After reading the numerous adaptations of Sleeping Beauty, I’ve become increasingly curious about how we could interpret Charles Perrault’s: The Sleeping Beauty in The Wood from a gender studies perspective.
Undoubtedly, the general theme of Sleeping Beauty has played into the nature of the female curiosity invoking disasters, such as The Little Mermaid wanting to explore new waters or Little Red Riding Hood taking a different path/playing along with the wolf. However, the most thought-provoking subject I would be interested in exploring is how the characters of the fairies highlight “appropriate” gender roles and conduct. More specifically, how the king exonerated responsibility in all of the adaptations for forgetting about the last fairy foreshadowing the curse on his only child. In Perrault’s telling of the tale, the older fairy was forgotten because she was never spotted leaving her tower, assumed to have died or been cursed(123).
The character of the older fairy should be considered a powerful and wise being, but she is old, without beauty, a social outcast, irrational, and non-confrontational.
Instead of the Grimm’s fairy that “cried out in a loud voice,” she “mutters threats” and curses the princess when her turn to bestow a gift arrives. The other fairies are humanized and domesticated and seem prone to childish competition. Furthermore, the gifts they give her make her suited for a construct of the perfect wife and woman at the time. Similar to what the little mermaid had, the fairies gave her beauty, the disposition of an angel, gracefulness, great dancing ability, and for her to sing like a nightingale.
It is up for debate why the “good” fairy in Perrault’s telling hid and waited for the older fairy to curse the child instead of calling her out, placing some protection magic, or simply just waiting behind her.
I really enjoy how you set up this blog post. It looks really aesthetically pleasing, and I like that you experimented with the layout and highlighted your main points in the boxes. I also really enjoy that you discussed the fairies here; that’s something I also thought about a lot when reading Sleeping Beauty. From a gender studies perspective, the focus in this story tends to be Sleeping Beauty herself, and for good reason, but a lot can be said about the fairies. They are the ones, after all, who made the whole thing happen the way it did. I find your analysis of the gifts from the fairies really interesting. I think a lot about how even the scorned fairy’s curse does not take away from any of the desirable wifely qualities given by the previous fairies. She does not make her ugly or clumsy etc. One could argue this is because of the catch that fairies cannot fully undo another fairy’s gift, but I think it’s more likely that making Sleeping Beauty undesirable as an object of male gaze would go against the story’s idea that a man’s objectification of a woman can “save” her.
To add, I think you could go into what you mean by nonconfrontational. I like that you compare the reactions of the Grimms fairy and the Perrault one, but nonconfrontational might not be the best word because I still see Perrault’s fairy as pretty confrontational. While she doesn’t yell, she still curses the child in front of everyone, trembling with “malice” (124). Both seem to lash out, but in different ways; I think you could go more into analyzing that.
I feel the same as Emily. The way you set up your blog post is visually appealing, and really utilizes the format to draw attention to your main ideas. I had not really thought about the fairies when we were discussing gender theory within the versions of Sleeping Beauty, so I find this application really interesting. I think the treatment of the older fairy is an intriguing aspect of the story to dive into (looking at your second highlighted block). I think expanding on this idea would have added even more to your piece.
Liz, I do love the way you organize your blog posts, with the image and the colorful text boxes. You make a good argument, that the majority of the fairies are reserved and subservient, whereas the old fairy who isn’t is considered a villain. This does reinforce stereotypical notions of femininity. I would love to see this idea expanded upon in greater detail, maybe in some other blog post.
Gender studies is one that I’ve little experience with, and it helps to see it applied, which you do very neatly here. The structure, as others have mentioned, of your post is particularly good–serving the analysis of Sleeping Beauty well. Personally, I find the fairies in Sleeping Beauty to be some of the most interesting characters as well, with the old fairy and young fairy of Perrault standing out the most. I think your comparison between the Perrault and Grimm versions is interesting, but you could be a little more clear on what such differences have to do with the primary thesis of an exploration of appropriate gender roles.
I really loved how you explained all this with specific examples from the text. Personally, I hadn’t really thought about the fairies when I was reading so seeing what you made of it is really interesting. I think maybe you could expand more when you say “nonconfrontational” and also “isolated” and go deeper within that and explain it. And I also love how you set up your posts, I’d love to know how you do them like this!