces to live in his house. When her father uses her as payment for his debt to the Beast she becomes an object. However, she rapidly becomes the more active, experienced, and adventurous character. Throughout the story, Beauty proves herself to be more than just a traditional fairy tale heroine, but in the beginning, she conforms to the paradigm. Just like many of Carter’s heroines, she must start within to be able to then break free from the restrictions and assumptions of patriarchal society. In the words of da Silva, “The daughter is conscious of her annihilation in the patriarchal society but she doesn’t have autonomy to overcome it.” Even though Beauty finds enjoyment in reading fairy tales while living with the Beast, it is as though despite living in a modern world with telephones and cars, Beauty wants to believe in the conventional “happily ever after.” By comparing Beauty to the immaculate snow upon which she gazes Carter emphasizes Beauty’s femininity, innocence, and virginity. By associating Beauty

If one were to be asked about the backbone of fairy tales, an answer would likely include true love. Regardless of the origin, tales from across the world reflect instances of enamorment and devotion, with most providing numerous examples of the bond between family and the lust shared by lovers. In many cases, endearment is the driving force for the actions of protagonists: princes search for their one true love, brothers protect their sisters, and parents dote on their children. While “The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood” aims to support the idea that love and passion are everlasting, it instead imparts the idea that love is a variable entity and not always as transparent as it seems.

As we grow up, we hear fairy tales and we read them into our lives. Every word and every image is imprinted into our minds. The fairy tales we read are never abandoned. They grow with us and our dreams become molds of the many morals and happily ever afters fairy tales display. We tell children fairy tales when they go to sleep and they read them in school and we even have them watch Disney adaptions that reinforce them further. Generally, they were everywhere while we grew up and they continue to be present while children are growing up now. But what influence do these stories have? We casually expose our children to these tales, but in some cases they can have particularly, harmful personal effects on them, although there is nothing completely or visibly “bad” about them or about the characters in them. Before we divulge our youth to these stories, we should assess their substance and see what sort of effect they may be having on them. They have received so much scrutiny and have been studied by many. Recognizing fairy tales effects on the minds of children is vital in their development. This paper will focus on the underlying messages that the average person wouldn’t recognize in these everyday stories. There’s a modern distort with fairy tales because while they still are widely popular with the youth, they influence children’s self images, outlooks on reality and expectations for their futures, especially for young women.

Fairytales always have a protagonist that is kind, caring, and humble that gives children a good model to follow. One great example is Petrrault’s “Cendrillon.” “He dubs her chief virtue “la bonne grace” i.e., in the face of adversity she is generous, long-suffering, charming, and good-humored; the ideal bride, from the gentleman’s perspective” (Cullen 623). Petrrault’s “Cendrillon” is the type of person that all parents want their children to be like, therefore, a great role model. All children need someone to look up to, and fairytales are an easy way to provide children with such a person. “A child,” Ruskin wrote, “should not need to choose between