Gender plays important and different role in folk tales. They often have distinctive differences between the roles of males and females in society which arises in the story. As the stories were altered little by little as it was passed on from one generation to another, so did the way society treated the respective gender roles at their time-frames. This is very evident in the many different versions of the Little Red Riding Hood tales as the story progresses. After close examination of the folk tales, a lot of connections can be made between the characters and the ideas about gender.
In the story Little red cap by the Grimm Brothers, the chain of events that happens in this story tells us something about how the gender roles were thought of during the era it was written in. Let it be how easily Little red cap was manipulated by the wolf to stray away from her path or the grandmother confusing the wolf for her granddaughter and allowing the wolf to enter her house without much resistance, resulting in both of them getting eaten. This portrays that women are thought to be irresponsible or careless. Adding to this, how little red cap was using a red coloured cap which attracts attention especially in a dangerous place like the forest made her an easy target, and showed that she was naive. This idea of a world where women were generally looked down on mainly came about during the period of the industrial revolution, men were the main workforce that supported that the ongoing industrialisation and women were limited to light labour such as housework and taking care of children. This gave the impression that women were incapable of supporting themselves and were reliant on the men of the house. The wolf in this story symbolises cu...
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...bzou, while in the story Little red cap, Red cap and her grandmother proceeded in killing another wolf after their encounter with the first one. This shows us that women in this tale grew more experienced over time as they changed their actions against 'wolves' that try to take advantage of them. In addition to this, how red cap and her grandmother managed to survive the wolf'’s onslaught could symbolise that women were given a second chance unlike in the other version.
To conclude, in the story by Briffault, despite the fact that women were not viewed upon lowly as in the other version, men were more merciless and cruel. On the other hand, in the folk tale by the Grimm brothers, although men were still manipulative, they were more forgiving and humane also women got more experienced and knew how to prevent men’s desire after the sequence of events that occurred.
In “The Company of Wolves” Carter employs conventions of gender construction and didacticism, which help establish a fairy tale space (Koske 323). Carter presents a world in which fairy tale notions of gender are upheld. In her paper, “In Olden Times, When Wishing was Having: Classic and Contemporary Fairy Tales”, Joyce Carol Oates explains that the girls and women in fairy tales “are the uncontested property of men”. Carter alludes to this male dominated reality in her tale (99). When the girl, Carter’s Red Riding Hood, insists on venturing into the woods, the narrator says that “[h]er father might forbid her, if he were home, but he is away in the forest, gathering wood, and her mother cannot deny her” (1224). There is perhaps no gendered element to a parent preventing his child from wandering into the wilderness, b...
Social factors have always encouraged the idea that men embody masculinity and women embody femininity and, thus, certain gender-norms are expected accordingly. In the past, such expectations were traditional and to go against them was frowned upon by the general public. Contemporarily speaking, there is more freedom to avail oneself of today than there was once upon a time. Jeanne-Marie LePrince de Beaumont’s fairytale adaptation of ‘Beauty and The Beast’ was published in 1740. During this time, men and women were compelled by the social conventions associated with their gender. When analyzing the literary work, the reader can grasp what gender roles are eminent in the characters identity and motives. By exploring the choice of language being
In present day society, where political correctness and equality are at the top of the priority list, by reading essays such as the one by Karol Kelley we find that this might not have been the case in earlier days. Fairy tales such as Cinderella have been found guilty of possessing subliminal socialization traits. Classifying genders as inferior and molding young girls into the female that society expects them to be. In Charles Perrault’s version, which is considered the most common, Cinderella is seen as passive, limited, dependent and inferior. As critics argue, these traits can hinder a child’s self esteem. Karol Kelley states that the “expectations and the promises
The fairytale Little Red Riding Hood by Charles Perrault is a story that recounts the adventure of the protagonist Little Red Riding Hood as she fulfills her mother’s wishes to bring a package to her ill grandmother. Perrault’s short story conveys influential life themes on the idea of male predation on adolescent women who fall victim to male deception. Perrault successfully portrays these themes through his use of rhetorical devices such as personifying the actions of the antagonist Wolf predator as he preys on the protagonist Little Red. Perrault illuminates the central theme of upholding sexual purity and being aware of eminent threats in society in his work. Roald Dahl’s poem, Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf, is an adaptation to
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.
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.
...the young girl prior to meeting the wolf, how the young girl strays from the ideals of femininity once she meets the wolf, and last, what is inherently not feminine as represented by the wolf and his masculine characteristics. The wolf does not naturalize masculine characteristics within the reader because he still acts somewhat like a wolf, he is used as a tool to further naturalize the ideals of femininity, by standing in stark contrast to them.
“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.
“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 fairy tale “Riding the Red”, a modern adaptation of Charles Perrault's “Little Red Riding Hood”. Perrault provided a moral to his fairy tales, the one from this one is to prevent girls from men's nature. In Hopkinson's adaptation, the goal remains the same: through the grandmother biographic narration, the author advances a revisited but still effective moral: beware of wolfs even though they seem innocent.
Through the three revisions of Beauty and The Beast, the fairy tales retold share many similarities as well as many differences according to their time period. In all three versions femininity and masculinity are presented in many ways. Femininity is shown through all three main female characters, Belle from the famous Disney film “The Beauty and The Beast”, the narrator in “Tiger’s Bride”, and Psyche in “Cupid and Psyche”. In all three versions, the female characters breaks society’s expectations of a typical woman. In CP Psyche stands up to Cupid’s mother Venus and accomplishes these activities usually performed by males. She shows society that women can overcome male activities and have strength to complete the same tasks. She breaks tradition of the male character fighting for her because in this version she takes on the hero role and fights for Cupid. This was not something ordinarily done by woman characters during this time. In TB the narrator breaks the tradition of the innocent stereotypical woman figure. The narrator exposes and does things most woman would never have the nerve to do. She shows society that women can fault their beauty in other ways. Even if society does not make it acceptable to have sex before marriage, she shows that women can expose their body and beauty in many ways. In DB version Belle is a great example that women should not be looked at as dolls and let males have control over them. She shows society that woman can be independent and educated. She does not get married to the most handsome male in town however she goes after someone who deeply cares about her. She displays a great example of how woman have their own mind and can think for themselves. Woman are allowed to make decisions and have ...
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.
The ending is the major difference between the two stories. Perrault mentions immediately that Little Red is the ?prettiest creature who was ever seen? (Schlib, 2003, 667). She is naïve and does not realize that the wolf is trying to trick her so that he can eat her. She is easily distracted by the flowers, nuts, and butterflies that she finds along the path he sends her on. When she gets to her grandmother?s house, although she feels that something is wrong, she enters anyway. Little Red strips off her clothes and gets into the bed with the wolf, still disguised as her grandmother. The wolf pro...
Folktales are a way to represent situations analyzing different prospects about gender, through the stories that contribute with the reality of the culture in which they develop while these provide ideas about the behavior and roles of a specific sex building a culture of womanhood, manhood and childhood. This is what the stories of Little Red Riding Hood of Charles Perrault (1697) and Little Red-Cap of the Grimm Brothers (1812) show. This essay will describe some ideas about gender in different ways. First, the use of symbolic characters allows getting general ideas about the environment in the society rather than individuals. Second, it is possible to identify ideas about gender from the plot from the applied vocabulary providing a better understanding of the actions. Finally, the narrative perspective of the tales analyzes deeply the status of the characters referring to the thoughts among the society.
This fairy tale was most likely told to children to scare them into obedience. It registered to children essentially as a warning to listen to what your parents say and not to talk to strangers. Just as Little Red Cap subjects herself and her grandmother to danger and is saved by a passing huntsman, she told herself, "As long as I live, I will never leave the path and run off into the woods by myself if mother tells me not to", promising to herself to not be as reckless in the future (Grimm). Little Red Cap also uses her past experiences to learn from her mistakes. The second time she makes a dangerous journey to her grandmother's house, she encounters a second wolf with similar motives at the first. This time, however, Little Red Cap makes a beeline straight to her grandmother’s and makes sure she to not stray from the path once. When Little Red Cap reaches her grandmother’s, she exclaims, "If we hadn't been on a public road, he would have eaten me up"(Grimm). These lessons connect with children, cautioning that the world outside their individual spaces is a dangerous place and should not be taken lightly. Even to this day, this story is told to relate to children and stresses a point to not disobey your parents and stray far from
In a study done by Robert J. Adams he noted in one of his work on Folktale telling and storytellers in Japan that “Folk religion, costume, art, crafts, and all other facets of folklife contributed to the different version of stories.” (Adams 79) not one story was the same people changed them to have different hidden meanings in them and to teach children different value. Like in this story it teaches you that just because you are a women you should still be able to make your own decision in life. Because during the Meiji restoration the men of the household were losing their power because of Japan going the transitions of industrialization and urbanization. This can be portrayed in the story that women have the power to make their own decisions. But also in today day and age, storytelling has become less and less common though out Japan. Many people would settle to the city to raise families, being separated from the influences and the constant storying telling of the old tales, because they were be to busy taking care of the children and going to