For Friday: Grimms’ Fairy Tales
Next Time: Rose-Bud, Snow-Drop, The
Elves and the Shoemaker, Hansel and Gretel, The Frog Prince, Rumpel-Stilts-Kin,
Ashputtel, The Young Giant and the Tailor
Answer
2 of the 4 questions that follow:
1. Discuss
how one of the stories differs from the Disney (or other) filmed version: what
aspects of the film/story were changed, edited, or expanded and why? What was considered too “dated” or culturally
confusing/irrelevant for American audiences?
2. How
are some of these stories revisions (or different versions) of stories we’ve
already read? Consider, perhaps, how the
“Elves and the Shoemaker” is a variation on “The Fisherman and His Wife”. Why are stories so often told and retold in
this collection?
3. Though
many of these tales concern magic and the power of supernatural beings, it is
always humans than succeed in the end.
According to one or more of these stories, how can a simple human defeat
a world of curses, spells, and transformation?
What ‘power’ do we have that many in the enchanted world do not?
4. Many
of these stories concern themselves with the concept of taboo, which are rules in society which cannot be broken. How might one or more of these stories
represent real world taboos which are translated into fairy tales for a younger
audience? Consider, perhaps, the story
of Rose-Bud or Rumpel-Stilts-Kin.
Cera Miller
ReplyDeleteQuestion 1.
There is a lot of repetitiveness these stories, especially Snow-Drop and Ashputtlel (Snow White and Cinderella). Three times the Evil Queen visits Snow-Drop and tries to kill her: first with lace, then a poisoned comb, and finally a poisoned apple. In the animated Disney movie, the Evil Queen disguised as an old hag, visits Snow White only once and gives her the poisoned apple. In part this was done to save time. Also, being tricked three times by the same person, and having the Seven Dwarves tell her repeatedly to not let anyone in the cottage, which she does anyway, makes Snow-drop seem not only naive, but a little stupid. Ashputtel is also cut down for time: Ashputtle must pick peas out of the ash twice, she visits the King’s festival three times, and the Prince tries the slipper on Ashputtle’s two step-sisters before her. This would have been really time consuming for Disney to do, and would have been tedious to watch.
Question 2.
Both these stories have a similar plot: a down and out couple is helped by a magical being and their lives are improved. This is where the similarity ends. In The Fisherman and His Wife, the nagging Isabel asks for too much and is never grateful for what she has. In the Elves and the Shoemaker, the Wife is very kind and wants to help the little Elves by giving them clothes, and while the Elves leave after getting the clothes, the Shoemaker and his Wife’s lives are infinitely better. These two stories are very similar, but the outcome is different, and it is different based on how the characters act. One wife is greedy and only asks for more, the other thankful and wants to help those that helped her and her husband. They are cautionary tales with the moral of the story being: Be thankful for your good fortunes and Stop while you are ahead.
Great responses...yes, the repetition wouldn't play too well in a film, but in the stories, it's always a crucial component (always in threes, as well). Besides being easy to memorize, why do you think this always occurs? Why is it a formula in almost every fairy tale? What role does repetition play in education? Is that why the morals are so easy to see--because of the repetition?
DeleteSrijita Ghosh
ReplyDelete1. Considering the story of Ashputtel to the disney version of Cinderella, better known as Cinderella ; the ultimate of fairy tales and who every little girl idolizes, there is actually a vast difference between the two. Though both teach that goodness will ultimately win over evil and villainy, there is a difference in perspective in the two versions. Throughout history Cinderella has typically been featured as the girl who obeys without complaining. She is characterized to be a perfect woman, both in purity and in beauty. Its ideals are straight and follow the moral idea of ordinary fairy tales: if one is pure and follows his or her conscience, one's dreams will eventually come true.
Disney sticks to the typical portrayal of Cinderella as the perfect woman. In the Disney movie, she plays a sweet, innocent girl with whom no one can find a fault. She accepts her circumstances, and makes the best of them, no matter how unfavorable. It is also suited to be more modern as the repetetiveness is cut off and a bit more of common sense is inserted into this fairy tale. Though magic still exists, it is shaped in a more believable manner in accordance to the modern audience. The Grimm brother's version is more raw and holds the essence of a classic fairy tale where the evil is bold and loud and one surely does not have trouble in recognizing its evilness.
2. I believe that many of the stories are revised and retold so that the reader understands the 'moral or message' of the stories better. For example in the Elves and the Shoemaker we see how gratitude, gratefulness and satisfaction at what you get is important and neccessary in order to be happy and remain so. The wife of the shoemaker could have wished for the elves to keep workkng for them and not shown any gratitude, but instead she chose to be grateful and satisfied at her good luck and gave the elves clothes and shoes in return. We see how the couple lived happily after that. So it is very important to remain grateful. The consequence of being otherwise is shown in the story -The fisherman and his Wife, where we see how the greedy and ungrateful nature of the wife Isabel leads to an unhappy and unwanted ending. She could never have enough and ultimately her greediness doomed her from being the pope to going back to live in the pigsty. These contrasting stories help us to clearly see the difference between good and bad and thus the morals are better understood.
Great responses...and yes, Ashputtel is, like Snow Drop, a young girl still close to Nature; it speaks to her and she listens to it (much better than Snop Drop, too). She's more resourceful in the original story and doesn't need a Fairy Godmother to help her (one could argue her REAL mother is the one helping her, even in death). If anything, this story suggests that evil will be punished even in death; the mother makes sure her daughter is taken care of, even if the father abandons her.
DeleteNathan Gilliam
ReplyDelete1. One of my favorite fairy tales is that of Snow White, in this case Snow Drop. Although this tale remains largely unchanged in it's Disney form there are a few subtle and a few not so subtle differences. One small change is the names given to the beloved dwarfs. Disney gives them the names Doc, Dopey, Bashful, Grumpy, Sleepy, Sneezy, Happy. this could be to help further give them endearing character, helping Children identify with them, and individualize them. Another difference, perhaps less subtle, is that the evil stepmother must return multiple times in the Grimm Brothers version, while in the Disney version she succeeds the first attempt. The third attempt in Grimms, and the first attempt in Disneys are done with the same tool, a poison apple. In Grimms original, the first attempt is with a Lace ware, I believe this was excluded because most people nowadays have no idea what Fine Wares are. The second attempt was with a poison comb, although combs are still used today, it wouldnt make much sense to include the second yet exclude the first. This also streamlined the movie, helping it progress quicker, while still keeping the core values in the original fairy tale.
4. Rose bud, which was interpreted by disney as sleeping beauty, is the story of a beautiful young princess born to a family that was unable to bear child for sometime. When there is not enough plates for all the fairies one is left out, she shows up late and angry and places a curse on her that she will die on her sixteenth birthday, another fairy is able to soften the curse making it 100 years of sleep, the entire castle is consumed and sleeps for one hundred years, on the final day a prince comes and kisses her just as she awakens. Perhaps this is a lesson in that we shouldn't exclude fairies from partys, or perhaps its deeper. Since the prince comes, and sees only the beauty as the overgrow pulls back into beautiful flowers and when the casttle awakens they are all ovrjoyed and consumed with the love of the prince and princess, one could argue this shows that love, no matter how long you must wait, conquers all.
Great responses, and as you suggest, some subtle things were changed to make the stories seem more modern or engaging, such as the names of the individual dwarfs. In the story, the dwarfs are simply symbolic of nature like the talking foxes and birds--they're not meant to be human, necessarily. Also, the repetition is removed, since that could grow tiresome in a film. Yet in the story it's important, for it shows the trickery and deceit of the real world, and how a driven purpose will stop at nothing to get his/her way. We also get the theme of the heroine not wanting to trust her inner voice (or the voice of the dwarfs) and instead relying on surface beauty.
DeleteChaz Sanders
ReplyDelete1) I think that the story that differed the most from the version I knew was Hansel and Gretel. I had never heard or read that version before, and I see why Disney has changed the story and dressed it up. It is outdated, and doesn't get the point across to kids as the Disney version does. I still think the message is the same, don't trust appearances. However, the story has been changed drastically to make it more appealing and interesting.
4) I think that most of these stories represent taboos or just some rules to live by that society has today. In Snow-drop, the message is you can't always be charitable and trusting because someone appears pitiable and harmless, they could be dangerous. The Elves and the Shoemaker, along with Hansel and Gretel, illustrate the concept of curiosity killed the cat. Both stories turn out well, but there are negative outcomes. Hansel gets wounded, and the Shoemaker loses his elves, even though all turned out well for him.
Good responses...why, though, is the Disney version more appealing/interesting? What parts of the tale were removed and changed? How might this change the original story? Are we sure it makes it better, or does it simply make it sound more "normal" to us?
DeleteI would like to meet with you tomorrow at 2:30 to recite the poem and turn in my paper.
ReplyDeleteAshley Rinner
No problem, I'll be in my office whenever you're ready (though I do have to leave at around 3).
Deletecedric sweet
ReplyDelete1) I think that the story that differs most from Disney is Ashputtel. In this story they definitely changed a lot of aspects. First of all, the step-sisters weren't ugly, they were fair in the face. In the Disney version they were ugly. They probably changed this so that way we would look at them more as the bad guys Another thing is that she didn't have a fairy godmother, it was a bird. I think they changed this for obvious reasons. It would probably be hard to explain how a bird is granting all these wishes to kids, and a fairy godmother seems more magical. In the story Cinderella went to the ball three times, unlike Disney's version. Finally, the step-sisters easily tricked the prince. He would have went on, none the wiser, if it wasn't for the bird.
2. I think that The Fisherman and His Wife and The Elves and the Shoemaker are different versions of each other. They're both couples who are also poor. In both stories it's the husband who stumbles across these magical beings and they offer to better his life. I think that these stories are retold because the moral of these stories are very important. The moral of The Fisherman and His Wife is don't be greedy; and The Elves and the Shoemaker's moral is be thankful for your good fortunes.
Great responses--especially about the prince; he's clearly not a discerning fellow, is he? One sister is the same as another to him (and didn't he dance with her--wouldn't he know the difference?!).
DeleteMadelyn Lehr
ReplyDelete1. 1. Probably the most well know story out of all of the Disney movies is the story of Cinderella. A girl is orphaned and her step mother and two very evil step sisters torture her. The story we read out of our books varies in many ways. The Disney version shows Cinderella being orphaned by both her parents but in the story we read only Ashputtels mother dies and her father kind of sides with his acquired family. She did not go and weep at her mothers grave but in the book she goes and mourns for her everyday. These are just a couple of the differences. I believe they took out the part that the father neglects his own daughter because we wouldn't want to show our children this at such a young age. Although parents neglecting their children is unfortunately not uncommon in this day and age. The second difference they changed is showing Cinderella going to her mothers grave every day like Ashputtel does. I think this was a good idea to take out because i think it would be quite morbid to show young children who are the main audience of these movies something so terrible.
2. The story of The Elves and the Shoemaker and The Fisherman and His wife have very similar lesson they are trying to teach us. The lessons I believe are very important and that is why they state these same lessons over and over again just in a new story. In the Fisherman and His Wife the woman sees and chance for change in there poor loves when her husband encounters a magical fish. Instead of being content with the simple cottage that is given to her she continues to as for more until there is no more to ask for. This is similar to The Elves and the Shoemaker this couple too lives poorly but the difference is that they are more thankful than the Fisherman and his wife. When they find the elves making the shoes they make clothes for them in return. I believe the lessons these stories try to tell us is that we should not be greedy but we should be happy with what we are given.
Great responses: these simple changes show how a story can remain the same but conform to our own time and place. And yet, these stories are all about children facing death and terrible fates, so softening the story does distance the reader from the reality of these stories. Though about fairies and magic, they're also about life and death--and all the terrible forces in-between.
DeleteDarryn York
ReplyDelete1. I think Disney dresses up these stories more for their audience than the original book stories. Some of these stories were originally for adult and what Disney does is make it more appealing for their audience and makes it more kid friendly. For example "Hansel and Gretel" the story is old, outdated and more adult friendly. All Disney did was make the story more appealing for their audience, but kept the original message in the process.
2. I believe old stories get revised for a number of reasons. For 1, some people change the story to give others a better more clear understanding of the important message that the story has. Also I think some people revise stories just to make it more entertaining and pleasing to the ear or eye.