Violence in Fairy Tales

• "I know your hearts, and all the malice they contain. Become two statues, but, under this transformation, still retain your reason. You shall stand before your sister's palace gate, and be it your punishment to behold her happiness; and it will not be in your power to return to your former state, until you own your faults, but I am very much afraid that you will always remain statues. Pride, anger, gluttony, and idleness are sometimes conquered, but the conversion of a malicious and envious mind is a kind of miracle" (Beaumont).

Snow White

Violence in Fairy Tales

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs

• Written by the Brothers Grimm

Synopsis:

In this Disney version of Snow White, punishement of the evil queen is handled quite differently than the Grimm tale. Once Snow White grows up, the evil Queen’s mirror on the wall announces that Snow White is “the fairest of them all,” infuriating the Queen. She hires the huntsman to take Snow White into the woods and kill her. He is told to cut out her heart and bring it back to the Queen as proof that he had completed the task. However, Snow White’s innocence prevents the Huntsman from killing her, and instead he falsely brings back the heart of a deer. The Queen then attempts to kill Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs chase after her. Perched high on a mountain of rock, the Queen tries to escape but, instead, lightning strikes the boulder and the Queen falls to her death.

• Significant in how it ends in violent punishment for the evil queen

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Schneewittchen2.jp

Ending:

• When the Queen arrives at Snow White's wedding feast, she is forced to put on iron hot slippers and dance until she drops dead.

• Queen falls to her death
• No one responsible but herself
• Nature running its course
• Karma-like

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/b4/6c/d1/b46cd150b0237574a46e6024db98d60f.jp

“The Courtship of Mr. Lyon”

By David, Stanley, and Kerry

By Angela Carter

Lasair Gheug, the King of Ireland’s Daughter

• Very similar plot line to Beaumont's version but gives it modern twists like adding the broken down car, the dog instead of a magic mirror, etc.
• Signifigant Differences:
• There are no evil sisters
• There is no threat of death keeping Beauty with the Beast, it is mostly a feeling of obligation

Audience:

-Anyone

Beauty and the Beast

http://www.clipartpanda.com/categories/lion-head-clipart-for-kid

Disney (1991)

Synopsis

• Lasair is the daugher of the king and her stepmother (queen) wants her gone. The queen tries to do this by working with a witch-like woman. They frame Lasair for murder and asking for her heart for health. Lasair is hidden away into the woods by her father who cuts off her fingers as proof for his wife. Her blood falls into her dinner which the queen eats.
• The story ends very "happily ever after" in that King and Lasair walk off together and everyone has a wife or husband to go home to and the evil queen is punished by being burned alive.

Relevance

• The use of violence, finger removal, blood in the dinner, and desire for heart and liver for health, is hard to justify as necessary for the moral
• The main antagonist does have a greusome death but it is not described in great detail serving as a middle ground between modern and original tales in violence usage.

Villian:

-Possibly vanity itself

-Therefore there is no explicit punsment

Snow White and the Huntsman (2012)

http://www.disneyclips.com/imagesnewb/beautyandthebeast-belle.htm

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a1/SnowWhite20.jp

Brief Synopsis:

• Belle's father is lost in the woods when he stumbles upon the Beast's castle. Beast imprisons him but Belle takes his place.
• Beast falls in love with Belle and lets her leave. When she tells the townspeople about Beast, in order to defend her father, they attack his castle.
• In a fight scene Gaston, the "villan" of this tale, falls to his death.
• Belle admits her love for Beast, lifting the curse and bringing him back as a man.

Barbe Bleu (2009)

The Audience:

• Children
• Cultural Factors

http://onlinemovies.pro/snow-white-and-the-huntsman-2012

Synopsis:

• Opens with a bloody battle scene where the King's army defeats Ravenna's fake army, Ravenna pretends to be an innocent prisoner and marries the King just to poison and then stab him to death on their wedding night in order to bring in her real army and take over the kingdom.
• She holds Snow White prisoner in her tower for many years while the Queen Ravenna sucks all the life out of the land and steals the youth and beauty from any beautiful person she can get her hands on.
• One day the magic mirror tells her Snow White is fairer than her so she must eat Snow White's heart or the spell keeping her young will be undone.
• Snow White escapes on her own by slashing the Queen's brother with a nail and runs into the dark forest.
• The Queen sends a huntsman after her but the Huntsman sees that Snow White is good and Ravenna will just betray him.
• Snow White and the Huntsman team up, along with the 7 dwarfs, and Snow White's childhood friend WIlliam who finds them along the way.
• After being poisoned by an apple along the way and almost dieing, Snow White rallies an army and they attack Ravenna's kingdom.
• In the end, it is Snow White who stabs the Queen in her heart, and takes back control of the kingdom.

Audience:

The Ending:

• Gaston is killed but by his own fault, not that of Beast (our hero), who actually spares him

• Adults (Not Rated)

Ending:

• Punishment to the wicked

Snow White and the Huntsman

Beauty and the Beast

Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont

Written in 1756

Brief Synopsis:

Similarities to Disney:

• Poisen Apple
• Evil Stepmom/Queen
• Kiss to wake up Snow White
• Emphasis on Vanity

http://www.clipartsheep.com/kissing-lips-clipart.html

• Before "children's literature" existed

Bluebeard

Punishent of the wicked

• Written by Charles Perrault
• An incredibly graphic story
• A man with a blue beard who attempts to cut off his wife’s head because she enters the forbidden room

Watch from here to see only Queen Ravenna's death, without the fight scene

Similarities to Grimm:

• Violent ending for the Queen
• Poisen Apple
• Evil Stepmom/Queen
• Emphasis on Vanity

Blogpost about BlueBeard:

http://fairytales.colgate.edu/germ230a/2015/10/26/is-bluebeards-moral-outdated/

• Beauty lives with her father and her 3 sisters, all are beautiful but Beauty is the most kind and smart.
• The Beast is going to take Beauty's father as a prisoner but selfless Beauty decides to take his place. Beast treats her well, they have long conversations, and every night she rejects his proposal.
• After some time, Beast allows homesick Beauty to return home to see her family.
• Her jealous sisters convince her to stay longer than her promised return date to Beast, hoping he will kill her for returning late.
• Beauty sees through the magic mirror that Beast is dying of heartbreak because she hasnt returned so she returns.
• She cries and says that she loves him, returning Beast to a handsome prince.

http://www.clipartbest.com/fairy-clipart-images

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f1/Bluebeard.pn

Comparative Analysis:

Two Morals:

1) “Curiosity, in spite of its many charms, can bring with it serious regrets; you can see a thousand examples of it every day. Women succumb, but it’s a fleeting pleasure; as soon as you satisfy it, it ceases to be. And it always proves very, very costly.”

*2) “If you just take a sensible point of view, and study this grim little story, you will understand that this tale is one that took place many years ago. No longer are husbands so terrible, demanding the impossible, acting unhappy and jealous. With their wives they toe the line; and whatever color their beards might be, it’s not hard to tell which of the pair is master.”

http://www.clipartpanda.com/categories/teacher-apple-clipar

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beauty_and_the_Beas

Tales vs. Disney

• Overall Difference
• No graphic/violence
• No punishment
• Maintanence of Innocence
• Audience:
• Children
• Moral:
• Active vs. Passive
• Punishment vs. Karma
• (Affected by societal values/customs)

BlueBeard

Violence

http://wordsmith.org/words/bluebeard.htm

• Charles Perrault
• "BlueBeard"(2009)
• "The Robber Bridegroom"

Snow White

• Grimm Brothers
• Disney
• "The King of Ireland's Daughter"
• "Snow White and the Huntsman

http://disney.wikia.com/wiki/File:Snow_White_Clipart.gi

Works Cited

• What role does violence play in fairy tales?
• How does the degree of violence, particularly when it comes to punishment of the villian, vary based on the intended audience?

Beauty & The Beast

Blog Post on Grimm Vs. Disney:

http://fairytales.colgate.edu/germ230a/2015/10/29/punishment-comes-to-the-wicked/

• Beaumont
• Disney
• Angela Carter

Primary Sources:

Beauty and the Beast (1991), Dir. Gary Trousdale and Kirk Wise. Produced by Don Hahn.

Bluebeard (2009), Dir. Catherine Breillat. Produced by Sylvette Frydman and Jean-Francois

Grimm, Jacob and Grimm, Wilhelm. “The Robber Bridegroom.” Trans by Jacob and Wilhelm

Grimm, Jacob and Grimm, Wilhelm. “Snow White.” Trans and Ed by Maria Tatar. Classic Fairy

Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, “Beauty and the Beast”, 1756. Trans and Ed by Maria

Perrault, Charles.“Bluebeard.” Trans and Ed by Maria Tatar. Classic Fairy Tales. New York: Norton, 1999. 144-148. Print

Snow White and the Huntsman (2012), Dir. Rupert Sanders. Produced by Joe Roth and Sam Mercer.

Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Dir. William Cottrell and David Hand. Produced by

Stewart-Murray,

Lady Evelyn. “Lasir Gheug, the King of Ireland’s Daughter” Trans Alan Bruford Ed by Maria Tatar. Classic Fairy Tales.New York Norton, 1999. 90-96. Print

Secondary Sources:

Basbanes Richter, Barbara. "Roald Dahl And Danger In Children's Literature." Sewanee Review

Evans, Stephen. "Are Grimm's Fairy Tales Too Twisted for Children?" BBC Culture. BBC, 21

Greenspan, Jesse. "The Dark Side of the Grimm Fairy Tales." History.com. A&E Television

Networks, 17 Sept. 2013. Web. 25 Oct. 2015.

Isaacs, David. "Sex and Violence in Fairy Tales." Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health 49

(2013): 987-88. Journal of Pediatrics and Child Health. Royal Australian College of Physicians. Web. 25 Oct. 2015.

Propst, Lisa G. "Bloody Chambers And Labyrinths Of Desire: Sexual Violence In Marina

Warner's Fairy Tales And Myths." Marvels & Tales 22.1 (2008): 125-142. Academic Search Premier. Web. 1 Dec. 2015.

Tatar, Maria. “Sex and Violence: The Hard Core of Fairy Tales.” 1987. Trans. Ed. Maria Tatar. The Classic Fairy Tales. New York: Norton, 1999. 364 - 373. Print.

Warner, Marina. “Once Upon a Time.” Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014. 73-96. Print.

Other Optional Sources:

Brave (2012), Dir. Mark Andrews, Brenda Chapman and Steve Purcell. Produced by Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios.

Grimm, Jacob and Grimm, Wilhelm. “Cinderella.” Trans and Ed by Maria Tatar. Classic Fairy Tales. New York: Norton, 1999. 117-122. Print

Frozen (2013), Dir. by Chris Buck and Jennifer Lee. Distributed by Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios.

Tangled (2010), Dir. Nathan Greno and Byron Howard. Distributed by Walt Disney Pictures and Pixar Animation Studios.

*Images cited on slide

*Proper Formatted Bibliography available via Annotated Bibliography Blog post: http://fairytales.colgate.edu/germ230a/2015/12/02/the-depiction-of-violence-in-fairy-tales-annotated-bibliography/

“They give us these ‘what if’ scenarios – what if the most terrible thing that I can imagine happened? – but they give us these scenarios in the safe space of ‘once upon a time’. I'm going to tell you the story and I'm going to show you how this hero or this heroine manages to come out of it alive. And not just alive, but also ‘happily ever after." - Maria Tatar

http://www.disneyclips.com/imagesnewb/beautyandthebeast2.htm

"Violence in Fairy Tales: Annoted Bibliography":

http://fairytales.colgate.edu/germ230a/2015/12/02/the-depiction-of-violence-in-fairy-tales-annotated-bibliography/

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4c/Walter_Crane06.jp