COMPARING MODERN FAIRY TALES TO THE ORIGINAL VERSIONS
BY VINCENZO BIGATTINI

Fairy tales nowadays are used to highlight and visualize the differences between the time frame that the original fairy tales were written in and the time frame that Disney recreated these stories in. Fairy tales written in the past were usually much crueler than Disney’s versions today, and how the fairy tales were told reflected how the culture truly was. Nowadays, recreations of these fairy tales are much more mellow and pleasant; they are recreated to teach children a lesson and show kids an example and to show them the morality in every situation. Many plagues, torture, diseases, and cruelty resulted during the Middle Ages, when most of these fairy tales were first made, while Disney’s fairy tales were recreated to be less cruel and to teach the reader a lesson. Original fairy tales written in the Middle Ages, such as the Brothers Grimm version of Cinderella and Giambattista Basile’s Sun, Moon, and Talia, depict much more cruel and brutal times demonstrated through the themes, motifs, and the plot of the stories as opposed to modern recreations implemented by Disney for Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty.

The original fairy tales showed a much crueler and savage time than in the Disney fairy tales, such as in the fairy tale, Cinderella. The original Cinderella fairy tale was written by the Brothers Grimm; it showed a much more horrendous representation of the Middle Ages as opposed to the way Disney had represented its time through the fairy tales. Both stories had similar beginnings however; the protagonist, Cinderella, was forced to live with her stepmother and stepsisters after her father died. She was forced to practically be their slave and pick up on all of the chores needed to keep the house in order; one night, the prince, whom Cinderella had met already, invites everyone to the castle for a ball. However, Cinderella’s stepfamily locked Cinderella in the house after being informed of Cinderella’s wanting to be present. She was stuck there until she met a fairy; the fairy aided her in acquiring all that was necessary to fit in with all of the royalty that would be attending. At the ball, the prince wanted to marry her, however, she had to leave before he had the chance to marry her; the fairy’s spell with all of the gifts disappeared at a certain time, midnight. As she left, she lost her glass shoe; the prince was not able to locate his bride later, so he went around the kingdom as he made women try the shoe on to find his true bride.

The theme of sexism and hate was demonstrated throughout the original story, while Disney’s version showed an overall theme of learning and self-confidence. Motifs located throughout both tales helped to show these themes. Hate was shown through the actions of the stepfamily when they treated Cinderella as a slave and not as a member of the same family. The Brothers Grimm’s version of the fairy tale reflected a dysfunctional and brutal family dynamic such as:

They took away her beautiful clothes, dressed her in an old grey smock and gave her some wooden shoes... From morning until night she had to work hard. Every day, she got up before daybreak to carry water, start the fire, and wash... They ridiculed her and threw peas and lentils into the ashes so that she would have to sit down in the ashes and pick them out .

In Disney’s version, the motif repeatedly said and referenced to were the dying words of Cinderella’s mother in order to demonstrate and shape the themes. She said, “Have courage and be kind” to show Cinderella that self-confidence and self-belief was fully necessary to live a life that she wanted and would be happy with. Another motif was shown through her actions; she repeatedly showed kindness and respect and courage and this later helped highlight the themes to show that once she continually acted in such a manner, good things would happen to her. Acting in such a way highlighted the themes of learning and self-confidence.

Differences arise at this stage between these stories; in the Disney version, the prince goes around to attempt to find Cinderella, his bride, while he made women try the glass shoe. When he arrived at Cinderella’s home, she was locked in the attic and singing; the prince made the stepsisters try it on, and it did not fit either. However, he had heard Cinderella’s singing and decided to go get her; she fitted into the shoe and was taken to get married. The original version is quite ruthless, however; when the prince arrives at the house, he asked the stepsisters to try the glass shoe, and they both sacrificed parts of their bodies to fit it, their heels. They fit into the shoe, but doves came down to tell the prince that they were not the true brides. When he returned to the house, he demanded that Cinderella be brought down; she fitted the shoe and the stepfamily was enraged. Although the stepfamily had shown up to the marriage, it was not out of compassion; they wanted to share Cinderella’s fortune, and for this they were punished. The stepsisters had their eyes pecked out by the same doves that had informed the prince of the false brides as punishment. The author, Brothers Grimm, demonstrated this in vivid and merciless detail; “The doves pecked the other eye from each one. And so they were punished for their wickedness and malice with blindness for the rest of their lives.” (Grimm 122). This showed a much more inhumane and heartless depiction of time compared to the Disney fairy tale; society reflected was much more violent and filled with contempt. Society reflected by the Disney fairy tale shows a much calmer and moral society and culture than shown in the Brothers Grimm Cinderella. Another story that demonstrated an unpleasant and savage time was the fairy tale, Sun, Moon, and Talia, written by Giambattista Basile. Disney’s recreation was Sleeping Beauty and it was suited for a much calmer and relaxed time to teach some of the youth lessons. The overall theme in Sun, Moon, and Talia, written by Giambattista Basile, was much different than the theme demonstrated Disney’s Sleeping Beauty. The original fairy tale consisted of savage and offensive themes: rape and violence. However, the themes in the Sleeping Beauty differentiate drastically from the original fairy tale’s themes; the themes in this story were: that love will always win over everything and that good will always beat evil. These themes varied drastically from each other and revealed the true stories behind the stories that occurred in society. The motifs that defined the theme in the original fairy tale were: the act of rape while Talia is asleep and the wanting of the queen to repeatedly cause harm. The motifs that demonstrated the themes of love always winning and the good beating the evil were shown by the prince slaying Maleficent, the “Mistress of Evil”, in order to kiss the princess to love her forever and to revive her; this also shows the good, the prince, beating the evil, Maleficent.

The fairy tale, Sun, Moon, and Talia, showed a much different plot and action; this fairy tale involved a princess, Talia, being told her future by astrologers and wise men. Her future involved her dying from a splinter of flax; the King, her father, ordered that no flax or any similar seed be brought to their castle. However, she saw an old women spinning and so she was tempted to try. She did and got some flax under her nail. Consequently, she died, and subsequently, her father suffered from death after recently having set up an abandoned palace for Talia to rest in.

A king from another kingdom had been traveling and knocked at the abandoned house; nobody answered so he went in and explored it himself. He decided to have intercourse after seeing Talia lying dead on a bed. The author, Giambattista Basile, an Italian author, poet, courtier, and fairy tale collector, wrote in his fairy tale as the king had sexual intercourse with Talia: “...but since nothing he did or said brought her back to her senses, and being on fire with love, he carried her to a couch and, having gathered the fruits of love, left her lying there” (1). The king had been seduced into having intercourse with Talia in a perverse manner, while dead. He ended up leaving after having intercourse with seemingly no remorse in his actions. She gave birth to two children, Sun and Moon, while dead, and angels came so that they could give their mother’s breasts to grow. Once, while trying to find her nipples, they encountered her finger and suck, withdrawing the flax from under her nail; she woke up living soon after.

The king that impregnated her returned to hunt later; he promised to take Talia to his kingdom when he saw her again. When he returned to his kingdom, he could not stop talking about the princess, and the king’s wife found out about everything and was filled with contempt and jealousy. She ordered the children, Sun and Moon, to be brought to be cooked and fed to the king, but the cook felt bad and saved them. Then, thinking she had fed his children to the king, she ordered Talia to come; the queen was about to burn her when the king came and saved Talia. He had the queen and the helper burned; he was about to burn the cook, but he surrendered the children back to the king to prove his innocence. He married Talia and had a great life. The differences between this fairy tale and the original were that the princess fell into a deep sleep and was only awakened by a prince’s kiss without all of the violence and contempt. Sun, Moon, and Talia and Sleeping Beauty do demonstrate similarities; however, the original fairy tale illustrated a much more cruel representation of society. The original fairy tale, Sun, Moon, and Talia, showed a much more gruesome and violent time while the Sleeping Beauty used the plot to teach people a lesson while showing a much milder culture and society and left out all of the horrific details.

Fairy tales recreated by Disney show a much different, mellow, and calmer representation of society as opposed to the original fairy tales. The original fairy tales such as Giambattista Basile’s Sun, Moon, and Talia and The Brothers Grimm’s Cinderella, reflected a cruel and violent society that disregarded all respect for human dignity and life. These fairy tales were used to point out and represent the heartless society while the recreations, while they still reflected society nowadays, taught a lesson to the current day issues. The original fairy tales, written in the Middle Ages, such as Sun, Moon, and Talia and Cinderella, differentiated drastically from the modern recreations, Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella, through the demonstrated themes, motifs, and plot of the stories. These literary devices helped visualize and highlight the differences between society nowadays and society when the fairy tales were written; society demonstrated back then was shown to be much more savage and immoral compared to society today shown through the fairy tales.