The well-known Disney fairy tale, Sleeping Beauty, is about a young princess who was cursed by an evil fairy, named Maleficent (Zipes, np). On her sixteenth birthday, Aurora would prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die. Luckily, a good fairy was able to soften the curse and instead of dying, Aurora would fall into a deep sleep, only to be awoken by true love’s kiss and live happily ever after. This fairy tale might seem adoring and kid-friendly, but it was derived from a very horrifying story, in which the princess was woken up by the prince raping her, instead of a loving peck on the lips. The brothers Grimm based their version of Sleeping Beauty off of Perrault’s “Sleeping Beauty in the Wood”. It did not just start there, though. “Sleeping Beauty in the Wood” is actually based on Basile’s “Sun, Moon, and Talia”. Both stories include rape, but there are …show more content…
Instead of having the sleeping beauty being woken up with a kiss, Basile had a different, more horrifying idea with the prince raping her (FCIT, np). Perrault did not have such a horrible way for the princess to wake up, so it is understandable that the brothers Grimm would pick his version to base the well-known Disney movie on. Basile’s version of Sleeping Beauty is the most horrifying one. Perrault’s version shows that he saw all the horrifying aspects of Basile’s version and watered them down a little bit, but also incorporated some of his beliefs into it, like the prince’s mother being an ogress. In both fairy tales, Basile and Perrault include cannibalism in it. This is particularly frightening in Basile’s case because he had the prince’s wife attempt to feed Talia and her two kids, who he loved, to him (Ashliman, np). Perrault had the ogress mother think she was eating the prince’s wife and children as well, but it is less horrifying because she is not fully human (Ashliman,
However, the original Brothers Grimm fairytales are a dark counterpart to the more censored and carefree version of the tales we tell children today. The original Grimm tales are known to possess stories of incest, animal cruelty, murder and child abuse. Grant’s paintings deeply convey the twisted and malicious nature of the fairy tales by showing obscene images, and combining it with a color palette of exuberant and cheerful colors best suited to simulate the age of childhood. One of my favorite childhood tales is “Cinderella,” so I have chosen to critique Grant’s “Cinderella” series. Natalie Grant’s first painting in the series is titled,
These childhood experiences supports the claims that Stephen King made in his essay, “Why We Crave Horror”. Stephen King claims that humans crave horror to face our fears, to re-establish our feelings of normalcy, and to experience a peculiar sort of fun due to our human condition. To begin, Stephen King’s first claim that humans crave
For generations, fairy tales have served as a source of wonder and horror in equal measure. For each moment of magical fantasy or romantic bliss, there is a terrifying monster or gruesome act of violence, and there are few monsters more terrifying than Bluebeard. On the surface, Bluebeard is the story of one man's gruesome test and the young girl who escapes the punishment of failing it, with a simple message of being careful with your curiosity. However, like all fairy tales, Bluebeard is a symbolic parable of larger, real-world ideas, specifically those dealing with obedience and gender politics. Bluebeard and his bride serve as representations of both the predator and the innocent, akin to the Grimm's tale of Little Red Riding Hood decades
Most of the children read about many fairy tales, especially Snow Whites, Sleeping beauty, and Cinderella when they grew up. It is a surprising fact that to discover a hidden, unexpected political intention in the simple plot of fairy tales. That is a feminization of woman. The fairy tale world suggests a male-centered patriarchy as an ideal basic society and impliedly imply that man and woman need to have a proper attitude toward this opinion. However, Jewett’s A White Heron describes a new perspective of fairy tale’s plot.
Sleeping Beauty: Disney vs. Perrault “The princess should have her hand pierced with a spindle and die of the wound”. (Perrault’s Sleeping Beauty) Almost everyone has heard this famous line from Sleeping Beauty by age six; however, most have heard it through the edited Walt Disney movie, of which was based on the original fairytale by Charles Perrault. As in the case of many fairytales, people recognize Disney as the creator rather than the original author. Yet, the two versions are often very different, which can strike up some harsh feelings towards Walt Disney.
Some of the characters in the novel have either been involved with a rape or had watched a rape happen. In one scene in
Perrault’s fairy tale follows the generic conventions of a traditional fairy tale which is what Atwood had been condemning. The tale begins with the sentence, “there were formerly a king and a queen, who were sorry they had no children”, which is the normally the beginning of most fairy tales (Perrault 398). The most notable characteristic of a fairy tale begins with the phrase “once upon a time” or a variation of it such as Perrault’s “there were” (398). Unlike Atwood, Perrault mentions that the princess was “the most beautiful person in the world” (399), focusing on more of a materialistic aspect of the princess instead of Atwood’s more realistic view of her. Perrault’s fairy tale includes other generic conventions like a handsome prince saving the day and marrying the princess, a happy ending, and an evil queen.
The Cinderella tale has been at the heart of many stories for generations. People have become very familiar with the storyline, as it is very prevalent in society today through many moderns movies and stories. The Cinderella story is adored by young children, more specifically by young girls. However as a more feminist culture has emerged, society’s viewpoint of fairytales is becoming increasingly negative. In, “The Princess Paradox” and “Cinderella and Princess Culture”, authors James Poniewozik and Peggy Orenstein further evaluate themes found in the Cinderella stories.
I believe that the fear elicited by these stories is a universal aspect of human nature. I think that it stems from our inability to understand or control our intrusive thoughts, making them a source of anxiety and terror, similar to how the occupants of the haunted house in Pliny's tale felt (Pliny, the Younger: Letter to
The Grimm brothers’ “The Sleeping Beauty” and Frances Minters The Sleepless Beauty follow the same basic plot: a beautiful baby is born, her parents celebrate their daughter’s birth with a huge celebration, but do not invite one witched witch. Furious that she was not invited to the celebration, the witch arrives to the party none the less, her irritation forcing her to cast a spell onto the new baby. The witch declares that when the baby becomes a teen she will prick her finger, forcing her and everyone near to fall into a deep sleep. The witches curse does happen, forcing the young girl and everyone around her to fall into a deep sleep; however, the teenage girl and all the sleeping prospects are awakened when they are both saved by their one true loves.
The simile used here helps us picture an extremely beautiful girl with deep blue eyes and golden blond hair. This is a very vivid comparison to Count Dracula who is described to have a long pointed nose and hair in the center of his palms with a very bad breath. Thus, here we see a stark difference in the theme of violence in Dracula. On the one hand, we have the demonic Dracula who seen as the epitome of physical strength and hunts down his victims as prey and on the other we have the inviting lustful eyes of these female vampires who would lure in their prey. This instills a greater fear since the reader would expect a horrid image for a blood-sucking villain but rather we have this picturesque lady forcing the reader to redefine “monster”.
Giambattista Basile’s story of the original Sleeping Beauty called Sun, Moon, and Talia, and Disney’s 1959 film Sleeping Beauty have both shown that true love can prevail the threats that come at someone in life. In Basile’s version of sleeping beauty, the king rapes Talia, impregnanting Talia to give birth to two babies that she cherishes deeply, and falls in love with the king after meeting him (Basile, 2). This portrayal does not help send the message because she is strongly in love with her babies all because of the king, ignoring the fact that the king rapes Talia unconscious. In addition, readers to believe that true love is so strong, that it can blind the awareness of someone’s own well being. In the film version, Prince Phillip and Princess Aurora
“I Was Sleeping Where the Black Oaks Move” written by Louise Erdrich focuses on a child and a grandfather horrifically observing a flood consuming their entire village and the surrounding trees, obliterating the nests of the herons that had lived there. In the future they remember back to the day when they started cleaning up after the flood, when they notice the herons without their habitat “dancing” in the sky. According to the poet’s biographical context, many of the poems the poet had wrote themselves were a metaphor. There could be many viable explanations and themes to this fascinating poem, and the main literary devices that constitute this poem are imagery, personification, and a metaphor.
You never know what is hiding outside in the dark, cold night. Probably bears, coyotes, and hypothermia- which is why monster stories were historically used to scare children away from things that could harm them. As the genre developed, societal fears crept into the narratives; creating gothic stories about lonely people in decrepit castles, monstrous men who creep in womens’ windows, terrifying women who seek out sex to enjoy it, and lesbians. Incidentally, these stories can be seen in a very different light when reexamined today. Margaret Atwoods’ short story “Lusus Naturae”, published in 2004, is an example of a story far enough removed from the original context to play on the traditional themes of a vampire story in a different light.
The 1959 classic Sleeping Beauty has all you would expect from a fairy tale: a castle, fairies, a princess who needs rescuing, a handsome prince willing to do just that and, of course, a happy ending. It also has one of the most iconic Disney villains: Maleficent, a wicked fairy who is enraged at not receiving an invitation for the baby princess 's christening. She exacts her revenge by cursing the princess to death by spinning wheel. This Maleficent is pure evil, who curses for petty reasons. In Disney 's latest blockbuster, Maleficent, the infamous villain receives her very own origin story, and the classic fairy tale undergoes a