Reflections on Fairy Tales: Then and Now

English 102 has been extremely thought provoking as we have studied fairy tales and how they have influenced our lives. I never knew how deeply important and influential fairy tales have been to our society until now. I also did not realize how old many of our fairy tales really are and that they began by being spread orally long before being written down. We think of fairy tales as being frivolous and fanciful, until we really look closely at their structure and messages. For example, Little Red Riding Hood in its earliest forms had some strong sexual suggestiveness with its use of characters and action--a pretty little virgin girl wears a red riding hood and walks innocently through the forest. The big bad wolf, perhaps representing male sexuality and lust, talks to the girl and discovers where she is going. It is very easy for him to trick her by pretending to be grandma and he is then able to overpower her. The language and strip tease in one version suggested sexual desire and that little red was willing to submit to his requests and explore her own sexuality. The wolf, however, still gobbles her up. Was this a warning story that women told to little girls so that they would not wander in the woods? Or did it have the deeper meaning of teaching young girls to be careful about submitting to the lust of big bad men?
The old version of Cinderella certainly had a strong message and used some violence to get the message across. The mean step sisters actually mutilate their feet to try to fit them in the slipper and still they do not end up getting the prince. In fact, they get their eyes pecked out by Cinderella's birds. The message for girls is pretty clear in those days: if you are good and patient and meek, you will succeed and get a prince. If you are bad or aggressive you will end up mutilated and miserable. The Disney version of our time does not mutilate the mean step sisters, but the message is still the same--women should be sweet and gentle and humble and passive. Oh, and they should also be beautiful. As a matter of fact, most of the female love interests in fairy tales, both then and now, are beautiful. Even Bluebeard who was considered physically unattractive had to have a beautiful wife. He was able to attract a pretty girl because he was wealthy and powerful. Unfortunately, he killed all his wives. I would think that the Bluebeard story is a warning to women that you better not go after a man just because he is wealthy --kind of an anti-golddigger story. But apparently back then, it was a warning for women not to be overly curious!
That is the amazing thing about fairy tales---they can have different morals and messages depending on the culture and times in which they are read. They can also have different messages for different people's lives. For example, Beauty and the Beast may tell one person that you shouldn't judge a book by its cover. It may say to another person that if you are good and obedient to your father you will end up with riches and a handsome prince. If you watch the Disney version closely, it may tell you to avoid Beasts at all costs because he was quite abusive toward Belle in the beginning and women should not try to "rescue" abusive men. But to another woman, it might have been a beautiful love story that made her want to go out and find a beast to rescue.
I could go on and on about the various messages and interesting look into humanity that are in fairy tales. I mainly want to say that I will now look at fairy tales differently--both the old tales and the new Disney versions. I will receive them with my eyes more opened and my mind prepared to ask more questions. I will look deeper for the more subtle meanings in them and how they might affect my life. I will realize that the stories can have different meanings for different people but that this does not make any one way of thinking about them right or wrong. I can now more fully appreciate the unique stories that we know as "fairy tales."