Ruth B. Bottigheimer is a folklorist, scholar, and author. At the moment, she works at Stony Brook University in New York and she is a professor in the department of Comparative Literature and Cultural Studies. As her writing the book Grimm’s Bad Girls and Bold Boys: The Moral and Social Vision of the Tales suggests, she has a fascination for fairy tales, primarily European fairy tales. This book is an in depth analysis of the stories represented in Grimm's Fairy Tales; however, Bottigheimer’s main argument seems to be focused on gender distinction in the stories. Bottigheimer seems to believe that women were discriminated more in this story as that was the social norm at the time. Various chapters throughout the book seem to focus on the argument that there is an inequality between men and women represented. As Bottigheimer states, “Four perspectives have dominated Märchen research in the recent past: Freudian, Jungian, Marxist, and feminist” (ix). She later states, “feminist interpreters bring a special sensitivity to gender associations to their reading of the Tales” (ix). While Bottigheimer does cover other arguments, including that of the Freudian, Jungian, and Marxist, I am focusing on Bottigheimer’s feminist argument, as I believe it is the argument she is more focused and passionate about. The main evidence that Bottigheimer provides to support her claim is how the Grimm brother made various editorial changes to the book, each which reflected women in a more negative light. Bottigheimer further provides proof for her argument in chapter 2. She states, “The tales Grimm chose to set before young people are especially good examples of what he considered to be socially desirable and safe for their eyes. In general, the Small ... ... middle of paper ... ... supports this claim by showing how the female character’s speeches are reduced dramatically while the male character’s speeches increase dramatically. Bottigheimer later supports this by comparing Cinderella’s speeches from the 1812 version and the 1857 version. Bottigheimer states, “The 1857 version presents a far different picture. Here Cinderella has nearly lost her filial voice responding only to her father’s inquiry about what he should bring her from his trip” (62). She goes on to say, “In depriving Cinderella of her voice, Grimm has further isolated her within the tale, relegating nearly all her talk with people to indirect discourse, but leaving her the unvarying incantations addressed to birds and tree” (63). Works Cited Bottigheimer, Ruth B.. Grimms' bad girls & bold boys: the moral & social vision of the Tales. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1987.
Modern-day feminists state that there are many repressed attitudes and fears which keep women in a kind of half-light, forcing them to subconsciously retreat from the full use of their minds and creativity (Dowling, 595). The archetypal Cinderella is often criticized by feminist critics for waiting for something external to transform her life (Abel, 192). Contrary to this assumption, passivity is not prevalent in the original Brothers’ Grimm tale. However, actions performed by women in the tale are often associated with darkness. It is this overpowering association with the color black and its implications that truly keep women in a “half-light” in the tale.
Munro, Alice. “Boys and Girls.” Introduction to Literature. Ed. Isobel M. Findlay et al. 5th ed. Canada: Nelson Education, 2004. 491-502. Print.
A lot of the fairy tale stories that we have seen as young adults and even as adults are original folk tale stories that have been modified and rewritten to accommodate our new cultures. Cinderella happens to be one of these stories that have been changed over the years. There are many different versions of Cinderella, an African Cinderella, a Hungarian Cinderella and even a Chinese version. All of the Cinderella’s are similar in plot, but the author dictates the story’s theme based on the people whom he is writing for which completely changes the story’s tone, mood and other elements. While Perrault's version stresses the values and materialistic worries of his middle-class audience, Grimm’s' focus is on the harsh realities of life associated with the peasant culture. Perrault’s and Grimm’s Cinderella’s have the same plot, but their writing style is different which completely modifies the tale.
In Alice Munro’s “Boys and Girls,” there is a time line in a young girl’s life when she leaves childhood and its freedoms behind to become a woman. The story depicts hardships in which the protagonist and her younger brother, Laird, experience in order to find their own rite of passage. The main character, who is nameless, faces difficulties and implications on her way to womanhood because of gender stereotyping. Initially, she tries to prevent her initiation into womanhood by resisting her parent’s efforts to make her more “lady-like”. The story ends with the girl socially positioned and accepted as a girl, which she accepts with some unease.
“I've told her and I've told her: daughter, you have to teach that child the facts of life before it's too late” (Hopkinson 1). These are the first three lines of Nalo Hopkinson's short story “Riding the Red”, a modern adaptation of Charles Perrault's “Little Red Riding Hood”. In his fairy tale Perrault prevents girls from men's nature. In Hopkinson's adaptation, the goal remains the same: through the grandmother biographic narration, the author elaborates a slightly revisited plot without altering the moral: young girls should beware of men; especially when they seem innocent.
In a society unbridled with double standards and set views about women, one may wonder the origins of such beliefs. It might come as a surprise that these ideals and standards are embedded and have been for centuries in the beloved fairy tales we enjoyed reading as kids. In her analytical essay, “To Spin a Yarn: The Female Voice in Folklore and Fairy Tales”, Karen Rowe argues that fairy tales present “cultural norms which exalt passivity, dependency, and self-sacrifice as a female’s cardinal virtues.” Rowe presents an excellent point, which can be supported by versions of the cult classics, “Cinderella” and “Snow White”. Charles Perrault’s “ The Little Glass Slipper” and the Brothers Grimm’s “ Snow White” exemplify the beliefs that females are supposed to be docile, dependent on the male persona and willing to sacrifice themselves. In many cases, when strong female characters are presented they are always contradicting in these characteristics, thus labeled as villainous. Such is the case of the Cinderella’s stepsisters in Perrault’s “Cinderella” and the stepmother in the Brothers Grimm’s “Snow White.” These female characters face judgment and disapproval when they commit the same acts as male characters. With such messages rooted in our beloved fairy tales it is no wonder that society is rampant with these ideals about women and disapprove of women when they try to break free of this mold.
Chaucer, in his female pilgrimage thought of women as having an evil-like quality that they always tempt and take from men. They were depicted as untrustworthy, selfish and vain and often like caricatures not like real people at all. Through the faults of both men and women, Chaucer showed what is right and wrong and how one should live. Under the surface, however, lies a jaded look of women in the form that in his writings he seems to crate them as caricatures and show how they cause the downfall of men by sometimes appealing to their desires and other times their fears. Chaucer obviously had very opinionated views of the manners and behaviours of women and expressed it strongly in The Canterbury Tales. In his collection of tales, he portrayed two extremes in his prospect of women. The Wife of Bath represented the extravagant and lusty woman where as the Prioress represented the admirable and devoted followers of church. Chaucer delineated the two characters contrastingly in their appearances, general manners, education and most evidently in their behaviour towards men. Yet, in the midst of disparities, both tales left its readers with an unsolved enigma.
As the world has transformed and progressed throughout history, so have its stories and legends, namely the infamous tale of Cinderella. With countless versions and adaptations, numerous authors from around the world have written this beauty’s tale with their own twists and additions to it. And while many may have a unique or interesting way of telling her story, Anne Sexton and The Brother’s Grimm’s Cinderellas show the effects cultures from different time periods can have on a timeless tale, effects such as changing the story’s moral. While Sexton chooses to keep some elements of her version, such as the story, the same as the Brothers Grimm version, she changes the format and context, and adds her own commentary to transform the story’s
When authors or writers rewrite classic texts, they are able to reveal important lessons to readers or make the underlying message from an original text more obvious to readers. Rewriting classic texts can also allow the writer make an original text more moderate, by doing so it makes the text more relatable to the readers and help them understand the story more clearly. This is exactly what Angela Carter did in her text, “The Company of Wolves,” Carter creates and reveals to readers a feminist point in her rewrite. Carter is criticizing the original text of Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s story, “Little Red Cap.” Carter develops a female protagonist who is independent and also explores her sexuality, unlike the Grimm Brothers who creates a poorly developed damsel in distress. Carter, also does not include a typical fairytale story ending, unlike the Grimm brothers and most fairy tales which end on a happy note. By creating these kind of character developments and disregarding a typical “happily ever after” ending, Carter expresses feminist ideals and rids the stereotypical attributes a female character is usually given in fairytales. Carter is trying to show readers the importance of developing the female characters, unlike the Grimm Brothers who have much more developed male characters than female characters.
In Alice Munro’s “Boys and Girls” she tells a story about a young girl’s resistance to womanhood in a society infested with gender roles and stereotypes. The story takes place in the 1940s on a fox farm outside of Jubilee, Ontario, Canada. During this time, women were viewed as second class citizens, but the narrator was not going to accept this position without a fight.
Shrek, an enormous, disgusting green ogre falling in love with a beautiful princess (later turning into a nasty ogre) is a perfect example of a stereotypical fairytale, right? Well in the movie Shrek, the voice over in the trailer talks about a “hero” attempting to rescue a “fair princess” with the help of “his trusty companion." Besides the fact that the hero is a voluptuous green ogre and the companion is a donkey, everything fits in normally to the definition of a traditional fairytale (Diaz). Also according to Mary Kunimitsu, in fantasy films “There may be characters with magical or supernatural abilities such as witches, wizards, superheroes, mythical creatures, talking animals, and ghosts” (Kunimitsu). In Shrek, there are many of these different characters. Therefore, by explanation, a traditional fairytale with the beautiful princess getting saved by the prince and falling in love is exactly what happens in the movie Shrek, just with a twist. The voice over in the trailer for Shrek states it perfectly as he says “Shrek is a highly irreverent take on the classic fairytale” (Adamson). As an untraditional fairytale, and a parody, the movie Shrek poses the breaking of stereotypes of gender and film fairytales all the while keeping the criteria of a fairytale.
Fairy Tales have been around for generations and generations. Our parents have told us these stories and we will eventually pass them down to ours. In this time of age the most common fairytales are Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Beauty and The Beast and many more. Children idolize their favorite character and pretend to be them by mimicking everything they do in the stories. The character’s behavior is what is viewed as appropriate in society. These fairy tales show a girl and a boy fall in love and live “happily ever after”. The tales in many people’s eyes resemble a dream life that they would want to have of their own. However, have you ever really looked at what makes up a fairy tale? Many things are unrealistic but the most unflattering aspect of these tales is how women are depicted in them. Fairy tales give an unrealistic view to how women should look and behave in real life.
The Grimm Brothers’ “Rapunzel” encourages women to subscribe to domestic roles. Through the tales of various female characters, “Rapunzel” teaches women to embrace their domesticity even at the risk and disadvantage of such a single-faceted lifestyle. The first female character is Rapunzel’s biological mother, who embodies the domestic women by relying on her husband and never leaving her house. Her husband encounters the enchantress in her own garden, who, though supernatural, cannot expand beyond the domestic realm. Moreover, Rapunzel, the heroine herself, willingly relegates her life to a life of stability, dependence, and ultimately, domesticity.
These women also created these tales to say something about the role of gender in society during this time period. Lori Baker-Sperry explains this in her article “The Pervasiveness and Persistence of Feminine Beauty Ideal in Children’s Fairy Tales”. She explores the idea that children’s fairytales are used to support a “dominant gender system”. This explains why the roll of beauty is a major theme throughout fairytales, as many women during the 17th century were expected to participate in grueling beauty rituals (712). While these women set the foundation for the folklore, it was two brothers who really pushed this realm of literature into the main stream.
There have been several scholarly debates that the Grimm brothers were among the pioneering contributors of the kind of German nationalism whose tragic consequences engulfed the twentieth century. Disregarding questions over the validity of this statement, what remains evident is the invaluable influence the Grimm brothers had on the new culture of the German society through their writings. One of such influences was breaking or challenging the issues of social class with specific effect on wealth and poverty. In several of the Grimm brothers’ fairy tales, this issue of social class is an ever present theme. In most cases, if not always, there are dichotomies and physical representations that depict a distinction between the characters in their tales. This theme of social class translates into the basic idea of the haves and have-nots of these tales. Those possessing enormous property and fashionable attires are associated with wealth while those in servitude and clothed in rags are normally associated with the proletariat class. These are recurring facts that engulf their versions of the fairy tales, “Cinderella” and “Hansel and Gretel”. Because of the Grimm brothers’ socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds, the effect of social classes, with specific focus on wealth and poverty, was inseparable from their writings.