To begin, Germany’s history plays a large part in shaping the story. During the late 1700s early 1800s, there was a limited amount of entertainment of the lower class. The main source was of entertainment during a time before was oral story telling. The earliest version of Snow White was an oral story and the Grimm brothers used the oral story as a base for their Snow White. People of different ages listened to the stories including children because they were expected to mature earlier in order to help support their family. Not only does this force the children to mature early due to the dark content in the stories, this causes the jealousy of stepmother to develop when Snow White is very young because she was already seen as a woman. In the tale, Snow White’s young age shows “historical significance in that it was not uncommon for women (…) to enter adulthood around this time because of the need for children to act as adults at a younger …show more content…
Due to the frequent loss of wives, husbands often remarried to have someone who will take care of his household and provide him with even more children, resulting in commonness of stepmothers. This occurred so often that there is a Freudian term that was derived from the situation. When a mother is lost and then the child is “introduced to a stepmother (…) the child would associate the good qualities of both mothers with the birth mother and all of the bad or negative qualities with the stepmother. This is called splitting and it sets up the idea of the ‘wicked stepmother’ that has come to be a staple in many fairy tales” (Saunders 26). Due to the historical background and social roles during the time that the Grimms wrote “Snow White”, Snow white was seen as a threat to her stepmother because she was already seen as an adult who could use her beauty to a weapon to get what she
Step Mother (second wife of fathers and mother to the youngest children) was only a young girl when her parents were killed. After a series of unfortunate events she was bought from a village clan and sold to become someone’s “companion”. None of this was her choice. “She was taken to a mission house, then taken away again, reclaimed by the village clan, and eventually sold into fathers canton merchant family” (13). Objectified and forced to be what someone else wants, stepmother is told to be exactly how the father wants her. She is forced to be submissive, and acts as a mother to the children, a wife to the husband, and a servant to the grandmother, or Poh-Poh. Throughout the novel her life is not hers to live, and her children are taught to treat her differently because of it. She is father’s second wife and not his first and because of this the children-even those who are biological- are expected to call her stepmother: “Poh-oh insisted we simplify our kinship terms in Canada, so my mother became “step mother.”… What the sons called my mother, my mother became… Father did not protest. Nor did the slim, pretty woman that was my mother seem to protest, though she must have cast a glance at the old one and decided to buy her time” (15). Stepmother is forced to be a third party in the raising of her children. She is only able to step out of
They have no power to choose for themselves and are considered to have a lack of ability to be independant, forcing the need to rely on men in their lives like fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons. As a representing character, Stepmother did not control her life. Bandits killed most of her family when she was young, but she survived by hiding between two trunks of clothes. Then she was taken away from a Mission House and “reclaimed by the village clan, eventually being sold to her Father’s Canton merchant family” (Choy 6). So clearly, Stepmother has no right to choose for herself like an individual; she is just an article that belongs to others and a good that can be sold. In addition, in this family, Stepmother has a very low position even though she gave birth to two kids. Stepmother is Jook Liang and Sek Lung’s birth mother, but she can only be called “Stepmother”. Third Uncle explained, “Stepmother” was a ranking much more respectable than a “family servant,” more honourable than “concubine,” but never equal in honour or respect to the title of First Wife or Mother, Stepmother remained silent (Choy 147). This illustrates Old Chinese Seniority Rules; no matter what a female dedicates to the family, if she is not the first wife, she will never get the respect that she deserves to have. Normally, in Old China, women cannot get fair treatments. They must follow the rules without any doubt, even if they are unequal. Also, Stepmother
Not all parents love their children equally. Circumstances and personal vendettas influence feelings and actions. People attempt to justify their reasoning, but most know their reasoning appears personal and petty. Stepparents hold such grudges and ill will. “The ‘Cinderella Effect’: Elevated Mistreatment of Stepchildren in Comparison to Those Living with Genetic Parents” by Martin Daly & Margo Wilson supports the argument that villainous stepparents are created in tales such as “Cinderella” by the Brothers Grimm to create a more interesting story and to reflect real family relations.
As Karl Marx predicted, this lead to the stepmom’s failure and eventual death. Onward, gender inequality on both sides of the spectrum was portrayed through Snow White’s interactions with the dwarfs. Because she was a woman, her duty was to cook and clean, and because the dwarfs were men their duties were to do whatever they wanted. This stereotype displayed gender roles in a household where one woman was in charge of tasks that seven men could’ve easily contributed to, despite their size. In the prince’s case, sexism was used in order to impose his will on the unsuspecting princess. Yes, the movie ended with them agreeing to get married, but he didn’t know that would be the result, he assumed the princess would like him back. Through sexism, the prince saw the princess as the lesser gender, disregarding consent. Or perhaps it wasn’t sexism, instead being false consciousness, which suggests the prince had an altered mindset that caused him to be ignorant to the injustice he committed for the sake of the greater good. Lastly, the prince’s social class could have led him to his decisions. Perhaps he realized that him being a prince would exempt him of the punishments of sexual
This creates sinister predators within her short stories through the use of empowering and dangerous women. in ‘The Snow Child’, the use of subversion turns the traditional fable of Snow White’s existence from maternal desire into a child who is the product of paternal desire and sexual fantasy. The original tale of Snow White explores a queen who is driven by her desire for beauty and youth, this is similar within ‘The Snow Child’ as the Countess becomes jealous of the child as the Count begins to favour her. The countess and the child are portrayed as binary opposites throughout the story; as one is clothed, the other is naked. This could reflect the importance of appearance within society, and explain the Countess’ antagonistic response to the child and acts of neglect due to her jealousy of the child’s beauty. Carter’s description of the Countess’ clothing leaves the reader with an idea of her dangerous nature; she wears “pelts of black foxes”, an association suggesting a predatory and cunning nature. She also wears “scarlet heels, and spurs” and it may be that the colour of the heels comes from the actions of the spurs, which adds to this idea of violence. We see this nature when she is threatened by the child regarding the Count’s affections, “wife” becoming “the Countess” in a shift emphasised by finally having her own thoughts and feelings in the
In the article, “Fairy Tales and a Dose of Reality,” Catherine Orenstein attempts to show the contrast between the modern romanticism of marriage and the classic fairy tale’s presentation of them (285). She looks at the aristocratic motivations for marriage and the way these motivations are prominent in Cinderella. She then looks at the 20th century to highlight the innate difference of our mentalities, showing a much more optimistic and glorified relationship. In the article, “Cinderella: Not So Morally Superior,” Elisabeth Panttaja claims that Cinderella’s success can be attributed to her craftiness (288). She shows her and her mother as an equal to the stepfamily, analyzing each family’s goals and values. She attempts to show their similarities,
Jacqueline Schectman is a therapist who has focused on the psychological pattern finding archetypes brought out by stories that resonate with the readers own experiences. She attempts to bridge the connection between the reader 's imagination and real life. In “Cinderella” and a Loss of Father-Love, Schectman takes what her clients take from Cinderella, and uses it to understand their case better. Their interpretation of the story Cinderella reveals what they tend to relate with in their personal lives. While in The Truth about Cinderella, Martin Daly and Margo Wilson explain the statistics of stepparent domestic abuse towards children, sexual and domestic violence. While both authors use Cinderella and her wicked stepmother as the analogy between children and their stepparents, Jacqueline Schectman focuses more on emotional abuse, while Martin Daly and Margo Wilson emphasize physical abuse.
Growing up, all of us probably have read fairy tales where there is a stepmother who is seen as a witch for treating her stepdaughter so poorly. We associate the stepmother with ideas of evil. When many of us hear of the words black, cold, jealousy and evil we often times think of stepmothers from fairy tales who devised plans in order to stop their stepdaughters from gaining anything. These arrogant stepmothers have different moods relating to the setting and symbols, they have developed the idea of dramatic irony and also have their own point of view for their actions throughout different fairy tales.
Roses are red, violets are blue, Snow White has changed, everything’s new. This is a different beginning than the original story of Little Snow White by the Grimm Brothers and retold by the director Rupert Sanders, in the movie Snow White and the Huntsman. The original story portrays Snow White as a beautiful, but naive, young woman, leading up to her eating a poisoned apple from the evil queen. The evil queen has been jealous of Snow White after she has grown up and become more beautiful. Although in both the story and the movie, Snow White eats a poisoned apple, Snow White in Snow White and the Huntsman is portrayed as more brave and courageous, even after she wakes up from the poisoned apple. In the end, both the story and the movie show that Snow White’s triumphs out rules all, no matter what is thrown at her, but the difference is in how. While there are many common motifs across the story and the movie; Gender roles have changed over time, as shown in the
Over the years, Snow White’s story has been told in numerous different versions then its original version in 1812 by the Grimm Brothers. The main basis of the story has remained the same. Only a few minor tweaks to the story have changed. The three versions of the story that are going to be analyzed are the original story “Little Snow White” by the Brothers Grimm, “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs” by Disney, and “Mirror, Mirror” by Disney also. They each were created in very different times and the original story has changed over the years to appeal to the audience of that time. No matter how many versions there are Snow White is considered, one of the most cherished fairy tales of all time. They each use different methods to get their story across by using different colors, word usage, and scenes.
It is used in this story as it helps to create a contrast between the good and pure Snow White and, the evil Wicked Queen. The two main characters represent the seven holy virtues and the seven deadly sins respectively. The characteristics of each aid the audience in determining how to act truly good and truly evil. At the end of the story we realize how good will triumph over evil. After realizing Snow White is still fairer than she, “The wicked woman uttered a curse, and she become so frightened, so frightened, that she did not know what to do. At first she did not want to go to the wedding, but she found no peace (8).” We see that the Queen’s envy and wrath has overcome her yet again and it is ultimately her evil actions that lead to her demise against the purity of Snow White. Using main characters to exemplify the characteristics of virtue and sin allow young audiences to easily recognize the difference between good and bad. This use of symbolism allows the audience to be able to understand the moral of the story, which is that good will always triumph over
During the 1800’s two brothers, known as Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, began writing short stories that reflected their lives in central Europe. At this time the French under Napoleon’s rule had overrun Germany, which caused a lot of political issues. Germany’s new governmental ruler cut off the country of its local culture (National Geographic). The Grimm brothers tried to preserve the traditional oral stories of the time. They didn’t plan for their writings to become popular, or for them to be for the younger population. The Grimm brothers were motivated to change the stories up a bit as their tales captivated more people. They incorporated a softer side with a primary moral of the story for the readers (GrimmFairytales.com). It is from these original Grimm versions that modern fairytales, such as Cinderella originated from.
“And they all lived happily ever after, the end.” At least, that’s how it happens in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs is a film produced by Walt Disney Productions that is about a beautiful girl who is loathed by her stepmom, the Evil Queen. Because of the Evil Queen, Snow White is put in danger. The Evil Queen’s plans were ruined when Snow White was kissed by the prince and revived. This is just one of the many movies Walt Disney Productions has made, but a lot of them stem from stories written by Brothers Grimm. Disney movies are still fun, entertaining, and have their own twist. Disney movies may be entertaining, but many people agree that Grimm stories are better. The reasons Grimm stories are better is because
In the original Little-Snow White by the Grimms brothers and the readapted Disney version, the stepmother
Setting the tale in Nazi Germany creates an atmosphere of fear and anxiety, and establishes a set of circumstances in which it is possible for people to act in ways that would be unacceptable under other circumstances. The stepmother is a good example of this. She is the force in the family – it is she who decides that everyone in the family will have a better chance of survival, if they split up – the children going off alone together and the parents going in another direction. Unlike the portrayal of the stepmother in the Grimm fairy tale, this stepmother is not wicked. She is strong willed and determined, but not evil, although she is protecting herself and her husband by abandoning the children.