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Comparing and contrasting fairy tales
Comparing and contrasting fairy tales
Comparing and contrasting fairy tales
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Throughout the years, many variations of the popular fairy tale, "Little Snow-White," have been produced along with the different interpretations that correspond with each of them meanwhile maintaining a general story line. This particular version comes from the Grimm Stories, published in 1812 by two brothers, which differentiates from the Disney version due to the ending. In addition, it is important to understand that there is a deeper understanding to this fairy tale rather than what simply meets the naked eye. The fairy tale adapts certain qualities of the universal principle of the journey of the heroine, formulating a connection between the short story and the book, The Heroine's Journey. The metaphorical experiences in "Little Snow …show more content…
After the huntsman finds pity in her and lets her go to never come back again, Snow White runs and runs, "looking at the leaves on the trees, and did not know what to do" (Paragraph 6). Creating the parallel with The Heroine's Journey, Murdock states that a woman will "cross the threshold, and leave the safety of her parents' home, and goes in search of herself" (The Heroine's Journey p. 46). She emphasizes the heroine will encounter obstructions along the way both in her outer rational world as well as her inner psyche. The outer world obstacles are more apparent in "Little Snow White" primarily involving the reoccurring appearance of the step mother. The rage built up where, "… envy let her have no rest," inferring the step mother's conscience would not allow her to feel betrayed and could not go on if Snow White was still alive. The first encounter between Snow White and the step mother is where she dresses up as an old lady where no one could recognize her and goes to the cottage where Snow White is staying. She entices Snow White to let her in the house and convinces her into thinking she is selling pretty and cheap things. The step mother offers to lace her properly, proceeding in which she laced Snow White so tightly and quickly that she lost her breath and fell to the floor. The dwarfs come home and find her on the floor and bring her back to consciousness. This sort of event repeats itself, next with the step mother reaching in to comb Snow White's hair which poisoned her, and lastly Snow White falling to the temptation of the beautifully-looking poisoned apple. In retrospect to the Snow White's road of trials, the dwarfs are constantly reminding her to trust no one and keep the door closed. In a deeper sense, the
As a symbolic reading reveals, however, at the heart of the Grimms’ story are the stories central to the Bible. The character of Snow-White comes to be a dual representative of both Eve and Christ. Why might the Brothers Grimm present Snow White in this
What is a hero? To our understanding, a hero is a person who is admired for great or brave acts. Joseph Campbell, an American mythologist, and writer wrote The Odyssey. In this novel he talks about The Heroes Journey which are twelve different stages of adventure known as the Ordinary World, the Call to Adventure, Refusal of the Call, Meeting the Mentor, Crossing the Threshold, Test/Allies/Enemies, Approach to the Inmost Cave, Ordeal, Reward, the Road Back, Resurrection, and the Return With The Elixir. The Odyssey is about a legendary hero named Odysseus, who fought among the Greeks in the battle of Troy and went through the stages of The Heroes Journey. Odysseus lived in Ithaca, Northwest of Greece, with his wife Penelope and son Telemachus.
There are many ways in which “Winter Dreams” is like and unlike a fairytale. “Winter Dreams” had the potential to have a fairy tale ending. Beginning the story, F. Scott Fitzgerald made the story seem predictable. The reader would have predicted a happy ending like a fairytale. An ending where the ambitious young man gets the beautiful girl of his dreams. Sadly, the story doesn’t end that way. The story had many similarities and differences considering the plot, atmosphere, tone and characteristics, to a fairy tale.
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
Countless quest narratives – ranging from modern texts all the way back to ancient texts – have all conformed to a certain archetypal structure. Christopher Vogler writes:
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).
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.
"I am the wretch created by your beloved Elizabeth," cried the vaguely female wretch. "Elizabeth has passed the limits of the human realm and in her feverish pursuit of the essential knowledge of the world she has spawned the being that you now see before you!"
Although, the tale is very short the main aspects of the plot are still evident throughout the story, for example, the exposition introduces the main two characters of the story, the mother and her child, the Grimm brothers wrote that ‘the little boy of seven years old, was so handsome to look at and lovable, that no one could look at him without liking him.’ The rising action of the short tale occurs when the little boy ‘suddenly became ill, and god took him to himself.’ (Grimm) This builds the story
Have you ever seen snow before? That white fluffy stuff that covers the ground completely. Well if you have, I am sure you have overcome an obstacle in your life and have reached something “irreplaceable and beautiful” (102). Just like Sister Zoe had said when she saw that snow falling from the sky. This story was very enlightening because the way the author brought in herself and portrayed herself through the character Yolanda was very intriguing. She brought the subject to life in many ways. However, the author of “Snow” uses two specific elements, its symbolism and its character to prove how overtime one individual will be able to overcome obstacles. Not only does theses elements point this out but the narrator also makes an impact of the reader as well.
Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm are famous for their renditions of some of the most beloved children's fairy tales. Among the hundreds is the well known (Schneewittchen) Snow-drop. This fairy tale is in many aspects common, imperfect, and vulgar, as are most of the fairy tale translations of the Grimm Brothers. These characteristics are what depict the Grimm fairy tales. The tales were primarily written to entertain and relate to the common peasantsof the 1800's. The stories are not what you would call a perfect fairy tale in that the end is not always as you would predict, but there is always a happy ending. In Snow White, there were many versions that the Grimm Brothers wrote but we only see the more modern version. Some differences between the edition of 1812 and later versions: beginning with the edition of 1819, the Grimms add the statement that Snow-White's mother died during childbirth, and that her father remarried. Note that in the first edition, presumably the version closest to its oral sources, Snow-White's jealous antagonist is her own mother, not a stepmother. Also in the edition of 1819, the poisoned apple is dislodged when a servant accidentally stumbles while carrying the coffin to the prince's castle. In the last version of Snow White, one of the prince's servants grew resentful of carrying around Snow White's coffin and lifted her out and hit her on the back. This caused the apple to become dislodged and Show White arose. All these adaptations are what makes the tale a fairy tale. It started out as an oral fairy tale being passed down from generation to generation to become a written fairy tale that has gone through many transitions.
Though the evils of the world may discourage us from reaching our full potential, fairytales such as Little Snow-White by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm teach us that good will always triumph over evil. As many tales of its kind, Little Snow-White uses a number of literary devices to attract a younger audience and communicate to them a lesson or moral that will remain with them throughout their lives. Since children have such an abstract stream of thought, it is vital to use language and devices that will appeal to them as to keep them interested in the story.
Most modern fairytales are expected to have happy endings and be appropriate for children, nonetheless, in past centuries most were gruesome. Consequently, fairytales have been modified throughout time. The stories “Beauty and the Beast” by Jeanne-Marie LePrince de Beaumont and “The Summer and Winter Garden” by Jacob and Wilherm Grimm share similarities and differences. The two stories are distinct because of the peculiar year they have been written in. LePrince de Beaumont’s story is written in London of 1783 and Grimm’s in Germany of 1812. At the time, wealthy people in London, were educated and had nannies who would read to their children; whereas, in Germany, the Grimm brothers created their own interpretation into a short story. Because many high class parents in 18th century London would not be able to spend time with their children, nannies would read “Beauty and the Beast” to them since they were intended for children and considered appropriate. In “The Summer and Winter Garden,” the Grimm’s’ story was mostly based to entertain misbehaved children and teach them the valuable lesson that everyone should be treated with kindness. The Grimm brothers’ goal in rewriting this short story is to better children’s behavior which worked quite well. Since these stories have been re-written for children, it would be safe to say the reason why parents expose the two stories to their children is because they both portray the same moral: good things happen to good people. The two interpretations of “Beauty and the Beast,” although written in separate countries, share important similarities and differences even though the authors have different interpretations and came from different cultures.
The stepmother poisons an apple, Snow White eats it and then dies. After this, Gaiman’s version strays significantly from the fairy tale happy ending. As did the Queen’s and Snow White’s character change, so did the Prince’s. In Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, the prince kisses the princess and breaks the curse. In the Grimm brothers version, which is more like Gaiman’s, the piece of poisoned apple is dislodged from her throat and she comes back to life. In “Snow, Glass, Apples”, the prince’s true motives are uncovered. “He bade me remove my shift, and made me stand in front of the opened window, far from the fire, until my skin was chilled stone-cold. Then he asked me to lie upon my back, with my hands folded across my breasts, my eyes wide open – but staring only at the beams above. He told me not to move, and to breathe as little as possible. He implored me to say nothing”(Gaiman 342). The prince’s requests are strange and uncommon but the Queen complys. The prince is trying to make the Queen seem dead. This reveals the prince to be a necrophiliac, which is why he shows great interest when he first discovers Snow White’s body. He is willing to give the dwarfs anything in turn for Snow White’s corpse. They give it to him and while he is having his way with it, the piece of apple that is lodged in her throat becomes loosened and she comes back to life. Snow White stayed cold and always looked as if death was upon her, so the prince’s desire for her was not diminished when she awakened. The prince is not the valiant savior he is thought to be, but a lust driven necrophiliac in search of