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Cinderella fairy tale analysis
Cinderella fairy tale analysis
Cinderella fairy tale analysis
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Cinderella fairy tale analysis
Cinderella fairy tale analysis
Cinderella fairy tale analysis
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Cinderella fairy tale analysis
Since the beginning of literature, women have been depicted as devious individuals. As a result, women put use to this stereotype to get what they want. This is proven, especially in medieval literature. Examples of this are shown in works like “Macbeth,” * Sir Gawain and the Green Knight,” and “The Canterbury Tales”.
Many of the women in these stories are portrayed as strong, independent women who, in many cases, are the hero themselves. Women in Chrétien and La Motte-Fouqué’s stories are given strong roles in order to highlight and emphasize the important virtues of peace, bravery, and power which ultimately transfers the role of the hero from men to women. In order to understand why the women in Yvain and The Magic Ring are considered to be the true heroes, the definition of a true hero must first be fully defined. Many will describe a hero as a character who performs deeds to remove people from danger.
Throughout the course of human history, literary works of various styles and genres across multiple cultures have had varying depictions of both genders. A literary work’s depiction of gender, particularly females, is generally dependent on the culture and/or society its author hail from as well as other factors such as regional and political ones. Despite such differences, literary works can share similarities in the depiction of genders. Antigone and The Canterbury Tales are prime examples of such types of literary works. Despite that nearly two millennia past between the publication of the two-respective works, the two have similar as well as contrasting portrayals of women.
Furthering dissuading people from connecting with the powerful women of the fairytales are that they always are punished in the end. No fairy tale ends with the villainess winning, any character who challenges the patriarchal society is always severely punished if not
We have all lived in the world of fairy tales and imagination but have we ever really focused on what intrigues us about these stories? The hero’s sacrifices and the villain’s decisive plots intrigue us the most in stories but these characteristics are what makes a character known for as a hero, villain and this is known as archetypes. This analyzation revolves around, The Princess Bride and archetypes that some of its character’s qualify of. According to my analysis, Westley portrays the hero, Prince Humperdinck portrays the villain/shadow and Dread Pirate Roberts portrays the Threshold Guardian. The first archetype that I have analyzed is a hero and I have identified Westley as the hero because he sacrifices many things in order to achieve his goal, a hero’s trademark.
It treats women poorly to cause them to comply with gender expectations. Not only do women have to face pressures of conformity in real life, but they also face intimidation in fairytales. Grimm’s Snow White and Cinderella perpetuate society’s notion that a woman is the inferior being whose value lies not only in her beauty but also in her abilities to perform domestic work and satisfy men. Grimm uses the characters of Cinderella and Snow White to perpetuate the idea that women should lead quietly domestic lives. In Cinderella, Cinderella spent most of her time in a kitchen.
These concepts are depicted within the classic Disney princess film Cinderella directed by Clyde Geronimi. This film has ‘taught’ and/or shown little girls to stop everything they are currently doing and to become dependent on a man to save the day. Cinderella can be seen as the ultimate example of a “damsel-in-distress” because she gets saved from being “abused, humiliated and a servant in her own house to her stepmother and stepsisters” (Cinderella). However, the film does not fail to mention how despite this Cinderella still remains “gentle” and “kind.” The usage of ‘gentle’ and ‘kind’ rather than ‘understanding’ pinpoints the societal gender norms in action— according to these, a woman should be compliant and quiet.
Women in fairy tales will most often be classified as a young maiden, these young maidens are often fair young girls that are not married. In the fairy tale, “The Sleeping Beauty,” there exists a lovely young maiden, born of a mother’s wish on a frog, she was so beautiful that the king ordered a banquet in her honor. As the tale goes on, the young maiden is put in a state of distress by the curse of a witch, and she, along with her kingdom sleep for one-hundred years. As all maidens that become distressed do, the girl is saved at the hands of another young suitor, and she is married off. This tale’s stratagem is also reflected in “The Robber Bridegroom,” a young maiden born to a farmer is now growing up, and she begins to have thoughts of
Furthermore, another aspect worth considering is the impact the depiction of such hostile behavior in fairy tales has on female readers. Girls most certainly notice (whether they do it consciously or subconsciously) that fairy tales glorify and reward beauty (Lieberman 385). When they identify with the beauties, girls tend to become suspicious of their less beautiful peers; and in case they identify with the plainer characters,
Beowulf is an excellent piece with a lot for the readers to desire and relate to while reading. This analysis explores different escapades while examining the role of women in the literature. One thing to point out is that female characters have always received very thin attention in different pieces of literature, something that has always made many people think that their role is meager. Every piece of literature has an important message to pass across to its intended audiences. Indeed, this study seeks to demystify the male-centric mindset to promote the visibility of women in the contemporary interpretation of literary works demonstrating that women play a greater role in the literature despite the proximity given to male protagonist.
The Middle Ages were not a time of sexual egalitarianism. It was very classist, dividing people into three classes. And they had strong ideas about the roles of women” (Hibberd, 2015). Anne Kustritz argues that romantic fairy-tales with happy endings negatively affects expectations of the roles of women in stories. They set up unrealistic imaginations of characters that encounter very few or no obstacles and have a perfect resolution.
Examining Contrasting Themes of Gender in Myth Through The Furies and Antigone Throughout the history of the written and oral tradition, gender has come to be represented through countless scopes and perspectives. Authors, poets, lyricists compose works that reflect and highlight either society’s ideals of gender or their own. Even though gender has come to be depicted through many different perspectives, often times in literature archetypal gender portrayals run rampant. Women are usually categorized into a couple neat boxes: the virgin, seductress, mother/wife, and witch.
Numerous schools of criticisms have attempted to find the meaning behind most of our favorite childhood stories. From Marxist who pursue the idea of social classes portrayed in literary works, to Psychoanalysts who depict the sexual tensions and desires that are subconsciously embedded behind characters’ motives and actions, to Historicists who try to show the preservation of tradition in stories, many different concepts exist for each fairy tale. The Feminist school of criticism greatly focuses on unveiling the patriarchal system and sexist roles that are displayed in stories, and more specifically, fairytales. Four versions of the well-known fairytale of The Little Mermaid will be compared and discussed while focusing on many distinctive
Introduction Disney Waltz Company is a well-known brand in the entertainment industry which focuses on young girls mainly. Its princess franchise has become world phenomenal and influential among the girls due to the exhilarating line story depicted in every movies. In 2009, Disney managed to raise 4 billion of profits through its products sold from the princess franchise (Johnson 2015), proving itself as the leading brand among kids. The insertion of moral values has gained the acceptance of parents towards Disney movies as their kids’ main entertainment (Nussbaum 2016). Despite the tremendous response from society, Disney movies are commented to affect the level of confidence of young girls by some sides.
The male roles in the family seem to be above females’ because they get to make decisions for girls. Men feel dominant to women, so the same behaviors as the women are acceptable for them. Along with these, the ladies are not expected to crave love and affection like the gentlemen do. The gender issue of men being dominant and women being submissive used in the drama, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, shows the differences in the roles, behaviors, and expectations appropriate for each gender and is an example of an outdated stereotype. Unlike the time frame of this literature, women in the present are valued equal to men.