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Throughout history fairytales have been affecting current people’s points of views. The idea that men are necessary to achieve women’s goals was introduced by many stories, including fairytales. Men were always seen as the heroes of the stories while women depend on them to do anything. By introducing the role of princesses and princes, the Grimm’s Brothers brought into reality a world of fantasy. There are several famous stories, such as Cinderella, Snow-White and the Seven Dwarfs, and Rapunzel.
Nowadays, many girls want to be princesses and dress like them.
Cinderella is one of the most famous fairytales there is. It is based on stereotypes that demonstrate how unfair it is for women to be the one in charge of the household. Not only this story highlights the role of women in society, but also the impact parents can have in their children’s growth. Cinderella grew being a slave in her father’s house while he was aware of how his wife treated her.
In today’s society, people still think that women can be treated as Cinderella. A fairytale by The Grimm’s Brothers, called Cinderella states “And when the evening came she wanted to go home, but the prince said he would go with her to take care of her, for he wanted to see where the beautiful maiden lived.”
This demonstrates how women are usually the vulnerable ones because they need the protection of a man. This wrong perspective that the world has now affects some women because they might think that they are not able to do anything by themselves.
According to an article called “Cinderella’s Representation of Gender and How it’s Changed,” There is, additionally, the belief that love is superior to both independence and education. This controversy is still seen, but women are more independent now.
Snow-White and the Seven Dwarfs is another influential story. It shows the story of a girl that does not have dreams. Once the dwarfs told her that while she takes care of household, she can stay in their house, she is satisfied. “With all my heart” was the answer Snow-White gave to the dwarfs and it shows the sense of conformity that this story implies. Also, the scenes where Snow-White’s mother asks the mirror who is the most beautiful women show the importance of physical beauty. This implements the idea that women are born to be beautiful, not intelligent. In the Disney version, the antagonist is the stepmother instead of the mother as the Grimm’s Brother identified as the witch in their story. It is just very sad how a mother can be jealous of her daughter, so Disney decided to change it. According to an article called “Grimm Fairy Tales & Their Successors: A Study on Snow White,” “The stepmother begins to feel threatened by Snow White and becomes jealous.
The stepmother’s narcissism is demonstrated by her seeking reassurance about her beauty from the magic mirror long before Snow White’s beauty eclipses hers.” This demonstrates how significant it was for Disney to change the original version since it would have encouraged children to see their parents in a different way. In the original version, the authors indicate feelings of jealousy and dishonesty by the mother, which characterize many individuals in today’s world.
Rapunzel is a fairytale that implies the unfairness of a life without parents. In Rapunzel, a Grimms’ Fairy Tale, the authors described how Rapunzel’s father was capable of promising to give her away to just please his wife. Once again, a fairytale shows how cruel can parents be. Nowadays, many women leave their children once they are born. The dilemma good versus evil has always existed, but in this story, it can be arguable because even though the witch has Rapunzel in a closed towel, she takes care of her as if she was her daughter. On the other hand, Rapunzel was deprived of her freedom, which affected her life greatly in such a way that she did not know what the world was about. The only person she knew was the one that didn’t want her to experience the outside. According to “Rapunzel, A fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm,” “And she let down her hair, and the King's son climbed up by it. Rapunzel was greatly terrified when she saw that a man had come into her” This fragment demonstrates how innocent could a girl be if they are far away from reality as it is Rapunzel, who is trapped in a towel without any doors to get out.
This kind of story influences present and future generations because many parents try to isolate their children from different dangers, but at the end, they are just making them vulnerable to people that might want to hurt them. In the fragment mentioned previously, Rapunzel let the prince get into the towel without knowing who it was.
In real life, when women feel pressured and threatened by their parents, they dream about escaping. In this story, Rapunzel gets pregnant because the antagonist didn’t have the necessary talks with her about pregnancy. The witch wanted to keep her adopted daughter in a small bubble. This is what happens to many mothers now. They just think that their daughters are not growing, and they avoid talks about intimacy. The fact that once the girl got pregnant, her unbiological mother got her away as if she did something wrong does not happen that often nowadays, there are still some cases like this. Lack of information in an adolescent can cause this type of early process.
In conclusion, fairytales affect people’s opinions about different topics, such as the roles of women and men in society, feelings of jealousy, and intimacy. Many of these past stories lead to different set of minds and ways to act in certain circumstances.
Fairytales: A different Perspective Has Emerged Today’s Culture. (2022, Mar 26). Retrieved from https://studymoose.com/fairytales-a-different-perspective-has-emerged-today-s-culture-essay
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