Research Paper - "Happily Ever After?: The Altering State of Fairy-Tales"

assignment


Many people know the tales of Snow White, Cinderella, and The Little Mermaid. Almost anyone living in the 20th and 21st centuries has heard of these movies. Indeed, the majority of older Americans have grown up with the Disney variations of these tales, and the younger generation is now being introduced to them for the first time as they grow old enough to sit in front of a television. But do you know the full versions of these tales? Or the correct versions? Did you know that Snow White’s evil stepmother was forced to dance to her death in red-hot iron shoes? Or that Cinderella’s stepsisters’ eyes were pecked out by birds? Or that the Little Mermaid killed herself when her prince fell in love with someone else? The original versions of these stories could often be cruel, especially to those who were on the “evil” end of the balance. The Grimms originally published the Kinder- und Haus-Märchen for scholars, in annotated and footnoted editions (Windling 2000). The tales have been simplified since, altered for younger audiences, though there have been some tales that have resurfaced with all their original elements in them. Authors, poets, and artists have altered fairy tales throughout the years, changing them to suit their own purposes, adhere to society’s values, and gain audiences and sales. Sometimes this altering can go too far, though many critics and audiences find altering fairy tales to be a “good” thing.
The Brothers Grimm are well-known for collecting fairy tales from all over the globe, compiling them into a volume called the Kinder- und Haus-Märchen. Indeed, merely mention the words “fairy tale” to a number of people, and they will think “Brothers Grimm.” The Märchen underwent several revisions, usually by Wilhelm--the younger brother. These revisions often changed the flow of the story, or took out some of the “indecent” expressions within the tales (Dollerup 1999). Often, episodes were added or removed, and one of the tales was even rewritten completely. The tale of “All Fur” was changed by the Grimms so that the father’s incestuous desire to marry his daughter was actually thwarted (Dollerup 1999). Often, editing was done to convey good Protestant values (Windling 2000). Through censorship and editing, folktales were changed to fit certain needs--for example, to distribute propaganda or to instruct through interest groups (Kamenetsky 1992). The Rousseauists--people who followed the ideas of Russeau in relation to the fairy tales--believed the unaltered forms of the folktales were “too crude to be used with children” (Kamenetsky 1992 p. 218).There were even different variations collected by the Grimms, such as versions of Cinderella with gold or fur slippers rather than glass. Variations of Snow White also had the maiden living with seven dwarves, twelve robbers, fairies, and so on. Snow White has been buried in a crystal casket, a gem encrusted casket, a hollow tree, and locked in a room. The villain has been a stepmother, an aunt, and even her own mother. In several variations, the prince who finds her wants to marry her despite the fact that everyone thinks she’s dead (Windling 2000). In fact, the Grimms didn’t roam the countryside to collect the tales. They were gathered from their middle-class friends, who were recounting tales from nurses, governesses, and servants--not all of them were German, either (Windling 2000). Thus, the Grimms tales were from a variety of countries, and had most likely been altered while passing from one person to the next, as oral traditions go.
The stories the Grimms collected were originally intended for adults, scholars especially (Windling 2000), and, looking at their content, that isn’t hard to believe. Rapunzel’s mother willingly traded her for rampion, and in some versions, Rapunzel was abandoned by her prince once he found out she was pregnant. In other versions, the prince’s eyes are put out, whether by the witch or by thorns into which he falls, and he never sees Rapunzel again. The tale of Red Riding Hood was about rape--as several teachers told Zipes (Smetanka 2000)--as was Sleeping Beauty. In several versions of the tale, Sleeping Beauty was found in the woods by a king, a prince, or some other young man. The man has sex with Sleeping Beauty and then leaves, but doesn’t always return to her. One variant has the king take the girl (named Talia) to his castle, where his barren wife tries to have Talia and Talia’s twins murdered (Snyder 1999). In the tale of Beauty and the Beast, Beauty’s evil older sisters turned to stone. In Snow White, the wicked queen stood naked in front of her mirror every time she spoke to it. Terri Windling called it “a chilling tale of murderous rivalry, adolescent sexual ripening, poisoned gifts, blood on snow, witchcraft, and ritual cannibalism...in short, not a tale originally intended for children’s tender ears” (2000 p. 26). Such elements were not ones that parents would want to tell their children, so the Grimms rewrote some of the tales to make them happier and lighter, and to reflect Christian ideals. “The tendency to shelter children from what was considered ugly, illogical, violent, or frightening...led to presenting them with watered-down versions...” (Nijmegen University 1998 p. 1). I certainly would not want to tell my young children such disturbing tales.
These tales have been changed frequently, especially by television and movie companies. The leading corporation in altering fairy tales is Disney, though it by no means stands alone in its actions. It is, however, what think about today when we hear the names “Cinderella” or “Snow White.” Most people in America have grown up with the Disney retellings of the fairy tales, rather than the original versions. Disney “Americanized” many of the tales they retold (Zipes 1988), by removing the queen’s nakedness and the red-hot shoes from Snow White. They celebrated the “virile innocence of male power; the domestication of sweet, docile pubescent girls; and the virtues of clean-cut, all-American figures and the prudent, if not prudish life” (Zipes 1988 p. 24). It is “simple, bright, squeaky clean, romantic, and unambiguous” (Snyder 1999 p. 32). As Terri Windling put it, “in this singing, dancing, whistling version, only the queen retains some of the real power of the traditional tale. She’s a genuinely frightening figure...” (2000 p. 87). Disney often divides the characters of the tales into Good and Evil, “reflecting the values of post-war America” (Snyder 1999 p. 32). This is more evidence of conveying current themes and ideas through rewrites of the fairy tales. Disney also did not mention the removal of the wicked stepsisters’ eyes in Cinderella, and slightly altered the ending of “The Steadfast Tin Soldier” by Hans Christian Anderson in the recent Fantasia 2000. I do not mean to say that Disney is wrong for doing this. In today’s society, parents are leery of allowing their children to watch excessive violence, so it is somewhat commendable for Disney to remove some of the more disturbing violent elements from these tales. However, Zipes has said that “Disney...’has literally destroyed the fairy tale, because he homogenized it....’” (qtd. In Smetanka 2000 printout p. 2). I agree. There is a limit to how far one should go, and alterations to some more recently-written original stories, such as The Black Cauldron, remove most of the meaning behind the original tale.
Other movie and television companies have contributed their variations to society as well. Columbia Tri-Star came out with the movie The Swan Princess, an animated version of the German fairy tale “Swan Lake.” Among other changes, the Princess Odette was the only swan in the movie, whereas the tale contained an entire flock. Also, Columbia went on to create two sequels to the story, which have no real basis in fairy tales. A series originally airing on PBS, Fairy Tale Theatre presented audiences with live-action versions of favorite tales, with who are now well-known actors playing lead roles. Often, original elements of the tales were included, such as the mermaid in “The Little Mermaid” killing herself, though other elements, such as Sleeping Beauty being the only person to fall asleep, where changed. In the Fairy Tale Theatre version of Sleeping Beauty, the entire castle falls asleep at the same time as Beauty. For the sake of decency, the Emperor in the tale “The Emperor’s New Clothes” paraded around town in his underwear rather than completely in the nude, but it still serves well when a child points to him and says, “he has nothing on,” meaning he is not wearing any suit. Broadway presented a musical called “Into the Woods,” by Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine, describing the meeting of Jack, Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, and other fairy tale characters in a forest (Hepler 1990). The television miniseries “The Tenth Kingdom” weaves tales together to bring about a story set after most of our favorite tales have taken place. There is some back-story--the characters’ pasts--mentioned in the movie, with original fairy tale elements included, such as Snow White describing to the main character Virginia how the Wicked Queen stood naked in front of the magic mirror, or another part of the movie explaining how the Wicked Queen had been forced to dance in the heated iron shoes. There is mention of Little Bo Peep, Red Riding Hood, and Cinderella even makes an appearance.
Authors in modern times have also altered fairy tales to suit their own purposes, though some have included elements that were removed from the original stories. The “familiar themes make fairy tales as relevant now as when they circulated hundreds of years ago” (Smetanka 2000 printout p. 3). There are several children’s books that are spin-offs and spoofs of original tales, such as “The Three Little Pigs” (The True Story of the Three Little Pigs), “The Emperor’s New Clothes” (The Principal’s New Clothes), and “Cinderella” (Sidney Rella and the Glass Sneaker) (Hepler 1990). “These touches of levity bring smiles to adults as well as to first-time listeners” (Hepler 1990 p. 153).
Books with fairy tale themes and plots have been written for older audiences as well, and here we see that, though we shy away from telling them to our children, the violent elements of the original tales are appropriate enough for mature audiences. We are returning to the lewd, violent, and disturbing through modern novelizations of the original tales. Sheri S. Tepper wrote a terrific novel, Beauty, where she links the tales of Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Snow White, the Frog Prince, and Rapunzel together well enough, while at the same time commenting humorously on how wrong Disney was about the “truth” and weaving in futuristic and fantastical elements not found in many stories (Snyder 1999). The violence and lewdness is there, with wars between the fairies and Hell, rape, sexual desire, and an inclusion of original elements--i.e. the queen’s nakedness before the mirror in the Snow White portion of the novel. She even mentions the infamous Titania and Oberon, king and queen of the fairy realm, and Puck, a trickster, who is on Beauty’s side in this story. Orson Scott Card is another rewriter of the Sleeping Beauty tale, in his book Enchantment. In his version, the protagonist is an American, and he does not end the story with the awakening of the princess. He even includes the Russian witch Baba Yaga, a favorite villain (Snyder 1999). Mercedes Lackey is another author who twists and teases at fairy tales to create new stories. Her story The Fire Rose is a rewrite of Beauty and the Beast, set in a more recent setting, and giving the Beast wizardly powers. Firebird is a rewrite of a traditional Russian tale of a firebird, which can also be related to the children’s tale “The Swan Maiden” by Howard Pyle, where the bird is a fruit-thief and a shape-shifter. Black Swan is a rewrite of “Swan Lake,” and Lackey even uses the German names in that particular story. As with movie versions, however, there is “a limit to how far a new viewpoint can vary from the original and still be considered a retelling” (Hepler 1990 p. 154). Sometimes the plot varies so much that even a fairy tale-literate person may have difficulty finding connections between the original and the rewrite. This may be due to authors who “undertell...reshape...distort...overembroider and embellish”
With so many changes occurring in fairy tales these days, it is a wonder that anyone knows the way the original tales went. It is further a wonder that we are returning to the original elements, be they lewd or violent or merely disturbing. With such changes occurring, future generations will have many variants of the tales from which to choose and tell to their children. With the warm audience response to these variants, however, it seems that our society is not too traumatized by missing much of the original tales. A thought by Jack Zipes explains both the need for fairy tales and the motivation for rewriting and retelling: “...the fairy tale provides us with the verbal power and narrative skills to inscribe our hopes and wishes in the world....That is why we continually listen to fairy tales and create them throughout our lives” (1988 p.26). These stories “only please us as long as we believe in them, and...afterwards they would bore us!” (Nijmegen University 1998 p. 5). Rewriting the tales--to a certain extent, at least--may be a beneficial practice after all.



References

Dollerup, Clay. (1999). Tales and Translation: The Grimm Tales from Pan-Germanic narratives to shared international fairytales. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Hepler, Susan. (1990). Fooling with Folktales: Updates, Spin-offs, and Roundups. School Library Journal, 36, 153-154.

Kamenetsky, Christa. (1992). The Brothers Grimm and Their Critics: Folktales and the Quest for Meaning. Athens: Ohio University Press.

Nijmegen University, NL. (1998). Should children be told fairy tales? A 1903 debate. Retrieved November 13, 2000 from the World Wide Web: http://www.socsci.kun.nl/ped/whp/histeduc/disc01.html

Smetanka, Mary Jane. (2000, April 2). Once Upon a Time. The Star Tribune, pp. E1+.

Snyder, Midori. (1999). What does Sleeping Beauty mean to me--and you? Realms of Fantasy, 6(1), 26-33, 78-79.

Windling, Terri. (2000). Snow, Glass, Apples: The story of Snow White. Realms of Fantasy, 6(5), 26-32, 87.

Zipes, Jack. (1988). The Brothers Grimm: From Enchanted Forests to the Modern World. New York City and London: Routledge.