Over the years, fairytales have been changed in order to make them more kid friendly. Once these changes occur, the moral and purpose of the stories being to disappear. The tales featured in the many Disney movies beloved by so many, have much darker and meaningful origins that often served to scare children into obeying their parents or learning valuable life lessons.
A perfect example of such plot changes occur in the tale of Cinderella. This fairytale is "one of the oldest and most widespread fairy tales in western culture" originating in roughly 50 BCE (ARTICLE #3). The Disney movie is most likely based on the brothers Grimm version although many changes did occur. The evil stepsisters in the brothers’s story are described as “beautiful
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The biggest of these changes is that in the original versions of this story there was little to no magic involved in the story. Briar Rose was not a princess and there was no curse cast upon her, there was simply a splinter in her finger making her sleep. One day, a king comes along finding Briar Rose he tries to wake her. Failing to wake the sleeping beauty, the king decides to rape her. The girl becomes pregnant and gives birth to twins while still unconscious. One of the twins, in search of food, sucks on his mother’s finger removing the splinter from under her fingernail and awakening his mother. The king later returns, presumably to assault her again, “he finds her awake with his children… tells her what he did, but she isn 't bothered by it,” (ARTICLE #3). Briar Rose falls in love with the king despite this, the only problem is the king is still married. When the queen finds out, she “orders the cook to kill [the kids] and serve them as a meal to the king,” (ARTICLE #3). In an effort to eliminate her competition, the queen tries to have Briar Rose thrown into a bonfire, but is instead burned alive herself. Disney leaves out sexual assault and burning people alive to make a once gruesome tale into the fairytale little girls dream …show more content…
She was 10 years old when she met Smith, who was treated very kindly by the Powhetan people. Pocahontas was kidnapped, raped repeatedly, renamed Rebecca, and married off. She was paraded around Europe “and presented to the public as a symbol of the tamed Virginia savage,” (ARTICLE #2). At the age of 22, Pocahontas was poisoned; her murder was planned due to fears that she would reveal the British plan to purge the new frontier of its natives. Overall, the events of Pocahontas’s life were falsified and turned into a beautiful love story with a happy
Pocahontas was the daughter of Chief Powhatan which made her an Indian Princess. When she was 12 years old, she saved a colonist named John Smith from being clubbed to death. After this, the relationship between the colonist and the Indians were at peace. Captain Smith sent many presents to Powhatan and the Indian woman gave food to the colonist. When John Smith left Jamestown because of a gunpowder accident, the peace between the Indians and the colonist weaken. In 1612, Governor Thomas Dale ordered for Pocahontas to be kidnapped, held for ransom that would be paid in corn by Chief Powhatan. While she was held captive, Pocahontas was baptized Christian and given the name Rebecca. Also while she was imprisoned, Pocahontas fell in love with John Rolfe, who then asked for her hand in marriage. Sir Thomas Dale and Chief Powhatan gave their consent and they got married in Jamestown on April, 1613. This marriage brought peace between the English and the Indians for many years. On 1615, John and Pocahontas had a child named Thomas. Pocahontas became the center of English society’s attention. She had then become Lady Rebecca Rolfe. Before going back to Virginia, Pocahontas became sick. She died on March, 1617, at the age of 21 in England. She was buried in the chapel of the parish church in Gravesend. Rolfe returned to Virginia, where he manufactured tobacco. I liked Pocahontas because she was the kind of person who was willing to do new things and she did the right thing even if no one would agree with her. She is famous for her actions (even if Disney exaggerated them) and I admire her strength and courage to stand up for what she believed in.
A fairytale is a fictional fantasy fable that passes through generations of children as source of interest to them. Though used for the intent of entertainment, fairytales often indirectly advocate a moral or message to readers (whom are usually children), in hopes that they will grow up to apply these ethics and lead a righteous life. This criteria, however, often originates from the occurrence of a magical transformation; it is this paranormality that introduces the characters of the story to a side of life far from what they have grown to know and learn to adapt to the dramatic amend in their life. This is evident in the characters in world-renowned tales such as The Little Mermaid, Aladdin and Beauty and the Beast.
We all grew up hoping that we were the princesses who met the dreamy prince and lived ‘happily ever after’ like in a fairytale.People debate over whether or not Disney fairytales are beneficial for children. Like Melissa Taylor the author of the piece ‘10 reasons why kids need to read non disney fairy tales’, I am against disneyfied fairy tales. In this essay I will argue on why kids should not only watch disney fairytales but also the real versions.
Walt Disney needed to change his version and many of his other fairy tales and in doing so started a change in the way we see fairy tales. Ask someone today to define a fairy tale and they will tell you along the lines of a beautiful woman put threw hardships that in the end of the story gets the man and becomes a queen of her own castle.
Even though the time periods are very different (by 200 years) the formulas for their fairy tales seems to remain constant. Character development, which is very important in fairy tales is both well done and accurately portrays the living situation for a character in the time period of when it was written. Perrault's version seems to put Cinderella's family in a higher, well-off situation of the Grimm's because she is still abided to obey the rules that her dying mother had set for her. Something that you would see a women do in the late 1600's. Her higher class and the rules of her generation has set her to not have revenge on her step-sisters and helps them marry in the end, making a happy ending to the story for everyone. This also gives off the rules of the time to the young girls who would be listening or reading this story back then. They knew their place in society and tales like Perrault's reinforced it. The Grimm's version, titled Ashenputtle, has key elements in the story line that make it very different from Perrault's Cinderella. The theme becomes very different as the end of the tale results in revenge on the step-sisters from Ashenputtle. This variation in the story line represents the setting in which the Grimm's either lived in themselves, or the living situation of the people who related this tale to the Grimm's.
When the word “fairytale” is mentioned, nearly everyone thinks of light-hearted stories with friendly characters and happy endings. However, these are not the ideas that classic fairytales originally sparked. In fact, numerous modern Disney movies were based off stories that were not so sugar coated. In the 19th century, the Brothers Grimm were responsible for multiple of these popular children’s tales. The Disney remakes of classic fairytales such as Cinderella, Tangled, and Snow White exclude the dark, twisted themes that are significant in the Brothers Grimm fairytales, because society tendencies continue to evolve toward sheltering and overprotecting young children.
Everyone knows and loves the enchanting childhood fairytales of magic, princes, and princesses, but very seldom are privy to the detrimental impacts of “happily ever after” on the developing youth. Fairy tales are widely studied and criticized by parents and scholars alike for their underlying tone and message to children. Peggy Orenstein, feminist author, mother, and fairy tale critic, has made it her personal mission to bring these hidden messages to the surface. In the article, “What’s Wrong with Cinderella?” Orenstein dissects the seemingly innocent tale of love and magic, and the princess many know and love, and points out its flaws and dangers. Fairy tales, Cinderella in particular, are not suitable for children because upon deeper evaluation,
Similar to the above conversation, one must take these tales with a grain of salt, and keep in mind the time period in which they were written. For the purpose of this paper, the focus will only be on what the tale is striving to teach those who read it. Similar to Lurie’s opinion on “The Light Princess,” readers of “Sleeping Beauty” may come away from the story thinking the best was to grow up or be helped is to fall in love; let the man (prince) solve the problem (Lurie 360). This thought is further echoed by Martin Hallett and Barbara Karasek, the authors of “Folk and Fairy Tales,” as they describe the story “as a metaphor for growing up: the heroine falls asleep as a naïve girl and awakens as a mature young woman on the threshold of marriage”
At first glance, what makes a fairy tale a fairy tale may seem obvious—some kind of magic, hidden symbols, repetition, and of course it’s evident it’s fiction—but fables are more than that. As Arthur Schelesinger puts it, it’s about “[expanding] imagination” and gaining understanding of mysterious places (618). While doing this, it also helps children to escape this world, yet teach a lesson that the reader may not be conscious of. A wonderful story that achieves all of this is Cinderella, but not the traditional tale many American’s have heard. Oochigeaskw, or The Rough-Faced Girl, and Ashputtle would be fitting for a seven-year-old because they get the gears of the mind turning, allowing for an escape on the surface, with an underlying enlightenment for children of the ways of the world.
The first clear difference is seen in the format the versions are written in. While the Grimm’s is written in prose, Sexton’s is a poem, with many stanzas and a few rhyme schemes as well. Despite the stories being similar, this format helps Sexton, who was a poet, separate her version from that of the Grimm’s, and helps her story create its own original identity. The Grimm’s prose form allows a more straightforward approach to its audiences, while Sexton’s poem helps it give the story a deeper meaning. Another major difference was Sexton’s addition of a new introduction and conclusion to her story. The poem starts off by mentioning other stories and fictional tales, but ends with truthful statements that show just how fictional the relationship between Cinderella and the prince is, like “Regular Bobbsey twins” (Sexton 79). Sexton also breaks the fourth wall in some instances, mostly to show her cynical and sarcastic attitude towards her story’s own character, Cinderella. In comparison, the Grimm’s Cinderella is shown to be the typical goody-two shoes damsel in distress, which every girl should try to be like. Sexton’s commentary in her poem changes this attitude towards Cinderella, and instead makes Cinderella look like the fragile, naïve, and helpless woman that she is. These divergences are what grab new and old readers of either the fairy tale genre, or Cinderella’s story alike. Old readers get to experience new elements and a fresh take on an old story, while newer readers can find it easier to understand and follow through Sexton’s story and the ideas it’s trying to convey. All these contrasting elements help change Sexton’s versions tone and connotations, despite the stories being very
A fairy tale is seemingly a moral fiction, intended mainly for children. A lesson in critical analysis, however, strips this guise and reveals the naked truth beneath; fairy tales are actually vicious, logical and sexual stories wearing a mask of deceptively easy language and an apparent moral. Two 19th Century writers, the Grimm brothers, were masters at writing these exaggerated stories, bewitching young readers with their prose while padding their stories with allusion and reference: an example of which is "Rapunzel." Grimm's "Rapunzel" is packed with religious symbolism, which lends a new insight to the meaning of this classic story.
Myths and tales are commonly shared across different cultures in versions that are slightly different from each other. Minor changes are made to the story to customize the tale to a more relatable version for the people reading it. Here in this paper two versions of the Cinderella tale will be compared: the German Brothers Grimm fairy tale, “Aschenputtel”, and the Vietnamese folk version, “Tam and Cam”, retold by Vo Van Thang and Jim Larson. The two stories follow the same Cinderella framework and elements, however, the differences of the stories reflects the values of the culture who created that version of Cinderella.
Fairytales, the short stories that most children heard as they went to bed, are actually folktales from previous decades. The fairytales today are primarily adaptations of older versions recreated by Disney— the pioneers of this generation. With that said, the modern versions consistently display good triumphing over evil, a prince charming that constantly came to the rescue, and a happily ever after ending. However, the original folktale version didn’t always come with fortunate events, but often were more violent and gruesome. With the fairytale Cinderella, Disney maintains a similar theme as its Grimm version; however, the conflicts, events, and characters that support this idea are rather different.
The classic tale of Cinderella is well known for the fight of overcoming great obstacles despite great odds. However, there are always a few ill-hearted people who go out of their way to cease any competition that they might face, as seen with Cinderella’s step-sisters. Samuel Jackson says is his distinguished quote, “The hunger of imagination…lures us to…the phantoms of hope,” to help develop a more defined view of a fairytale. The story of Cinderella fully embodies the ideals of a true fairytale by encompassing magic, hope, and struggle between good and evil throughout the duration of the plot.
As a result of the varying circumstances that helped evolve the story the popularity of the sleeping Beauty soared causing it to become a worldwide phenomenon. As opposed to its relative obscurity of the earlier versions one has to ask if the story didn't change would we even have the story today?