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Power, Totalitarianism and the Fairy Tale Ideal

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Power, Totalitarianism and the Fairy Tale Ideal The Horror Of "Happily Ever After": Power, Totalitarianism and the Fairy Tale Ideal Jeremy E. DeVito B.A., Mount Allison University, 1999 Thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts (English) Acadia Universiiy Fall Convocation 200 1 Q by Jeremy E. DeVito, 200 1 I, Jeremy E. DeVito, grant permission to the University Librarian at Acadia University to reproduce, loan, or distrubute copies of my thesis in microform, paper or electronic formats on a non-profit basis. I, however, retain the copyright in my thesis. Signature of Author Date Contents Abstract Key To Citations Acknowledgernents Introduction A Note on Michel Foucault and the Fairy Tale Ideal Chapter 1- Fairy Tale Crisis: Stepmothers, Spiinters and Peas (Oh My!) Flaws and imperfections (and the sleeping patterns of Princess's) Contlicting visions and fairy taie rivalry: a struggle for dominance Deviant invasion (or what happens when the wolves are not kept at bay) Food intentions and the failure to devour Chapter II - Fairy Tale Resolution: Destruction, Conformity, and Isolation "Little Red Riding Hood" and the fairy tale ideal AnnihiIating deviance: to devour and destroy Conforming deviance: the production of docile bodies Keeping deviance out: brick tvalls and locked doors .. '-Honibly Ever Afier" Chapter III - Fairy Tale Alternatives: Revisioning "Happily Ever After" (Re)visions of the tàiry tale ideal Equal time for differing points of view Anne Sexton's Transformations: an interrogation A different approach: resisting closure, finding fault with perfection The anti-fairy-tale Concl usion Works Cited Works Consulted Appendix: Famous Last Words Abstract While many various approaches have been taken to the study of fairy tales this thesis aims at introducing to the field an approach that has not been put to extensive use. In recent years, with the rïse of what is referred to under the umbrelia of "literary theory," fairy tales have been analyse& in depth, according to such theories as structuralism, psychoanalytic theory, Marxisrn and, most pervasively, feminism. What has not been attempted, on a large scale, is a post-stnichiralist approach to the genre. This thesis, in applying to fairy tales the theones and methodologies of Michel Foucault, takes just such an approach. In accordance with Foucault's particular brand of post-structuralism, the study at hand is concerned with the workings of power within the mica1 fairy tale and especially within the typical fairy tale "happily ever aftery' ending. When examined through such a template the utopian vision towards which the conventional fairy taie sîrives bccornzs one built [lot upon a foundation of absolute happiness or absolute çood, but upon onc of absolutc powcr. "Happily cvcr after" is, for al1 intcnts and purposcs, a totalitanan statr. It is achieved through total dominance and through the elimination of dissent so that, in the end, a single, total, order of things remain. In efTect, the fairy tale fantasy of perfect happiness is a reflection of the same "wdl to power" that (according to the theories of Foucault) forms our reality. Kev To Citations: A = cbAshputtle"(Brothers Grimm) BR = "Brier Rose" (Brothers Grimm) C = "Cinderella7' (Perrault) H&G = "Hansel and Gretel" (Brothers Grimm) J&B = "Jack and the Beanstalk" (Jacobs) LRC = "Little Red Cap" (Brothers Grimm) LRRH = "Little Red &ding Hood" (Perrault) P&P = "The Princess and the Pea" (Andersen) R = "Rurnpelstiltskin" (Brothers Grimm) SB = "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood" (Perrault) SLT = "Sole, Lune, E Talia" (Basile) SW = "Snow White" (Brothers Grimm) TLP = The Story of the Three Little Pigs" (Jacobs) Acknowledmnents First of al1 I would like to thank Dr. Andrea Schwenke Wyile for her supervision, her assistance, the use of her personal library and, most of all, for her continued encouragement. 1 must also express my gratitude to the entire English Department at Acadia, including the Graduate class (Hamid, Mike, fistina), as well as the English Department at Mount Allison, where 1 completed my undergraduate degree, and in particular to Dr. Deborah Wills for providing me with the background that made this project possible. 1 would also like to Say thank you to Martin Hallett for his book on Folk & Fuiry Tales and for his input in the final stages of this project, both of which have proved valuable. Finally, thank you to my family and fn'ends and, most importantly, to my wife, Natasha, for having lived through the experience of the past year with me and my obsession with other women (Little Red, Cinderella, Snow White, Bnar Rose and, as always, Alice, to name just a few). Introduction "...and they al1 lived happily ever after." Could we ask for a less problematic ending to a tale? 1 would suggest that we could - that, indeed, we should. In fact, wïthin the pages of this Masters Thesis 1 will argue that the "happily ever after7' conclusion so common to fairy and folk tales is, in many ways, the most problematic ending of all. This vision of a total happiness, it will be argued, cames with it the same troubles and terrors as do al1 totalitarian visions- As evidenced in such tales as "Snow White" or even "The Three Little Pigs," etemal happiness for one must usually be bought at high cost to another. Although such evidence rnay be dismissed (and has been for ages) as a simple example of justice in which the good are rewarded with good, the evil with evil, I believe it deserves a closer look. Hence, the main questions with which my thesis will be concerned are: "At what cost (fieedom? difference? pleasure? life?) is "happily ever after" to be achieved, and at what cost is it to be maintained?" Lying beneath my study are the powerhowledge theories of Michel Foucault. Therefore my focus is aimed at an attempt to locate the suppressed stoty within the story and to investigate the reasons for and methods of this suppression. In this I make no apologies for my biased assertion that fairy tales, like histories of war, are written from the perspective of the winners. Nevertheless, 1 have endeavoured to leave Foucault in the background of the body of the thesis. Rather than to relegate the primary texts that 1 am dealing with to the status of a being a starting point for a Foucauldian exercise, in the mode of many theory-oriented critics, I have attempted to put the fair tales up front. In an effort to make this possible, 1 begin my study with a bnef note achowledging Foucault and how his theories pertain to the study at hand, thereby Ieaving myself free to discuss the "happily ever afterYyideaI in Iight of the tales themselves. Said tales include various versions of "The Princess and the Pea," "Rurnplestiltskin," "Hansel and Gretel," "Sleeping Beauty." "Cinderella," "Snow White," "Little Red Riding Hood" "The Three Little Pigs" and, of course, "Jack and the Beanstalk." This selection of fairy tales is intentionally eclectic; the orïgins, styles, plots and settings of these narratives are various. What remains is their undying optimism - their focused drive towardç an ending that iç "happily ever afier," and al1 that this entails. Because these stories have been told, and retold, written and rewritten, in countless contexts, times, places and languages, much of the challenge in studying them has been in deciding upon authoritative versions of each. My solution to this problem is to focus, primarily, on those variants most comrnonly recognised by the general pubIic and viewed as being the "originals" (in written form) such as those of the Brothers Grimm and Charles Perrault. 1 operate under the assurnption that regardiess of which version of a story is used (with the exception of those which are intentionally parodic or subversive, as are the tales 1 deal with in my final chapter), the same basic themes, and thus the same basic problems, hold. The thesis itself consists of three chôpters. Within rny first chapter 1 explore the origin of crisis within fairytaies. In doing so 1 suggest that the basic crisis within al1 of these stories is more or Iess the same and arises out of a drive towards the standard fairy tale vision of a perfect existence. Although some tales begin with an idyllic setting which is later lost and others begin in an already imperfect world, the complication in either case arises not so much out of an impending danger but rather out of a perceived imperfection (or, more accurately, a deviation), be it large or tediously srnall, that stands in the way of the establishment or re-establishment of a perfectly unified and thus, "happy," non- deviant realm. For example, while it would be difftcult to argue that having a stepmother bent on one's death is not an impending danger, 1 would propose that the real problem with the stepmother, and the reason she is a recurrïng character within folktaledom, is that she can never achieve the perfection of mother. A stepmother has no more business in the perfect life of a pnncess than does a pea in her twenty-feather-rnattressed bed. Likewise the case against the Big Bad Wolf is that his interests are contrary to those of ow protagonists, be they The Three Little Pigs or Little Red Riding Hood, and therefore threaten their idyllic lives. On the other han4 as 1 will demonstrate, oftentimes it is the hero/ine of a given tale who fills the role of deviant and, therefore, is responsible for the conflict that arises. Fairy tale crisis, thus, does not aise out of a conflict between good and evil but out of the mere existence of anything mnning counter to a single, absolute order, anything representing a break in a prevailing image of total perfection and happiness.
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