My attitude about fairytales changed due to this week’s reading of Hansel and Gretel. The story of Hansel and Gretel to me was the parents had lost the kids in the woods and had not left them there. Now that I know the original story it is surprising that the Mother was evil and left them in the woods because they didn’t have enough money. Before knowing the original story I thought fairy tales were all happy and had a happy ending. Although, that is not the case with Snow White or Hansel and Gretel. The stories are very dark, blunt, and pretty violent. I do think the lessons being taught are important, but of course, they should be taught in a softer more understanding way. For me, I will be looking at fairy tales differently because being an adult now and learning the stories that were told to me were very different.
Daily Archives: April 3, 2024
During my growth, I read through an entire book of fairy tales by the Brothers Grimm. When I was young, I would ponder whether I would make the same decisions as the protagonists in the fairy tales or have evil thoughts like the villains. This week, we read the original text of Snow White in class, and my feeling is that most of the story content is the same as the fairy tales I read when I was young, but the ending and the details in the story are not as harmonious as the Disney version of Snow White. In the original text, Snow White’s stepmother, out of jealousy, is eventually forced by the prince to wear red-hot shoes to death. I think when I was reading fairy tales as a child, I would never think about why the stepmother wanted to kill Snow White because of jealousy over beauty, but now that I think about it carefully, this story is after all from several centuries ago, in the context of that era, the expectations and goals for women were to marry into a noble family or to achieve a better life through their beauty, and the fairy tale itself was meant for children to watch and read, as a way of educating children that beauty is not the only way out, and the real world will not always end in harmony, and that evil people should be severely punished.
Growing up my idea and version of fairytales were the typical “happily ever after” endings. The fairytale Snow White that I recall from my childhood, was the queen giving Snow White the poisonous apple that sends her into a sleep like death that only can be broken by a kiss. The ending was also very different as well if not even more grim. The child friendly version ended with the prince saving her but instead the versions read today ended in a slow and painful death for the queen; this version she was sentenced to death by hot iron shoes and forced to “dance” until her death. I now see that fairytales are way more grim that what we have been conditioned to, the actuality of fairytales are very similar to that of myths or legends in a way. I only say this because stories like myths and legends are almost always grim, and you can compare this to the original “fairytales”. Lastly, I’ve also observed that Fairytales is very misleading as to what the story is about and how it ends.
The messages of fairy tales are a lot more complex than I previously thought. I absolutely love fairy tales, but this is more from a perspective of aesthetic. Delving into them from the perspective of lessons is not something I normally think to do. Good or famous fairy tales are also not one dimensional. They are layered with multiple meanings and target multiple audiences. For example, in relation to “Little Snow White”, I never connected that this was both a coming-of-age story and a cautionary tale. My only belief with this story was strictly toxic feminism. The evil queen was growing older, and her beauty was fading, so she took it out on Snow White who was growing more beautiful every day. We see this in everyday life with mothers, daughters, or across generations. After living with the seven dwarves and eating the poison apple, Snow White was saved by the prince. While this does feed into the “waiting for a man to save you” ideology, it does show our leading character entering a new stage of life, overcoming her conflict, and showing growth.
