The fairytale “Little Snow White” and the folktale “Marigo of the Forty Dragons” have the same basic plot of an evil queen who is jealous of her stepdaughter and wants to kills her. In both stories, the Queen has a magical object that that decides who the fairest is in the land, in Snow White it is a mirror and in Marigo it is the sun. When the Queen asks the object “who is the fairest of all” the object replies that Snow White and Marigo respectively are fairer then the Queen. The Queen is then enraged and sets upon killing her stepdaughter, when the Queen attempts to kill her, she fails the firsts two times but succeeds the third time. By looking at beauty as a commodity through which power can be gained, the Queen’s actions can be interpreted …show more content…
However, like in society, the principle of beauty is not decided by women themselves but by men. The male perspective in the stories is represented by the magical object, the mirror and sun “decide” who the most beautiful woman is.
Although, the two stories are similar there is one major difference between the two, which is gender roles. In Marigo the King has a more prominent role whereas in Snow White the King is barely mentioned. When Snow White is “rescued” by the dwarfs they tell her "if you keep house for us, and cook, make beds, wash, sew, and knit, and keep everything clean and orderly, then you can stay with us, and you shall have everything that you want" (Brothers Grimm 3). By agreeing to this she is put in a position of servitude. A woman is supposed to be responsible for everything in the house while the man, the dwarfs serving as the man in the story, is the protector and is the one who will be right in the end. They warn her not to let anyone in, but Snow White disobeys them. In doing this she disobeyed men, which leads to consequences like being poisoned and death in the end. This
Sperry, Lori B., and Liz Grauerholz. "The Pervasiveness and Persistence of the Feminine Beauty Ideal in Children's Fairy Tales." Gender and Society 17.5 (2003): 711-26. JSTOR. Web. 4 July 2015.
In line with Towbin and her colleagues’ statement, looking thoroughly at the princesses, their physical appearances have the standardized beauty which applies to most if not all of the princesses. While it cannot be denied that Disney princess’ movies are pictured to please the eyes of the audience, this portrayal of woman is unrealistic and very idealistic. These distinct features as the cachet of beauty create the fallacy that people must own these distinct features to be called beautiful. The definition of beauty becomes monogamous and it fails to embrace the fact that women come from difference size and appearances. Furthermore, this standardized beauty of the princesses can represent the basic ideas in the society that women are expected to be alluring with sensual features and thin be worthy.
...tatus as strong women does not preclude the fact that they are more different than they are the same. At the end of Marjane’s story she has fundamentally changed, and in doing so actively defies the authority of her homeland. In contrast, while Snow White goes through major physical and emo-tional struggles, she remains fundamentally herself. She will continue to uphold the laws of Fa-bletown as she always has, respecting the authority that enables her to keep her community to-gether. While both women are strong and independent, that independence plays out very differ-ently as both their stories evolve.
They play a role in putting emphasis on themes such as a woman’s passive nature and their beauty. Fairytales are a mode of enhancing the difference between the genders and supporting the dominant gender. Disney films and children’s fairytales put a high amount of emphasis on the theme of feminine beauty ideal (Baker-Sperry & Grauerholz, 2003). It is a social construct that believes that the greatest asset a female has is that of her physical attractiveness and a female should strive to achieve and maintain it. This leads to one believing that females are oppressed, devalued and objectified, particularly in a patriarchal society (Baker-Sperry & Grauerholz, 2003). According to Baker-Sperry and Grauerholz (2003) women find beauty to be empowering and like to engage in rituals that enhance their beauty. Bordo (1993) believes that woman and adolescent girls achieve a high social status and maintain their self-esteem by engaging beauty rituals through the course of the day (as cited in Baker-Sperry & Grauerholz, 2003). The importance of female beauty ideal and physical attractiveness in society is emphasized in many Disney films and children’s media. According to Chyng (2001) many films emphasize the importance of sexuality and often-female characters are portrayed as overly sexual (as cited in Towbin, Haddock, Zimmerman, Lund, & Tanner, 2004).
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
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
The first portrayal of “Snow White” in 1930s showed the woman to be a product of the environment around her. The influence of the environment was depicted as having a great impact in influencing the character of women due to their naïve and weak nature (Cheu 135).
Wolf utilizes the term "the beauty myth" to demonstrate that the interpretation of beauty is a creation of society, intended to keep women trapped inside their bodies. Wolf claims that the beauty myth "is not about women at all." She explains, "it is about men's institutions and institutional power" (5). In addition, she claims that women have recently obtained numerous rights, which now threaten "to destabilize the institutions on which a male-dominated culture has depended." She continues to explain that "a collective panic reaction […] has forced a demand for counter images" (8). Clearly, society as a whole does create pressure on women to act in a certain manner. However, Wolf's implication that it is an intentional, organized effort to keep women oppressed is one-sided and extreme.
Both men and women suffer from gender roles based on the norms of society and what we portray them to be. According to the Dworkin’s articles it highlights this fact by stating “Snow white’s biological mother was a passive, good queen who sat at her window and did embroidery”. These fairytales teach children today that when they grow up they are supposed to be resistant to adventurous acts and experiencing life to the fullest and its more ideal for women to stay at home and just accept that fact. This gives not only young children but women as well false hope that they can do something productive with their lives. Adolescents look
In the Andersen version of the tale, The Snow Queen, the relationship between two childhood friends, Kai and Gerda, is the main focus; however, Gerda takes the cake as the main protagonists. In the fairytale, an evil mirror is sent down to Earth by a Troll and hi...
Everyone knows the fairy tale story of Snow White, but do they know the Grimm Brothers’ version? In Disney’s Snow White fairy tale, the evil queen poisons an apple and gives it to Snow White and she falls and dies from the poisoning. While in the Grimm Brothers’ fairy tale the queen tries multiple times to kill snow white and all of them more gruesome than the last. In the Brothers’ story it is clear that the queen will stop at nothing to kill Snow White. Throughout the story, the queen goes up to her secret mirror and asks, who is the fairest of them all. Expecting the answer to be her, she is surprised when the mirror says that the princess is, in fact, the
This belief could also explain the Queen’s hatred toward her own daughter, as Snow White represents all the ideas the Queen has renounced. Continuing with that idea, the Queen believes there is a part of Snow White in her and that she does not necessarily want to kill her own daughter, but wants to kill the part of her daughter in her, “the angel who would keep deeds and dramas out of her own house” (Gilbert and Gubar, 390). This opens up the concept that maybe the Queen is not even battling Snow White, but is battling her inner self and Snow White is just a proxy or the person that just so happened to be in the right place at the wrong time. This invokes the thought that maybe the Queen started out like Snow White. Maybe the Queen started out as a beautiful young girl, pure and sweet, but she changed once she realized that you cannot live your whole life as beautiful and pure if you are ruling the kingdom, as Snow White is destined to do. While the Queen may actually be Snow White, it is entirely possible that Snow White may actually be the
Snow White by the Brothers Grimm explores the theme of insecurity which can be defined as one’s subjective evaluation of his or her own self. The fairytale is a story about a Queen who seeks to be the prettiest by constantly asking her mirror “Mirror, Mirror, on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?.” Initially it was always her; however, as the story progresses and as her stepdaughter Snow White matures, the mirror states that Snow White is the fairest. This causes the step-mother to try to kill Snow White through a huntsman, using a comb, a corset, and finally an apple. This mirror phrase seems to raise more and more anger the more it is asked. One could assume that the mirror is the judging factor in the phrase, but after a closer look on a psychological level, the
Tales that make frequent references to the appearance of women are constantly being remade, such as “Cinderella” and “Snow White”. “Tales that make frequent reference to physical appearance and beauty for women are likely to have been reproduced… those that have been reproduced the most are precisely the ones that promote a feminine beauty ideal” (Baker-Sperry and Grauerholz). References to women’s beauty and physical appearance isn’t limited long stories, but also shortened stories keep the feminine beauty within them. Detail to attractiveness in fairy tales has increased over time (and still is). Fairy tales that have been remade or rewritten suggests that women (and men) are manipulated by media and their ideals of attractiveness. “Beauty, for beauty’s sake,” (Baker-Sperry and Grauerholz) plays a very big part in fairy tales, especially for women. There is a difference in messages between women’s beauty and male’s attractiveness and is consistent in a social control perspective. Fairy tales aren’t always popular because of the (feminine) beauty within, but also because
...e ability to achieve anything in life. Hopefully, readers would learn from this novel that beauty is not the most important aspect in life. Society today emphasizes the beauty of one's outer facade. The external appearance of a person is the first thing that is noticed. People should look for a person's inner beauty and love the person for the beauty inside. Beauty, a powerful aspect of life, can draw attention but at the same time it can hide things that one does not want disclosed. Beauty can be used in a variety of ways to affect one's status in culture, politics, and society. Beauty most certainly should not be used to excuse punishment for bad deeds. Beauty is associated with goodness, but that it is not always the case. This story describes how the external attractiveness of a person can influence people's behavior and can corrupt their inner beauty.