Fairy Tales Gender Roles

Fairy tales have passed from generation to generation, almost as a rite of passage, throughout western civilization. Whether it is the tales of the Grimm Brothers’ or modern Disney versions, fairy tales have permeated society for ages. The question is whether they are merely stories told to children for entertainment or something more. Every tale offers children morals to live up to such as not trusting strangers to being kind to animals. Are morals all that are provided though? Fairy tales seem to have a much more lasting effect on a child’s psyche than simply a lesson learned. In this paper, fairy tales will be examined to see how gender roles are indoctrinated through them. Historian Sylvia D. Hoffert defines a gender ideal as “the cluster

Overall, though, she remains naïve and helpless. This time, a jealous stepmother asks her husband to kill his daughter, Maria. Instead, the father decides to leave her in the middle of the forest. Maria realizes something is wrong and brings bran with her. During the journey out, she leaves a trail of bran. Upon coming to a cliff, the father throws a loaf of bread down and asks his daughter to get it. She obliges, but when she returns her father is gone. She starts to cry, but remembers her bran trail and sets off for home. Up until now, Maria seems to be rather smart for a fairy tale heroine. She manages her own survival. However, this spark of intelligence quickly fades. Upon returning home, her father comforts her, and she voices neither anger nor dismay with her father for abandoning her in the middle of the forest. The next morning, her father once again takes her into the forest. This time she forgets to bring the bran and is stuck by herself. For someone who just the day before suspected her father’s plan, she does not have the foresight to bring a means for survival again. Instead, she cries until she sees the home of seven robbers. She sneaks inside and tidies up the place. When the robbers return, they do not know how this happened. The next day one robber stays behind in order to see what occurs. He finds Maria and tells her that she can live with them as

This turns out to be case only for men, however; the woman is still utterly perfect. In the German version, a man steals a rose for his youngest daughter. The Beast sees this and says that he has eight days to bring him the reason for the theft. The father agrees hoping to escape. In eight days, the Beast arrives at the home and asks for his wife. The youngest daughter, who is the “most beautiful” and the most virtuous, agrees to go with him because she does not want to see her father harmed. She ends up very happy with the Beast because he is kind to her. She does not care that he forced her into marriage. She is virtuous and sweet, and in the end, she loves him so he turns into a handsome Prince. Either way, she has no choice in the matter. She just does what is right, without anger or