The Grimms’ “Hans Dumb”:

The story begins rather quickly with a king’s daughter becoming pregnant suddenly with no explanation or understanding of who the father could be. The king and daughter are both shocked and the king decides to have the child taken to the church and have it chose its father. The child is given a lemon and he ends up giving it to the town’s fool Hans Dumb. The king and princess are outraged because only nobility was supposed to be allowed access in the church for the child to choose from. The king kept his word though and put the two in a crate and sent out to the sea. This is when the princess learns that Hans Dumb actually has a gift of having all of his wishes granted. He feeds them and brings them to safety and has a castle built for the family to live in. Hans Dumb also goes through a transformation where he wishes himself to be a handsome prince. The king happens upon the castle one day and doesn’t recognize his daughter and she tricks him into coming back and reveals who she is and the family is happily reunited again.

Persian tale “Story of the Confectioner, His Wife, and the Parrot”:

A confectioner had a beautiful wife who was well known for her beauty and charm. They also owned a parrot that served as a guardian over the shop the two worked in. One day the confectioner had to take a business trip and told the parrot to watch over the shop and to give him a report once he returned. The parrot did as he was told and caught the wife bringing a lover back to the shop to spend the night with her. The parrot told the confectioner what had occurred during his absence and the husband was outraged and beat his wife. The wife unsure of who told asked a friend she had confided in, if it was her who told. The friend denied the claim, but mentioned seeing the confectioner listening to the parrot intently. The confectioner had another business trip and instructed the parrot the same directions as last time. This time the wife and her lover knew and they tricked the bird into thinking there was a storm so he tucked his head under his wing in fear missing what the wife and her lover did. When the confectioner asked for the report the parrot told him there was a horrible hurricane. The confectioner thought the bird mad and pulled his head off and felt horrible for accusing his wife of such acts. A friend of the confectioner found the birds body and told the confectioner that he had also seen the wife and lover together. The confectioner asked his wife to tell all of the truth and she admitted to her deeds and the confectioner felt bad for his actions of killing the innocent bird.

German tale “Donkey Meadow and the Nine Burros”:

A man named Count Bruno lived with his wife and would make trips to help convert heathens which he had quite a knack for. On his way to go meet the heathens, the donkey he was riding stopped moving and refused to go any further. His wife was pregnant at home with their maid. The wife had insulted an old beggar woman years ago about her being careless for having so many children and not being able to feed them. The old beggar woman cursed her that when she became pregnant she would have nine children at once. The curse came true and the wife had nine babies at once while the Count was away and she fretted what he would think of all the children. She decided to instruct her maid to take 8 of the babies and put them in a kettle, to fetch some water, and boil them. As the maid was on the way she ran into the Count who was confused about why his donkey would not move. He inquired what was in the kettle when he heard a cry from it. The maid scared, told him what his wife had instructed. He took the 8 children and brought them to a neighboring town to be raised, but did not tell his wife that he knew of their existence. Many years later the husband had all 9 children dress alike and surprised the mother to see if she could identify her son. She could not and was punished with a punishment that she had created when answering the Count’s question of what should happen to a mother that murders her children.

Ruth B. Bottigheimer’s “Fertility Control and the Birth of The Modern European Fairy-Tale Heroine”:

Bottigheimer’s focus in the article was how sex and fertility control has changed over time and how this influence has affected the characterization of the fairy-tale heroine through out history. She begins with a look at gender and how our society is so rooted in gender roles and stereotypes within the gender binary today, but it wasn’t always like that. She talks about how in history before the 1700s there was much less emphasis on gender, especially having it so binary. Gender roles were also not as rigid and strict. She tracks this change occurring around the 1700s when it happened that the Grimms’ began cataloguing and writing fairy tales. This shows a clear reflection of gender roles and the gender binary within their works. When you look back at versions of tales that the Grimms’ have in their collection earlier on in history though a lot of the characters have less emphasis on defining gender characteristics. Women were not always portrayed as passive and men were not always perceived as the dominant ones. I think this is an interesting point and shows how society constructs gender and therefore could deconstruct the gender binary that is so present today. Bottigheimer then shifts her focus to sex and sexuality in the past and how it also evolved in history and literature. Again we see how sex and sexuality was a lot less constraining and more accepted publicly in the past, but as time progressed there was a shift in a different direction. It was only a couple hundred of years ago that this shift took place where sex was something that is only meant for people in wedlock and for the purpose of procreating. However, Bottigheimer brings up plenty of evidence that women were actively having sex and were able to have a pretty strong control over their fertility. This demonstrates how different forms of birth control were taking place and that sex was okay to be enjoyed outside of the context of marriage and procreating. This shift is seen in fairy tales again, especially in the Grimms’ tales where many of their earlier tales were severely edited or removed to take out implications of premarital sex. We saw this in the earlier version of “Rapunzel” where she was having consensual premarital sex and became pregnant, but in the latter versions a pregnancy is not mentioned until after her marriage.

I struggled quite a bit finding tales that described sexual practices that featured non-monogamy and children outside of wedlock. Did anyone else have problems? If so, why do you think it was difficult to find these types of tales? 

Bottigheimer’s article discussed the history of how gender roles began to evolve more in the context of society and within fairy tales. I mentioned in my post how if the gender binary was not as prevalent in centuries past that it shows hope they can be eliminated in the future. Do you believe this is possible as well? If so, how do you think it would change the fairy tales we’ve read?

Veronica Schanoes’ “Lily Glass”:

The story seems to be a modern variation of “Snow White” and is set around present day Hollywood and New York. The stepmother, Lily, is young and grew up with her mother, who was working hard hours at a factory to provide for her daughter. The father, Leo, is a famous Hollywood actor who is known to live a scandalous life and his debauchery is in the tabloids constantly. His daughter, Nivia, from his first marriage is beautiful and two years younger than her new stepmother and seems to be a bit troubled. The story shows the perspectives of the three characters as the relationship between Leo and Lily blossoms and then deteriorates. Leo and Lily seem to be in love and happy, but Lily admits to the reader that something is missing inside her. She begins to develop a relationship with Leo’s daughter and one day kisses her and he catches them in the act. This causes Leo to withdraw, Nivia to move to New York City, and Lily to remain in the empty house in Hollywood. Lily goes to visit Nivia and they reconnect after their time apart, but Lily vanishes through the mirror and ends up in the house located in Hollywood again. Nivia goes through the mirror and finds Lily in her room with all of her make up smashed and mirror shattered. Lily ends up dying in Nivia’s arms and Leo comes back to bury his young wife and starts becoming a more involved father.

I thought this version of “Snow White” was similar to Block’s versions of fairy tales because it was set in California and took place in modern day. Schanoes definitely drew from previous works of “Snow White”, especially with the passage about combing the hair, fixing the ribbons, and feeding the apple. These were all the tricks the stepmother in the Grimms’ “Snow White” did to trick Snow White and try to kill her. I liked how Schanoes developed the characters, as well. The father had a bit more of a role in this version and it helped with the development of Lily and Nivia as characters too. I also think having the story show glimpses of the three characters feelings, reactions, and motivations in the story demonstrated how fairy tales can be interpreted and viewed in different ways depending on who is telling the story. I thought the inclusion of magic towards the end with the mirrors was a bit out of place and confusing. Do you think this was meant to be read as literal and the mirrors were magic and could transport Lily and Nivia to different places? Or did you read it more as metaphorical or symbolical?

The Grimms’ “The Shoes That Were Danced to Pieces”:

The tale begins with a king having twelve beautiful daughters whose shoes were always worn every night form dancing. This angered him because he locked them in their room and couldn’t figure out how they were escaping to go dancing. He held a contest that any man who could find out where the princesses were getting holes in their shoes from would be the next king of his kingdom. Many tried, but it wasn’t until a soldier decided to attempt it with the help from an old woman who told him not to drink the wine and gave him an invisible cloak. He tricked the princesses into thinking he was asleep then followed them to a hidden kingdom underground the eldest princess’ bed. He followed them three nights collecting evidence and then provided I to the king. He granted the kingdom to be the soldier’s after his death and that he could marry one of his daughters. The soldier chose the eldest daughter to marry and the twelve princes that danced with the princesses were punished.

Jennifer Orme’s “Happily Ever After”:

Orme’s article focuses on a modern retelling of the story we read for today by the Grimms’, “The Shoes That Were Danced to Pieces”. The text was written by Jeanette Winterson and is within the novel Sexing the Cherry. Winterson’s tales seemed to have a queer emphasis where the characters are going against the heteronormative endings to fairy tales that are considered “happily ever after”. Instead the characters are finding and creating their own happy endings by questioning what the heteronormative really is and what it represents. Winterson does this through having a variety of characters and thus a variety of voices to tell and communicate their perspectives and stories. As we’ve previously discussed, by using this technique we are able to draw more from the stories and have a better sense of who characters and what motivates them. Orme discusses how Winterson demonstrates the problems in heteronormative marriages by featuring many of the princesses’ marriages ending and some in quite brutal ways. Thus, breaking the idea that the heteronormative ending of happily ever after needing to involve a man and a women getting married is not all it is hyped up to be. I think Orme is correct in her idea of how Winterson has created a text that queers the Grimms’ tale and in my opinion improves it. Did you prefer Winterson’s version or the Grimms’ version of “The Shoes That Were Danced to Pieces”?

The Grimms’ “Frau Trude”:

The story began with a young woman who liked to follow her own path and do her own thing. She generally disobeyed her parents and didn’t listen to their warnings. She told her parents one day she wanted to go and meet Frau Trude because she had heard fascinating things to her. Her parents told her not to go and forbade her saying if she went they would disown her. The young woman went against her parents’ wishes and went to find and meet Frau Trude. When she met Frau Trude she was terrified and the woman asked what was wrong with the girl. She mentioned seeing three men scaring her and inquiring who they were. Frau Trude told her their identities and then the young girl asked about the devil she saw inside the Frau’s house. Frau Trude told her that it was her true face and turned her into a piece of wood and threw it upon her fire enjoying the light she cast.

This tale was so simply written and quick I couldn’t believe it ended so quickly. I think the story from the Grimms’ perspective was to warn young women to not be disobedient or curious because only bad things will come from it. However, from a queer perspective it shows the young woman having a resilience and curiosity. The young woman has an interest as well in another woman, Frau Trude, that hints at the interest of a relationship between the two. I think looking at the story from a queer lens would show the story as the young woman exploring her sexuality and her resistance to following a life of the heteronormative. This interest she shows in Frau Trude could be due to Frau Trude living on her own and also going against the heteronormative and providing an alternative path that the young woman is searching for. How did you interpret the tale when you first read it? Did it strike you as queer at first? Why or why not?

Kay Turner’s “Playing with Fire”:

Turner’s article focuses on the Grimms’ tale “Frau Trude” and how it works as a queer text within the context of fairy tales. She looks at the relationships within the story between the Frau Trude, the young woman, and her parents. Turner then analyzes other tale types in ATU 334 and how they’ve evolved over the years. They began as a myth more focused on death and was quite dark, then it turned into a more humorous/silly story, and settled as a tale that has a happy ending (251). She talks about the important difference in “Frau Trude” and the other tales discussed in ATU 334. “Frau Trude” transforms the young woman into something different than her human form, while the other tales talk of killing or almost killing the young woman once she identifies the older women as the devil or witch. This difference is quite significant because as we’ve discussed in class transformations can mean and represent many different things in the story. Also it is important that Frau Trude transforms the young girl into a piece of wood and then creates fire with it. Once the fire is created, Frau Trude enjoys the warmth and light it provides and states that she is finally satisfied. This can be read as Frau Trude finally finding the company she’d always wanted and it is now brightening and warming her. Symbolically this could be read as the young woman coming and bringing the old woman company she had missed and filling her home with feelings she had missed. Turner mentions how this tale could be similar to a coming out story of the young woman going against her parents; wishes and doing what she knows feels best and right. How it might feel scary, but yet at the same time exhilarating to know she’s free of the confines of pretending to want to live a heteronormative life. Turner breaks the tale down looking at the queer perspective coming from the young woman and Frau Trude. Her ideas of the fire being a symbol of the life or spirit of the young woman is spot on and makes sense for how she is bringing new life to Frau Trude’s life now. This transformation of the young woman also is a queer one because she goes from being identified with a specific gender and sex to being recognized as an element that contains no strict rules of gender or sex. Do you agree with Turner’s idea of symbolism in the story? Does the story still remain queer if you remove the symbolic analysis of the story?

Emma Donoghue’s Kissing the Witch:

Donoghue’s novel was quite different than what I was expecting. I thought it would have been more like Francesca Lia Block’s novel that we had read earlier on in the semester. I actually enjoyed Donoghue’s novel more and found it to be a clever collection of tales that were interconnected. Personally, I believe connecting each chapter as a new chapter and having a small connection to the tale before it made it flow nicely as a quick read. The novel began with a version of “Cinderella” which described a girl who was not punished or abused by her mother or stepmother, but condemned herself to not be idle. I found this to be an interesting twist and was a nice glimpse of how Donoghue tweaked a lot of tales we had read previously in class. “Cinderella” then ended with the fairy-godmother-like character sharing her story with Cinderella’s character of how she got to be where she is now. The tales touched on characters from “Beauty and the Beast”, “Snow White”, “Rapunzel”, and “Hansel and Gretel” to name a few. My personal favorites were based on “Beauty and the Beast” and “The Little Mermaid”. I loved Donoghues ability to make them into queer tales that still heavily resembled the versions she was drawing from. “Beauty and the Beast” was a perfect example of looking at relationships between siblings, parents, and friends that may develop into love interests. Donoghue looked at the different ways relationships form and change. The ending to this tale was so intriguing to me and made me wonder why no one else had thought of queering this tale the way Donoghue did. I think having the beast not really be a beast and having her be a woman was wonderful. I also liked the ending lines of people’s assumptions of who lived in the castle up on the mountains. To me the people were describing all the possible endings that we’ve read in class for how the tale of “Beauty and the Beast” can end. Donoghue’s version of “The Little Mermaid” was also amazing in having it still work with the original tale, but still adding in her own twists. I think Donoghue was able to demonstrate how hungers can be different than that of food and how sometimes we hunger for things that we may not necessarily want, but have convinced ourselves otherwise. Overall, I really enjoyed Kissing the Witch and thought it was a great example of queering tales and how they can continue to be adapted to tell the same story, but in a different light. How did you like the layout of Donoghues story? Did you think it added to the affect of the novel as a whole? What were your feelings on the last tale, “Kissing the Witch”, that wasn’t based on a specific fairy tale?

Anne Sexton’s “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”:

Snow White is described as this beautiful girl who is “unsoiled” and “untouched”. It talks of how physically lovely she is and then mentions how she has a stepmother. Her stepmother is described as being vain and very focused on being the most beautiful in the land. When the mirror tells her one-day that she is no longer the fairest, but Snow White has taken her place she becomes enraged. She tells the huntsman to murder her and bring her heart so she can salt and eat it. The huntsman spares Snow White’s life and she runs off into the forest. She eventually finds a home with seven dwarfs and they warn her not to open the door when she’s alone to strangers. She fails this test three times and her stepmother is able to get Snow White to open the door and poisons her in some way. The dwarfs are able to undo the damage the first two times, but cannot find her ailment the third time. So they build a glass coffin and put it on a mountain where a prince finds it. He falls in love with her beauty and has his men carry it back to his castle. The men drop it along the way, thus dislodging the poisoned apple from her throat and she is alive again. She then marries the prince and invites her stepmother to her wedding has her wear the “red-hot iron shoes” until she dances to her death.

Sexton’s version of “Snow White” is very similar to versions we’ve read before, but with more of a modern commentary within it. I think it’s important to not how Snow White is only described for her physical beauty and nothing else is noted. She is literally just a pretty face that appears to have no thoughts running through her head. It seems like Sexton is making an emphasis on how women in fairy tales are recognized for their beauty and everything else is unimportant. I also thought it was interesting of how Snow White comes back to life. Sexton also had a big focus on Snow White being pure and a virgin. This is something that is also commonly seen and emphasized in fairy tales. I believe Sexton is commenting on how the women in fairy tales are depicted and seen and how this affects the play out of the story and their role within it. The versions I’ve read previously, usually, have the prince in some way or form preform a physical act that wakes Snow White up. I liked how it was just the clumsiness of the prince’s men who dropped the coffin was what caused her to reawaken. What did you think of Snow White’s description? She was mainly compared to inanimate objects almost as if she was an object herself. What do you think Sexton’s purpose might have been featuring Snow White as a character lacking dimensional and complexity?

Alan Dundes’ “The Psychoanalytical Study of the Grimms’ Tales”:

Dundes’ article began with how popular analyzing fairy tales was among psychoanalysts, but also stated how some of their research and how they carried it out was problematic. For example, Freud and many other psychoanalysts used only the Grimms’ tales to analyze and support their theories, but as we’ve discussed in class this isn’t acceptable. One there are different versions of the Grimms’ work and there are many different versions around the world that have tales within the same tale-type. Dundes references the AT classification system and its importance to folklorists and how if it isn’t featured in a psychoanalysts paper they aren’t recognizing how other tales exist in the same tale-type other than the Grimms’ version. Thus making their work inconclusive and not a fully reliable source to trust. He also makes the point of how tales were incredibly censored in the Grimms’ tales. He discusses how tales across the world tend to feature bawdy and erotic style tales, but this is completely silenced and ignored in the Grimms’ work. Dundes then goes on to critically look at psychoanalysts and folklorists and their lack of attention to each other’s previous works. The lack of acknowledging and reading their peers work is quite surprising to me. I can understand Dundes’ comments on why folklorists look over psychoanalyst work that seems to feature Freudian logic since it is outdated and not popular anymore. However, he does make an interesting point of not knowing if it is beneficial or contains interesting theories without critically analyzing and reading the work in the first place. He then goes on to discuss in the article by demonstrating through multiple examples the importance of reading literally and symbolically. By doing both, one is better able to fully critique and analyze the story in multiple points of view that just using one method would miss. He then shows psychoanalytical approach to some tales and how it can add to folklore theory and ideas. However, Dundes stresses how psychoanalysts don’t seem the best at being able to do a thorough job with this approach to fairy tales. Thus, making a clear statement that more folklorists are needed to begin making strides at taking a psychoanalytical approach to tales that could apply potentially. However, I’m unsure if what Dundes is wanting is as beneficial to folklore as he thinks. I definitely agree that there needs to be an analysis of symbols and symbolic meanings, but I’m unsure if it necessarily needs to be done through a psychoanalytic/Freudian approach. As he had even stated in his article, the Freudian approach is problematic because it can be applied to many tales, but doesn’t mean that it actually functions and works with the tale. With this in mind, are there any tales that we’ve read or you’ve read outside of class that you think could work well with a psychoanalytical approach?

Amelia Rutledge’s “Robin McKinley’s Deerskin”:

 Rutledge’s article focuses mainly on a variation of the tale-type ATU 510B, Deerskin by Robin McKinley, and how the heroine is able to process and overcome the abuse and trauma in her past. Rutledge analyzes how Deerskin looks at the relationship between the father and daughter and removes the blame that is usually cast upon the daughter for her father’s incestuous feelings. This is usually not seen in ATU 510B. Typically, the father’s actions are exempted or chalked up as something he doesn’t want to do, but is forced into for some reason or another. This reason tends to deal with casting the blame on the daughter’s mother for having such strict guidelines for a new wife. Either way, the father has blame removed from him and cast upon the women in the story. McKinley changes this cycle and has the father’s abusive actions called out. I think this was much needed and found keeping the incestuous in the story important since it’s something commonly erased in fairy nature a nice touch. Rutledge also goes into detail of the transformation process the daughter goes through in the story. As we’ve discussed in class before, the transformation period in the story is a time that allows the character a time to heal and reflect, which gives him/her the ability to cope and move past a traumatic event. In Deerskin, this takes place through Lissar having a deerskin as her transformation process that conceals her identity and protects her. However, the deerskin doesn’t just protect her, it also allows her to protect other people and keep danger away from them. She is able to keep others safe from harm to help stop the cycle that she was in with her father. The idea of the deerskin working in two ways is significant and allows her the time to reflect and heal within, while also assisting others away from the same fate as her. The ending of the tale also focuses on the relationship between the father and daughter again. It ties up the story line between the two and lets Lissar express her outrage towards her father. She is able to call him out and save another person, her father’s soon to be bride, from a likely fate of abuse that she had previously endured. Rutledge does point out some problems within this ending though. She discusses how it is claimed that Lissar would not have been able to do this on her own if she didn’t have the Moonwoman’s approval to do so. Thus, implying that Lissar doesn’t have the capability to stand up for herself on her own, which I don’t believe is true.

The Grimms’ “The Girl Without Hands”:

 The story begins with a poor miller who is desperate for money. When he meets a stranger offering to give him money for whatever lies beyond his mill, the miller agrees thinking it is an apple tree. The man turns out to be the devil and his daughter was behind the mill. So the devil tried to take the girl three times, but each time her hands were clean and he was unable to make her one of his. The devil had ordered the father to cut off her hands as punishment and to allow him to have possession of her, but she wept her amputated hands clean and she was safe. She then left her family to hope to live on the kindness of others. She has an angel that helps her obtain pears from a king’s garden and he catches her one-day and they end up becoming married. He makes her a pair of silver hands, but he must go to war. While at war the queen has a baby and the king’s mother writes to tell him of the happy news, but the letter is intercepted multiple times by the devil. The end result is the king’s mother sending the woman and her child away to keep the safe. The woman and her child find a house to live for free and an angel watches that over them for seven years. The king searches for his wife and child once he realizes he’s been tricked and it takes him seven years to find his beloved wife and child. 

 The Grimms’ “The Juniper Tree”:

The beginning takes place with a mother desperately wanting a child and hoping for it beneath a juniper tree wanting his skin as white as snow and lips as red as blood. She gets her wish and dies when her child is born looking as she hoped he would. The husband buries her under the juniper tree as she had wished. Some years later he remarries a woman who has a daughter, as well. The new wife feels threatened by the son and doesn’t like the idea of him receiving inheritance that could all just go to her child and her. She begins to abuse him and treat him horribly. This results in him becoming frightened of her. One day she tells him to come eat an apple out of a trunk she has and she slams it down on his head and decapitates him. To hide her blame she puts his head back on with a scarf and tricks her daughter into thinking she knocked his head off. The new wife’s solution is to chop him up and make him into a stew. This results in the king coming home and eating all of the stew that he goes on and on about how delicious it is and completely unaware his son is the meat within it. The daughter cries and cries and takes his bones and puts it under the juniper tree. Through forms of magic, the boy comes back to life as a little bird that sings beautifully. He sings the song of what has happened and three different people give him objects to sing the song for them again. The story ends with the little girl receiving one of the bird’s gifts and the new wife being killed for her wickedness. The husband, daughter, and bird then live happily together.

I had read this story a few years ago and forgot how creepy it was. The jealous new wife chopping up her stepchild and feeding it to the husband in a stew is deeply disturbing. Especially, since she convinced her own child that she was the one that had killed the boy in the first place. It definitely depicts stepmothers in a very negative light in this story, even though they never use the name stepmother to describe her. It also reminded me a little bit of “Cinderella” and “Snow White”. The “Cinderella” reference coming from the mother being buried under the tree and the tree acting as a magical helper later on. The “Snow White” similarity comes from the description of the child the mother longed to have with the description of snow-white skin and blood red lips. Did anyone else find similarities in this tales of others that we have read before in or outside of class?

Anne Sexton’s “Briar Rose”:

A king and queen have a daughter and for her christening they invite 12 of the 13 fairies in the kingdom. The 13^th is angry by being ignored and curses the child to prick her finger and die. The 12^th fairy is able to undo the damage of some of the curse by only having her sleep for 100 years instead of death. The king tried to stop the curse by burning all the spinning wheels, but Briar Rose still pricked her finger on her 15^th birthday and put the whole kingdom and time to sleep. No prince can get through the thorns of all the roses that surround the kingdom, until 100 years later one prince does. He kisses Briar Rose awake and they are married. However, Briar Rose has terrible insomnia and has developed a fear of sleep. It ends with Briar Rose reflecting back and realizing her father used to sexually abuse her as a child.

Sexton’s poem “Briar Rose” was very different than other versions of “Sleeping Beauty” that I’ve read in and outside of our class. I personally liked it a lot because I think it represents how fairy tales can help us cope this ideas and past events that we may not be ready to fully deal with on our own yet. This poem clearly is dealing with a sexually abusive father and the psychological turmoil he’s left his daughter in. I think it puts a very different twist on the fairy tale by emphasizing how incest took place in fairy tales instead of erasing it, like most modern versions seem to do. I also enjoyed the verse on Briar Rose fearing sleep and becoming and insomniac. I think this would be very plausible if a curse like that was possible for Briar Rose to be afraid of being held back under by sleep’s clutches. Do you think versions of fairy tales, like Sexton’s, have a real chance in bringing up very adult topics and changing that fairy tales are written for?

Anne Sexton’s “The Frog Prince”:

The poem begins with the description of frogs and how truly disgusting and despicable they can be as creatures. Then it progresses into the tale of “The Frog Prince”, where the girl loses her ball in the well and a frog retrieves it for a price. The story progresses with the girl’s repulsion with the frog and how she is forced to dine and be near him and in the end share a bed with him. It ends with her throwing the frog at the wall and it turning magically back into a prince, who she then marries. I personally thought this poem was a commentary of how women are subjected often to having forces in their lives, like men and patriarchy, which try and control their actions and wishes. By the frog retrieving the ball for the princess already has a price in mind for her and is doing it only to gain from her time of distress. He is then forcing her to be indebted to him and the end result is her being married to him, who it seems is not what she wanted at all. I also think it is a bit of commentary on the heteronormative lifestyle seen in fairy tales. This tale demonstrates how the heroine doesn’t seem interested in finding a love or wanting to be married and breaking away from that idea. However, just because she may seem uninterested doesn’t mean that she won’t be pushed to follow that same path of marriage children like other fairy tale characters that have come before her.

Excerpt from Terri Windling: 

Windling’s article begins with a brief description on how fairy tales became seen as only for children in society. When originally they were meant for adults as stories to help the cope, entertain, and deal with things going on in their lives. She then looked at the current issues going on in the United States with the enormous amount of children suffering child abuse. She discusses how there are many books for survivors of child abuse and coping with it, but not nearly enough on the social change needed to stop child abuse from happening. Windling then delves into the importance of fairy tales and how it can be a stepping stool to the path of recovery through the transformation period. In a lot of the fairy tales we’ve read in this class, they deal with some sort of transformation, especially if abuse is seen in the story. I personally think of “All Kinds of Fur” and how she literally transforms into a different person and allows herself time to heal in this stage before she’s ready to pursue a relationship. I think Windling is correct in her thinking that child abuse needs to be addressed and something that has been going on far too long and is still overlooked. I think fairy tales could be a way to help recognize this is still happening like in Sexton’s modern retellings in her poetry we read today.

Neil Gaiman’s “Snow, Glass, Apples”:

The story begins with a woman reflecting on her past and if she was who she is now, then she would have done things differently and maybe her fate would be different. As the story progresses, it is clearly a retelling of “Snow White” but from the stepmothers perspective of how the story happened. She talks of meeting Snow White’s father and how she falls in love with him and finds out that he is a king. Once they marry she moves into the castle and becomes queen of the kingdom. She talks of the king’s daughter and how she seems odd and quiet. When she begins making a little more contact with the queen though, the queen notices a withdrawal from her husband. One night, Snow White enters the queen’s chamber and talks to her about how hungry she is and the queen gives her a dried apple. The girl begins to eat it and the queen strokes the young girls face. This is when Snow White takes the woman’s hand and bites it and sucks blood from her thumb. The king ends up becoming frailer and frailer and dies. When the queen reflects back on how he looks in death she describes the vast change in physical appearance and how he has so many little scars all over his body. This is a clear sign that Snow White has been feeding on her father as well. This implies elements of cannibalism and incest to the story that isn’t developed on further, but just mentioned. The queen knows she must put an end to her stepdaughter and has a party go out in the winter and cut out her heart. Another twist occurs where the removal of her heart does not cause her to die. The heart continues to beat in the queen’s chambers and shows that Snow White is still living somewhere in the wilderness. The story then gives a brief history of people in the forest and neighboring towns buying goods from people, but how recently there has become less and less people. Someone finally addresses this problem to the queen and asks for her help in the matter. The queen is said to have magical seeing abilities in mirrors and looks into her mirror and sees Snow White preying on people. She decides she must devise a plan and permanently kill her stepdaughter. So she makes a potion and soaks the apples in that and in blood to entice her. She then dresses up as an old beggar woman and goes to where Snow White lives in the forest to sell her ribbons. Snow White scares off the “old woman” played by the queen and she drops her basket running back to the palace in fake fear. The queen’s plan works and Snow White eats the apple and dies. The heart in the queen’s chamber stops beating for a few years until a prince comes one day to visit the queen. He attempts having sexual intercourse with her, but wants the queen to basically pretend she’s a corpse. When she is unable to meet his needs, he leaves in a hurry and happens upon Snow White’s tomb. He then brings her back to life through having sex with her and somehow dislodging the poisoned apple within her throat. The two of them then come back and return to the queen telling them of how they are to be wed and that she will attend the wedding. Snow White also takes the heart that is beating again and cuts open her chest and places it within her. The ending of the story is the queen being put to death in front of the town’s people, while they cheer at her demise believing the slander Snow White and the prince spread. She dies in flames not giving anyone the satisfaction of her screams, but stares at Snow White’s skin and notices how the snow doesn’t melt on her cold corpse-like face.

Overall, I really enjoyed this story and found the perspective of the stepmother to be quite intriguing. I have a general fascination with the villains, especially when they’re women, portrayed in fairy tales. One of the big reasons why being there is generally little backstory of why the villain is evil. The reader is just to believe that the villain is bad and hated. If there is a reason given to why the villain is seeking to harm the protagonist, then it’s usually very petty reasons, like beauty. I also found there to be many aspects of hunger in the story. Almost all of the main characters have a hunger that they desire and crave after that can jeopardize their standing or existence. What character’s hungers did you see in story? Were there any that stood out to you in particular or intrigued you?

Susan Honeyman’s “Gingerbread Wishes and Cany(Land) Dreams”:

Honeyman’s article begins with the focus on food and how it can be used as a device to lure and tempt people, specifically children. The hungers experienced demnostrate time periods where people were starving and living through famines where hunger was a huge issue that was taking place. Thus, it finds its place in fairy tales with not only physical hunger for food, but also hunger for other things people desire. Honeyman then discusses the tales being cautionary to help teach children the importance of food and to control their desires for it. That they must earn the food they eat and not be greedy, like the example given with “Hansel and Gretel”. This can also be seen in the reverse where food is used as a tool adults use to control children into doing what they want. However, both demonstrate how hunger shapes the stories being told and understood by the audience. Honeyman also looks at food, specifically gingerbread, and how it can also be used as a literary symbol. Food is then looked at how it can be interpreted symbolically in many different fashions. Gingerbread in particular is discussed with how it can be a symbol of love and acceptance or it can be viewed as a sign of danger. Honeyman then goes through a multitude of examples that shows food lure in various forms of children’s literature throughout time. This demonstrates how this is an ongoing symbol as a way to teach children lessons through food and candy. The food or candy may be used as a way to make the story seem child friendly and fun, but the food lure is very much present even if it is buried under a sugary coating. What the food lure is symbolically representing depends upon the story and the message trying to be conveyed to the children. Are there any childhood stories you enjoyed growing up that featured food lure? What did you think the food represented symbolically then, if anything? What do you think it might stand for now?

The Grimms’ “Clever Gretel”:

The story begins describing Gretel as a cook and how she was known to enjoy sneaking some drinks from the cellar and then snacking on food she had made for her master. One day, her master asked her to make two chickens to her liking for himself and a guest to enjoy for dinner that night. Gretel did as she was told and found two chickens and prepared them accordingly. When the time was drawing near for the chickens to be done cooking, Gretel asked her master to hurry or they wouldn’t be at their best. The master went off from the property to go find his guest and Gretel decided to grab a drink in the cellar. Once she had a couple sips though she started eating the first chicken. Before she knew it she had eaten the first bird and her master and his guest still had not arrived. So she had another drink in the cellar and before she could stop herself she’d eaten all of the second bird too. Shortly after that, the master came and told Gretel to hurry and set the table his guest would be arriving any moment. Gretel went to the door to intercept the guest and scared him off saying that the master was going to cut both his ears off. She then told the master that his guest stole both chickens and ran off. The master then chased after the guest with a knife in his hand to cut the bird and was asking the to bring one of the chickens back. The guest saw this and thought Gretel must be right and ran faster.

I found this story to be quite humorous and a bit different than the Grimms’ usual style. For one, the lead character as a woman outwitted both men and wasn’t punished for doing so. That seems pretty far off from what we’ve read from the Grimms’ before. Usually the female character is passive and lacks creativity or if she does have those characteristics she’s harshly punished for them. I also thought it was interesting how Gretel was the protagonist in the story and she would steal regularly from her master. This again goes against what most of the Grimms’ stories that depicted clever women. I was curious what people thought about the little opening sentences about Gretel at the beginning of the story though. It introduces her with the mention of her red heels and how when she wore them she would turn this way and that thinking about how she was a pretty girl. I just found the brief introduction to Gretel to not really fit with the rest of the story. What do you think the purpose might have been for giving that brief synopsis of Gretel?

Cristina Bacchilega’s “Whetting Her Appetite”

The article begins by looking at the two tales by the Grimms’ that entitle the heroine as “clever”. Bacchilega then analyzes both of these tales by focusing on what makes “Clever Gretel” clever and what may hold “Clever Else” back from being recognized as clever. First, “Clever Gretel” emphasizes the “trickster” she is in how she is clever. She uses words and actions to her advantage to trick her master and guest by being knowledgeable about the world around her. She does this by interpreting their relationship and how she thinks she might be able to have one doubt the other’s allegiance and vise versa. This is very clever of her and demonstrates how she is a very perceptive woman with how people interact and form relationships with each other. Gretel is also described in quite an interesting way with the focus on her red heels. As I previously stated in the passage above, the Grimms’ focus on her with the brief synopsis about her is different than how they typically introduce characters. With this in mind, I agree very much with Bacchilega’s idea of this exemplifying Gretel as a character in the “queerdom”. Gretel’s shoes are a possible symbol for her love of doing things to please her. This can also be seen in the text when it discusses how she enjoys trying the best of the food she cooks for her master and taking drinks from his cellar. She does this for her own personal enjoyment and to please herself. This is not something seen very often in fairy tales where a woman is specifically doing actions for her own personal pleasure, instead of for her husband or others.

Bacchilega then begins to examine the tale of “Clever Else” and how the title is almost a joke between the narrator and reader. The depiction of Else is of a girl that doesn’t seem that clever at all and is used in an ironic way. The beginning of the tale describes how this is the name her father calls her. This would imply that this is what people in her everyday life must also call her or acknowledge her as. I found this to be a note on how her parents were not that “clever” as well, like Bacchilega also suggests. The story seems to show all the characters thinking they are of equal cleverness when Else is in the cellar getting beer and begins to cry. Else recounting this over and over again as the beer pours out seems to show that no one in the story is as clever as they originally thought they appeared. As the story progresses, Else and Hans, her husband, are depicted in another situation where they both do not appear that clever. Else is told to do work in the wheat field, but naps first and her husband ends up catching her and putting a net with bells on her to trick her. This trick ends up confusing Else to the point where she is unsure of whom she even is anymore. When she wanders to her and her husband’s house that is locked and asks if Else is there the husband replies yes. It seems that he has forgotten his own trick he played and makes them both appear foolish. However, Else is the one that ends up running away from the town and unsure of her true identity. This makes it clear who was the one punished by the trick. Bacchilega mentions an interesting theory of possibly the whole beer pouring fiasco to be Else’s way to communicate her desire to not be married to Hans or even at all. Yet, since she didn’t use the clever ways of actions and words that played against the rules like Gretel, Else is then condemned to the possible fate she was attempting to get out of. What were your perceptions of “Clever Else”? Did you find her to be clever in her own ways, but possibly just unsuccessful in her attempts? Or was she more of a foolish woman with the name clever tacked on to her name to add humor to the story?

Nalo Hopkinson’s “The Glass Bottle Trick”:

The story began with the main character Beatrice, a young woman who seemed to be recently married enjoying relaxing outside. As the story progresses, her maid tells her it’s finally time for her to tell her husband that she’s with child and to stop putting it off. Beatrice can ‘t quite explain the worried feeling she’s been carrying around about telling her husband Samuel about being pregnant. Yet, she now is starting to show and is four months pregnant and it seems that the time is come to tell him. As she goes about her day getting ready for her husband to come home she keeps having flashbacks to her past. She thinks about when she first met Samuel and how she found him so distant and reserved, how she was more interested in boys who wanted to have fun. It continues showing her slowly thinking about what to make him for dinner and preparing the meal as she thinks back to when she was a child with her mother. It describes her mother and her growing up poor and her mom always having her strive to become a doctor so she can always support herself Beatrice’s mother owns a small restaurant and seems to be somewhat ashamed of the labor she has to perform and wants something different for her daughter. By the time Beatrice is in the middle of making dinner she expressed how she thought Samuel was perfect for her because he was dependable and could always take care of her, but there were some drawbacks mentioned as well. For one, he didn’t like her tanning at all and liked her to look as pale as possible. He also seemed to have a bit of a temper, didn’t like his darker complexion, and wanted their tropical house to remain frigidly cold at all times. By the end of the story the air conditioner has broken and Beatrice goes to investigate it mentioning for the first time how she isn’t allowed to enter the third bedroom because that’s where Samuel’s previous wives had died. This is clearly a “Bluebeard” reference and the story finishes on an uncertain note. Beatrice discovers the two dead previous wives in the third bedroom frozen and their wombs have been cut out. The heat from the house penetrates the room and the spirits of the women are able to re-enter their bodies. It is described that the two deceased women seem angry and that they may attack or haunt Beatrice, but she hears her husband enter the house and he is fuming mad. She tries to convince the two wives to be mad at Samuel and goes to greet her husband hoping that the two spirits of his deceased wives will protect her.

I really enjoyed this rendition of “Bluebeard” because it is pretty different from the other variations we’ve read in class. It’s written in modern times, but in a completely different setting from historical cities in Europe. I found this to be a nice change of pace and Samuel seemed to be living in a nice house, but nothing extremely extravagant like a castle. There was still the symbolism of the egg and connecting that to fertility. It seemed clear that Samuel’s wives would be doomed in one of two ways. They would either become pregnant with his child and it would result in their death or they would enter the forbidden third bedroom and it would result in their death. I found the ending to be the most intriguing of the whole story because it is unclear of what happens to Beatrice. It is left up to the reader’s imagination if the spirits of his previous wives saves her or if she will join them on the other side. The uncertainty of the ending adds to the suspense and keeps the reader questioning what will happen. With this in mind, what do you think happened at the end of the story and what lead you to that conclusion?

Nalo Hopkinson’s “Precious”:

The tale begins a little bit reminiscent of “Cinderella” with the main character being a young woman who’s father remarries and ends up having a cruel stepmother and sister. The young woman and her sister had a curse put on them by an old woman. The old woman “rewarded” the young heroine’s kind words and niceness by jewels and flowers flowing from her mouth whenever she made a sound. Her sister on the other hand was unkind to the old woman and was punished with the curse of unwanted and scary creatures coming from her mouth. The young woman finds escape from her docile father and cruel stepmother through the marriage to her husband Jude. He seemed to really love and appreciate her, but his love turned into greed for the gifts she possessed. He called her his “precious” because of all the treasure that she would bestow from him. Jude became abusive and that’s how he chose to take the treasure from his young wife and eventually she escaped from him and hid away in a new city. Eventually he found her and made it clear that she was his captor and had no choice, but to fix the debts he had created in her absence. She began to speak and with every word bits of silver, gold, and gems left her lips piling at his feet. Jude became giddy with his greed for all the treasure that he didn’t seem to notice how quickly it was accumulating and engulfing him. Before he could really protest she told Jude off for all of the horrible things he had done to her and finally told him to stop calling her “precious”, but by her real name Isobel. At that moment, the final jewel left her lips the size of a heart and implanted it in his head as he fell to the floor. The story ended with Isobel waiting for the police to take the intruder from her house as she smiled to herself as she noticed that no more treasures had fallen from her mouth.

 Overall, I really enjoyed Hopkinson’s two pieces we read and found this one to be interesting. Other than the family connection to “Cinderella” I couldn’t really link the tale to any other fairy tales it might have been based off of that we read in class. I can assume though that the older versions this tale is based off of has the rivalry between siblings and has the one sister as pious and good, while the other sister is perceived as corrupt and bad. The mention of the old woman bestowing the curses upon them was described as old in this story and I’m assuming was depicted as an old sorceress in previous versions. I enjoy how Hopkinson’s modernized both tales and seemed to still keep elements of the supernatural in the stories without making them seem to childish or unnatural. Did anyone in the class see other fairy of folk tale similarities between this tale and others that they have read in or outside of class?

Adam Zolkover’s “Corporealizing Fairy Tales”:

The article begins with Zolkover discussing the lack of discussion people are having between the connections between comic books and fairy tales. He describes how many scholars in the fairy tale realm seem to not pay much attention to the comic book industry, but how that isn’t quite the case the other way around. This was done with Fables by Bill Willingham, which combined fairy tales and comics in a new way that had not been previously done. Willingham’s work focused more on looking at the fairy tales themselves and the characters within them and providing commentary about it. This is done by using the stories that the characters come from and using that to play off how where they are and what they are going through now. This allows analyzing to be done with the story the character originated from and the new stories being created. I found this idea to be interesting and similar to what we’ve talked about in class with other medias that have done similar ideas, like “Once Upon a Time”, which is another fairy tale pastiche. How Willingham is helping create new stories with the old characters is by adding more depth to them. The older versions that the characters and tales come from usually lacked depth “physically and psychologically” (41). I believe this is extremely true and something I’ve seen present in fairy tales we’ve read in this class. I think that’s why retellings by Block, Carter, and Hopkinson are important. They are providing characters with more depth and allowing the reader to connect or understand the characters they’ve read since they were younger. The young woman in “Bluebeard” is actually given a name and a backstory, where that wasn’t really existent in older versions. Willingham does this in Fables by making the characters “complex, sexually explicit, and physically present” (42). By doing so, the characters become less abstract and more real. Therefore, they can exist in our world today and within their fictional world through having this depth physically and psychologically that they didn’t possess in their previous tales. Zolkover also examines the physical presence of the characters and how they’re depicted in the Fables comic. He comments on how the comic allows not just snapshots of the characters life, but a fluid series of the characters’ lives being laid out before the reader’s eyes. This also brought him to discuss how the characters are depicted, which I personally found to be intriguing. The description of Snow White from the Grimms’ and Disney’s tale is apparently strikingly familiar to Willingham’s comic, but with her seen as more modern. What makes Snow White’s transition complete is how she is pictured as the innocent and passive beauty from the previous tales she’s described in, but her modern day self in Fables is a very independent, active, and successful woman. 

Linda J. Lee’s “Guilty Pleasures”:

Lee takes an analytical look at romance novels and their connections to fairy tales and how both are not always taken the most seriously. I found it very interesting to see what a growing market and the interest in romance literature was today. With this in mind, I completely agree with Lee that there needs to be a deeper analysis and study of romance literature. She discusses how fairy tales and romance novels are similar in the sense of how formulaic the plots and storylines are. The difference is how they are formulaic. In romance literature there are multiple formulas that can be used to create a story and it partially will depend on what type of romance novel it is. The categories within romance novels help dictate different motif, formulas, and conventions used to help create the story. Lee also looked at what the romance novels were providing to readers and what insight they were providing to their readers. It seemed that it helps women navigate the fantasy world and how the heroines deal with patriarchy in their worlds can then be transferred over to the lives of women in real life. This is an interesting idea, but I found it could be somewhat problematic with how the heroines are dealing with patriarchy in the fantasy world. If the promotion is for women to try and clime the ranks of patriarchy and better their lives individually through a rise in social class or such it doesn’t seem helpful to me. The idea relates back to “dismantling the master’s house” and how by using the” master’s tools” can never break down the patriarchal society we live in. I believe this is what some of the romance novels are promoting in the fantasy is how women can use the master’s tools to try and better their lives within patriarchy, which I don’t believe will make any real change to the system as a whole.

On another note, Lee then examines the ideas of the erotic in fairy tales and romance novels and how they are similar and different. She discusses how older versions of fairy tales demonstrate a very constrained sexuality and a lack of sex and the erotic within them. This appears to be the same with early romance novels by featuring “timid and passive virginal heroines” (p. 54). As romance novels progressed there became for focus on the erotic romances which feature the actual acts of sex, where previously versions that were described as “sweet romances” were more about ideas of desire than acting on those desires. Comparing this to fairy tales, the older versions that we’ve read that seem to have any mention of sex are deeply eluded and make hints at it through the heroine having a child. This takes away the discussion of the characters having sexual relations, but only focusing on the product of sex in their relationship, children. Lee then discusses different authors of romance fiction who tried to convey how very active male characters that are the dominant ones in the relationship demonstrate female empowerment. Jan Cohn, one of the authors, provided examples of how she thought this was accomplished by claiming the female protagonists are not just looking for love, but autonomy and power as well. I found this idea to be very problematic because of how Cohn said the women were going about it to find this power and autonomy they are searching for. The idea of a woman marrying for power or more autonomy is what I found the issue with. I don’t think a woman’s marriage to a man who has power will then translate into her gaining that power and autonomy. It may make her life in a patriarchal society better, but it ends up perpetuating the cycle of patriarchy. What are your opinions on romance novels that have dominant male characters? Do you agree with Cohn’s idea of the women in stories obtaining more power and autonomy through marriage as female empowerment?

Andrew J. Friedenthal’s “The Lost Sister”:

The introduction to Friedenthal’s piece is about Disney’s version of “Snow White” and how it changes the story line of “Snow White and Rose Red”, which is another Grimms’ fairy tales. It is then examined why Rose Red became the forgotten and lesser-known sister in popular culture today. One of the main points presented is the contrast set out between Snow White and Rose Red. In the text, Snow White is depicted as pure, innocent, and virginal, while Rose Red is described as more wild and free thus equaling corrupt in some way. This corrupted view of Rose Red creates and continues the virgin/whore dichotomy where one sister must be pure and the other sister has no choice, but to be corrupt. Friedenthal describes how this viewing of Rose Red is a likely reason why we rarely hear of her in popular culture today and why Disney overlooked her. Another point made in the article is the relationship between the two sisters and how it can be viewed as a threat to heteronormativity and wanting to banish any lesbianism or freedom of women’s sexuality. The sisters are seen as very close and connected closely with each other and with nature. This relationship, as Friedenthal suggests, would mean that they both have equal sexual knowledge and growth. Friedenthal believes this is why the second prince appears for Rose Red because of this connected relationship between the two, signifying that they are both ready for marriage. However, I found this somewhat problematic relating back to how Rose Red is depicted in the story. If she is seen as the corrupt and more sexual of the two sisters, then how can it be justified that both sisters are have equal sexual knowledge and growth? Wouldn’t it be more plausible that Rose Red and Snow White were not equal in sexual knowledge and growth because of this dichotomy?

Friedenthal then approaches the idea of the bear and what he symbolizes and represents in the story and to the two sisters. I saw the bear is seen as a symbol of patriarchy when he first entered the story. He was entering a house that was run completely by women who were close and connected with each other. He then becomes a part of the family in a way and begins to shape the relationships between the women in a different way. Snow White becomes closer with the bear and begins to signify the story diverging from queer to more heteronormative. This is done again when the bear turns into a prince and suddenly there appears the prince’s brother for Rose Red to complete the story full circle to show that both sisters followed the heteronormative path. What I found to be interesting was showing a dichotomy between the two men characters featured in the text. The bear representing the heteronormative option of what the two sisters should want and the dwarf representing what they should be turned away from. The dwarf is described similar to how women villains are described in the sense of being old and conventionally unattractive. Connecting back to popular culture and Disney, “Snow White” features clear gender roles throughout the movie. This can be seen in the traits focused on in each character and the songs they sing. Friedenthal discusses how Snow White’s main attribute is her beauty. This is what keeps her alive and draws people into her and thus making them want to protect and take care of her because of her innocence that correlates with her beauty. On the other hand, we see the dwarves who are seen toiling away in the mines and doing heavy labor. This contrast between the men in the story doing manual labor and Snow White being seen as passive and doing housework is a clear message Disney is sending about gender roles. The songs sung also imply these rigid roles by featuring Snow White singing about doing housework and her apparent love for it, while the dwarves sing about their love for mining and working all day. Demonstrating that the men are the active characters and that women are the passive and domestic characters. We know why Friedenthal believes Rose Red never made it to popular culture, but I was curious to what people in the class thought. Do you believe Rose Red could become a popular culture icon like Snow White? If not, why do you believe she wouldn’t be accepted?