The Frog King and Cupid and Psyche

           The Frog King and Cupid and Psyche are similar in a few ways. The Frog King is about a princess who promises a frog that she will be his companion and playmate if he retrieves her gold ball out of the well. The frog retrieves the ball for her, but the princess runs off and leaves the frog at the well. The next day, the frog appears at her house. Once the princesses’ father found out about the promise that his daughter had made, he makes her keep it. Once in bed, the princess becomes infuriated with the frog and she throws him up against a wall. Upon hitting the ground the frog turns into a prince and they get married.

            In Cupid and Psyche Venus becomes jealous of a beautiful mortal girl and she sends her son Cupid to punish her. But Cupid falls in love with Psyche. At the end of the story, Psyche becomes immortal and she can now be with Cupid forever.

            The Frog King and Cupid and Psyche are similar in that in both stories the main character is the youngest daughter and also the most beautiful. In both stories the girl marries someone that no one else wants because their true identity is masked.

     The cartoon that I chose is a social one. It shows the wolf from “Little Red Riding Hood” or “Little Red Cap” lying on a chair in a psychiatrist’s office. The caption reads “I understand your motive for eating the grandmother, but why did you feel you needed to dress up in her clothes?” I chose this cartoon in particular, not only because it is funny, but also because it made me think of one of the presentations from class. The presentation talked about Perrault’s view of the wolf. In the presentation, I learned that the wolf actually wants to explore the feminine mysteries of fertility and that is why he eats Little Red and the grandmother. Because of what I learned in the presentation, I also think that the reason that the wolf dressed up in the grandmother’s clothes was because he wanted to explore the feminine mysteries. Because of this prior knowledge, I was able to answer the question of why the wolf dressed in the grandmother’s clothes in my head.

Snow White (Grimm vs. Anne Sexton)

            The Grimm version of Snow White and the Anne Sexton version are different in many ways. For one, the Grimm version is a lot less sexual than Anne Sexton’s version is.  Sexton includes a lot of sexual insinuations throughout her poem. When Snow White is wandering through the woods she implies her “sexual awakening” when she writes “At each turn there were twenty doorways and at each stood a hungry wolf, his tongue lolling out like a worm” (Sexton 97). Another sexual insinuation is when she refers to the dwarfs as “those little hot dogs” (Sexton 98). Another difference between the two versions is the way that Anne Sexton infuses pop culture into her poem. She mentions things like Ace bandages, daisies, and soda pop. Also, Anne gives a time when the prince comes. She writes that the price comes in June, which is not only a transitional month, but it also represents beauty. In the Grimm fairy tales the stories are usually timeless.

            Although different, there is one main similarity between the two versions that I would like to point out. In both versions, Snow White did not learn from her mistakes. Because of the Zeitgeist, Snow White has to be a passive character. She repeatedly let the Queen fool her with ribbons, combs, and finally with the apple that put her into a death like slumber.

            In my opinion, the Anne Sexton version is better. I like how she includes things that make you thing and how she refers to pop culture. I think the poem was a lot more interesting than the Grimm version.

Snow White (Disney vs. Grimm)

The Brothers Grimm version of Snow White is very different from the Disney version in many ways. The Grimm version was very graphic and less romantic than the Disney version. For example, the evil Queen asks the Huntsman to bring back Snow White’s lungs and liver when he kills her so she can eat them. In Disney’s version she just asks the Huntsman to kill Snow White. Another difference is the way that Snow White awakens. In the Grimm version the prince sees her for the first time asleep and falls in love with her and asks the dwarfs to give him the coffin as a gift because he “can’t go on without seeing her face. On the way to his castle one of his men carrying the coffin stumbles and the piece of poison apple in Snow White’s throat is released and she wakes up. It is much more romantic in Disney’s version. In the Disney version, the prince comes back and finds Snow White asleep. He awakens her with true love’s first kiss.

Even though the versions were very different, they still had many similarities. In both versions the evil Queen relied on her magic mirror to tell her who was the fairest of them all. Also, in both versions the Queen gives Snow White a poison apple. The dwarfs then place her in a coffin and stay by her side.

There are a few reasons that Disney made the changes he did. One was that since the movie is for younger audiences, so he needed to take out the graphic parts. Also, Snow White came out during the Great Depression, a time when people needed hope, not sadness in their lives. Disney added the romantic and hopeful ending because it was exactly what the people of the Great Depression needed. 

From Rags to Riches....

The motif of “rags to riches through magic and marriage” is one that we see in the fairy tale Cinderella. Because of this motif, Cinderella is considered to be a “rise tale.” In this fairy tale, Cinderella goes from being a very poor servant girl under the control of her stepmother to marrying a prince. Although we see this type of motif a lot in fairy tales, for it to happen in real life is very unrealistic. It is not often that you see someone as poor as Cinderella was marrying someone as wealthy as the prince was. The only modern day example I can think of that could be considered a “rags to riches” tale would be the marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton. In England, Kate was considered to be a peasant. Although she may not have been very wealthy, she ended up marrying a prince and having her own Fairy Tale wedding. Even though things like this happen sometimes, we don’t hear about it very often. In my opinion, the “rags to riches” motif gives girls false hopes. We read these tails and we think about how someday we will find our Prince Charming, marry him, and become wealthy. But because this rarely ever happens in our society, most of the times girls get their hopes up for nothing. The only way we will be able to have a life like the one that Cinderella married into is by luck or magic. Magic does not exist, and luck is usually not on your side; unless you are Kate Middleton of course!

Grimm vs. MGM

Although the Grimm version of Hansel and Gretel and the MGM version are very similar, they have a number of differences as well. In the Grimm version, it is the children’s stepmother that sends the children into the forest whereas in the movie it is the biological mother. Another difference is the way the children end up in the woods in the first place. In the story, the stepmother wants to send the children into the woods so that there will be enough food for her to eat. In the movie, the children accidently let the donkey into the house. The donkey eats the custard off of the table and breaks the container of milk. When the mother returns and sees what happens, she sends the children off to find berries. While trying to find berries, the children wander into the woods. Also, in both versions, Hansel leaves a trail to follows so that later they will be able to find their way home. One other difference is the trail that Hansel leaves so that they can follow it back home. In the story, Hansel uses this method on two occasions. The first time he uses stones and the second time he uses pieces of bread. In the movie, Hansel only uses the method one time. When he does, instead of bread he uses the cookie crumbs that the baker gave to Gretel.

Like I mentioned before, there are some similarities between the Grimm version and the MGM version. In both versions, the children stumble upon a gingerbread house. Inside the gingerbread house there is a witch that cannot see very well, but has a very keen sense of smell. In each story, the witch puts Hansel in a cage because she wants to fatten him up to eat him. She also makes Gretel her slave. In the end, though, the children outsmart the witch and she ends up cooking in an oven.

In my opinion, the movie was better that the story. I liked the movie better because although the mother was really mean to Hansel and Gretel, there were still moments when you saw that she really cared. When reading the story, I felt like the mother didn’t care about her children at all. I also liked how in the movie, the first nigh the children stay at the gingerbread house, the witch is reading them the story of Briar Rose. I thought it was really cool how they incorporated the Grimm tales into the movie.

                

Fairy Tales...

Over the years, there has been much debate over what exactly a fairy tale is and should consist of. According to Zipes, fairy tales are “Narratives of magic and fantasy, which are understood to be fictional.”  According to Stith Thompson, a fairy tale is a “tale of some length involving a succession of motifs or episodes” and that they are “filled with the marvelous.” There are so many things that come into play when defining fairy tales. One important aspect of fairy tales is “Zeitgeist,” which is the spirit of the times. Most fairy tales contained things that may have been acceptable back then, but seem kind of unacceptable now. Another important thing is the style of fairy tales. They are usually told in few well-chosen words that just describes the series of events. They also have a preference for action instead of long descriptions. Fairy tales also have a hero versus villain plot line. Like we saw in the story “Briar Rose” or “Sleeping Beauty” the 13^th witch and maleficent were portrayed as the villain. Their main goal was to wreak havoc.  The prince was portrayed as the hero because in both Briar Rose and Sleeping Beauty he saves the princess. Fairy tales also contain the aspect of magic. In these stories we see witches, warlocks, fairies, goblins, dragons, and other magical and mystical beings. Lastly, fairy tales almost always have a moral. Morals teach lessons and also are very closely linked with the children that usually read fairy tales. Morals teach children how to overcome obstacles and they also present situations that are easy to relate to.