Jessica Quizhpilema
Professor Hoehne
Fairy Tales and Rewriting
3 October 2019
Tale as Old as Time
Fairy tales have been on the ride of time for a long while. As time passed the tales were retold and changed. The notion of the beautiful heroine, the handsome savior, and the evil being is sustained throughout the tales. In the tale of Sleeping Beauty, we see how the heroine is contextually the definition of passivity. All-though the tales are told to kids to give them a sense of hope for a fantasy that is an unattainable dream. The passive heroine is out; fairy tales need to lose the concept of the passive and pretty heroine. The active character is either evil or the male characters within the tales.In Perrault and Disney, both are the same being that Disney used the Perrault version to make the movie. They are telling of a young beautiful princess who is cursed by a wicked being and forced to endure a 100-year slumber. Her only salvation is a kiss by her “true love”. Once accomplished she lives happily ever after. In the Walt Disney version that’s all we truly see. This all-around helpless girl who has no hope but to wait for her fate to come and pass and for her to be saved. “… the popularized heroines of the Grimms and Disney are not only passive and pretty, but also unusually patient, obedient, industrious, and quiet.” (Stone,44). We see in Stone’s writing that Aurora/ Briar Rose are examples of this unrealistic model of a woman.We see also in “Sun, Moon, and Talia” this idea of patience comes with passivity and is rewarded with a happy ending. “Those whom fortune favors find good luck even in their sleep.” (Basile, 4) Basile writes this and shows that a woman can get lucky if she’s beautiful and patient.
Although Talia had no other choice than to be there and sleep. She was lucky that she was raped by the right man, a man of power and stature. In a way saying that if you are passive you will receive a reward for a good life. If not, you will meet the fiery fate of the queen. An active woman character is not a sought-after idea. The constant variable is that the perfect woman is patient.Furthermore, wesee feminists have spoken upon it and seen it as a repulsive idea to portray. “… Sleeping Beauty as the most passive and repellent fairy-tale heroine of all, and many have, and many have done their best to make the story go away.” (Tartar, 142) These tales are being told to lose this old ideal of a woman. When reading Sleeping beauty, we learn nothing of her character. She is her name a sleeping beautiful girl. All she does is lay there and be beautiful. Women are represented as helpless. Mulvey brings up the point of sleeping beauty being this “erotic spectacle” (Tartar, 143). The view of women through the eyes of men is that women are just these beings we have to fantasize about and be amazed by. If the fantasy is not met the illusion is gone.In conclusion the perception of a woman within this tale and its renditions, women are these helpless and passive beings. The constant variable is that the perfect woman is patient. They have no will to continue without a man, she is saved by a man and is finally free to live a good happy life. Although these tales portrayed the model of what was a woman at their time, modern women are not Sleeping Beauty. This passive woman is gone and stronger and more independent women are pushed forward into the spotlight.
Works Cited
Basile, Giambattista. The Pentameron of Giambattista Basile, translated by Richard F. Burton Privately printed, 1893), day 5, tale 5. Translation revised by D. L. Ashliman.
Grimm, Jacob; Dezsö, Andrea; Zipes, Jack; Grimm, Wilhelm.Princeton : Princeton University Press. 2015. eBookPerrault, Charles, and C.J. Betts. The Complete Fairy Tales. OUP Oxford 2009
Stone, Kay. Things Walt Disney never Told us Source: The Journalof… American FolkloreSociety,http://www.jstor.org/stable/539184Tatar, Maria. Marvels & Tales. 2014, Vol. 28 Issue 1, p142-158.

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