The Influence Of Conventions In Fairy Tales

A Comparison between Traditional and Modern Day Versions of Cinderella Cinderella is perhaps one of the most famous childhood fairy tale stories of all time. Over the years, numerous versions of the story have been recreated and have been told to children all over the world. The original story of Cinderella follows the life of a young girl who is mistreated by her step mother and stepsisters. Cinderella is magically converted into a gorgeous princess with the assistance of her fairy godmother. She then goes to the ball to meet the prince.

The first three Disney films released between 1937 to 1959 are “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, “Cinderella”, and “Sleeping Beauty”. All three princesses in each of the said films have portrayed an unrealistic body figure. They were also dependent on their male counterpart and are domestic. Each of them also had a white complexion. Snow White was know for being the fairest and most beautiful for her pale complexion.

Snow White, Cinderella,and Little Red Riding Hood are all Non fiction stories told by parents, grandparents,etc. all over the world. These stories are full of princesses, fairies, and other mythical characters you can think of. They have been told for centuries. While years ago, they were told because of family resemblance and were told from generations,now they have been misconstrued and flipped completely.As a child, I grew up with getting fairy tales read to me,and they were used to ignite imaginative dreaming and give us a little gist of what the perfect fantasy would be.But before they had a different purpose.I will give you a little insight about how Fairy Tales have been changed in order to fit society’s requirements.

From its onset with its first feature-length animated film, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937, Disney has grown to become a worldwide phenomenon today. But over the years, various parent groups, scholars and film critics have accused Disney for creating shallow, stereotypical princesses whose ultimate aim was to find her 'prince charming ' and live happily ever after. In her article, “What’s Wrong With Cinderella?” in the New York Times, Peggy Orenstein expresses her concern over the effect of princess figures like Cinderella on young girls ' perceptions of themselves and how they should behave (“What’s Wrong With Cinderella?”). However, the later Disney films have gradually attempted to break away from this stereotype resulting in stronger female characters like Ariel, Mulan, and Elsa among others. Keeping this transition in mind, this paper uses semiotic analysis of four popular Disney films, namely, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), The Little Mermaid (1989) and Mulan (1998) to depict the influence of societies ' changing perceptions of women on the portrayal of Disney princesses.

It is nearly impossible for a tale to be passed down generations and still stay the same. The fairy tale “Cinderella” told by the Grimm brothers is almost 206 years old, and differences can be seen between the modern “Cinderella” story and the original. In “Cinderella,” by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, a young girl named Cinderella is treated like a servant by her family. Luckily she is gifted with beautiful clothing, enabling her to attend a festival, meeting her one true love. Cinderella gets married to the prince, and the step-sisters are punished by getting pecked in the eyes by birds.

In disney’s 2014 movie Maleficent ,Maleficent is both a good hero and a bad villain but more a hero. In the beggining she is good because she didn’t turn him away and love him.Maleficent is also both protagonist and antagonist because she is against stepon and is sometime against herself . One night he wanted to live in the castle so he cut maleficent wings off.Then she got mad and fought with the king and turned into a villain. The king died and stefon became the king he got married and had a kid named aurora.When aurora was a baby was cursed by maleficent to get back at stefon.This show that maleficent is both a good hero and a bad villain. In the end she is a good hero because she helps aurora break the curse by being her true loves kiss.

As society has changed in the seventy-three years Disney has been making movies, so have the animated films themselves. While many young girls love the princesses and look up to them, others view these characters as negative role models. Disney Princesses have always appeared in movies as young women who dress in elegant gowns, have sexy bodies and perfect hair. They are always paired with a prince who lives in a castle, meaning that he has a lot of money. This description of what the Disney Princess is like; give us a big concern in the influence this image is giving to the little girls.

The normalization of the impulse to deny women dominance led Disney cinema to illustrate strong women as murderers. In both Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Cinderella, the stepmothers are powerful, but slightly depicted as killers in the movie. This causes the Evil Queen and Lady Tremaine to be in a quarrelsome position in relation to their families, resulting in failed family relationships. This trend begins to fade well within Mulan and Maleficent, where these women gradually become nurturers of their families. In Snow White, Snow White initially tries to be caring towards the Evil Queen, but the Evil Queen has no desire to be familial.

The Princess Bride contains some of the most evil villains, the most entertaining heroes, and the most Sicilian Sicilians to ever exist. However, the hero of the story, Westley, lacks the qualities of an actual hero. Through the story, he proves time and time again that his actions only benefit Westley, and anyone else who gains anything from him improves accidentally. Westley, however, starts out the story as merely a background character. Buttercup, the most beautiful woman in the entire world and main character in the beginning, “preferred above all else really, was to ride her horse and taunt the farmboy.” This shows a few important things about Westley.

Love potions mess up Titania and Oberon’s true love and not just Titania gets affected. The love potion made Titania fall in love with a donkey. Titania was blinded from the truth and was embarrassed because she fell in love with a donkey. This explains how love is difficult because Titania isn 't really in love with who she thinks she is. The potion made it hard for all the fairies and made things worse for Oberon and Titania to show their true love for each other.