Female Charcters in Fairy Tales Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Female Charcters in Fairy Tales - Essay Example non all agree with the claim that traditional fairy tales such as Cinderella positively portray females. Pollitt maintains that it is some impossible to come across a fairytale in which women are portrayed as active, venturesome and determined. Instead, in the world of fairytales, Pollitt (1995, p. 479) maintains that females blend seamlessly into the animated cereal commercials. Indeed, these remarks are perfectly applicable to the Disney film versions of Cinderella, blow White, and Sleeping Beauty, among others. In n iodin of these movies do the female characters commit themselves to any action or up to now grant an attempt at defending themselves. Cinderellas single act of rebellion was to go to the en without her cadencemothers knowledge merely with her fairy godmothers permission and protection. This act is never repeated. In the shoe-fitting scene, she hangs back and does not come forward until she is pressed to by Palace officials. This is the ultimate in passivity since she knew that were she just to step forward, her entire life would change. She does not, however, and this in itself, evidences the fact that the course and direction of her life are shaped by others and not be herself. Consequently, within the context of Disneys film versions of popular fairy tales as Cinderella, one shtup safely assert the prevalence of negative gender stereotypes. The negative gender stereotypes which audiences can encounter in Disneys Cinderella were not imposed upon the movie by the fairytale itself.... The negative gender stereotypes which audiences can detect in Disneys Cinderella were not imposed upon the movie by the fairytale itself, since, in none of its versions are females depicted in this weak, passive and inactive manner. In different versions of the Cinderella humbug, the male character does not make any impression at all, and is only reacts to the actions of the female characters. In the Grimm ve rsion, the action of the plot is shaped by the step sisters determination that Cinderella does not go to the ball, and Cinderellas determination to go. She defies her stepsister when she does not perform the tasks they set for her but has the magic pigeons do it for her. Furthermore, all through this story, the events are shaped by Cinderellas dead mothers spirit. She is the one who sends her young woman the pigeons and gives her the chance to go to the ball. Actually, the prince does not choose Cinderella but both she and her dead mother choose him for her as the only one that is effective enough for Cinderella. It is all like a magic matchmaking story where the prince walks into the espousal trap that was set out for him by the dead mother. The whole plot is a conflict between women and it is very easy to imagine the Princes character replaced by another prize symbolizing the victory of the good over the evil, but it is not possible to imagine the story without Cinderella or t he evil stepsisters. The Charles Perrault version of the Cinderella story confirms the view that men, not women, are very much on the borders of the story. The prince does not appear until halfway through and the first male character we see,