Jennifer Sandoval
Miss Longino
Period 1
The Truth About "Maleficent"
I am one of thirteen sisters. If you think it’s hard to get along with your siblings, imagine thirteen fairies abusing their abilities without rest in a small house just past the eastern village. Being the youngest, I sometimes feel my gift was what all that was left over. My sister Akila has the gift of beauty, Cass with the gift of riches, Agatha with goodness, and so on with every great gift you could imagine. I, on the other hand, was given the gift of wishfulness. I assist with making dreams coming true in any way imaginable. I’m quiet, clumsy, and easily forgotten. My thoughts spend most of their time in the clouds and my words are few. Since most of my time was spent in solitude, I quickly took up the hobby of spinning silk. I found a simple pleasure in it, one I could not explain. It passed the time for me, and with this I felt useful and skilled in one way if not in the magic department. My name is Matilda, but as much as I seem to be complaining about my misfortune of a life, this is not a story entirely about me. This is the story of a girl living in the shadow of just one of my mistakes. And it may be different from another version you've heard, so pay close attention.
There was a time when a king and queen ruled over the land I grew up in. Fairies were of popular talk back then, and my title of a Red Fairy would have struck awe into many people. The king and queen were kind rulers, and everyone wanted what was best for them. They had been trying for some time to have a child. You could see their losing eyes with the way they smiled. They were starting to give up. But then, the queen’s kindness was finally returned to her. She was walking along a...
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...celebrating her birth, and become the old woman spinning silk in the castle that results in Rose's slumber. She also helps the prince make it to the castle, then giving the name Maleficent instead of Matilda. It is even insinuated that she may have been the fish that granted the wish of the queen to give birth to the child, but cannot be confirmed nor denied.
I think the story has retained all of the key elements throughout the years because of how classic it has become. The princess falls into a slumber in every version, pricks her finger in most versions, and is cursed by a fairy in most versions. A prince or king always saves her. I think all of the adaptations of this story keep these elements because it gives a familiar feel to the story. You know this story and it is more interesting to see the details the writers changed in each version and retelling.
Introduction: The concept of the change and longevity of the fairy tale (or myth) is well illustrated in the story “Yellow Woman” by Leslie Silko. Not only is the story a modern explanation of a traditional Native American myth, but the style that Silko uses to tell it evokes and adapts the oral communication style that those old myths were passed down with. The story is also very self-consciously aware of its place as a modern revision of a myth, and makes many internal references to this aspect of itself. “Yellow Woman” becomes, in effect, the modern version of a Native American myth or legend, and therefore is a perfect example of the way in which old tales are made new.
Presently, many books and fairytales are converted movies and often, producers alters the original tales to grasp the attention of a large audience. However, some of these interpretations hide the primary interpretation. The original interpretations of the Disney classics Snow White and Sleeping Beauty are greatly reinvented from the original fairytales Sun, Moon, and Talia and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs because of the brutal nature of the treatment women in these original forms. Although there are differences in certain aspects from the original tales to the movies, there are many issues that are influential to the young girls who are still watching the Disney version. I realize this when my youngest niece, Anella asks me, “Why can’t I be beautiful and fall asleep and suddenly wake up to finally find my prince?” This is true in all cases of the four different translations of the fairytales. Every single girl in these stories are in a “beautiful” state of half-death who wake to find a prince who if eager to carry them off. This can lead to negative psychological effects on young girls as they are growing up, creating a large amount of pressure and low self-esteem due to the beauty that these stories portray and maintaining restrictions that these women experience in the stories. While it is true that Sleeping Beauty and Snow White and the Seven Dwarves are considered Disney classics that entertain children and provide meaningful role models, it is evident that the true, vulgar nature of these tales are hidden; these stories are about women who are thrown away.
...and the Pelican Child long after Alexander Afanasev wrote The Frog Princess, he innovatively incorporated certain parts of the classic version into his own, and the combination lead to elements of lessons and values evoked throughout the entire fairy tale. Ranging from the life lessons about taking action yourself to the lessons about keeping your happiness independent of the actions of others and basing them within the stories with the plot line and the lack of punishment amongst the villains seamlessly weaves the morals with the fiction. The similarities and differences combined together create a unique fairy tale that incorporates all the main aspects of the classic fairy tale while adding newer features simultaneously. These traits of the fairy tale are what has kept the fairy tale alive for such a long time and will keep them alive for many more years to come.
Throughout history people have always been telling stories, whether it is how some ones day went or something strange they saw. One place that has a particularly strong connection with storytelling is Ireland. Telling stories in Ireland was usually for entertainment told at a bar or by the fire in a friend’s home to hear what someone else saw or experienced leaving one with new knowledge. Fairy- legends were stories that were told quite often in conversational type settings telling people something they had heard of experienced about the fairies. The people of Ireland used to strongly believe in the fairies during the nineteenth century. Fairies are not human but look somewhat similar to us except that are usually a lot paler. They live their
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.
Rowe Karen. “Feminism and Fairy Tales.” Folk & Fairy Tales. Matin Hallett and Barbrar Karasek. Canada: Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication, 2009. 342-358. Print.
maintaining the course of their true love. A long standing couple, even the king and queen of fairies face the complications true love brings from time to time: “Ever true in loving be, / and the blots of Nature’s hand” (5.1.425-426...
Fairy tales are one of the longest lasting forms of literature. Though now they bring to mind classic movies engendered by Disney, many of these stories were first passed on in an oral manner, meant to convey a message, moral, or lesson. Alison Lurie’s “What Fairy Tales Tell Us” covers a broad range of classic tales, discussing how under the guise of an entertaining story comes life lessons we would all do well to follow. To begin this paper, some of the tales Lurie examines in her article will be looked at and critically examined beyond what she discusses. This will then move the text towards its remaining sections, which will take Lurie’s ideas and have them applied to folk and fairy tales that have not yet been contemplated; for the purpose
As the poem begins, Sexton starts with how the Prince and Cinderella are living happily ever after, but compromising the original naïve direction, she gives the poem a modern context bringing the reader back to reality. While it is obvious to the audience the discrepancies in Sexton’s version, it brings out many jealousies many of us struggle with, such as wealth and everlasting happiness. Sexton makes her audience notice early on many of the pre-conceived notions and expectations we bring to fairy tales. Sexton knows that real life gives no reason to be perceived as happiness, because why learn something that will never amount to use in reality? This tale is Sexton’s answer to her audiences of the “happ...
It tells the story of Princess Aurora, King Florestan's daughter. The fairies have been invited to Aurora's christening, and each one in turn dances and gives a magic present. However, the wicked fairy, Carabosse, interrupts the ceremony and is furious that she wasn't invited. She announces that one day Aurora will prick her finger on a spindle and die. Everyone is horrified, but the Lilac fairy still has her present to give. She modifies the spell so Aurora will not die, but will fall asleep and be woken only by a prince's kiss. At her 16th birthday party, princess Aurora pricks her finger on a spindle brought by Carabosse in disguise and, with the whole court, falls asleep for 100 years. Prince Florimund, with the help of the Lilac fairy. Makes his way through the enchanted forest to awaken Aurora with a kiss. At Princess Aurora and Prince Florimund's wedding, the fairies dance and celebrate with Puss in Boots and Red Riding Hood.
Throughout the history of folklore and fairytales, many interpretations of tales have been created and introduced. When exchanged, many details have been lost in translation, only to be redistributed as a similar tale following a certain moral. But throughout the life of the tale “Cinderella,” one objective has never been misconstrued; the social structure and the status Cinderella falls and rises to. Many fairytales display a rise and fall of a protagonist, often in the case of social classes. The many versions of “Cinderella,” including Ever After, exhibit a definite, strong, monarchical settlement with a defined arrangement of classes that create and develop the beloved character of Cinderella, or Danielle De Barbarac, herself.
For centuries, fairytales have been used for instruction; to teach children what is expected of them as they age and what terrors behold them if they do not comply with the guidelines laid out for them by their culture/society. Many of the tales were purposely frightful in order to scare children away from strangers, dark corners, and traveling off the beaten path into the dark thicket. Charles Perrault first began writing fairy tales in the late 17th century to educate his children. The morals of those tales often center on what is expected of young women; that they should remain ‘pure’ and ‘docile’. He wrote the tales in a time period when fairytales or ‘jack’ tales were looked at as instructional lessons. They were also widely told around the fire, as entertainment, for adults. Angela Carter adapted Perrault’s classic tales in the 1970’s; changing the victim...
Once upon a time there was a beautiful queen and her stepdaughter with skin as white as snow. The queen was always misunderstood while everyone loved the other woman. No one remembers the side of the story of the queen, but everyone loves the other story.
Many people love to see and read fairy tales and never give it a second thought to where they originated from. Or some people do not even know that their favorite disney princess movie really was not created by Walt Disney himself. A lot of the time, a lot of movies, books, etc., are taken from stories that were written long ago and twisted to satisfy the person creating a new version of a tale. Like many famous tales, Rapunzel first originated or was written in 1812 by the Grimm Brothers. The Grimm brothers were inspired by earlier tales similar to Rapunzel, but the story plot was the first of its kind. Rapunzel has been made into hit movies, tv shows, tales, poems, name anything, it has been done. There are four versions of Rapunzel that
Fairy tales have been an essential part of history since the dawn of time. Many people remember reading them as a child, or hearing them told by a parent. They have been written as books and created as movies and tv shows for humanity to enjoy. What do we know about where fairy tales originate? In this essay, we will dig deep into the history of fairy tales, and see what we can discover. Fairy Tales written many years ago are still famous today. They create a world of imagination for children and gives them a brief break from day to day realities.