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. In any case, a solution to the existence of such deviant bodies, such different

points of view, must be found.

This solution is the focus of my second chapter. It is in working towards the

"happily ever after" and maintaining it that the totalitarian aspect of the fairy tale vision is

made most evident. In keeping with Foucault's theones of deviance and control, the antagonist in the story must be not only defeated, but also annihilated. The dissenting voice, and any threat that accompanies it, is obliterated once and for all. Such action must

usually corne about through the protagonist's newfound alivent with power (often achieved in a marriage to royalty). Even in kinder, fiendlier versions of such tales the antagonist must be transformed (Le. Cinderella's wicked stepsisters recognize her beauty and have a change of heart), thus doing away with the dissenting voice, if not its vesse!.

Another way of achieving the fairy tale ideal can be seen in the gamson mentality of the third little pig in his attempt to put up walls, thereby locking deviance out. Of course, the main problem with the perfect fairy tale existence is not in achieving it, but in maintaining it. Hence, the storyteller's habit of maliing a quick exit as soon as total happiness is reached. Therefore, some reading "beyond the ending" will be required in order to interrogate the more lasting effects and implications of the "happily ever after" ending.

Finally, my third chapter focuses on those who have read beyond the ending and have decided that, perhaps, the static, uncompromising world of the "happily ever after" is not so happy after all. There has been a long tradition of cynicism towards the traditional vision of the fairytaie, which has resulted in both a new type of tale (as told by

Lewis Carroll among others) and the satirïcal rewritings of older fairytales (as told by such writers as The Merseyside Fairy Story Collective, Angela Carter, and Anne Seston, to name a few). In contemplating such texts, I have made a distinction between those that offer a cynical critique, and those that offer an alternative mode, a solution to the problem of the typical fairy tale resolution. After aI1, if "happily ever afier" is no way to end a story, what is? A Note on Michel Foucault and the Fairv Tale Ideal

It wouid seem that for many fairy tales the striving towards an uItimate and total happiness, is the main force driving and directing the narrative. Nevertheless, many critics of the genre have questioned the legitirnacy of the vision of perfect existence as it is presented wlthin fairy tales. These critics suggest that, if we dig a little deeper, we will discover that the ideals presented within many fairy tales are not so ideal, the "happily ever afier" not so happy. As a case in point, such critics as Jack Zipes and Mana Tatar have passed judgment on the Grimms' "Cinderella" suggesting that, because the heroine of the story %ke so many of the Grimm heroi~es"is a passive figure who "gets her man through a combination of hard domestic labor and supematurally enhanced beauty," the story, far frorn being a woman's fantasy, "is an insuIt to women" (de Vos & Altmann

50,51). Implied in this critique, and those like it, is the suggestion that the problematic within fairy tales anses out of a wong-minded vision of what constitutes ideal and perfect happiness. This study aims to take a different approach in proposing that the problematic within the fairy tale arises out of the very fact that it /?as a vision cf perfection. In short, the problematic within the fairy tale is to be found in its veiy striving towards the non-problematic. In taking such an approach the theories and methodology of

Michel Foucault must be acknowledged as providing a foundation for this study. 1 would stiggest that the will to happiness is - as Foucault suggests is the case wïth the will to mith - directly related to a will to power. Thus, the striving towards a vision of [oral happiness, within the fairy tale or within the society it informs and out of which it originates is, according to a Foucauldian analysis, a striving towards rural power. While Foucault's research and analyses have touched upon a variety of topics

(sexuality, madness, and institutions such as prisons and hospitals, to name a few) and has spamed several disciplines, his primary focus has remained consistent. He is interested in the workings of power. For Foucault, though, power is not simply that which is exercised by powerful individuals and institutions; rather, it is what pervades, orders and defines every facet of society. The actions, words, and even the thouçhts and beliefs of the individual (as well as the collective) are governed by a "will to power." Thus, as Foucault puts it, we must "base Our analysis of power on the study of the techniques and tactics of domination" (Power Kmwletige 102).

It must be granted, at this point, that such an analysis of the fairy tale might seem to be sornewhat out of touch wïth the spirit of the genre. Foucault's interest is in historical figures and events, in political systerns and institutions; his concern is with human realities- The fairy tale world, on the other hand, is decidedly unreal. It is the realm of fantasy. There is aha certain utopian aspect to the standard fairy tale "happily ever after" vision, although this vision is typically one concerning the achievernent of a perfect persona1 existence, rather than that of a pcrfect society. Moreover, this fairy tale vision is utopian both in the sense of the word "utopia" meaning an ideal or "nice place" (fiorn the

Latin, "eutopia") and that meaning another or "no place" (fiom the Greek, "outopia")

(Strode's "Utopianism / Utopian Socialism"). Fairy taIes are typically told and received with the realization that what is being shared is a dream, never to be realized in everyday existence. Hence, it might be argued that, so far as the fairy tale is concerned, the

"techniques and tactics of domination" in which Foucault is interested do not come into play. The fairy tale realm is ideal precisely because it is the realm of fantasy. If fairy tales are fantasies, however, they are our fantasies. They originate out of

the hopes and drearns of real people. Although they do not describe reality as we how it,

they do paint a portrait of reality as many would most desire it to be. It is for this reason

that the theones of such social critics as Foucault are relevant even to the most

consciously fictional realrn of the fairy tale. Just as such methodology works to suggest

that the physical human world is stnicturzd by power and power relations, so too does it

work to suçgest that even our dreams of a better life have much to do 14th the innate

(according to Foucault) human desire for power and dominance.

This, then, changes the focus somewhat with regard to how we read fairy tales and especially the "happily ever after" ending common to so many fairy tales. Essentially, what takes place cannot be viewed simply as the protagonist's fortunate escape frorn tyrannical power. Instead, the personal utopia reached in the conclusion to the traditional fairy taIe is the end result of the protagonist's having achieved or become aligned with a dominant power. Thus, in the case of such a heroine as Snow White it is significant that not only does she escape the power and royal authority of her stepmother, the Queen, who wouId put her to death, but she also achieves this self same power and royal authority in marrying the Prince. Moreover, it must be noted that, read in this light, the motives of the conventional fairy tale hero/ine and those of the conventional fairy tale villain becorne one and the same. Each is stnrggIing to achieve or to maintain a dominant position. In such an analysis of the fairy tale, and in keeping with the methodology of Foucault, what becomes important is not who succeeds, but how and to what extent this success takes place. Key to this methodoIogy is Foucault's emphasis on the relationship between power and knowledge. For Foucault power and knowledge are built upon one another; that is to Say, power is created and sustained through knowledge, wkch is, likewise, created and sustained through power. Simply put, howledge (or tnith) is a construct; it is not something that is discovered; it is produced. More importantly, it is a tactic of domination. The will to power mut also contain within it the wi11 to truth in that "[wle are subjected to the production of truth tfirough power and we cannot exercise power except through the production of tmth" (Power Knowledge 93). Hence, such concepts as good and evil, in so much as they are related to (byproducts of) this "truth," become problematic. It is power that detennines, and estabiishes for its own purposes, what is

"good." Within this context it becomes quite inadequate to examine fairy tales in relation to a standard dualistic mode1 of good versus evil in which good eventually wins out, gaining power over evil. In like manner, it is inadequate to debate the n'ghtness of the ideals (the perspective of what is good) being presented. Rather, what becomes significant is the examination of how concepts of what is good and tnie corne to be established. Further, it may be noted that the very idea of what constitutes happiness is also a product of power/knowledge. Just as 'the question 'what is power?' is, for

[Foucault], secondary to the question 'how is power exercised?"' (Cousins 227), the standard question in relation to fairy tale critique, "what constitutes ideal happiness?" must, in like manner, become secondary to the question, "how is ideal happiness constituted?"

In effect, it is the establishment of what is right and true (a proper order of things) that constitutes the fairy tale happy ending. In light of the theories of Foucault, however, right and true are conditions of discourse or, more specifically, are defined for most by an

existing dominant discourse. Therefore, the study that is important to Foucault, and to this

examination of the fairy tale, is one of discourse; its focus concerns the location and

identification of different discourses and an analysis of the mechanisrm that bring a

particular discourse to dominance. It must be noted that the term "discourse" here does

not refer simply to spoken or written foms of communication. Rather, it refers to

discourse as the articulation of power in word as well as act, and also in more subtle

foms such as surveillance and the threat of surveillance or even the implied disapproval

or ridicule expressed through a simple facial gesture. Foucault makes it clear within the

pages of his influential work, Discipime und Ymislz: The Birlh of' fhe Prison, that

individual human beings and bodies are not simply the subjects of power, but are also the

agents, whether willingly or not, of its articulation. As Foucault presents it, acts of

punishment, such as torture or execution, consist of something more than the simple exercise of power upon the body of the condemned; they also work to establish and articulate power [and tnith) thouglz the body of the condernned- Hence, the torture and execution of a condemned man, within a traditional monarchy and according to the demands of the Crown, works to articulate at once the "surplus power" of the king, as well as "the 'Iack of power' with which those subjected to punishment are rnarked

(Foucault Discipline und Punislz 29). In short, the individual body, even (or especially) in its most passive or seemingly powerless mode, becomes an intinsic aspect of the dominant power discome that exists. What is right and true, then, actually cornes to be established and articulated by power as it is exercised upon even the involuntary individual - the individual who would prefer not to participate in the dominant discourse at hand.

Of course, such an analysis of crime and punishment has profow.0 ramifications when applied to our reading of fairy tales. Indeed, Discipline and Punish begins in much the same manner as many fairy tales end. The villain, in this case being "Damiens the regicide," is condemned, among other things, to having the flesh tom fiom his body "with red-hot pincers [.. . ] and then his body drawn and quartered" and finally "consurned by fire, reduced to ashes and his ashes thrown to the wind" (Foucault Discipline and Punish

3). Several well recognized fairy tale villains (the Wolf of "Little Red Riding Hood"

Snow White's stepmothedqueen, or Rurnpelstiltskin, to name a few) suffer similar fates as the impiied consequence of their evil behavior. However, in conducting a discursive analysis of such events it becomes imperative to recognize the fact that such punishments work not simply to correct or eliminate villainy; they also work to define villainy as such.

Thus, the ideal situation, the "happily ever afieryyending we are left with, is defined and articulated as such in its very being established. The dominant discourse, in becorning dominant, also becomes the ideal.

This said it must be recognized that, within the theories of Foucault, the dominant discourse is not the only discourse to exist. There ahexist alternative discourses of deviance, which are suggested and represented by deviant bodies (those which do not conform to or act in accordance with the dominant discourse). Moreover, these alternative discourses are also born of pocver and therefore pose a threat to the power, or discourse, which dominates. In fact, there is always the possibility of upset, the possibility that deviance and dissent will win out and overthrow (and even replace) this dominant discourse. By and large, it is this possibility that drives the action (fiom both

sides) of most fairy tales. A most illustrative example of this is to be found in the story of

"Snow White." The motives of the villain stepmother in her attempts on Snow White's

life are clearly laid out; she is making an effort to secure her position of dominance as the

"fairest in the land." Further, Snow White's dominant position onIy cornes to be secured in the eventual death of the Queen- Therefore, the conflict that exists within such fairy tales need not be analyzed as being one between good and evil as it is, firs: and foremost, one between conflicting discourses as each strives towards dominance of the other.

With this in mind it must be acknowledged that, throughout the main body of most fairy tales, total domination does not take place. (A powerful wolf may blow down a house and eat a pig, but a dever pig may build a house that cannot be blown down, in spite of extensive huffing and puffiing.) Nevertheless, it is toward this end of total domination that the typical fairy tale is implicitly working in its striving toward a

"happily ever afier" conclusion. Some factors help to blur this fact somewhat. There is, for instance, much shifting of places within fairy tales; as situations change, characters change position in relation to the several dominant discourses that anse. Thus, the position of Snow White's stepmother shifts within the course of the tale from one of power and dominance, as Queen, to one of deviance, as an enemy to the neiv Prince's

Bride, Snow White. In this she is transforrned from one who seeks to suppress and destroy the threat to her dominant power into one who must be destroyed as a threat to the newly established dominance of her stepdaughter. Fairy tales also tend to invite sympathy for the particular character that conforms to the dominant discourse of the society out of which the tale was written (hence the patriarchal overtones). It is through this sympathy that the ~roublesonzeprospect of total dominance, for which the fairy tale villain strives,

comes to be seen as being an ideal conclusion when finally achieved by the hero/ine at

the er,d of the tale.

Contrarily, in applying the theories of Foucault, the ''happily ever afier" ending

may be viewed as being far more troublesome, more horrïfic even, than is any striving

towards domination on the part of the villain of the fairy tale. It is, after all, only in the

fairy tale ending that totality is ultimately achieved. In this it rnust be noted that the fairy

tale differs quite significantly fiom the vision of society presented by Foucault. Tndeed,

Foucault's methodology operates under the assumption that the dominant discourse is

never totally and completely dominant, that totality is never attained; dissenting

discourses and deviant bodies always exist (although they are often suppressed) to pose a

chaIlenge to, and create cracks in, the dominant discourse at hand. In fact, much of

Foucault's study is focused upon the location and articulation of such suppressed

alternative discourses. Eowever, the fantasy of the fziry tale allows for, or more precisely

demands, what even the most totalitarian forces of reality can only dream of - the

successful and total eradication of al1 dissent.

Of course, it must also be noted that such eradication of dissent is often accomplished in ways other than the destruction or annihilation of deviant bodies. Rather,

in keeping with the observations of Foucault, dissent is often dealt with through the production of docile bodies. Ln other words, the deviant individual, through the mechanisms of powerhowledge, is not destroyed by the dominant discourse but is made to conform to it. Read in this light, kinder, gentler versions of fairy tales, in which villains reform and participate in the ideal world that comes to be established, are not essentially much different from those in which the villain is made to sufFer a horrible death. In effect,

Charles Perrault's "Little Red Riding Hood," in concluding with Riding Hood's being

devoured by the wolf as an implied consequence of her having deviated from her path "to

talk to strangers" (Perrault "Little Red Riding Hood" 27), contains rnuch the same result

as does the Grimm version of the tale, "Little Red Cap," which ends with the

protagonist's vow never again to "leave the path and mn off into the wood when rny

mother telis me not tom (Grimm "Little Red Cap" 30). While the latter may seem less

troublesome (and more typical of the fairy tale "happily ever after" ending) than the

former, both tales reach conclusion in the elimination of dissent, one through the

annihilation of the deviant body, the other through its reform. In fact, Foucault would

seem to suggest, within the pages of Discipline & Punislz, that the latter method of

dealing with deviance through discipline and reform is sornehow more troublesome, more

sinister even, than the former method of punishment and execution. Whereas physical

punishrnent and execution display the exercise of power upon the body, the mechanisms

of discipline and reform work ~4ththe intention of exercising power on "the sou17'

(Foucault Discipline Q Punish 16). Needless to Say, this does not make tomre and death,

within fairy tales any more than within Me, more desirable or more readily accepted than

discipline and reform. As Mark Cousins points out, "we would prefer to go to prison than

to be tom limb from limb" (4). Nevertheless, in either case the finai goal is totality, the

complete elimination and annihilation of dissenting discourses - a goal which, when achieved within the fairy tale, results in a "happily ever after" ending.

Further, it is this goal that brings about the conflict and complication at the begiming of most fairy tales. Many fairy tales begin within a realm of near totality, in which a dominant discourse seems to prevail until something or someone enters into the picture to threaten this totality. However, from one tale to the next such totality takes on very different foms so that it may not always be viewed as carrying the fairy tale vision of perfect existence. While many readers may be inclined to view the peaceable kingdom witnessed at the beginning of the Grimms' "Brier Rose" as being an ideal setting and situation, few would be inclined to view the Ogre's kingdom in the clouds, at the beçiming of Joseph Jacobs' "Jack and the Beanstalk," in the same way. Yet, the two are quite similar in that each presents a world in cvhich one vision prevails and dominates al1 others. Moreover, each of these worlds comes to be threatened by an intruder wïth conflicting interests to those of this dominant vision. Simply put, Jack's roIe is much the sarne as that of the thirteenth fairy; both are deviant bodies and, as such, both threaten the order of things as they exist. These and other fairy tales, however, develop and conclude quite differently. Whereas some end, as does "Brier Rose," with the total restoration of the original dominant power, others, such as "Jack and the Beanstalk," end tvith the total overthrow and replacement of the original with a new dominant power. Yet, in either instance, the action of the tale is brought about through an attempt at the elhination of a perceived threat to the dominant order of things.

Further, since the "happily ever after" vision is one of total happiness, it requires not just dominance, but fotal dominance. Therefore, aï- imperfection or inconsistency in the vision, no rnatter how small, comes to be perceived as a threat that must be eliminated. All that is required to shatter the perfect world being sought within the fairy tale is for a princess to prick her finger on a spinning wheel or for a Queen to be only the second "fairest in the land." Hence, al1 spinning wheels must be bumed, al! "budding beauties" assassinated in an ettort to sustain total pert'ection and happiness. Through

such incidents we are given a vision of what the eventual "happily ever afiery' of the fairy

tale implies and are Ieft to consider an issue concerning the "will to power" not directly

addressed by the theones of Foucault. To cl&&, the ultimate total success of this "\vil1 to

power," the establishment of perfect and absolute dominance (a mere hypothetical goal

within the case studies of Foucault, but an achieved "reality" within the fairy tale),

presents a horrific situation for al1 involved. Mile those existing outside the dominant

discourse sufTer annihilation, those who are aligned with the dominant discourse must

exisé in a constant state of fear, always on the lookout for even the smallest hint of a

threat to the perfect world that has been established. Simply put, "happily ever after"

exists always on the brink of disaster in that it is shattered by what would be, under less

total circumstances, even the slightest flaw or difference, even the most insignificant sign

of dissent or deviance.

In the final analysis, then, the significant dualistic battle that takes place within the

fairy tale is not one pitting good a~ainstevil so much as it is one pitting totality açainst

difference, or dominant power discourses against deviant power discourses. Hence, the

theones of Foucault become intrinsicalIy irnportmt in informing the study at hand. In

effect, the following exploration attempts to follow the methodology of Foucault in

making a case study of the fictional world of the fairy tale that is somewhat akin to those

conducted by Foucault upon historical periods and institutions. The aim is not to moralize

the standard vision of the fairy tale, but to analyze it. The analysis is not one concemed with good and evil, but with the workings of power and with tactics of dominance. It inust be granted that any such analysis (includinç those conducted by Foucault) will contain an implied critique. Nevertheless, this critique is different than most in that it is not directed towards the vision of "happily ever after" that is presented, but towards the totality of that vision and the very implications of such a striving toward totality. At issue is the fairy tale ideal of a perfect existence which, in its will to rotal happiness, seeks total dominance - the complete and absolute eradication of dissent through the annihilation of deviant bodies and/or the praduction of conforming, docile bodies. Chapter I - Fairy Tale Crisis:

Stepmothers, Splinters and Peas (Oh My!) While the focus of this thesis is upon the implications of totality within the typical fairy tale "happilgr ever afier7' resolution, the best place to begin such an analysis is, perhaps, in starting out by taking a look ai what constitutes fairy tale conflict and cnsis.

In defining just what it is that fairy tales strive toward, it would be helpful to work first toward a definition of what, exactly, it is that fairy tales strive against. On the surface this would seem a daunting task. From one fairy tale to another, fairy tale crisis onanates out of a wide variety of sources. Villains include wolves, witches, giants, ogres, and wicked stepmothers, to name but a few. Heroes and heroines are subjected to various penls and hardships, from the threat of pncking one's finger to the threat of being killed and even eaten, from the dire conditions of extreme poverty to those of unjust oppression and forced servitude. In short, fairy tale worlds offer their characters a wide range of seemingly different complications to be overcome in the pursuit of security and happiness. These complications, though, have more in common than rnay be apparent through a casual reading. Within the typical fairy tale, al1 complications, be they large or small, represent not simply a threat to the happiness of the protagonist but also, and more imporiantly, a threat to totality. Crisis finds its root in any factor (human, animal, object or discourse) that deviates from or does not coincide with a single, total order of things.

Fairy tale crisis speaks of imperfection and dissent, a lack of totality. What is being fought against is nothing so tangible as a wolf or a witch, nothing so immediate as the threat of death or the conditions of poverty; what is being fought against is any factor or discourse that may be regarded as running counter to a total prevailing vision. The resulting struggle is not one of good and evil, but one for absolute power - the power to define, control and prescribe a specific vision of a perfect world. Many critics, and especially those with feminist or Manrist leanings have taken up

the issue of power relations within fairy tales. Ln doing so, however, they often base their

critique on the assurnption that the traditional tale perpetuates and promotes a decidedly

right wing, conservative, ideology that is based upon patriarchal, colonial and even

capitalistic values. Where many feminists argue that "[tlhe passive and pretty heroines

who dominate popular fairy tales offer narrow and damaging role models for young

readers" (Stone 229), many Marxist critics have worked to "demonstrate how the

transformation of the tales and their employment have been ideologically detemined to

legitimate the interests of capitalist societies" (Zipes Marxists ... 239). Indeed, such

conservative ideology may be detected, to various degrees, within most popular fais.

tales. Nevertheless, a wide survey would seem to suggest that the fairy tale also carries an

even more pervasive ideology of its very own. Fairy tale ideology is one based upon the

valuing of perfection and the implied desirability of persona1 utopia. Although it often is,

the "happily ever after" vision of the fairy tale need not necessarily be built upon

conservative and patiarchal ideals; what is important to faiiy tale ideology is the ideal of

the absolute. Fairy tales in general tend to promote not so much a specific brand of

perfection, as perfection itself

Flaws and imperfections (and the sleeping patterns of Princesses)

It might be said that the fairy tale genre is one obsessed with perfection. While fairy tale characters are ofien seen to combat extreme danger and hardship in pursuit of securie and happiness, they are equally as ofien seen to do battle against any flaw in existence, regardless of how seemingly insignificant it may be. Within the world of the

fairy tale, relative peace is not an option and neither is relative pleasure. Resolution may

only be achieved through perfection. Hence, even the slightest imperfection amounts to a

cnsis (sometimes large, sometimes srnal!, but always significant) that can be resolved

only through the elimination of the flaw. In no other narrative genre "does the tiny

imperfection stand in such clear contrast to perfection as in the fairytale, for in no place

else is perfection pushed so far, made so clearly visible, striven for with such various means as in the fairytale" (Luthi Fairylale As Art Fo m...59). In accordance with fairy tale ideology, so long as imperfection exists, life remains unsatisfactory. Although this actuahy is more readily observable in some than it is in others, it is true of most traditional fairy tales.

Hans Christian Anderson's short tale of "The Pnncess And The Pea" serves as a bratant - and perhaps even self-cor~scious- illustration of the fairy tale concern with perfection. In the real world, or in practically any other genre of fiction, for that matter,

''twenîy mattresses" topped with "twenty eider-down beds" (P&P 26), would more than compensate for the presence of a single pea beneath the heap, be the slumbering subject a

Princess or no. Only in the world of the fairy taie would this most insignificant flaw be enough to cancel out ail else so that the Pnncess, having spent the night on the bed, claims not only that she has been unable to sleep, but even goes so far as to declare "1 was lying on something hard, so that I am black and blue al1 over my body. It's horrible!"

(P&P 26). As outlandish as her reaction rnay seem, it is through her response to imperfkction that the Pnncess passes the test, for "nobody but a real princess could be as sensitive as that" (P&P 26). What we see here is, surely, an example of what Martin Hallett describes as Andersen's ambivalent attitude concerning royalty: "he is tom between mockery and admiration, dismissiveness and envy - a conflict of feeling that emerges unmistakably in many of his tales'' ( 150).

At the sarne time, the sheer outlandishness of the test itself, as weI1 as its udikely result, would seem to suggest that Andersen is also making a self-conscious comment on fairy tale idedogy (which is, in many ways, not far removed from that of monarchical society). "The Princess and the Pea" could even be read as a meta-fairy tale of sorts in that, through the use of blatant exagseration, it exposes and reflects upon the totality of the fairy tale demand for perfection. Andersen's tale would seem to go out of its way to awaken its readers to the fact that, within the realm of the fairy tale, as within the realm of royalty, anything less than total perfection is unsatisfactow, regardless of how ovenvhelmingly the positives outweigh the negatives.

Although it is generally presented in a somewhat subtler and less self-conscious manner, this implied dissatisfaction with anything Iess than total perfection is evident within most popular fairy tales. The several versions of the "Sleeping Beauty" tale, for example, display the perfection motif to a point of near obsession. Both Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm open their versions of the tale (respectively, "The Sleeping

Beauty In The Wood" & "Brier Rose") with what would seem to be the culmination of a perfect fairy tale kingdom in the much sought after birth of a princess. Having "visited al1 the clinics, al1 the specialists, made holy vows, gone on pilgrimages and said their prayers regularly," Perrault's royal couple is described as being "wild with jofY at their eventual success in having a daughter (SB 40). Pnor to this development they had been "bitterly unhappy because they did not have any children'' (SB 40). Despite their royal positions and regardless of their having already achieved the ultimate fairy tale goal of mamage, the existence of the King and Queen remains imperfect, and therefore unsatisfactory in fairy tale terrns, until the birth of their chiId. Likewise, the royal couple of the Brothers

Grimm seem to regard their initial inability to procreate as the only thing separating them from perfect bliss as they declare "day after day: 'Ah, if only we had a child!"' (BR 48).

Also like Perrault, the Brothers Grimm make short work of bringing this about so that, for a short time at least, a utopian vision is established in the successful completion of a perfect royal famiiy.

In each case, however, this vision is threatened and shattered by the introduction of a senes of flaws into the perfect world that exists. The pattern of disrupted perfection begins at the feast or christening that takes place in celebration of the child's birth.

Although Perrau1t7sKing invites "seven suitabIe fairies" (SB 40) to the event, an eighth attends unexpectedly. Likewise, in the Gnmms7tale a thirteenth Wise Woman attends the feast to which the King has invited only twelve (BR 48). These nurnbers are significant in that both the number seven and the number twelve, within the JudeoIChristian culture out of which these tales originate, imply perfection and completion (seven being the number of days referred to in the creation myth, twelve being the number of the tribes of Israel and of the apostles of Christ). Before these additional guests have done or said anything, they already represent imperfection an4 therefore, fairy tale crisis; in her very presence each undermines the totality that has been established by transforming the symbolically perfect and total seven into an imperfect eight, the perfect and total hvelve into an irnperfect thirteen. Yet, the nature of the imperfection introduced through these characters is not

merely symbolic. They also dismpt the vision of perfection at hand through the vengeful

"gifs" which they give to the Princess. Their counterparts (the invited seven and twelve),

as agents of perfection, bestow upon the princess mystical gifts of perfection. In doing so,

Perrault's faines, by offering unmatchec! beauty, "the disposition of an angel," the grace

of "a gazelle," and the abilities to dance, sing and play "any kind of musical instrument

that she wanted to" (SB 41), seek to make of the child a perfect Princess. The Wise

Women of the Brothers Grimm, in offering "virtue," "beauty," "wealth," and "everflhing a person could wish for in this world" (BR 48)' seek to make for the child a perfect,

"happily ever after," existence. Once again, however, the imperfect eighth or thirteenth guest manages to shatter this vision, not by taking away from it, but simply by adding to it a fiaw in the form of a curse upon the Princess so that in adolescence she will "prick her finger" on a spindle and die (SB 41 & BR 48). Although the curse is softened sornewhat, in both instances, by another fairy or Wise Woman, the death being replaced by a one hundred years' sleep, it still serves to introduce imperfection into the Princess's perfect world, thus bringing about a collapse of her fairy tale existence.

Regardless, an effort is made on the part of the dominant power, the King, to maintain a utopian existence for his daughter as he attempts to rïd the kingdom of spindles, the object of the curse. It is in this that the implications of the fairy tale goal of perfection become most evident. Of the greatest significance, perhaps, is the seeming insignificance of the perceived threat. In order for utopia to be maintained for his daughter, the King must somehow ensure that she does not suffer what would othenvise be considered the smallest of possible hams, a prick on the finger. Through this we are presented, as we are in Andersen's tale of "The Princess and the Pea," with a glimpse of the totality required in sustaining perfect happiness. Most disturbing, though, are the

King's methods of ensuring this totality. While in the Grimm version of the tale the King sen& "out an order that every spindle in the whole kingdom should be destroyed (BR

49), Perrault's King goes one step fùrther in forbidding "the use of a spindle, or even the possession of one, on pain of deatlr" (SB 4 1 [italics mine]). Simply put, in his efforts to preserve fairy tale vision the King becomes n tyrant. As the King attempts to remove from the kingdom al1 threats to the total and perfect, yet fragile, happiness of his daughter, the kingdorn becomes a totalitarian realm where the most extreme of measures corne to be the prescribed remedy in the elimination of what would seem even the most insignificant of flaws-

An earlier version of the tale, as told by Giambattista Basile, entitled "Sole, Lune,

E Tale" (or "Sun, Moon and Talia"), sheds further light on the fais. tale ideoiogy of perfection. In this version the Princess7s fate cornes to be known not through a curse but through a prophesy as the wise men and seers of the kingdorn, in foretelling the

Princess's future, come "to the conclusion that she would be exposed to a great danger from a small splinter in some flax" (SLT 36). Imperfection, in this instance, has no root in the evil intentions of an eighth or thirteenth guest- Rather, the only threat to happinrss, the only flaw in the existing totality as it were, is the splinter itself. Once again, the King attempts to eliminate this threat by forbidding that "flax or hemp or any other similar material should ever come into his house" (SLT 36). Nevertheless, as is the case in the tale as told by Perrault and by the Grimms, this attempt proves futile; the Princess eventually cornes in contact with some hernp and, a splinter having been lodged under her fingernail, "immediately fell dead upon the ground (SLT 36).

It might even be suggested that, within Basile's version of the taIe, Talia (or the

Sleeping Beauty) herseif becomes a personification of the fairy tale ideal. Like the perfect world of fairy tale ideology, Talia's body, having been invaded by the slightest of flaws, sufTers collapse. Further, it must be noted that, within this tale, the Princess is revived, the ideal body restored to life, when one of the two children to whom she has given birth in her sleep mistakes her finger for her breast and sucks "so hard that it drew out the splinter" (SLT 37). Thus, it is made clear that where the introduction of a slight fiaw results in the total coilapse of perfection, the removal of this same flaw results in the total restoration of this perfection. While this motif may take on different forms, it is common to most fairy tales in that what takes place is not a simple case of conflict between good and evil but goes much deeper than this. What is being sought is the accomplishment of a perfect existence through the elimination of any flaw, regardless of how trivial it may seem, which disrupts the totcility of this vision; the struggle is one for absolute flawlessness.

In relation to this struggle the Grimms' tale of "Snow White" shares much in common with the "Sleeping Beauty" tradition. As do the several "Sleeping Beauty" tales,

"Snow White" begins with the fuifilment of a Queen's wish for a child. Significantly, the chiId wished for, and the child born, is described in terms of perfection. She is "as white as snow [perfect whiteness] and as red as blood (perfect redness], and her hair was as black as ebony [perfect blackness]" (SW 65). As is the case in the "Sleeping Beauty" tales of Perrault and the Brothers Grimm the Princess's security is later threatened by the amval of an uninvited guest in the person of Snow White's disguised stepmother who

offers Snow White a series of life thrzatening "gifts." Finally, just as Basile's Talia,

having gotten a splinter lodged "under her fingernail, [.. . ] irnmediately fell dead upon the

ground (SLT 36), Snow White, having taken a bite of her stepmother's gift of a

poisonous apple, likewise, "fell to the floor dead (SW 71), and just as Talia is restored to

life once the splinter has been removed so, too, is Snow White restored to life when a

"jolt shook the poisoned core, which Snow White had bitten off, out of her throat" (SW

72). Simply put, the tale of "Snow White" is, as is the tale of "Sleeping Beauty," one in which the ultirnate goal is perfection and totality. Within these fairy tale realms, as within the fairy tale realrn in general, any flaw cr imperfection brings about crisis and the coilapse of an ideal fairy tale existence.

Certainly, one of the most familiar examples of a flaw (especially within the tales of the Brothers Grimm) is the stepmother/villain figure, herself, encountered not only in the tale of "Snow White" but ahin a countless number of others, including Perrault's

"Cinderella" and the Grimrns' tale "Ashputtle" (a version of the "CindereIla" stcry). mile such characters do corne to act in such a way as to bring about hardship, and even the threat of death, for the protagonistheroines of these tales, it is implied in their very identity as stepmother rather than birthmother that, like the eighth fairy or the thirteenth

Wise Woman, they do not belong. The very presence of the stepmother, it would seem, implies a shattered perfection, a threat to total happiness. In "Cinderella," Perrault is careful to juxtapose his description of Cinderella's "natural mother, who had been a kind and çentle woman" with that of her new stepmother who, shortly followinç her wvedding

"showed her tnie colours" in heaping hardships upon her new stepdaughter (C 53)- The Grimm version begins in much the same manner, ultimately suggesting, in each case, that the tale itself, or more specifically the conflict and complication which drive the plot of the tale, could not have corne about without the introduction of the stepmother figure.

Simply put, where the natural rnother fits the "happily ever after" vision of ideal family

Iife (the vision realised at the beginning of the "Sleeping Beauty" narratives). the very concept of the stepmother destroys this vision. Quite apart from her villainous and ofien murderous behaviour, the presence of the stepmother constitutes fairy tale crisis in that it signifies the absence, and death, of the natural rnother who would make the perfect fairy tale family cornpiete. Within the world of the fairy tale, a stepmother in one's family is the equivalent of a pea in one's bed or a splinter in one's finger; al1 imply a flawed totality, imperfection causing cnsis.

That the Grimms felt this to be the case is evidenced in their significant revision of the "Snow White" taIe, which is transfomed somewhat in the second edition of

Nursery and Houseltold Tufes tiorn the original version found in the first edition. The villain within the first edition is Snow White's natiiral mother. "Only in the second edition of the Grirnms' collection does the reaI mother die and is replaced by a wicked stepmother" (Tatar Hard Facts ... 143). (Incidentally, the Grirnms made essentially the same revision, in later editions, to such tales as 'Wansel and Gretel" [de Vos 1 161 and the lesser-known "Mother Holle" [Tatar Hard Facts ... 1431.) As Maria Tatar points out, this revision is significant in that it enables the tale to "preserve the sanctity of mothers" in transforming the villain from an evil natural mother into "an alien interloper whose goal is to disturb the harmony of family life" (Hard Fucts ... 143). For the Grimms, at least, the idea of the natural mother being the source of C~S~Swould seem to have becn somewhat unthinkable. Their introduction of the stepmother figure into the tales alIows for the destabilization of the fairy tale ideal without undermining the concept of ideal family life so important to their own vision of a fairy tale existence. Total happiness comes to be something which, rather than suffering internal breakdown through the unnatural actions of a natural mother, is threatened by the introduction of an alien body representing, in its very presence, deviance as a flaw or an imperfection, a fissure in the totality of an ideal world. It would seem, in later editions at least, that the Grirnm tales suggest that a threat to total happiness may be anticipated with the amval of any such deviant or alien body.

In encountering one such tale after another we as readers begin to recognise the stepmother figure and to anticipate the threat she brings to the fairy tale world. Indeed, descriptions of Snow White's stepmother as being "proud and overbearingT7(SW 66) seem almost redundant in that, for the typical fairy tale reader, the very term icstepmother" tends to be description enough.

conflict in^ visions and faiw taIe rivalry: a struggle for dominance

On the other hand, it must be recognised that there is another aspect to the identity of Snow White's stepmother: in becoming such, she also becomes Queen. Indeed, the second paragraph of "Snow White" begins as many fairy tales close, with a royal wedding. Moreover, as the proclaimed "fairest in the land" (SW 66), it could be argued that, were it not for her alter identity as stepmother, the Queen would be representative of the typical fairy tale heroine. Hence, the threat that the Queen's presence brings to the existence of Snow White is not simply the result of her identity as a flaw in what would be Snow White's perfect life. It is also a direct consequence of the establishment of what

is, in essence, the an alternative perfect existence - that of the Queen. Of course, as readers we are not encouraged to recognise the situation as such in that the Grimms describe the Queen in less than flattering tones; while she is declared to be "beautiful," this compliment is undermined by the revelation that "she couidn't bear the thought that anyone might be more beautiful than she" (SW 66). Nevertheless, it may be that a certain amount of unintended irony is to be detected in this revelation. The fairy tale ideal, afier all, requires not only beauty, but also unmatched beauty (as evidenced in the first fairy's bestowing on Sleeping Beauty the gift of growing "up to be the loveliest woman in the world" [SB 411). Thus, the Queen's inability to bear the possibility of anyone surpassing her in beauty is, in effect, nothing more than the standard fairy taie fear of a threat to her own fairy tale existence. Read from the Queen's point of view (the dissenting perspective), it is Snow White who poses a threat to the personal utopian vision that exists. In growing, at age seven, to be "more beautiful than the Queen herself'(SW 66), she effectively cornes to represent a flaw in what has been, untiI this point, the "happily ever after" existence of the Queen. Therefore, the Queen's attempts on Snow White's life are akin to the attempts of Sleeping Beauty's father to destroy al1 of the spindles in his kingdom. Each is attempting to protect her own persona1 utopia.

Such an analysis of the "Snow White" tale serves to illustrate the fact that specific fairy tale visions of ideal happiness, like dominant discourses (us dominant discourses), are mutually exclusive. That is to Say, isvo cannot exist in one place at one time; either

Snow White's vision wiI1 dominate at the expense of that of her stepmother, or the stepmother's vision uill dominate at the expense of Snow White. Thus, the tale of "Snow White," like many other faity tales, is concemed not simply with the elimination of

imperfections that hinder a specific vision of fairy tale happiness, but also wïth the

elimination of conflicting visions; it is a power struggle for dominance. While it is

tempting to read this struggle as being the one sided victimization of a seven year old

child by a powerfül Queen, it is important to recognize that, as Datlow and Windling have

pointed out, the world presented in this tale is "a world where beauty is the basis of

power7' (de Vos 325). Therefore, it is Snow White who, as the more beautifid of the two

rivals, is also the most powerful and has the upper hand throughout this struggle, regardless of the hardships she encounters at the han& of the seemingly more powerful

Queen.

A close look at the story reveals this to be so. It would be reasonable to assume that, in accordance with fairy tale ideals, the Queen has gained her position through her beauty (it need not be regarded as coincidence that the most powerful man in the land, the

King, has taken the most beautiful woman in the land for his wife). By extension, then, it is through the power gained by her beauty that the Queen has achieved the authority to order a huntsman to take her +al, Snow White, "into the forest and kill her" (SW 66).

However, it is specified that Snow White is ultimately saved "&Jecause of her beauty"

(SW 66) which convinces the huntsman to take pity on the child. Simply put, Snow

White, though passive, occupies a position of dominance in that her superior beauty gives her power over the actions of others and even over the direct orders of the Queen. Having

Iost the upper hand in relation to the power gained by passive beauty, the Queen becomes active in attemptinç to eliminate Snow White and even seems to succeed in killing her with a poisoned apple (SW 71). Nevertheless, because her world is one in which beauty, not action, dictates control, it is Snow White who wins out once again as the dwarves see her as being too beautifûl, even in death, to lower "into the black earth" (SW 71). Instead, they put her into a glas cotfin and leave her on a hilltop whereby she is evenîually revived by a wandering Prince who, being struck by her beaury, orders that she be camed off to be kept in his castle, resulting in the jolt which shakes the poisoned piece of apple

"out of her throat" (SW 72). Within the story of "Snow White," then, beauty power and she who has dominant beauty has dominant power. In effect, the Queen's dread of the possibility of someone being more beautiful becomes far less trivial. For her, a rival beauty also represents a rival power and, with it, the threat of a dominant discourse and fai~tale vision which conflicts with and threatens to destroy her own.

A similar rivalry is evident in the "Cinderella" story as told by Perrault and the

Brothers Grimm. In each case Cinderella (or Ashputtle, as she is called in the Grimm version), Ends herself in conflict not only with a stepmother but with two stepsisters as well. Althouçh much is made of Cinderella's poor treatrnent at the hands of these characters as she is gwen "al1 the rough work about the house to do" (C 53) and even forced (in the Grimm version) to sleep "in the ashes by the hearth" (A 60), the true cmx of the story has to do with the conflicting aspirations of Cinderella and her stepsisters. To be chosen by the Prince as his bride would be, for any one of the three, to achieve perfect happiness, but since there is only one Prince, the success of one also depends upon the failure of the others. As is the rivalry between Snow White and her steprnother, the rivalry between Cinderella and her stepsisters is one for a personal "happily ever afier" existence for one at the expense of the similar desires of the others. Elisabeth Panttaja has suggested that the Grimms' version of the tale features mother rivalry in the confiict between Cinderelta's natural mother and her stepmother.

Panttaja points out that, although she dies, Cinderella's mother is never tmly absent from the story. Prior to her death she has advised her daughrer, "be good and Say your prayers

[... 1 and I wi1I look dom on you from heaven and always be with you" (A 59). We see this promise realised in the fonn of the tree that Cinderella plants on her mother's grave, as well as the birds that nest in its branches. Through these the mother takes care of her daughter and, in doing so, does battle against the stepmother on Cinderella's behalf

However, this is not simply a matter of the "good" ambitions of the natural mother in protecting her daughter fion; the "evil" ambitions of the stepmother. Rather, "[tlhese two women share the same devotion to their daughters and the same long term goaIs: each rnother wants to ensure a future of power and prestige for her daughter, and each is willing to resort to extreme measures to achieve her aim" (Panttaja 90). The conflict is not one of good and evit; it is that of one vision of personai utopia pitted against another.

Such conflicts, however, are not lirnited to the tales of Perrault and the Brothers

Grimm. A most interesting example of conflict between mutually exclusive discourses and utopian visions can be found in Joseph Jacobs' English fairy tale, 'Yack and the

Beanstalk." This tale differs from most in that its begiming seems far frorn containing a utopian vision of any sort. Jack and his mother start out in dire circumstances only to have their situation worsened by the fact that their cow "Milky-white" stops giving milk, cutting off their only source of incorne (J&B 59). Nevertheless, having exchanged the cow for rnzgic beans, which result in the growth of a giant beanstalk from Jack's backyard into the clouds, Jack soon climbs the beanstalk only to discover that, even in this tale, a vision of perfect existence does exist - although it is controlled by an ogre.

Indeed, it would seem that the ogre occupies an ideal space. His power is unchallenged, he has unlimited wealth, the source of which is a hen that "laid a golden egg every time he said 'Lay"' (J&B 65), and even has culture and entertainment in a magic golden harp which "sang most beautifûlly" (J&B 66). SeMng as a good indication that this is an fairy tale existence is the fact that, having seen it, Jack is quick in his attempt to achieve it for himself. In this, it is Jack who takes on the role of the alien body who threatens the

"happily ever afier" that exists. Once again, we are presented with a power struggle between rivals for total happiness and once again both visions cannot exist at once as both

Jack and the ogre desire the same things. Thus, the perfect happiness sought by each can only be realised in keeping the other from that sarne vision of happiness (or, as Jack proves, in robbing the other of that vision). Ultimately, in the attempt of each to achieve or maintain the goal of persona1 utopia, each must work towards the goal of the elimination of the other. It must be recognised that, in so much as the ogre stands in the way of Jack achievinç a "happily ever after" existence, Jack is a very real threat to the ogre's own ideal life.

In fact, it is the failure to recognize Jack as such - on the part of the ogre's wife - that drives the action of the tale. Although she perceives the threat that her husband poses to Jack's life, the ogre's wife fails to recognise Jack as posing any threat to the life of her husband and herself. That this is so is evidenced in the fact that she warns Jack "My man is an ogre and there's nothing he likes better than boys broiled on toast. You'd better be moving on or he'll soon be coming" (J&B 62), and then, upon his having refüsed to heed the warning, allows hini into the house. With this, Jack gains entrance in the role of an uninvited guest. Much like the eighth fairy or the thirteenth Wise Woman at the

christening of Sleeping Beauty, Jack does not belong to the totality that exists; already,

before his having done anything, Jack represents deviance in that he is a [ive boy in the

ogre's castle (or, what is even more out of place, a live boy hiding in the ogre's oven).

For this reason, Jack is as much of a threat to the ogre as the ogre is to him, regardless of

the obviouç difference in the physicaf size and prowess of the two. Such are the rules of

fairy tale happiness and totality; any fissure in the totality that exists, will (like the

splinter in Sleeping Beauty's finger) cause the coIIapse of the prevailing vision.

It must also be recognised that Jack is not content, as are the eighth fairy and the

thirteenth Wise Woman, with being a dismpting force, creating a break in the prevailing

totality. Rather, he is like Cinderella or Snow White in that he is involved in a stmggle to

achieve a "happily ever afterl' existence for himself and at the expense of a rival. Yet, the

rivalry that exists between Jack and the ogre differs from that between Cinderella and her

sisters; whereas Cinderella and her sisters stmggle to achieve the same fairy tale goal (a

royal wedding), Jack makes a conscious effort to displace the ogre from a fairy tale

existence already achieved. In this, Jack also differs from Snow White. While Snow

White does, indeed, displace her stepmother as the "fairest in the land," it may at least be

said of her that she does so quite unwittingly. Jack, on the other hand, actively and consciously pursues his own vision of a utopian existence. Of al1 the hero/ine figures within the taIes addressed by this srudy, it would seem that it is Jack who best understands the dynamics of the fairy tale goal of an ideal existence; it is Jack who realises (as do such fairy tale villnins as Snow White's stepmother) that in achievinç a utopia lité for himself he must destroy or take away from the power and happiness of his

rival.

Further, what Jack seeks is not sirnply a relief from hardship, or a relative

happiness; his conscious desire is for a fairy tale ending of total happiness. In no place is

this made more clear than in the narrator's statement that, even afier his having

successfülly stolen fiom the ogre the hen that lays golden eggs, "Jack \vas not content"

(J&B 65). "You would think that a child who owns a hen capable of producing an endless

supply of golden eggs would be satisfied with what he has. But not Jack" (Cashdan 180).

Just as Snow White's steprnother is not content with being a Queen who is only the

second fairest in the land, and is therefore bent upon te-establishing herself as the fairest,

Jack is not satisfied with his endless suppIy of gold and so is "detennined to have another try at his luck up there at the top of the beanstalk" (J&B 65). If there is more to be had,

Jack must have it, despite al1 risk and at any cost (whether to himself, to the ogre, or to

anyone else). Simpty put, the action of "Jack and the Beanstalk" is driven not by Jack's attempts to escape a position of poverty. Nor is it driven by his attempts to escape the threat of the ogre. Rather, it originates out of Jack's desire to achieve totally the fairy tale

ideal, and out of the conflicting interests of the ogre in rnaintaining his own position of dominance.

An equaIIy intereçting case of 2 power stniggle beltween parties of conflicting interests is to be found in another of Joseph Jacobs' fairy tales, "The Story of the Three

Little Pigs." Indeed, the identities of the characters in this story as animals, rather than humans or monsters, would make it difficult for even the most moralistic of readers to view the conflict of the tale as being a simple case of dualism, a batile behveen good and evil. That the three IittIe pigs and the carnivorous wolf would be enernies seems quite natural. Nevertheless, the conflict between the two is every bit as serious as that between

Jack and the ogre or between Snow White and her stepmother. This taIe rnay be seen to differ somewhat from the others in this study, though, in that it suggests a certain self- awareness of the nature of fairy tale conflict. Simply put, this tale is far more open than most in its portrayal of the nvalry that exists within it as being one amongt differing perspectives that are not so much right or wrong, as they are mutually exclusive.

AS a case in point, one may notice a distinct difference in the way in which the wolf is introduced into the tale from the way certain figures such as the stepmothers of

Snow White and Cinderella are introduced into their respective narratives. Perrault actually begins his CNlderelia tale by stating, within the first sentence, that Cinderella's stepmother 'kas the haughtiest and most stuck-up wornan in the world (C 53)- Likewise, the brothers Grimm introduce Snow White's stepmother as being "proud and overbearinç" and unable to "bear the thouçht that anyone might be more beautiful than she" (SW 66). Thus, these narratives attempt to convince the reader that such characters are evil or wrong and that the threat to the protagonist, and the conflict which aises out of this threat, is a result of this evil. Contrarily, the wolf in The Story of the Tizree Little

Pzgs is introduced with the simple statement, "Presently came along a wolf, and knocked at the door, and said: 'Little pig, little pig, let me corne in"' (TLP 69). Because most readers vdl be conscious of the threat the wolf poses to the pigs in his very presencz and identity as a wolf, no further comment is necessary. Because, as a carnivore, the woff s interests are in direct conflict with those of the pigs, his very presence shatters their more or less idyllic existence. In this, the wolf is not so very different from the stepmothers. He is a flaw in the fairy tale perfection of another4slife and a threat in that his own interests

are counter to those of the protagonist. Yet, the story diRers frorn most fairy tales; no

attempt is made to provide the "villain" with a motive; his motives are assurned. In essence, the interests and motives of the wolf go unsaid because they go without saying-

The wolf, like the pigs, is interested in survival. Unfortunately, as is the case within most fairy tales, the interests of the one can be fulfilled only at the expense of the other.

Ultimately, the conflict within al1 of the fairy tales outlined above arises out of this same incompatibility of interests. "The Story of the Three Little Pigs" differs only in its allowing this cause of crises to rerilain in the forefront. Through the absence of narrative comment upon the nature of the wolf, the reader is left to recognise of the wolf that which is equalIy hue, if not so easily recognised, of ogres and stepmothers: he does not pose a threat because he is evil; the threat he poses to the pigs is due to his conflicting perspectives and interests. It is because they are pigs and he is a wolf.

Deviant invasion (or what happens when the wolves are not kept at bav)

It must be noted that true cnsis, within "The Story of the Three Little Pigs," cornes about only once the deviant wolf has succeeded in invading the dwellings of the pigs. If Jacobs' tale is about anything, it is about gaining access. In a sense, the wolf fills a role sirnilar to that of Jack. Just as Jack's entry, as a living boy, into the castle of the ogre is foltowed by Jack's active pursuit of his own goals which in turn leads to the ogre's domfaIl, the successful entry of the wolf into the house of the first hvo littfe pigs leads to their being eaten. Further, the wolf bears a similarity to Jack in that, having eaten the first two pigs and having achieved a deal of success, he is not content. Such is the

nature of fairy tale ideology that if there is another pi@to be had, the wolf must have it.

Success, for the wolf, as for most fairy tale characters, mut be total. It is in this sense that

the wolf s vision is - like that of Jack who must have al1 that the ogre's castle has to

offer, like that of Snow White's stepmother who must be the fairest (as opposed to the

second fairest) in the land - one of "happily ever after." Similarly, the success of the pigs

in maintaining or achievinç happiness is equally dependent upon total success. It is in the

interests of the pigs to rnaintain a space totaZ?y and completely free of the wolf, a goal

attempted by each (with varying degrees of success) through his refusal to open the door

to the wolf "No, no, by the hair of rny chiny chin chin" (TLP 69).

Of course, in discussing the character of the wolf \vitAin the fairy tale, it is

difficult to ignore one of the most well-known fairy tales of alI, "Little Red Riding

Hood." Although this tale has taken on many different forms, the conflict in each remains virtually the same. As in "The Story of the Three Little Pigs," the protagonist's interests

are threatened by the conflicting interests of the predatory wolf In fact, the wolves from the several "Red Riding Hood" tales bear a striking resemblance to the wolf in the tale of

"The Three Little f igs." Perrault's version of "Little Red Riding Hood" clearly States that, having met Little Red on her walk through the wood, the wolf "wanted to eat her"

(LRRH 25). Likewise, the wolf from the Grimm version of the tale, "Little Red Cap," thinks of the child in terms of being "young and tender" and "even tastier" than her grandmother (LRC 28). However, it is not just in his carnivorous interests that the Little

Red's enerny is similar to that of the Three Little Pigs; he is also similar in his rnethods.

In order to achieve his goal, the wolf works to gain access into the house of Little Red's -sandmother. In gaining access, the wolf becomes a deviant body, disrupting the securiy of the home; he does not belong. Interestingiy, however, this wolf does not enter the

house by force, but by posing as Little Red, who &es belong, so that the grandmother actually invites him i~-(LRRH 26 & LRC 28). What is, perhaps, most interesting about this tale, though, is the suddemess and completeness with which the wolfs successful entry into the house collapses one persona1 utopia and replaces it with another (that is, of course, if we are willing to see things from the wolf s perspective). As a space free from the presence of the wolf, grandmother's house represents an ideal space for LittIe Red, a protection frarn the dangers of the forest. Once the wolf has entered, however, the house becomes not only a place of extreme danger to Little Red but, at the same time, an ideal space for the wolf who can now lie back and wait for his prey to corne to him.

While it is the wolf s position as a deviant body within the grandmother's house that threatens and destroys what wodd seem an ideal space for Little Red, though, this is not the only cause of crisis within the tale. A perfect fairy tale existence, from the perspective of Little Red, is also threatened by her own presence within a space where she does not belong. Despite her mother's warning, in the Grimm version of the tale, not to "Ieave the path" (LRC 27), the chiId, acting on the suggestion of the wolf? "lefi the path to go into the wood to pick flowers" (LRC 28). In doing so, Little Red becomes a deviant body in several senses. First, she deviates, fiteraIly, from her course. Second, she becomes a deviant child in her disobedience to her mother. Last, she is deviant in that, just as the wolf does not belong in the grandmother's house, it is implied that a Little girl does not belong in the woods. In exiting her own ideal space and entering into that of the wolf, Little Red becomes a flaw in the existing totality of the forest. Essentially, in the sarne sense that the only type of boy to have a place within the castle of Jack's ogre is the

boy who is to be consumed, the only type of Iittle girl to have a place in the forest of the

wolf, and in grandmother's house once it has been taken over by the wolf, is the little gr1

who is to be consunied.

Food intentions and the failure to devour

At this point it would be helpful to focus in on the particular motif of consumption as it shows up, in one form or another, in so many fairy tales. In fact, the majori~of the taIes addressed within this study contain the act of one party either devouring or attempting to devour another. What is important to note, with regards to this motif, is that because most fairy tales are told from the point of view of the party who is in danger of being devoured, readers are tikely to view the potential of the act being carried out as being a threat to happiness, a barrier standing in the path toward a "happily ever after" ending. However, in reading the fairy tales as being power struggles between opposing visions of total happiness it becomes necessary to read any 'tillainous" attempts at devouring the protagonist as being precisely the opposite of a threat or bamer to the establishment of a persona! utopia. These predatory attempts are often made with the intended purpose of protecting or establishing a persona1 utopia by eliminating the factors that destroy or threaten it. Moreover, the failure of so many fairy tale villains in their attempts to devour their enemies is part and parce1 with their failure to achieve or maintain a fairy tale existence in which they occupy a position of power. Certainly, it is with the motive of maintaining her position of power that Snow

White's stepmother attempts murder and cannibalism. In ordering the huntsrnan to kill

Snow White "and bring me her lungs and liver" (SW 66), the Queen is demanding total

assurance that her position of dominance is secure. It is not enough for Snow White to be

gone; if the Queen's "happily ever after7' vision is to be total, gone as well must be the

possibility of Snow White's very existence and of her potential return. Furthemore, as it

is Snow White's body that represents deviance within this vision, in its posing a threat to

the Queen's position of dominant beauîy and power, her body must also cease to exist. Of

course, a most effective method in bringing such elimination about is through the act of

devouring in that the body being devoured is not simply broken doun. It is, more

importantly, transformed into and added to the power of the body that devours it.

Such is the desired effect of ca~ibaiismwithin the versions of the "Sleeping

Beauty" tale as given by Basile and Perrault, both of whom extend the story beyond the point at which the Brothers Grimm Ieave off with the waking of the Princess. The continuation of Basile's version of the tale, once the sleeping curse has been broken, is largely because Talia7s lover in the narrative is not a Prince, as he is in the Grimm tale, but is a King who already has a Queen. Thus, the joining of the two results not only in the establishment of a new royal union, but also in the collapse of the royal union that already exists. In this, the Queen, whose position of power is sustained through her alignment with the King, is displaced and her power threatened. Further, the union produces children who, in their position as heirs to the throne as offspnng of the King, become part of a power discourse that runs counter to that which includes the Queen. Therefore, the

Queen's atternpt at remedying the situation and re-establishing her position within the power structure of the kingdorn, through a plot to have the children cooked and devoured

by the King, is especially fitting. Unlike Snow White's stepmother - whose source of

power is her dominant beauty and who, therefore, seeks to add to her power in the

consumption of her more beautifül rival - the Queen's source of power, within Basile's tale, is her husband the King. Hence, she endeavours to have him devour his own offspring, by which he will re-appropriate and reabsorb, through consumption, the power he has released and redistributed through his coupling with Talia. Equally fitting, then, is the phrase the Queen repeats to the King as he eats the meal that she believes to be his children: "Eat away, you are eating what is your own" (SLT 38). In her attempt to restore to the King what is his own, the Queen seeks both to restore power to its source, the King, and to realign herself with this source of power, through the elimination of counter alignments. In essence, the Queen's plot to have the King eat his own children is a plot to re-establish the fairy tale existence of which she had been a part pnor to the union of the

King and Talia.

Although the Queen in Perrault's version of the tale has a different relationship to the Sleeping Beauty's King (as his mother rather than wife), her cannibalistic tendencies are quite similar. Mile we are given an explanation for the Queen's taste for human flesh in the revelation that "she came from a family of ogres" and "still had ogriçh tastes" (SB

49, her plot to eat her grandchildren and daughter-in-Iaw is, nevertheless, one which has ramifications conceming the distribution of power. Her husband having died, the ogress is, like the Queen in Basile's narrative, displaced as the spouse of the King by Sleeping

Beauty. Although the young King leaves "the governing of the kingdom in his mother's hands" (SB 46) when he goes off to war, her position is not the only one aligned with royal power. The very presence of Sleeping Beauty and her two children makes the

utopian life of the ogress less than total. Were the Queen to be successful in carrying out

her plans, she would become the sole representative of royal power and authorïty within

the kingdom. As it stands, her failure to be so is both the cause and the result of the

existence of other, dissenting, powers. More simply put, it is because her power is not

total that the commands of the ogress to her butIer - to have Sleeping Beauty slaughtered

and served to her - are not carried out. At the same time, she fails to have her power made total due because her cornmands are not camed out. In essence, the act of devouring is both an act of dominant power and a method of achieving dominant power; the failure of most fairy tale viliains in carrying out this act signals the collapse of their respective "happiIy ever afler" visions and, at the same time, resuIts in their failure to re- establish these visions.

Furthemore, the act of devouring, within the fairy tale, is not just an act of power or a method of achieving power; it is also the articulation of a specific discourse of power. In the tale of "Jack and the Beanstalk," the ogre's taste for a breakfast of "boys broiled on toast" (62) works to suggest not only the ogre's evil nature but also, and more importantly, his position of dominant power. Just as the bodies of the devoured boys are appropriated and added to the body of the ogre, thereby adding to his physical strength and sustenance, the dissenting discourses that these boys represent are also appropriated and added to the dominant discourse of the ogre, thereby adding to and sustaining his position of dominance. Hence, it is Jack who, in his successful avoidance of being consumed, remains as the source of a dissent to the ogre's control and dominance. As such, Jack represents a fissure in the totality that has existed in the land at the top of the beansialk up until this point. The ogre's Failure to devour Jack, like the Queen's failure to

devour Snow White, actually puts off a possible resolution to the tale (albeit, a resolution

most readers will not desire). Much the same cm be said for the woIf s failed atternpts at

devouring the thirc! httle pig. Conflict and action, within the tde, originates out of this

failure, on the part of the wolf, to establish, through total consurnption, the totality of his

own vision of happiness. It is not the threat of being devoured that hrings about conflict

and puts off the resolution of the typical fairy tale but, to the contrary, it is the failure of

one paq and discourse to devour successfully and totally the other which brings about

and sustains conflict. As we shall see in the following chapkr, ~ucce~~fidconsumphm,

when it occurs, actually brings about the ideal fairy tale ending by eliminaîing the source

of crisis.

In examining what occurs in fairy tales pnor to their "happily ever after" resolutions, 1 have proposed that the source of crisis within the typical fairy tale is any factor that prevents the establishment of, or results in the collapse of: totality. Conflict arises when counter discourses appear - in forms ranging From a seemingly trivial flaw, to an alien interloper, to the introduction of a contrasting vision of "happily ever afier" - and challenge the dominant discourse that exists. Thus, it may be surmised that resolution to such conflict will take place oniy when counter discourses are destrooyed or gain their own dominance. In either case, the "happily ever after" ending can be achieved only through the elirnination of deviant bodies and counter discourses and through the establishment or restoration of totality. This is to be the focus of my next chapter. Chapter II - Fairy Tale Resolution:

Destruction, Confomity, and IsoIation Having outlined, in the previous chapter, the source of cnsis within the trpical fairy tale, it will now be possible to address the issue with which this thesis is most concerne4 the resolution of crisis in the form of a "happily ever after" ending. Because crisis within the fairy tale is brought about through a break in or a challenge to an existing dominant order of things, resolution mmt corne about through the restoration of a dominant order and the elimination of any challenge or threat counter to this dominant order. Furthemore, the very phrase, "happily ever after," in suggesting complete and everlasting happiness, also suggests a resolution that is the result not only of an order that is dominant, but aIso of an order that is total. However, this simple phrase is not the only thing to suggest totality within the fairy tale vision. Totality is also implied in the specific ways in which the typical fairy tale resolution cornes about. Time and again, and in fairy tales originating out of different cultures, places and time periods, the typical fairy tale resolution is brought about through either the total annihiiation of parties opposed to a prevailing order, or the total conformity of opposing parties to a prevailing order. In either case, ail counter discourses are utterly destroyed or swallowed up by the dominant discourse, the victonous "happily ever after" vision. In other words, fairy tale endings are without compromise and without tolerance for anything not fitting into that vision. What is most troublesome, however, is that they are successfùlly so. Hence, the basic premise of this thesis is that, while fairy taie conflict certainly tends to bring about some homfic circumstances, none are so horrific as the totalitarian realm suggested in the final resolution of such conflict. Ultimately, the major problem with fairy tales is to be found in their very success in eliminating the problematic. "Little Red Riding7' Hood and the faim tale ideal

Ironically, the most effective mode1 for illustrating the problematic implications of

the "happily ever after" ending is, perhaps, a tale that does not end happily at al1

according to conventional standards. Charles Perrault's "Little Red Riding Hood"

concludes with the devious wolf, having already eaten the child's grandmother,

"[throwing] himself upon Little Red Riding Hood and gobbi[ing] her up, too" (27). On

the surCace, this ending may seem a far cry hmthe ideal vision encountered in the

resohtion of rnost fairy tales. Not only does Little Red Riding Hood meet with a vioIent

and tragic end, but her assailant goes unpunished and, furthemore, is heartily rewarded

for his treachery. Indeed, one possible way of reading this concIusion as being a more or

less typical fairy tale happy ending woulci be to suggest that it does end happily, not for

Little Red Riding Huod and her grandmother, but for the wolf. However, the moral

following the story seems to suggest that there is something more than this going on in

the narrative. Here the narrator declares the lesson to be learned from the tale is that

"Children, especially pretty, niceiy brought-up young ladies, ought never to taIk to

strangers; if they are foolish enough to do so, they should not be surprised if some greedy

wolf consumes them" (LRRH 27). Through this, it is Little Red Riding Hood, and not the wolf, who is specified as being the deviant body within the tale. Hence, the fact that the tale ends with her being consumed should corne no more as a surprise to the reader than, as Perrault's narrator suggests, it should corne as a surprise to her.

Further, it must be noted that while the moral refers to the wolf as being "greedy," and goes on to implicate the "smooth-tongued, smooth-pelted variety as being "the rnost dangerous beasts of all" (LRRH 27), it is not directed towards the wolf The wolf serves

neither as a mode1 of exemplary behaviour, nor as an exarnple of how not to behave.

Within the realm of Perrault's narrative it would seem that the wolf is a force of nature;

his actions are not deviant but, to the contrary, they represent the naturai consequences of

Little Red Riding Hood's behaviour. Whether he is read as being a literal wolf or, as the

moral seems to imply, as being a metaphor for the type of seeminçly "charming, sweet-

natured and obliging" (LRRH 27) young man who preys on naive young women, he is

what he is. Thus, it is implied that the tragic fate of Little Red Riding Hood is the

consequence of her own deviance. Simply put, whereas the wolf has his place in the

totality of the forest, just as the deceitful young man fits into the power structure of the

world that the forest represents, Little Red Riding Hood, in doing what "pretty, nicely

brought up young ladies, ought never to" do (LRRH 27), goes against this prevailing

order. It is for this that she is destroyed. Of course, it would be quite legitimate to object

to the blatantly sexist ideology of this tale, but it is the totality of this ideology that is

most objectionable. Perrault's fair). tale does more than to put forth a specific perspective

(nght or w-rong depending upon one's own); it imagines a realm in which this perspective

is made total through the elimination of anything or anyone representing dissent. Through

the wolf s consurnption of Little Red Riding Hood, dissent is destroyed and the dominant

discourse or perspective becomes the only one that is Ieft. It is in this sense that the

resolution to Little Red Riding Hood is, for al1 intents and purposes, the same as most

fairy tale, "happily ever afier7'endings.

This point may be clarified through a close look at the ways in which the ending of the Grimm version of the same taie, entitled "Little Red Cap," relates to that of Perrault. Certainly, the Grimm ending to this narrative is far closer to what might be expected of a "happily ever after" fairy tale ending. Although the woif in the Grimm tale does succeed in eating Little Red Cap and her grandmother, the couple is promptly rescued by a hunier who "took a pair of scissors and [. ..] cut the wolf s belly open" (LRC

29) allowing them to escape unharmed. Moreover, the woIf is punished for his act, by having his belly filled with Stones so that, when he awakes and tries to run away, "he fell dom dead" (LW 29). Of the hunter, the child and her grandmother, the final paragraph tells us, "Al1 three were happy" (LRC 29). However, it is the last line of this paragraph that is most telling in its revelation of Little Red Cap's final thought on the event: "Never again will I leave the path and run off into the wood when my mother tells me not tom

(LRC 30). Through this it is made clear that, ultimately, the happy realm that has been established at the end of this variant of the tale is very much the same as that established at the end of Perrault's. That is to Say, it is a realrn free of deviant Iittle girls. Although

Little Red Cap remains, dissent does not. Totality is achieved not through her annihilation by the dominant power structure, but throuçh her conformity to it. Through Little Red

Cap's vow ''Never again" to deviate fiom her path, the Grimrns consmict a "happily evsr afier" realm that is, Iike that consmicted by Perrault, free fiom deviance.

Interestinçly, just as Perrault seems compelled to ensure the reader's cornprehension of his tale, as indicated by the moral he attaches to its conclusion, the

Brothers Grimm seem equally wary of the possibility of arnbiguity. It would seem that the

Grimm felt it necessary to show, unequivocaIly, that although Little Red Cap has survived her ordeal wïth the wolf, the incident has resulted in real and lasting change.

Thus, they have attached an epilogue as a means of re-enforcing the message of their own wrk. In essence, this epilogue gives us a glimpse of the newly established "happily ever afier" realm in offering a later incident concerning Little Red Cap's dealings with a wolf.

This time, however, the child remains tnie to her word and does not deviate fiom her path but "kept on going" (LRC 30) along the open road, thereby reaching her grandmother's house before the wolf gets there and in time to Iock herself safely inside. Hence, the totality of the Grimms' vision is re-enforced as evidence is provided to illustrate the absence of Little Red Cap's deviance within the newly established order. Of course, there may be objections to viewing this realm as being truly and totally utopian as far as Little

Red is concerned in that the wolf figure is yet present. While the figure of the wolf does remain, however, the threat of the woIf does not.

Nevertheless, it must be noted that, within the Grimm tale, the wolf seems to fil1 a somewhat different role than that filled by the wolf in Perrault's tale. Wherezs Perrault's wolf takes on the role of a sot; of scourge, punishing and destroying deviance, the wolf of the Grimms seems to fil1 a dual role of both scourge and deviant body in that, although he is the agent of the punishrnent for and destruction of Little Red Cap's deviant behaviour, he, too, is punished and desîroyed. Furthemore, while Perrault's wolf is said to be

"greedy" and his allegorical counterpart (the male charmer) is said to be a "dangerous beast" (LRC 27), the hunter in the Grimm tale refers to the wolf using the term "You otd sinner" (LRC 29). Although in either case the charactenzation is, indeed, Iess than flattering, it is important to note that the former is more or less descriptive; the latter is blatantly judgemental. What is dangerous must be avoided (hence the moral of Perrault's tale). What is sinful, on the other hand, must be punished and destroyed. As Gerhard

O.W. Mueller observes, the Grirnms' portraya1 of the wolf may have something to do with Jacob Grimm's interest and expertise in law. "In his work on German legal

antiquities ( 1828), Jacob Grimm wrote: 'Wargus, however, signifies wolf and robber

because the banished criminal becomes a resident of the forest, just like a predatory

animal, and he may be hunted, just like a wolf" (Mueller 224). Simply put, the wolf does

not belong in the vision of an ideal fairy tale realm as outlined by the Grimms and it is for

this reason, and towards the end of establishing a totality of perfection, that the "happily

ever after" resolution must entai1 more than fortunate escape of Little Red Cap and her

grandmother from the wolf s belly; it must also include the death of the wolf. As such,

the very fact that "the hunter skinned the wolf and wcnt home with the skin" (LRC 29) is

given as the reason for his happiness. The only type of wolf fitting the vision at hand is a

dead wolf and, thus, in order for "happily ever after" to be achieved, the deviant Liîtle

Red Cap must be conformed and the deviant (sinfùl) wolf must be killed. Moreover, as is

show through the events outlined in the epilogue, in order for the "happily ever af?er7' vision to be maintained, Little Red Cap must continue, totally, in her conformity and newly introduced wolves must be continually kept out and/or destroyed. Such is the condition of al1 fairy tale "happily ever after" endings; they are achieved and rnaintained through the elimination of dissent either in the annihilation, the conformitv, or the keeping out of deviant bodies and discourses.

Annihilating deviance: to devour and destroy

As the tale of "Little Red Riding Hood may serve to illustrate, one of the most effective means of accomplishing the total annihilation of deviance that is necessary in establishing "happily ever after7' is through the physical consumption of the offending

body. In the first chapter of this thesis it has been show that the failure to devour works

to brkg C~S~Sabout and to put resolution off. This point can be made most clearly,

however, through an examination of those tales in which total consumption is

successfully achieved - with the invariable result of total resolution. The first, and

perhaps bat, example of this takes place in the tale focused on above. In both Perrault's

"Little Red Riding Hood" and in the Gx-imms' "Little Red Cap" resolution, and totality, is

reached through the wolf s act of devouring Little Red. In the earlier tale this fact is obvious as the taie promptly ends following the wolf s success. Once the deviant body has been consurned and added to the dominating power, totality is successfully achieved.

The later tale, however, does not end directly following the wolf s consurnption of Little

Red. Nevertheless, it is this experience that brings about her conformity. Although the child escapes alive from the belly of the wolf, deviance does not. Sirnply put, in both vsrsions of the tale a dominant perspective is made total through the swallowing up of counter perspectives.

Further, it is also the case within fairy tales that not only does the dominant perspective simply swallow up the counter perspective - the body representing total power devouring the body representing dissent - but it is through the very act of devouring or being devoured that each perspective or body cornes to be defined. To eat is to represent totality. To be eaten is to represent dissent. Indeed? the faiiy tale world is one govemed by the rule "eat or be eaten." As a case in point Jacobs' EngIish fairy tale, "The

Story of the Three Little Pigs," serves well. Although the wolf in this tale - as a carnivore bent on the consumption of the protagonist of th- narrative - bears a stiking resemblance to the wolf in the "Little Red Riding Hood" tales, he differs in that he is never totally

successful in his attempts. Whereas he establishes himself as a powefil figure through

his quick and easy consumption of the first hvo little pigs, because the wolf is unsuccessful in devouring the third Iitile pig, and in achieving total consumption, he never achieves total dominance. In turn, the wolf s personal utopia is never established.

Resolution does come about, however, in the establishment of another personal utopian rision - that of the third little pig. What is most telling about this "happily ever after" ending, though, is that it is achieved not simply through the wolf s failure to devour the third little pig, but also (and more importantly) through the third Mepig's success in devouring the wolf. Until the wolf is boiled and consumed the world of the three little pigs is one of ongoing conflict and, thus, one in which differing perspectives, discourses and counter discourses, and individuals with conflicting interests, survive with neither wiming out. Within this tale, as within most fairy tales, the resolution can come about crdy once one side ltas won out, unequivocally, in this case by devouring the other.

Final resolution comes about in much the same way in Perrault's tale, "The

Sleeping Beauty in the Wood." Like the wolf in "The Story of the Three Little Pigs," the ogress mother-in-law of Sleeping Beauty never achieves totality, as she does not succeed in her plot to eat Sleeping Beauty and her children. Instead, her intended victims are rescued and hidden away in the cellar by the King's butler who fools the queen mother by replacing them with "a little lamb" a "tender young kid" and "a young doe" (SB 46-7).

However, ii: is important to note that the tale does not end ~4ththe success of th'- rescue.

True success, in the fairy tale "happily ever afier" sense, must be nothing less than total.

As long as counter discourses survive, a threat yet remains. This point is made clear by the queen mother who, having been made aware of her initial failure, sets out once again to have her daughter-in-law and grandchildren devoured, along with "the butler, his wife and his maid" (SB 47), this time not by herself but by having them thrown into a "vat

Rlled with toads, vipers, snakes and serpents" (SB 47). In short, the initial failure of the

Queen does not amount to success on the part of Sleeping Beauty and her allies, but is also a failure on their part because it is not complete in that it does not include the total dimination of the ogress. The result is a continuation and expansion (as the butler, his wife and his maid are now included in the struggle) of conflict. A "happily ever after" resolution to the tale is brought about only once the King returns, just in tirne, to foi1 his mother's plans once again, but this time with more conclusive results as his mother becomes "so angry to see her plans go awiy that she jumped head first into the vat and the vile beasts inside devoured her in an instant" (SB 47). Thus, the "happily ever after" ending of the tale cornes about not through the escape of Sleeping Beauty and the other ifitended victims of the queen mother (this has already been achieved once without result), but through the Queen-mother, herself, being devoured. Ironically, resolution cornes about only through the type of homific death that has been so fearfully avoided

(albeit, with a twist in the relation of victor and victim).

CertainIy, though, one of the most shocking things about the ending of this tale is not to be found in the way in which resolution is reached, but in the King's reaction to that resolution. Although a certain totality is immediate following the death of the ogress, happiness is not so total as ive are told that "[tlhe king codd not help grieving a Me; after all, she was his mother" (SB 47). Above al1 else, such a revelation alerts us to the role point of view plays in the "happily ever after" convention of the fairy tale. For readers to view fairy tale endings as being happy resolutions, rather than the

establishment of totality through cruel and often homfic acts, it is important that the

reader is aligned with the victorious totalitarïan vision. Because the king in "The Sleeping

Beauty in the Wood" is aligned not only with his wife, but also with his mother, his

opinion of the total resolution differs fiom that of most readers who are uilling to accept

the totality that has been achieved, even if they were not so iviIIing to accept the

alternative totality that the ogress sought Similarly, within the tale of "The Story of the

Three Little Pigs" it is the mere possibility of a particular totality being achieved - that of

the wolf - that strikes most readers as being disconcerting. Nevertheless, because the

reader is encouraged to view the story fiom the point of view of the pig, the totality

reached in the "happily ever after" ending is intended to bring about a certain sense of

relief. In syrnpathizing with the pig, rnost readers will syrnpathize with his utapian vision.

The totality achieved in the typical fairy tale "happily ever afiei' ending, then,

extends beyond the tale itself. In order for the vision to be a truly utopian one it is

necessary for it to be shared, and participated in, by al1 involved - the story's characters,

narrator, and readers aIike. In fact, close observation reveals that, in the end, even fairy

tale "villains" usually corne to be participants in the persona1 utopian vision of the victor

(against which they have waged battle throughout the body of the narrative). More often

than not, villains are not simply and paçsively punished for their deviance by the newly

established powers that be; they tend to take an active role in their own punishment. It

must be granted that the ways in which this active participation is brought about Vary

geatly; some villains participate in their own destruction quite voluntarily while others do so unwittingly and still others are forced. Nevertheless, it is significant to note that fuir;. iz!e ~.ri!!uics lsaa!!y scffrr ut kir m,rr c.il!irnLb cr unwilling, witting or unt.s?ttinm3

hm&.

ln Perrault's "Sleeping Beauty" tale, for example, it is the ogresdQueen-mother

who, being '30 angry to see her plans go awry," throws herself into the vat of "vile beasts" by which she is devoured (SB 47). Likewise, the wolf Corn "The Three Little

Pigs" climbs down the third little pig's chimney and (unwittingly) into the pot of boiling water of his own volition and aIthough Snow White's stepmother is "forced to step into the red hot shoes," her death is brought about through Rer ovm dancing (SW 73). The list goes on: Rumpelstiltskin tears himself in two (R 117); the witch in "Hanse1 and Gretel" puts her head into her own oven (H&G 105); Ashputtle's stepsisters cut off their owt toe and heet (A 63-4). Even the wolf from the Grimms' "Little Red Cap" is not simply executed at the hands of the hunter who cuts him open but, instead, kas his beIly filled with Stones so that upon his having awakened he dies in his own attempts to run away

(LRC 29). In short, it may easily be seen that while many villains voluntarily choose destruction itself (such as Sleeping Beauty's stepmother or Rumpelstiltskin) others are given little choice in the matter (such as the wolf in "Little Red Cap" or Snow White's stepmother). In either case, though, whether brought about through voluntary action or through tnckery and/or coercion, the final act of the typical fairy tale villain is one that corresponds with the totality of the vision at hand - the elimination of dissent through self-destruction.

Thus, the typical fairy tale resolution is made absolute in that even the heretofore figure of dissent and deviance - the representative of a counter discourse or an alternative point of view - becomes, willingly or not, a participant in the (somewhat more than) dominant order. "Happily ever after" is achieved because, in the end, al1 characters betong to and act as agents of the sanie absolute power structure whereby they articulate

(through actions more than words) a single point of view. That most readers corne to share this perspective and read the typical fairy tale resolution as a happy one should corne as no surprise; the tale strives to leave us no other choice by ensuring that alternative points of view no longer exist.

1: 1: is this, the fairy tale's stnving towards the elirnination of counter discourses in its quest for an absolute and ideal resolution, that accounts for the severely cruel and unusual methods by which villains are punished. ln his analyses of the standard fate of a farniliar fairy tale villain, the witch figure, Lutz Rohrich observes, "[tlhe punishments for witches aim at the total destniction of their bodies: buming, scattering the ashes in the wind, ripping apart, and drowning" (130). Moreover, such destruction of the witch's body is not motivated, primarily, by cruelty or a thirst for vengeance but by the fact that

"according to folk belief, only total destruction guarantees reversal of the witch7smagic"

(Rohrich 130). In other words, the witch (both of fairy tale and of histoiy) is destroyed not so much with the intention of having her pay for past crimes as with the intention of destroying her power as a future threat. Within the realm of the fairy taie, however, any deviant body - be it wolf, spindle or stepmother - represents a threat to the fairy tale drearn. Hence, most such threats within the fairy tale are subjected to a fate similar to that of the witch. From Snow White's stepmother to the woif in "Little Red Cap," villains suffer death for much the same reason that Bner Rose's father orders "that every spiodle in the kingdom should be destroyed" (BR 49). Al1 are threats to the idealistic vision of a "happily ever aftei7resolution and al1 must be annihilated, cornpletely and absoiutely, in order that this vision may be achieved and maintained.

Ideal happiness, though, is not the mere result of the forces of good having gained power over the evil villain; ideal happiness is also articulated and defined tlzrouglz the villain's destruction. In fact, it could even be argued that it is his or her very destruction that defines the villain as such. Who or what is to be defined as good and who or what is to be defined as evil depends, ultimateiy, upon who wields the power. To be powerless, mly and absolutely powerless that is, not only results in the loss of one's ability to articulate one's own perspective, but also in one's being used to articulate the perspective of power.

Any judgement of good and evil within fairy tales depends more upon who wins and who loses than it does upon the actions or motives of the characters. Indeed, hero/ines and villains alike tend to act in strikingly similar manners and according to similar motives. Whereas the wolf attempts to eat the third little pig, it is the pig that ends up eating the wolf (TLP 72). Snow White's stepmother makes several attempts on the Iife of her stepdaughter only to be executed at Snow White's wedding, if not by the hands of the

Princess, at least in her name (SW 72). The witch plots to cook Gretel in her oven, but in the end it is Gretel who turns the tables by pushing the witch in "to be bumed miserably to death" (H&G 105). As Maria Tatar observes, "These victims of vioience have no trouble turning into agents of revenge, and it is astonishing to see how vigorously and adeptly fairy-tale protagonists punish their oppressors (who usually take on the mask of stepsister, witch, or ogre) and derive pleasure [or, at least, arrive at happiness] from their agony" (Of Widz Their Heads ... 169). In short, if there is a qualitative difference between fairy tale herohnes and fairy tale viIlains it has little to do with the ways in which they

choose to exercise power, once attained, in the direction of their enemies. The main

difference between the herohne and the villain in such cases would seem to be the

difference betwem success and failure.

Of course, such an observation might well be met with the standard schoolyard

defence, "well they started it." Nevertheless, a closer examination and cornparison of two other tales, Jacobs7 "Jack and the Beanstalk and Perrault's variant of "Little Red Riding

Hood," suggests that this defence will not suitilce. The sad truth is, in the tale of "Jack and the Beanstalk," it is the hero, Jack, who "starts it." It is Jack who climbs the beanstalk, takes advantage of the hospitality of the ogre's wife (who not only aliows him in and gives him something to eat but even helps him to hide from and to escape from her husband) and then runs off with "one of the [ogre's] bags of gold under his am" (J&B

63). Furthemore, Jack retums a second time, is once again greeted, fed and hidden by the ogre's wife, only to commit a second act of thievery in stealing "the hen that lays the golden eggs" (J&B 65). In fact, it is not until Jack's third and final tip up the beanstalk, and his ensuing attempt at stealing the ogre's singing harp, that the ogre finally takes retaliatory measures in running off in angry pursuit of Jack. By no ineans cm Jack's killing of the ogre be seen as an act of repayment for crimes committed against himself; to the contrary, it is Jack who has committed crimes against the ogre. Considering the fact that this is Jack's rhird trip up the beanstalk and his third act of theft, despite his being no longer poor and desperate (having already stolen the hen that lays the golden eggs), it is difficuh, even, to view the case in terms of self-defence. Certainly the ogre is out to kill hirn, but then, one might argue that Jack had no business being up there in the first place (or at least in the third place). Yet, there can be little doubt that Jack is the hero of the tale, the ogre the unmistakable villain. Through his destruction of the ogre, Jack, in effect, destroys the ogre3 point of view. Just what constitutes happiness, and good or evil for that matter, is lefi up to Jack. The ogre's o\ÿn happiness or opinions concerning good and evil, his alternative personal vision of utopia as it were, is no longer relevant as the ogre no longer exists. Jack does not win because he is right; he is right because he wins.

Adrnittedly, it would be difficult for most to view such a figure as the boy-eating ogre as being a hero, regardless of the outcome of his battle with Jack. Yet, as we rnay observe in Perrault's "Little Red Riding Hood," a tale's conclusion does have an unrnistakeable effect on Our judgement of its characters. In many ways, Little Red is very much like Jack. Each ventures into the unknown and each risks being eaten because of it.

However, it is only Little Red who is ultimately devoured and, while the reader may remain somewhat sympathetic to the child, her fate (as 1 have noted earlier) is intended to send a clear message. Folklorists have classified "Little Red Riding Hood as belonging to a sub-genre of "[w]arning or scare tales" (Rohrich 48). Such "cautionary tales," as

Maria Tatar describes them, "demonstrate how children with undesirable traits - deceitfulness, curiosity, insolence - corne to a bad end" ("Beauties vs. Beasts.. ." 141).

Little Red's fate puts on display the consequences of ciisobedience. She may be the protagonist within the narrative, but Little Red is no heroine; she is eaten because she is a - .. --oad iittie girl." From this it may be gathered that, given a similar ending, Jack's stow would carry a similar message. Death to Jack would irnply a warning not only against going into the unknown, but also against greed and theft. More importantly, it would serve to define Jack as deviant rather than as hero. Such speculation, it must be confessed, is merely subjunctive; as the tale stands, Jack is no/ devoured; Jack is the hero.

Nevertheless, the juxtaposition of Jack's tale with that of "Little Red Riding Hood" helps to shed some Iight on the nature of punishment and death so common in fairy taIe resolution. Executions are not simply acts of power; they are aiso discourses of power.

The destruction of deviant bodies does serve to eliminate a specific source of dissent - 2. threat to the dominant power stnicture - but it also serves to communicate the consequences of dissent in general and even to define what is to be considered acceptable or unacceptable behaviour. Therefore, the fact that so many tales ending "happily ever after" also end with homfic death and destruction should corne as no shock. The two go hand in hand. Absolute good is rooted in absolute power and both are part and parce1 of the vision of perfection achieved, maintained and defineci through the total destruction of deviance.

Punishrnent and revenge are not the primary motives behind the cruel treatment of fair). tale villains; totality is. Close examination reveals this to be the case even in seemingly anomalous examples, such as Gnmms' "Ashputtle," in which villains are not thoroughly destroyed or killed. Indeed, Cinderella7s (Ashputtle's) stepsisters are not destroyed at the end of the Grimm variant of the tale but, instead, both have their eyes

"pecked out" by doves at Cinderella's wedding (A 65 j. This would seem a clear instance of the punishment for, rather than the annihilation of, deviance; the tale even tells us that

"both sisters were punished with blindness to the end of their days for being so wicked and false" (A 65 [italics mine]). However, it would be a rnistake to dismiss this punishment as being a random act of cruelty. In fairy tales, in accordance with pre- modem concepts ofjustice, the maxim "the punishment must fit the crime" is taken quite literally. In history and fairy tale endings alike it is often the case that "[s]pecific parts of

the body involved in the crime are punished (Etohrich 132). This is essentially what takes

place in "Ashpuîtle." The steprnother and her daughters tell Cinderella that she cannot go

to the ball because of her appearance: "We'd only be ashamed of you" (A 61). Further,

when she does appear at the ball it is stated that "[hler sisters and stepmother didn7t

recognize her" (A 62). The general implication houglzout the tale is that the problem

with the stepsisters, the reason that they treat Cinderella so badly, has much to do with their failure to recognize and appreciate her for the beautiful young girl that she is. Their vision is flawed and, thus, it is their faulty vision that is, quite literally, destroyed. The destruction of deviant bodies is no less total in "Ashputtle" than in other tales; it is simply more specific. Here, as in other fairy tales, "happily ever after" is achieved through thc annihilation of dissenting viewpoints, the total destruction of al1 things deviant.

Conforminp deviance: the production of docile bodies

The total destruction of deviant bodies, while being perhaps the most outwardy blatant method through which the typical fairy tale reaches totality in its resolution, is not the only way in which "happily ever after" endings are brought about. As has already been pointed out through an examination of the Grirnms' version of the "Little Red

Riding Hood" tale in relation to that of Perrault, the confonnity of the deviant body is equally effective in achieving fairy tale totality. Conversely, an examination of Perrault's version of the "Cinderella77 tale, as it relates to that of the brothers Grimm, illustrates much the same point. Perrault's tale ends with the stepsisters finally recognizing Cinderella as "the beautihl lady they had seen at the bail" and then throwing "themselves

to fier feet to beg iier to tôrgive them for aii the bad treatment she had received frorn

ihem," which CindereiIa does "with al1 her heart" (C 58). Hence, the "villains" of the tale

are neither punished nor destroyed. Rather than their vision being violently removed (as

is that of their Grimm comterparts), the stepsisters' vision is eEectively altered.

Nevertheless, whereas Perrault's fairy tale resolution is far less violent than that of the brothers Grimm (which probably has much to do with the reason that it is Perrault's tale that serves as the basis for most popular storybook and movie adaptations), it is no less total. In either case the "happily ever after" realm envisioned is one fiee, totally and absolutely, hmdissent. Resolution cornes about oniy when Cinderella's persona1 utopian vision goes thoroughly unçhallenged. In the end, the point of view that wins out does not merely become dominant; it also becomes absolute in that it cornes to be shared by al1 parties involved. The stepsisters of Perrault's Cinderella, like the Gnmms' Little

Red, are not destroyed by the totality of fairy tale resolution precisely because they conform to said totality and become a part of it. Although they remain, dissent does not.

Far fiom posing a threat to Cinderella's "happily ever after" existence, her stepsisters (in accepting the newly ordered power structure in which CindereIla7sposition is higher than their own) corne to re-enforce it.

It must be noted that in the typical fairy tale, as in Life, conformity need not always imply a loss of security or a decline in statu. To the contrary, conformity often means increased security and comfort through an alliance with power. Cinderella's stepsisters, for example, ackieve an elevated status through their conformity. By aligninç themselves ~4thCinderella's power, rather than opposing it, the stepsisters succeed in participating in, and becoming beneficiaries of, the "happily ever after" resolution. The

story concludes by informing us, "Cinderella, who was as good as she was beautifûl, took

her sisters to live in the palace and arranyd for hnth nf-thcm to be marrieci, on the sarne

&y [the &y of Cinderella's own royal wedding], to great lords" (C 58). Certainly, this

conclusion would seem to contrast greatly with that of the tale as told by the brothers

Grimm: "both sisters were punished with blindness to the end of their days for being so

wicked and false" (A 65). Further examination, however, reveals that the two endings

have much more in common than one might suppose. First it must be noted that, while the conclusion to the "Cinderella" story is in many ways a representative mode1 of the typical fairy tale ending, both Perrault and the Brothers Grimm avoid closing the tale with the familiar phrase, "happily ever after." Nevertheless, in each instance Cinderella'~

"happily ever after" existence is implied through the fate of her stepsisters. Perpetual happiness, in the case of the Grimm variant, is implied in the fact that the stepsisters, having been disabled by their blindness, no longer pose a threat to Cinderella or to her perfect fairy tale life; they have been rendered powerless. Perpetual happiness, in the case of the Perrault variant, is implied in the fact that the stepsisters, having been permitted a srnall share in Cinderella's good fortune, have been stnpped of their motivation to pose a threat; they have been made docile. Totality is achieved not in the guarantee that the stepsisters cannot threaten the power structure, but in the guarantee that, as its beneficiaries, they wiil nof threaten the power structure. Resolution is achieved through

Cinderella's success in bringing about the conformation and transformation of her stepsisters fiom deviant into docile bodies. Within the absolute realm of the typical fairy tale resolution the existence and creation of docile bodies is often as prevalent, and as important, as the annihilation and destruction of deviant ones. Many fairy tale herohnes, in fact, achieve "happily ever aftei' in conforming to an existing power structure rather than by achieving an absolute dominance of their own. As rnany feminist theonsts have suggested, this is especially true of female characters. Karen Rowe declares, "fairy tales perpetuate the patnarchal status quo by making female subordination seem a romantically desirable, indeed an inescapable fate" (325). One need not look very far to discover that, for many fairy tale heroines, the prospect of living "happily ever after" involves subordination to the invariably male mler of a totalitarïan realm. Snow White, for example, achieves happiness and security only once she has agreed to marry a Prince. Of course, marnage in and of itself does not necessarily suggest female subordination. Yet, in reading the tale one might be tempted to observe the conditions Ieading up to the mam'age with a degree of cynicism. After all, wlien the Prince first encounters Snow White, and decides to take her off to his castle, she is lying in a coffin in a death sleep. Although she is reanimated before any wedding plans are made, there remains, in her easily won acceptance of the

Prince's rnam-age proposal, a sense that Snow White's control of the situation is hardly more legitimate than had she remained asleep. Incidentally, the proposa1 itself is phrased not as a question but as a demand: "come with me to my father's castle and be my wife"

(SW 72). Simply put, the implications of the tale's happy resolution are somewhat disconcerting. In it, perfect happiness is achieved not only in the totaIity that resutts out of the destruction of the stepmother, but also that which results out of Snow White's own submission to dominant power. Unfortunately, not al1 instances of female submission to dominant male powr are

equally disconcerting. Many, such as Basile's "Sole, Luna, E Talia" or the Grimms'

"Rurnpelstiltskin" are far more troubling, indeed. As does Snow White's Prince, Talia's

King cornes upon her when she is under a sleeping spell. However, whereas the Prince's

infatuation with the sleeping Snow White prompts him to have her carried off to his

castle, the King's infatuation with TaIia results in his "carr[iing] her to a couch" where

he "gathered the fniits of love" (SLT 37)' as Basile so euphemistically puts it. Rape,

though, is rape, regardless of how poetically it is described. Simply put, Talia is the

epitome of the passive female, not to mention the docile body, while the King who takes

advantage of her is the ultimate representative of absolute power (and tyranny, for that matter). The most troubling aspect of this tale may not be the rape itself, but in the fact that the tale's "happily ever after" ending includes Talia's mamage to the man who has raped her. It is only through her total passivity, her non-resistance to the totalitarian authonty of the King, that Talia achieves the fairy tale ideal.

In the Grimms' classic tale, "Rumpelstiltskin," the miIler7s daughter, who filIs the role of heroine in the narrative, achievesisuffers a similar utopian fate. Although the King of this tale is no rapist, he is no less a tyrant for that. In fact, it is the King, not

Rurnpelstiltskin, who represents the most immediate danger to the miller's daughter.

Twice he Iocks her in a room fuIl of straw and Ieaves her with the threat that if she has not spun a room full of "straw into gold by tornorrow moming, [she] will die" (R 115).

Twice she succeeds in her task and escapes death (with assistance fkom Rumpelstiltskin).

Finally, the King locks the miller's daughter in a third room full of straw, but this time he leaves her with a promise rather than a threat: "You'll have to spin this into gold tonight, but if you succeed, you shall be my wife" (R 1 15). Of course she does succeed and, thus,

"the beautifid miller's daughter became a queen" (R 116). Like Talia, the miller's daughter passively submits herself to totalitarian authority. In short, she achieves the fairy tale ideal of security and happiness through her rnarriage to the very tyrant who threatened her in the first place. "RurnpeIstiltskin" serves as an effective illustration of the choice so many fairy tale figures (blllains and herohes alike) are faced wïth: one may oppose, or fail to satisQ, the dominant power and be destroyed by it, or one may submit to the dominant authority thereby achieving a place within the "happily ever after" totality through an altiance with power.

In their striving towards a cornmon goal of a perFect existence, fairy tales would seem to promote conformity in general. Most "happily ever after" endings entai1 a submission to or an alliance with the dominant power structure and those who occupy a position of authonty within that power structure. The Grimms' "Little Red Cap," for instance, ends happily with Little Red's decision that, from this point fonvard, she will obey the rules of her mother (LRC 301, the representative of adult (and even patriarchal) authority. Likewise, the stepsisters in Perrault's "Cinderella" win a place in the "happily ever after7' by subordinating themselves to Cinderella, who has become the representative of royal authority as the Prince's Bride, and "[throwing] themselves at her feet" (C 58).

Moreover, although Cinderella herself may be seen as an active heroine - she attends the bal1 of her own volition and reveals her identity as "the beautiful lady [.. .] at the ball" of her own free will in requesting an opportunity to try on the gIass slipper to "see if it might not fit" (C 58) - her happiness, too, is the end result of the fact that she confonns (with the help of her fairy godrnother) to the Prince's ideal of feminine beauty, whereby she is aligne4 through marriage, to royal rule. Joseph Jacob's tale, "Jack and the Beanstalk,"

concludes similarly in telling us that the male protagonist, Jack, "married a great princess,

and they lived happy ever after" (J&B 67). Regardless of his success in having acquired

great riches through his adventures at the top of the beanstalk and his having effectively dispatched the ogre, Jack's "happily ever after7'life is not complete until he has attained a position within the ruling power structure. Further, the implication would seem to be that just as Snow White and Cinderella obtain their royal position because they conform, as extremely beautiful young ladies, to the standard image of royal Princesses, Jack obtains his royal position because he confoms, as an extrernely wealthy young man, to the standard image of royal Prince.

Within the realm of the typical fairy tale those who are permitted to participate in the "happily ever after" that is established at the end of the narrative, be they villain or hero, are not destroyed precisely because they fit neatly into the niling power structure at hand. Overall, it would seern that resolution is rooted as much in the creation of docile bodies as in the destruction of deviance. Totality is the aim. If Little Red is to live happily and avoid being devoured she must first become an obedient little girl. If Cinderella's stepsisters are to avoid having their eyes pecked out, they must agree "always to love ber"

(C 58). If Snow White and Sleeping Beauty are to acquire perpetual happiness they must passively accept the advances of a lovesick Prince or King. Even Jack cannot live "happy ever afief' (J&B 67) until he has become, through his marriage to a Princess, a part of the dominant power. In short, fairy tale resolution of perfect happiness cornes about only when totality has been achieved, when deviant bodies have been destroyed and only those who conform to the prevailing order remain. Keepine deviance out: brick walls and locked doors

The "happily ever after" fairy tale resolution implies not onIy perfect happiness

achieved, but also perfect happiness maintained. As the "Sleeping Beauty" taIes indicate,

however, the task of maintaining perfection is a dificult one to say the least. As has been suggested in the first chapter of this thesis, the fairy tale vision is a fragile one; even the slightest flaw, a pea in a Princess's bed, a prick in her finger, represents a deviant body and a threat to the perfect order. It is for this reason that Brier Rose's father orders "that every spindle in the whole kingdom should be destroyed" (BR 49)' and that Sleeping

Beauty's father "forbade the use of a spindle, or even the possession of one, on pain of death" (SB 4 1 ). Each attempts to rnaintain their daughter's perfect happiness, one through the destruction of the threat, the other through the forced conformity of his subjects. The

King in Basile's version of the tale deals with the situation in another manner; through his command "that no flax or hemp or any other similar material should ever corne into his house" (SLT 36), Talia's father attempts to keep the threat out. This is a third method commonly employed in the typical fairy tale's stnving towards a "happily ever after" ending.

The Grimms' epilogue to the tale, "Little Red Cap," serves to illustrate this point.

Here we discover that despite the destruction of the wolf and the confomity of Little Red within the stoq proper the child and her grandrnother are yet susceptible ro the threat of wolves. Nevertheless, although Little Red encounters a second wolf on the way to visit her grandmother, the ideal fairy tale realrn of grandmother's house is successfully defended fkom the threat of the wolf by grandmotheryssimple plan to "just lock the door [sol he won't be able to get in" (LRC 30)- Although Little Red's safety is dependent upon her conformity to parental authori~jin resisting the wolf s attempts "to make her Ieave her path" (LRC 30) as weI1 as the eventual drowning of the wolf so that she cm safely return home, it is equally dependent upon the locked door that keeps deviance, in the fom of the wolf, from gaining access into the house. The "happily ever after" realrn envisioned in "Little Red Cap" is a garrison of sorts. Perfect happiness is maintained for

"ever after" through the act of locking representatives of dissent out and, incidentally, by locking representatives of the prevailing totality in. Litîle Red's personal utopia is a spatial one consisting of grandrnother's house, her own house and the path in between. To leave the path, or to unlock the door, is to bnng about one's own destruction. In short, in order for Little Red to live "happily ever after'' she must avoid difference and dissent; she must keep out of the unkno~mand keep the unknown out. Hence, the fairy tale vision encountered here and in the resolution of many other fairy tales is, even for those who control it (including the tierohne), somewhat stifling. "Happily ever after," as most fairy tales would have it7 has little to do with freedom from the threat of danger or dissent and much more to do with a perpetual vigilance directed towards the goal of maintaining an impenetrable bamer between a fairy tale existence and anything that poses a threat.

Such is, arguably, the prïmary theme of Joseph Jacobs' tale, "The Story of the

Three Little Pigs." What sets the third little pig apart from the other tsvo - what results in his achieving a "happily ever after" existence as opposed to being devoured by the wolf as are his siblings - is precisely his success in having encased himself within an impenetrable fortress. The dwelling of the third little pig is a space no more ideal than that of the first and second little pig except in its effectiveness in keeping the \volves at bay, as it were. It might also be noted that, while the house of "furze" (TLP 69) built by the second little pig is çignificantly stronger than the house of straw built by the first, both share the same fate. A doubled effort of huffing and puffing is required of the wolf in his task of blowing the furze house down as compared with the straw house (TLP 69).

Nevertheless, both houses are Iess than perfect in the protection they offer and, therefore, both houses suffer colIapse and both pigs are ultimately devoured. In accordance with the fairy tale ideology of perfection and flawlessness only the third Iittle pig, locked inside the perfect security of his brick house, survives the woIf who is not free to enter. His sumival, though, depends not only upon his success in lirniting the wolf s freedom to go where he would; it is also dependent upon the Iimiting of the pig's own fieedorn to corne and go as he wishes. If the pig is to go anywhere, be it to dig turnips, to pick apples, or to attend the fair, he must leave the security of his home when the wolf is not there and he must retw and lock himself inside before the wolf has amved. Total safety and happiness - for the third.little pig, as for Little Red Riding Hood - requires that limits be put on the free mobility of al1 parties involved ("hero/inel' and "villain" alike). Such boundaries are not to be taken lightly. To overstep them is to bring about either the collapse of the secure reah of the ideal fairy tale existence or the destruction of the individual who has placed/found him or herself on the wrong side of the boundary. This, of course, is what takes place in the resolution of "The Story of the Three Little Pigs."

Having gained entrante, through the chimney, into the house the wolf is instantly eliminated by the third little pig who "boiled him up, ate him for supper, and lived happily ever aftenvards" (TLP 72), thereby maintaining totality and, fiom the pig's perspective at least, a utopian reaim. Jacobs' tale, "Jack and the Beanstalk" contains a similar resolution as the ogre, like the wolf, is destroyed in his very attempt to enter Jack's newly established persona1 utopia at the bottom of the beanstalk. Moreover, in fis act of cutting down the beanstaIk

Jack not only destroys the immediate intnider who threatens his happineçs; he also eliminates the potential of any future threat from the clouds, such as the ogre's wife.

Although Jack's solution to the problem of the unknown does not include the constniction of a brick wall or gmison, it is equally effective in that it maintains totality by isolating it, by cutting it off, literally, from contact with those who might destroy it. What makes

Jack's own perfect existence different fiom that of the Little Red or the third Little pig, however, is the fact that Jack has stolen it fiom the very entity, the ogre, who threatens to take it away. In chopping down the beanstalk. Jack is, in effect, taking a step in preventing intruders fiom the land at the top of the beanstalk hmdoing to him what he has done to the ogre (of course, Jack still has his fellow humans to worry about, but his eventual alignment with power through money and his maniage to a Princess go a long way in guarding against this threat). Interestingly, such measures are not necessary prior to Jack's having successfully achieved a totally happy existence. For as long as Jack's life remains less than totally perfect, even once he has escaped poverty through his theft of the gold laying hen but is still "determined to have another try at his luck up there at the top of the beanstalk" (J&B 65)- the beanstalk remains a source of opportunity for Jack by which he may improve his life. It is only once his vision of a perfect existence has been made complete, once there is nothing left for him to gain, that the beanstalk becomes a threat. Such is the price of perfection: once one has achieved it, one must put up walls and create bamers in an effort to protect it fiom those who would take it for themselves. The result is a loss of freedom and mobility for al1 involved. Just as the woif must be kept out

of the house, Little Red and the third little pig must remain inside (or, at least, on the right

path). Just as the inhabitants of the land in the clouds must be kept from entenng Jack's

world, Jack may never again experience an adventure in the clouds. Hence, the ideal

realrn envisioned in these fairy tales is not rnerely a reaIm fiee from the hazards of the

Iess than perfect space existing outside; it is also a realm cut off and isoIated from ail

others.

"Homblv Ever After"

In the final analyses, the world of absolute perfection envisioned in so many fairy

tale resolutions is not so ideal as it may first appear. It has been the argument of this

thesis that the "happily ever after" resolution so common to the typicai fairy taIe is one

based on totality and absolute power. It is brought about through the cornpiete annihilation, whether by means of conformity or the often-violent destruction, of dissent and difference. In short, the absolute perfection so rigorously sought after throughout the body and so successfully achieved at the concIusion of such tales is, in fact, a totaIitarian realrn; the very prospect of perfection, thus envisioned, is problematic at best and in many instances quite horrifie. Nevertheless, the typical fairy taIe is quite effective in glossing over the more problematic and homfic implications of the standard fairy tale vision.

Upon closer observation, however, one might be tempted to describe the standard

"happily ever after" fairy tale resolution in much the same terms used by Hans Christian

Andersen's Princess, in "The Princess and the Pea," as she describes a night spent sleeping on "twenty mattresses and twenty eiderdowvn quilts" and a single pea: "It's

homble!" (P&P 2 1). Indeed, any state in which a single pea could hinder one's sleep, not to mention making one "black and blue al1 over" (P&P 21), truly is homble. Ultimately, the "happily ever after" realm of the typical fairy tale resolution is such a state. Totality of any sort, even total happiness, rneans horror for al1 involved. Those who do not "fit" must conform or be brutally, unmercifùlly and absolutely destroyed andior even devoured.

Because "happily ever after" is a fragile state, because perfection rnay suffer collapse due even to the slightest of flaws, it may be achieved and maintained only through the establishment of absolute power. Dissent or anything ninning counter to the prevailing order, anything different as it were, must be reduced to powerlessness. Stepmothers and wolves, giant ogres and tiny mystetious men without names, spindles and peas alike - al1 must be elirninated absolutely and completely at the hands of those in control of the prevailing vision of absolute happiness.

Even for those in control, perfection has its price. In order to maintain it they must lock others out and lock thernselves in; they must remain perpetually wary of those who would take away or destroy their perfect state. Although fairy tale heroes and herohnes suffer many hardships and are threatened by various fn'ghtening dangers throughout the body of their tales, I would suggest that nothing could be more frightening than the totality with which these hardships and dangers are ultimately eliminated. Yet, the question remains: If "happily ever after" is no way to end a faiiy tale, what is? Over the yeae others have attempted to answer this question and these attempts will be the focus of my third and final chapter. Chapter III - Fairy Tale Alternatives:

Revisioning "Happily Ever After" However common, the conventional "happily ever after" mode of the traditional

fairy tale has not gone totally unchallenged over the years. Much criticism has been

focused upon calling into question standard fais. tale ideals. Some of the most thought

provoking challenges that have been posed to the conventional fairy tale, though, have

been posed not through critical texts, but through narrative texts written in not so

conventional fairy tale form. While the tales with which Ive are most familiar tend to

subscribe to the "happily ever afier" formula, there has long existed, as well, a counter

tradition - a dissenting voice as it were - that remains wary of the prospect of fairy tale

perfection. The fairy tale canon includes a virtually countless number of what may be

described as "counter-narratives" - originating out of a variet. of different cultures, eras

and locations - that express varying degrees of cynicism towards the conventional

"happily ever after" ideal. Such tales include variants of farniliar narratives told in a not

so familiar manner, from an unfamiliar point of view or provided with an alternative

ending. Also, there exist what may be described as "anti-fairy-tales" in the fom of

or@naI narratives wîth reverse fâiry tale ideals such as the celebration of

differenceldissent, a negative view of perfection and a conscious avoidance of absolute

closure. In any case, these tales pose a direct challenge to the status quo. Far from

glossinp over the more negative implications of the dominant fairy tale ideal of total and perfect happiness, counter-narratives and anti-fairy-tales work to forepround the problematic and horrifie. Most importantly, perhaps, many revise the standard fairy tale vision by offenng an alternative to the totality involved in ending "happily ever after."

In discussing the issue of fairy tale revision it must be granted that ''[alny tnie fairy tale, like al1 folklore is characterized by the criteria of 'multiple existence' and 'variation"' (Dundes 261). As has been made clear in the previous chapters of this study,

even such "authoritative" texts as those written by Perrault and the Brothers Grimm offer

similar tales in variant forms. Nevertheless, such narratives, while differing corn one

another, cannot legitimately be viewed as nrnning counter to one another as they tend to

cany similar messages and to be based upon shared ideals. Although Perrault's Little Red

Riding Hood is devoured never to be heard fiom again, in contrast with her Grimm

counterpart, Little Red Cap, who is rescued from the belly of the wolf, the message in

each case remains the same: little girls should obey their mothers, avoid strangers, and generally keep to the right path. Likewise, even though the "CinderellaY7story told by

Perrault differs, in many regards, from that related by the Brothers Grimm in their tale of

"Ashputtle" (for example, CindereIla receives assistance from a fairy godmother whife

Ashputtle is assisted by a hazel tree and the birds nesting therein), both tales suggest that ideal happiness is to be found in the heroine7sbecoming a Princess through her mamage to the Prince. In such instances different vanants of fairy tales do not truly suggest alternative visions. Our interest here is with those tales that do.

Another distinction to be made between tale variants and counter-narratives concerns the spirit in which they are told. Most traditional fairy tales and tale variants reflect a distinct sense of escapism. They are set in an ideal realm of the unreal, a world removed from everyday existence. They speak of unattainable drearns of a beîter life while staying away, for the most part, from blatant political and social commentary. Most counter-narratives, on the other hand, operate in precisely the opposite manner. The writers of such stories use their tales, quite often, to comment not only upon what they see as being the problems with traditional fair). tales but also upon what they see as being social and political problems. It might even be said that, where conventional fairy tales are told with the intention of escaping everyday existence, counter-narratives are told wlth the intention of changing it. Thus, it shodd corne as no surprise that such tales ofien resist the very notion of a perfect existence towards which the more standard fairy tale strives. As history, and especially recent history, has shown, this dream of an ideal and total state is, when applied to realiv, an unrealistic and often dangerous notion. It must also be noted that such an outlook is very much a modem one and has much to do wïth what many have perceived as the failure of the promises of "progress" (most evident in such historical realities as two World Wars). It is for this reason, perhaps, that the rnajority of counter-narratives are modem retellings. They are written by those who, in transforming the fairy tale from an escapist dream into a social critique, would pose a challenge to the ideals and ideologies presented by the traditional fairy tale.

(Re)Msions of the fairy tale ideal

Many wrïters who have posed a challenge to the ideals evident within popular fairy taIes have done so in attempting to recover the tales by providinç them, through extensive revision, with more "acceptable" ideals. Many "present-day writers have rearranged familiar motifs and characters and reversed plot lines to provoke readers to rethink conservative views of gender and power" (Zipes Don 't Ber ... 13). Although feminist w-riters must, most certainly, be credited with producinç a large nurnber of this type of revisionist fairy tale, such tales ofien suggest a valuing of other non-consemative views besides feminism, such as anti-racism or socialist ideals. In examining such narratives we might begin by looking at the popular tale of

"Snow White" as re-envisioned by The Merseyside Fairy Story Collective. \hile still

somewhat recognizable, the tale as told by the Collective deviates significantly fiom the

standard version of the Brothers Grimm. In keeping with the Grimm tale, the villain is a

"cruel and powerfùl Queen" who owns a "magic mirror7' (Merseyside 21 1). Of this

mirror, though, she does not enquire as to who is the fairest in the land but, raiher, "[wlho

is the happiest in the land" (Merseyside 2 12). The answver, of course, is the Queen herself,

and it is little wonder that she is so happy as "al1 the usehl and beautifid things that had

been made in the kingdom" are daily brought to the Queen's castle at the top of the

mountain (Merseyside 2 12). The action of the story begins when, "[olne day, among the

procession climbing the steep path to the castle were a pale little girl called Snow White

and seven little men, dwarfs, even srnaller than she" (Merseyside 2 12) who present to the

Queen a chest filled with diamonds on top of which lies a necklace made by Snow White.

The Queen, being impressed by the girl's skills, declares that Snow White is "to stay in

the castle as a jewellery maker7' (Merseyside 2 13) and, held against her will, Snow White

does just that. Whenever the Queen is pleased by Snow White's handiwork she tells the

girl she "may choose a reward (Merseyside 2 13). Although she is told that "she could be

a princess" (Merseyside 2 14), Snow White rejects this reward and, instead, asks one time to be allowed to "go home" (Merseyside 2133, another time that the Queen be less selfish

so that the people of the kingdom "will no longer be cold and hungry and miserable"

(Merseyside 214) and, finally, having been denied her fint two requests, asks for

"[n]othing7' (Merseyside 2 15). The tale finally ends when Snow White, having escaped the castle, incites an uprising against the Queen and her soldiers, and the Queen, in her attempt to throw down the rnagic rnirror that has infomed her of the coming revolution, falIs from the castle wall and is "shattered to fragments on the rocks below" (Merseyside

2 18).

While the differences between this "Snow White" tale and the one with which we are familiar are many, indeed, for the purposes of this study one difference is of particuIar interest - that is the difference in the implied "happily ever after" vision of each. Whereas the Gnmms' version of the tale reaches its "happily ever after" resolution in Snow

White's marriage to the Prince whereby she is restored to her rightful position as

Princess, the Merseyside tale soundly and adarnantly resists a like resolution. Even in the face of the Queen's threat that "unless you choose to be a pnncess you will never leave the tower again" (Merseyside 215) Snow White refuses. In doing so, however, Snow

White is not simply rejecting the reward offered by the Queen; she is also rejecting, in favor of a more collective utopian vision, the vision of perfect happiness as laid out by the

Brothers Grimm. So long as her "fiends will still be toiling in the mines" (Merseyside

213), Snow White's own potential situation, however ideal, can by no means be envisioned by her as being a happy one. In the end, "happily ever afier" is brought about not through the heroine's having been elevated in status to a position atop a poLver hierarchy (as a royal Princess), but through the effective collapse of the hierarchal system.

Hence, the Merseyside "Snow White" is not a mere variation of the conventional tale, but works, rather, as a counter-narrative. In offering an alternative vision of ideat happiness it calls into question the very desirrbility of the more familiar "happily ever after" resolution to the "Snow White" tale. This having been said, it must be noted that, although the Merseyside "Snow

White" does work to challenge and critique the more conventional fairy tale vision of the

Brothers Grimm in offering an alternative vision, this alternative vision may be

legitimately viewed as being an equally totalitarian one. The tale ends, after all, with the

destruction of the wicked Queen as she plunges to her de&. It would seem that even The

Merseyside Fairy Story Collective is loath to permit that deviance, in any form, should

remain to threaten the socialist utopia that has been established. While the tale does pose

a challenge to the Grimms' pariicular (hierarchical) brcrnd of "happily ever afier" totality,

it prescribes its own (egalitarian) brand of "happily ever afier" totality in the process.

Nevertheless, for the vast majority of readers, the Merseyside "Snow White" wi11 not be read as a stand alone story but, rather, as being irrevocabiy Iinked to the tale in its conventional form. Thus, the very concept of fairy tale perfection, of an ideal realrn, breaks down as the mere juxtaposition of alternative visions of "happily ever after7' forces one to recognizz the fact that what is considered as being ideal depends largely upon one's omset of ideals or ideologicaI stance.

This point becornes increasingly evident as one reads Jack Zipes' exhaustive case study of the Red Riding Hood tradition, Tlze Trrals B Tribuhtions of Little Red Rfding

Hood: Versions of the Tale in Socioculturai Context. Beginning with Perrault's "Little

Red Riding Hood and ending with Chiang Mi's "Goldflower and the Bear," Zipes draws on the creativity of three separate continents and almost three hundred years of history in gathering together thirty-one separate variants of the popular tale. While a great many of these variants end with a little girl being devoured, or almost devoured, as a result of her atm naivety or disobedience, alternatives to this resolution are also represented. James Thurber, for example, in his (extremely) short storv, "The Little Girl and the Wolf," has the "Iittle girl" Save herself by taking "an automatic out of her basket and [shooting] the wolf dead" (Thurber 2 10). ("Moral: It is not so easy to fool Iittle girls nowadays as it used to be" [Thurber SlO].) In her version of the tale, "Little Red Cap '65," Anneliese Meinert

Ieaves even "old Mr. Wolf7 unmdested as he stands "on the side of the road [signaling] to hitch a ride" while Little Red Cap passes by in her "sp~rtscar~~at "a hundred miles an hour" (Meinert 224). In direct contrast to the typical cautionary theme implied by more conventional variants of the tale, alternative tales such as these wouId seem to suggest throwing caution to the wind. Little Red, far fiom being presented as a spoiled and disobedient child who must either conform to the prevailing order or be destroyed by it, is transformed "into a fearless, independent girl" (Zipes Trials and Tribulations 42), in control of her OWTI destiny.

Arguably the most effective, and certainly the most anthologized, challenge to the standard resolution of the "Little Red Riding Hood" narrative cornes in the form of

Angela Carter's feminist version of the tale, "The Company of Wolves." Carter plays on a popular interpretation of the tale, most commonly associated with the Perrault variant, as being one conceming the dangers of seduction and sexual impropriety. In the moral that closes his narrative, Perrault warns that the "most dangerous beasts of all" are those

"wolves who seem perfectly charrning sweet-natured and obliging, who pursue young girls in the street and pay them the most flattering attentions'' (LRRH 27). It is precisely this type of wolf that Carter's nameless heroine ("the girl") encounters on her way to visit her grandrnother: "he laughed with a flash of white teeth when he saw her and made a comic yet flattering ~OW"(Carter 276). In keeping with the basic plot of the standard tale the "handsome gentleman" (Carter 276), who tums out to be a werewolf, parts with the girl and races off to grandmother's where he amves before her, makes short work of granny and awaits the child's arrival while sitting "patiently, deceitfûlly beside the bed in granny's nightcap" (Carter 278).

It is only once the girl reappears on the scene that Carter's tale deviates significantly from the conventional version. Trapped alone in the house with the wolf the girl, realizing "her fear did her no good, [...] ceased to be afraid" (Carter 279) and takes control of the situation: "she ripped off his shirt for hirn and flung it into the fire, in the fiexy wake of her own discarded clothing" (Carter 280). Simply put, this heroine is not the helpless victim of seduction of old but has been transformed into a seductress in her own nght. Thus, the tale ends quite unconventionally with her sleeping soundly "in granny's bed, between the paws of the tender wolf' (Carter 280). In effect, Carter reverses the standard "Red Riding Hood resolution of Perrault and the Grimms - which sees the protagonist's disobedience (her implied unrestrained sexuality) conquered or conformed - so that it is rh-ough her unrestrained sexuality that the "girl", ultimately, succeeds in taminç the beast. As does the Merseyside "Snow White," Carter's version of the "Little

Red Riding Hood" story, in supplying a familiar tale with an alternative (more appealing?) resolution, invites an interrogation of the conventional tale, its resolution and the ideals that such a resolution suggests. Even the "happily ever afier" ending of the

Grimms' "Little Red Cap" seems hollow and somewhat less than satisfactory in light of the alternative viewpoint irnplied by such adaptations as "The Company of Wolves." EquaI time for differinn tmints of view

Some of the most interesting fairy tale adaptations are those in which an alternative viewpoint is not rnerely implied but clearly represented. PIaying on the belief that there are two (or more) sides to eveq story, many fairy tale revisionists have posed challenges to some of the most popular "happily ever after'' resolutions by giving voice to the side of the story that would usuaily remain untold. One such revisionist is Prisciila

Galloway. In her story, CLBI~~dand Bone," Galloway retefls the story of "Jack and the

Beanstalk" fiom the perspective of the GiantIOgre or, more precisely, from that of his wife. Adrnittedly, other aspects of the tale have been altered: Galloway has transformed the Ogre and his wife into humans and Jack into a pygrny (the relative size differsnce being, thereby, creatively maintained); the beanstalk has ken replaced by a "sheer cliff'

(Galloway 16); in the place of a bag of gold and a gold Iaying hen, Jack makes off with a

"Ruman" (22) and a "gold terminal" (29), respectively (the harp remains a harp).

Nevertheless, the plot of the story, for al1 intents and purposes, is much the sarne as that of Jacobs' tale. Three times Jack climbs the cliff, is invited in by the narrator, hides in her oven, is srnelled by her husband, Sard, who would eat him if only he could find him, and robs the man of his most valued possessions. As he leaves for the third tirne Jack makes the mistake of playing his harp before he has gotten home and "a crashing sound," heard by Sard's wife, would seem to suggest that the tale has ended in much the same manner as Jacobs' tale as Sard, in his pursuit of Jack, falls "over the cliff' (Galloway 35) to his death. What is not the same about the ending of Galloway's variant of the tale is its irnplied tone; "happily ever after," from this new point of view, is not so happy. By shifting the tale's perspective, GaiIoway invites the reader to shi fi herhis sympathies.

Through first person narration of Sard's wife ive are given a fiesh outlook on the characters involved. Sard is not simply a bloodthirsty Ogre out to eat Iittle boys; rather, he is a man with a terminal "bone disease, Sarrow's deficiency as they cal1 it nowadays," and his only "means of keeping death at bay" is a medication (or his own special bread) made from the bones of pygmies like Jack, which are becoming increasingly scarce

(Galloway 19). Furthemore, the money spouting gold terminal that Jack makes off with during his second visit is, in fact, the source of Sard's disability income. The cumulative result of such revelations is that, as it is told from the perspective of those existing at the top of the criff, rather than that of those existing at the bottom of the beanstalk, the

"happily ever after" ending becomes a tragic conclusion. Adding to the tragic effect is the fact that as the story ends the narrator herself is dying. Having discovered that she is half pygmy, she takes an overdose of "Sard7s painkillers" in the hope that her husband might use her own bones to prolong his life (Calloway 33). His death means that her sacrifice has been made in vain. Of course, one might object to the melodrama. Regardless of this,

Calloway's tale is quite effective in its undermining of the typical fairy tale ending. Of significant interest is the narrator's futile wish for "them both to be al1 right. Sard and

Jack" (Galloway 35). In accordance with the typical fairy tale ending, this cannot be so.

The mutual exclusivity of the fairy tale vision, and its demand for a resolution that is total, dictates that what amounts to absolute happiness from the heroiine's point of view amounts to absolute horror when considered from the point of view of the supposed

villain.

The villain's perspective, though, is not the only one from which the typical

"happily ever after" fairy tale resolution may seem less than satisfactory. In his story,

"The Seventh Dwarf," Franz Hessel offers a critique of the "Snow White" tale by

irnagïning the reaction of one of the dwarves to Snow White's adventures with her stepmother and her mam-age to the Prince. The seventh dwarf tells us that it was he "wvho pdled the wicked queen7s poison comb from Snow White's hair" (Hessel 613), it was he

"who loosened the corset that would have strangled her and it was he, in an attempt '30 get one last look at the glass coffin," who "fnghtened one of the bearen" and caused him to stumble, thereby jamng the apple from Snow White's throat and reviving her (Hessel

614). However, as the dwarf Iaments, it is the Prince's arrns that Snow White sinks into upon having awakened and it is the Prince who "lifted her onto his horse" and takes her away white the dwarf "stood still and had to witness al1 this" (Hessel 614). Simply put, the joy shared by Snow White and her pince is not shared by all. Snow White's fairy tale dream having been realized, the dwafls own fairy tale dream is lefi unfulfilled. Such is the nature of the typical fairy tale vision of ideal happiness; il is often an exclusive club.

Hence, Cinderella marries Prince Channing whihile ull the other girls at the ball, not just the evil stepsisters, go home disappointed. Likewise, the third little pig, seeming to have forgotten al1 about the tragic end of his brothers, builds his fortress, does away with the wvolf, and lives "happily ever after," just as Snow White goes off to live "happily ever aftery' with her Prince in his castle, having "long since forgotten" the dwarf who "loved her7' (Hesse1 6 14). In many ways Hessel's narrative may be viewed as implying a similar critique of the conventional "Snow White" resolution as that implied by The Merseyside Fairy Story

CoIIective's adaptation of the tale. Whereas the heroine of thz Merseyside tale rejects the idea of becoming a Princess as long as she knows that her "friends ~~111still be toiling in the mine" (Merseyside 213), Hessel's Snow White, in keeping with the Grimm tale, goes off to be Princess without giving so much as a second thought. Both tale adaptations, however, work to ensure that the reader will give a second thought to the broader implications of the "happily ever after" resolution with which s/he is familiar. This, in effect, is what separates what I have referred to as "counter narratives" from mere tale variants, such as those produced by Perrault and the Grimms. Whether their alterations consist of significant changes to the plot of a famiIiar tale, as do the Merseyside "Snow

White" and Angela Carter's "The Company of Wolves," or of the telling of a largely unchanged plot from a changed perspective, as do Galloway's "Blood and Bone" and

Hsssel's "The Seventh Dwarf," such counter narratives do not simply offer a new version of a tale in place of the old. Their alterations demand that we return to the stoxy in its more familiar form, that we examine it more carefully, that we rethink its ideals and implications.

Anne Sexton's Transformations:an interrogation

Anne Sexton conducts just such an examination in Trunsformutcom, a "book of odd tales / which transfom the Brothers Grimm" (Sexton 224). Although the work does convert seventeen of the Grimms most popular tales into poetic form, Sexton avoids making any significant alterations to the tales; she does not revise the Grimm tales so

rnuch as she presents an interrogation of them. UItimateIy, Sexton's fairy tale collection

aims to uncover the illusory nature of a "happily ever after" ideal or a "right" perspective

in whatever form it may take. Hence, its method is to investigate the tales as they have been traditionally presented, simply to uncover and examine the problematic, rather than to offer an alternative vision. Without ever changing the essence or thst of these tales,

Sexton effectively and subtly prods the reader into changing herhis vantage point in order to interrogate the story as it stands. The poems do not bend or reshape the original; they simply "discover and release elements already implicit in these stories" (Hmschka

49, enlarging and pronouncing that which already exists, holding it up to scrutiny, and allowing for transformation to take place not in the fairy tale itself, but in how we read it.

As a case in point, Sexton has it that Cinderella's stepmother forbids her going to the bail not because she is z~nnatrrra/iycruel but, to the contrary, because "That's the way with stepmothers" (Sexton 257). Indeed, if we are to take our cue from such Grimm tales as "Cinderella," 3now White," and "Hansel and Gretel," that is the way ivith stepmothers. By emphasizinç, rather than adjusting or neutralizing this fairy tale bias against the stepmother, Sexton effectively puts the challenge to the reader: "This is what is being said; do you accept?" In articulating the Grimrns' point of view, she forces us to interrogate this perspective for ourselves, rather than sirnply to accept an alternative perspective as unthinkingly as we may have accepted the original. In similar fashion

Sexton's narrator effectively de-idealizes the motif of the Prince's ball within

"Cinderella" by referring to it as "a mariage market" (Sexton 256). Once again, not much has chançed from the original; the Prince's ball always \vas a rnarriage market. However, Sexton7s having nameci it as such (coupled with the "meat market" connotations of this narning) is effective in having the reader go back and rethink her/his feelings towards the event. That is not to Say that the prospect of Cindereila7s going to the bal1 becornes an aItogether negative one (any more than her stepmother becomes a positive figure); Cinderella's wish is yet to go, and one would be hard pressed to argue that she would be better off to stay home and sit in the ashes. In the rejection of Our idealistic (romantic) view of the ball, Sexton does not allow us the cornfort of simply rejecting it as wongheaded. Nevertheless, such fiank assessrnent of the true nature of the ball does provide it with a certain degree of ambivalence, which is precisely what Sexton would seern to be aiming for.

Sexton achieves a.imbivalence rnost effectiveiy in the happy ending of her

"Cinderella" story. True to form, the narrative calls into question the standard "happily ever after7' resolution of the tale not by re-writing the resolution but by defining it more clearly. As Sexton presents it, such eternal bliss as Ci~dereIIaand her Prince achieve through mariage is comparable to living as "hvo dolls in a museum case" with "srniles pasted on for eternity" like "Regular Bobbsey Twins" (Sexton 258). It is, as Rise B.

Axelrod puts it, "a deathly stasis" ( 183). In fact, Sexton herself goes so far, in her version of "The White Snake," as to refer to "living happily ever after" as being "a kind of coffin" (Sexton 232).

It is in her re/presentation of "Snow White," however, that Sexton's interrogation of the "happily ever after" ideat is most evident. As has been suggested in previous chapters of this thesis, the tale of "Snow White7' arguably begirzs in a state akin to

"happily ever after." Snow White's steprnother is both Queen and "the one beauty of the land (Sexton 225). Such is the ultimate, desirable fate of the typical fairy tale heroine.

Thus, it is Snow White herself who shatters the fairy tale dream as her beauty grows to surpass that of her stepmother. Until this point she has rernained, like ai1 peripheral characters within the realm of the fairy tale vision (consider Kessel's seventh dwarf), "no more important / than a dust mouse under the bed" (Sexton 225). Upon having had her surpassing beauty revealed, however, Snow White supplants her stepmother as most beautifid and, in doing so, takes on such significance as :O prompt the Queen to notice

"broum spots on her hand / and four whiskers over her lip" (Se.xton 225). For this, it is decided by the Queen that her stepdaughter must "be hacked to death-' (Sexton 225). A conventional reading of the Snow White tale, in sympathizing with Snow White, would classify the Queen's intentions as being eviI ones. Sexton's reading, however, does not allow us to make such clear distinctions between the cruel Queen and the innocent Snow

W~te.Rather, paralleIs are drawn between the two. These parallels become most bIatant in the closing lines of the poem in which Snow White is pictured as "sometimes referring to her rnirror / as women do" (Sexton 229). Furthemore, Sexton elaborates upon Snow

White's seeming indifference to the Queen's fate in stating that, while her stepmother is being roasted, "Snow White held court / rolling her china-blue do11 eyes open and shut"

(Sexton 229). Simply put, it is now Snow White who is the vain Queen and the stepmother who is "no more important / than a dust mouse under the bed." Hence, although Sexton does not tmly alter the story, as does The Merseyside Fairy story

Collective in their revision of the same tale, our reading of the story is effectively transformed. It is no longer the story of a wicked stepmother's cruel treatrnent of an innocent child, culminating in a just, "happily ever after" resolution; rather, it is one of conflicting interests in which new beauty (power) rises to take the position of old.

Key to Sexton's transformation process, as her "Snow White" poerdnarrative would seem to suggest, is the ambivalent tone impiied by her narrator in relation to the characters. Her aim is not to have us shifi Our sympathies, but rather to have us abandon them, to leave us without an absolute perspective. Ultimately, it is her successful achievement of ambiguity that creates problems for the readedcritic who would look to

Sexton to revise, to "fix," the Grimm tales and to constmct a better alternative. Indeed, it is this ambiguity which leads Carol Leventen to cornplain that Sexton's project fails at points in that she "unwittingly perpetuates many of the gender arrangements of the ongïnals" and, rnoreover, that "manÿ of her keenest insights and sympathies are reserved for the emotional cornplexities she attributes to her male characters" (145). One such

"sympathetic" male character to which Leventen objects, is actually the very personification of ambivalence himself, Sexton's prodairned "Doppelganger" (Sexton

333), Rurnpelstiltskin. To read Sexton's "Rumpelstiltskin" in such a way, however, is to oversimplifL the character, and the tale. Yes, Sexton brings to the fore the Dwa$s pathetic position as an outsider, a "freak" of sorts who "has been exhibited on Bond

Street," who has "no private life" and is yet lonely enough to lament, "no child dlever cal1 me papa," but she also presents hm as being the self sarne trickster of the brothers

Grimm - the self-proclaimed "evil eye" (Sexton 234). Such characterization, it mut be noted, is far removed fiom the conventional fairy tale mode according to which "[a] person is either good or bad, nothing in between" (Bettleheirn 3 12). In other words, Sexton's re-writings alIow for what the typical fairy tale and most revisionist tales will

not; they alIow for a character that is

one part sofi as a woman,

one part a barbed hook,

one part papa,

one part Doppelganger. (Sexton 237)

Ultimately, the transformation process initiated by Sexton is an ongoing one.

Absolute, unambiguous forrn and interpretation, for Sexton, is a troribling construct and, thus, she avoids any attempt at replacing that of the Grimms wïth one of her own. In essence Tranrformalions works as a critique not only of the fairy tales of the brothers

Grimm, but also of the standard revisionist fairy tale. To revise the plot of a story or to shift Our sympathies from one character to another Is to faIl into the same old trap of defining the tales and their implied ideals in terrns of perfection and the absolute. As she does in her treatment of the traditionzlly heroic characters within the tales, Sexton's avoids sentirnentalizing the Doppelganger - the "evil" other - as welI. Rather, her tone remains equally dismissive and flippant whether in reference to the misfortunes of such

"heroines" as Snow White, "the dumb bunny" (Sexton 228), as she accepts the poison apple, and Cinderella as she sleeps in soot and walks "around looking like Al Jolson"

(Sexton 256), or in reference to such "villains" as Snow White's stepmother, who dies with "her tongue flicking in and out / like a gas jet" (Sexton 229), and even

Rumpelstiltskin who tears "himself in half i somewhat Iike a split broiler" (Sexton 237).

Through such unbiased flippancy (a far cry froin the tone taken in Galloway's presentation of Sard and his wife) Sexton ensures that the reader, too, remains unbiased. To sympathize w-ith, to becorne invested in, any one character, even for a moment, would result in taking sides, which ultimotely implies the choice of a "nght" or an absolute perspective.

In contrast, the traditional mode of the fairy tale presents the point of view given as being transcendental, and assumes that al1 readers wiI1 take it as such. Sexton plays on this assurnption through the use of ofn-iand, matter-of-fact, statements that work to ampli@ and, thereby, to undercut such narrative arrogance. To this end, it is described as being "no surprise" that Cinderella, having received the dove's gift of "a golden dress / and delicate Iittle gold slippers," goes to the Prince's bal1 (Sexton 257). In effect,

Cinderella is viewed as going to the bal1 not because it is her personal desire but because it is the logical step to take; it is what anyone would do. With such commentary Sexton rnimics and mocks the traditional fairy tale failure to acknowledge the slightest possibility of alternative points of view or alternative courses of action to those that are displayed.

This point is made most effectively in the tale of "Hansel and Gretel." Having corne to the end of the tale, having delivered Hanse1 and Gretel safely home to their father,

Sexton's narrator quickly and efficiently ties up the loose end of the former treachery of the siblings' home life by declaring "Their mother, / yod11 be glad to hear, was dead

(Sexton 290). Here the narrator goes so far as to put thoughts into our head. While the

Grimms make no such declaration as to our feelings on this development, the implication here is that they, too, assume that we will be glad to hear of the mother7spassing. Again, in revealing such presurnptions Sexton's works transfonn our reading of the brothers

Grimm by awakening our suspicions to the universal perspective they assume in telling their tales. Ultimately, it must be observed that in her interrogation of the Gnmms and in her

challenge to the assurned universal perspective they present Sexton is posing a \vider

challenge to the logistics of the fairy tale genre as a whole. In striving towards an ideal

ending of "happily ever afier," a solution in which al1 things culminate in a perfect, non-

problematic, conclusion, the fairy tale mode actually necessitates an assurned universal

perspective. In order to have absolute happiness or ideal perfection, we must first assume

an absolute consensus on what constitutes happiness and perfection. Thus, standard

revisionist work, built on these self same assumptions, does not suffice for Sexton. In

effect, her transformatior? project is one that rages not against a specific ideal but against

the very idea of perfection itself, against resolution in general and against the totality

implied by the standard fairy tale approach of ending "happily ever afier."

A different approach: resistinp closure, findina fauIt with perfection

Mat none of the counter narratives dealt with up until this point offers is an

alternative to the standard fai- tale resolution. We tum our attention now to a sampling of tales and tale fragments that do offer such an alternative- A most representative example of just such a tale is Rosemane Kunzler7s 1976 version of "Rumpelstiltskin."

Kwler's tale follows very closely the plot set down by the Brothers Grimm up until the

point at which the miller's daughter has been locked up for a third night in a third room

filled with straw which she is to have spun into gold by moming. From here the plot deviates signiticantly from that with which most are familiar. Having been told by the

King that if she succeeds in spinning the straw into gold she will become his wife, the miller's daughter is approached by the same little man that has saved her on the previous two occasions. He tells her that if she will promise her "first child" (Kunzler 717) to him, he will once again perform the task at hand. To this proposition she deIivers the unexpected response, "You're crazy! [...] 1'11 never rnarry this horrible king. I'd never give my child away" (Kunzler 717). This, of course, enrages the little man and he reacts by starnping "with his right foot so ferociously that it went deep into the ground and jarred the door to the room open. Then the miller's daughter ran into the great wide world and was saved" (Kunzler 717). Making this ending most interesting is the fact that it àoes not offer an alternative resolution but, in the conventional fairy tale sense, offers no resolution at ail. The miller's daughter is simply saved frorn her current situation; she does not achieve eternal bliss. Furthemore, although his plans have been foiled

Rumpelstiltskin remains alive and, as al1 indications would seem to suggest, unreformed, as does the "horrible king" (KunzIer 717). Unlike such revisionists as the Merseyside

Fairy Story Collective or Angela Carter, who provide familiar tales with new "happiIy ever afier" visions (achieved through the collapse of power and the death of a Queen or the undermining of patriarchy through the taming of a "wolf'), Kunzler resists closure altogether. The tale is simply stripped of its "happily ever afier" resolution so that it ends in much the same less than perfect state as that in which it began.

Judith Viorst cames this technique of resisting closure to the extreme in her story,

". .. And Then the Prince Knelt Down and Tried to Put the Glass Slipper on Cinderella's

Foot." In fact, Viorst's re-writing of the Cinderella tale is hardly a story at a11 as it consists of only four lines witten in rhyming couplet:

1 really didn't notice that he had a funny nose. And he certainly looked better al1 dressed up in fancy dothes.

He's r~otnearly as attractive as he seemed the other night.

So 1think I'll just pretend that this glass slipper feels too tight. (Viorst 73)

In effect, these four simple lines leave al1 but the resolution of the conventional narrative intact and unaItered. The impIications of these lines are, nevertheIess, quite profound. Not only do they work to suggest Cinderella's rejection of the Prince, they also suggest a rejection of any ideal of perfection whatsoever. Far hmproviding the conventional tale with a more appeaIing resolution, Viorst leaves Cinderella sleeping in the ashes or, at the very least, Ieaves the reader without a sense that al1 has been resolved- This is not to suggest that the vision implied here is pessimistic. The typical fairy tale vision of

"happily ever after" is simply replaced with a vision in which total perfection remains unachieved, in which nothing is perfect, not even a Prince.

Gunther Krrnert offers a similar vision of imperfection in his retehg of the

"Sleeping Beauty" tale. As does Viorst, Kunert avoids retelling the tale in full and, instead, skips right to the ending. This ending, however, is quite different from that wvith which readers dlbe familiar. Kunert's hero, having made his way through the thorn- bushes, enters the castle only to find the Princess sleeping wïth "her toothless mouth half opened, slavering, her eyelids sunken, her hairless forehead crimped with blue, wormlike veins, spotted, dirty, a snoring trollop" (Kunert 701). The tale concludes by making a comment upon those "p]Iessed ones "who, dreaming of Sleeping Beauty, died in the hedge and in the beIief that beyond it there was a moment in which time for once and al1 stood still and certain" (Kunert 701). Simply put, Kunert, much like Viorst, replaces the typical fairy tale vision of "happily ever after" ~4tha vision in which perfect beauty is temporay at best and eternal bliss is unattainable. By tuming standard fairy taIe motifs and conventions (such as perfection and absolute closure) on their heads, such narratives work to upset the conventional reader7sexpectations not only in the fact that the endings they offer are not the endings we have come to expect from the specific tales represented, but also in the fact that the endings they offer are not the type of endings we have come to expect fiom any fairy tale.

When it comes to turning tales on their heads and upsetting fairy tale expectations

Dick King-Smith's picture book, The Topsy-Tuny Story Book, serves as an interesting study. King-Smith's fairy tale adaptations include, arnong others, "Bear and the Three

Goldilocks," "Thinderella," and "Huge Red Ridinç Hood." As the titles would suggest, these stories differ greatly from the tales upon which they are based. Perhaps the most significant of King-Smith's adaptations, as it relates to conventional fairy tale ideals, is

"The Princess And The P (For Pumpkin)." In this rem-ting of Andersen's classic, the fairy tale ideal of perfection comes to be seen as an undesirable prospect. Much like the

Prince of Andersen's tale, KingSrnithYsPrince, "being a bit of a snob [... ] only wanted to marry a Princess" (King-Smith 35). However, he ako wants "a girl who can take the rough with the smooth" (King-Smith 35). Thus, when a Princess amves at the palace in the midst of a rain storm the Queen invites her in to spend the night, not with the intention of finding out whether she is a Princess or no, but with the intention of finding "out how sensifive she is" (King-Smith 35). To this end a pea is placed under the mattresses of the bed on which the Princess will sleep. During the night the Queen retums several times to the Princess7s room where she changes the pea for a lemon "the lemon for a grapefruit and the grapemiit for a melon and the melon for a vegetable marrow" and. finally, replaces the vegetable marrow '-with-. the largest purnpkin she could find (KingSmith

36). In the morning the Princess reports that, in spite of ali this, she siept "fllike a log,"upon which the Prince proposes mamage and, giving him "a hearty slap on the back," she accepts (King-Smith 36).

In short, the desire for absolute perfection, as it is seen here, is not only an unrealistic desire, but also a negative one. The typical fairy tale Pnncess of Andersen's narrative - the Princess who is so perfect as to require that al1 aspects of her existence be perfect as well (even to the point where a pea placed under her mattresses is enough to keep her awake al1 night) - is transformed into a Princess who can deal, quite easily, with the imperfections of life. Hence, King-Smith presents a vision in which "happily ever afier" perfection is neither achieved, nor is it required. Even an imperfection as large as a pumpkin in the bed of a Princess is something that can be Iived with and, therefore, need not be eliminated.

An equally optimistic view of a less than perfect existence can be found in

Catherine Storr's tale, "Little Polly Riding Hood." Although Storr's version of the Ridinç

Hood taIe is set in a town rather than a forest, the "villain" rernains a wolf When he encounters the girl on her way to her grandmother's the wolf is reminded of a story he has

"been reading about a girl who went to visit her grandmother" which ends when a wolf

"eats up the grandmother, and Little Red Ridzng Hood' (Storr 3 18). The wolf, of course, is inclined to re-enact Perrault's tale but since Polly gets to her grandmother's by train and by bus (Storr 218), rather than by hiking through the woods, his first attempt to do so fails as he has no change to pay the fare. On the day of Polly's next trip to her grandrnother's the wolf cornes prepared with "plen@ of change in his pocket" (Storr 2 19) only to find that Polly is going, this time, by car with her parents who decline to give the wolf a ride. Finally the wolf takes a trip to Polly's grandmother's - starting "specially early" (Storr 220) in a third attempt to arrive before Polly - only to find that she is already there having corne "to lunch and tea today instead of just tea as 1 generally do"

(Storr 22 1). The main difference between this narrative and more conventional variations of the Riding Hood tale, though, lies in the fact that it ends neither with Polly being eaten, nor with the death of the wolf. Hence, the reaIm envisioned at the end of the tale is neither perfect, nor absolute. Storr's tale avoids total closure of 2ny form. When the wolf cornplains that he cannot ever get Polly as the wolf from the story he has read "managed to get his little girl," Polly observantly points out that the reason for this is that "this isn't a fairy story" (Ston 221). It might even be argued that Polly's statement is somewhat accurate; in one sense, at Irast, "Little Polly Riding Hood is nor a fairy tale in that it does not end "happily ever after" but, rather, without absolute resolution. Both Clever Polly and the wolf, rather than being destroyed, live to see another day (and to show up in other

"Clever Polly" stories). More importantly, perhaps, Polly learns no lesson in obedience and/or conformity as does her counterpart, Little Red Riding Hood.

Ultimately, tales such as "Little Polly Riding Hood" or KunzIerYsversion of

"Rumpelsti1tskin" go a step Merthan to offer a critique of conventional fairy tales and their endings. Their vely approach to tale telling is different from the traditional fairy tale approach of working towards the ideal of a perfect and absolute "happily ever after" resolution. Rather than simply prescribing a different set of ideals these taies envision a world in which the only true ideal is a less than perfect, less than total state - a world in which conflicting interests CO-existand flaws and imperfections (such as a pumpkin in one's bed or the natural effects of time and ageing) are facts of life that need not constitute disaster. By stripping conventional tales of their familiar resolutions such re- writings serve both to awaken readers to the problems of the typical fairy tale vision of perfection, such as its fragility or the totality that it implies, and to put on display an alternative vision. In short, they provide us with an answer to that afl-important nagging question: "If 'happily ever after' is no way to end a fairy tale, tvhat is?"

The anti-faiw-tale

To re-wite and revise familiar tales is not the only method that has been used to subvert the fairy tale ideology of perfection and to suggest an alternative approach to ending "happily ever after." History has also witnessed the creation of new and original tales that work, through the use of vanous techniques, to subvert the conventional fairy tale mode. As Jack Zipes has it, "[tjhe best example of the type of subversion attempted during the latter part of the nineteenth century is Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland

(1 8651, which has had a major influence on the fairy tale genre to this day" (Spell-7 of'

Encltanrrnenr [intro.] xxv). Indeed, the underground world envisioned in Carroll's popular book is about as far from being a world of totality as one could imagine. Not only are dissent and deviance present within Wonderland, they are seemingly ever-present. Carroll presents a world in which there is no prevailing order, only disorder. This makes things rather uncornfortable for Alice who has been raised, as a typical Victorian child, on 'hice liale stones about children who got bumt, and eaten up by wild beasts, and other unpleasant things, al1 because they would not remember the simple rules their m'ends had taught them" (Carroll 10, 11). Because Wonderiand is, for al1 intents and purposes, a world vithout rules the only one who does not "fit in" is, ironically, the conforrnist,

Alice.

What makes Carroll's story a true anti-fairy-tale, though, is not the fact that it imagines a world made up of dissenting and conflicting voices (evsn conventional fairy tales do this in their beginning stages), but the fact that its tone is one that implies a celebration, rather than a fear, of difference - that dissent and conflict are keys to happiness and security, rather than threats. Thus, while Ake rnay be troubled by the

Queen's repeated orders of execution ("'Off with his head!' or 'Off with her head"'

[Carroll 67]), the Gryphon, who has a better grasp of how Wonderland functions, responds by chuckling and saying "What hn!" safe in the knowledge that ''It's al1 her fancy that: they never executes nobody" (Carroll 74). Simply put, although Carroll's tale does have the customary wicked Queen, she is no real threat to anyone as her voice is, in the end, just another voice in the crowd. In tum, no one in Wonderland poses a threat to the Queen; as her power is illusory, her destruction is not a necessary step towards happiness, as is the destniction of wicked Queens within such typical fairy tales as 'Snow

White."

The Wonderland game of the Caucus-race serves as a most effective illustration of the irnplied desirability of an order based on disorder. In fact, the Caucus-race, as a game

\vithout des, may be viewed as being a microcosm of Wonderland itself. Each of the contestants, like 2ny citizen of Wonderland would do in any given situation, mns the race in hisher own distinct way; "they began running when they liked, and lefi off when they liked" (Carroll 23). As in Wonderland in general, there is no absolute goal and, as a result of this, it is impossible to Iose or to corne up short. Instead, the er.d result is that

"Everybody has won, and all must have prizes" (Carroll 23). It is this aspect of Carroll's

vision that contrasts most blztantly with the conventional fairy tale vision of a "happily

ever after" which is divided up, quite unrnistakably, into wimers (of such prizes as a

royal husband or a gold laying hen) and iosers (who, among other hardships, are forced to

dance to the death, are made so angry as to split themselves in hvo, or have their eyes

pecked out by birds). Sirnply put, Carroll effectively presents the failure to achieve any

ideal whatsoever as being the most desirable prospect of ail. Of course, it must be noted that Alice in Wonderhd onIy ends once Alice has achieved a more or less typical fairy tale resolution. With her declaration that the Wonderland creatures are "nothing but a deck of cards" Alice transforms them into just that and, in the process, brings about

Wondedandys collapse, thereby putting an end to al1 points of view conflicting with her own (Carroll 97). Nevertheless, the final paragraphs of the book concern the thoughts of

Alice's older sister as she sits on the bank wistfully considering Alice's drcam in comparison wïth "du11 reaIityn (Carroll 98). In the celebration of the state existing prior to resolution, rather than after, the book, thus, concludes with the subversion of conventional fairy tale values.

Many modem tales reflect a philosophy similar to Carroll's in their subversive approach to the writing of tales. In his story, "'Repent, Harfequin!' Said The Tickock

Man," Hsrrlan Ellison would seem to reveal a distinctively Carrollian influence and at one point even goes so far as to refer to his hero as "a laughing, irresponsible japer of jabbenvoclq and jive" (Ellison 798). Although many would classifi this story as a futuristic narrative or a science fiction, it may also be read as an anti-fairy-tale in that it plays on the reversa1 of many fairy tale conventions and motifs. Ellison7snarrative begins in a distant future in which "happily ever after" (or at least someone7sversion of "happily ever after") has been achieved. The world has been ordered so as to keep perfect time; al1 things run on schedule and lateness has become "more than a minor inconvenience;" it is now "a sin" and "a crime" (Ellison 794). Totality is maintained by the office of the

Ticbrtockman, which has devised "a method of curtailing the amount of life a person could have- If he was ten minutes late, he lost ten minutes of his iife. An hour was proportionately worth more revocation" (Ellison 794). Thus, deviame is eliminated and perfect time is kept.

Al1 live "happily ever afier" in a world of absolute punctuality until the Harlequin, a certain Everett C. Marrn, amves on the scene and throws the entire schedule into a state of disarray. Unlike the conventional fairy tale herohne, who is out to achieve a perfect existence, the Harlequin7s sole purpose is to introduce a flaw into the system, to disrupt the totality that exists. His one major act of dissent is to dump a load of jellybesns on a group of factory workers thereby successfully throiving off the master schedule "by seven minutes" (Ellison 793). As is the finger prick which results in disaster for Sleeping

Beauty, this seven minute time loss is "a tiny matter, one hardly worthy of note, but in a society where the single driving force was order and unity and equality and promptness and clocklike precision and attention to the dock [...] it was a disaster of major importance" (Ellison 793). There can be little doubt that the reaIm described here shares much in cornmon with the typical fairy tale ideal of absolute happiness. As such fairy taies as "The Princess and the Pea" serve to illustrate, in accordance with the standard fairy tale vision, any flaw or imperfection, no matter how seeminçly insignificant, represents a threat to perfect happiness; almost perfect is not perfect at al!. When the

Harlequin is finaily apprehended, therefore, he is condemned as "a nonconformist"

(Ellison 798) and, as such, is first made to conform and ta admit "that it was a good, a

very good thing indeed, to belong, to be right on time hip-ho and away we go," and

finally he is "destroyed" (Ellison 798). In true fairy tale fashion the deviant body, the

threat to perfection, is annihilated and the utopian vision of the Ticktochan is restored.

Or so it would seem until we are made privy, through a short epilogue, to the fact that

things have changed somewhat, "[tlhe schedule is a little, uh, bit off' and even the

Ticktockman himself is found to be "three minutes late" (Ellison 799). Ultirnately,

Ellison's tale effectively reverses standard fairy tale values in presenting the prospect of

even so seemingly beniçn or even positive an ideal as a world of perfect punctuality as a

homfic prospect indeed. Moreover, although the story ends on a hopeful note, this hope is

derived not from the possibility of a world of absolute perfection, as is the case with the

conventional fairy tale, but fiom the indication that, due to the deviant efforts of the

Harlequin, the prevailin~utopia has begun to break down.

In her short stoiy "The Ones Who Walk Away Frorn Omelas," Ursula K. LeGuin

offers an equally scathing critique of the utopian ideal. Ornelas is, indeed, a utopian

space. However, unlike the world of the Ticktockman, which for al1 but the obsessively

punctual is a troubling place to imagine, Omelas is an ideal realm fiom any perspective.

LeGuin ensures that this will be so by having her narrator declare "it would be best if you

irnagined it as your own fancy bids, assurning it will rise to the occasion, for certainly I cannot suit you all" (LeGuin 876). The utopian vision of the story, then, is our own.

Nevertheless, LeGuin succeeds in having us cal1 this vision into question by adding in one factor. Beneath Omelas, locked in a basement, is a srnall, greatly neglected, chiid

upon whom al1 of the greatness of the city depends. LeGuin does not explain the reasons

for this situation but rnakes it very clear that within this storyTas wïthin the typical fairy

tale, the absolute bliss of one party is dependent upon, or the result of, the absolute

despair of another. If the child "were brought up into the sunlight out of that vile place, if

it were cleaned and fed and cornforted [.. -1, in that day and hour al1 the prosperity and

beauty and delight of Omeias would wither and be destroyed" (LeGuin 879). This is the

homfic reality lying beneath the utopia of Omelas, regardless of the fom it might take in

one's imagination. LeGuin ends her story by relating "one more thing" that is "quite

incredible" (LeGuin 879). There are those who, having been made aware of the situation

of the child in the basement, "walk away from OmeIas" (LeGuin 880). Just as Ellison's

story, in a reversal of fairy tale and utopian values, ends with the hopeful prospect of a

flawed system, LeGuin ends her tale with an equally Iiopeful reversa1 with the implied

"heroiines" of the tale tumïng their backs on the utopian vision and the horror that lies beneath.

In the final analysis, this is precisely what al1 counter fairy tale narratives invite us to do. They work to rnake us aware of the problematic and homfic implications of the

"happily ever afterYyideal common to so many fairy tales and they often ask us to turn fiom this vision of perfection and to walk away. Such tales are more than variant foms of familiar narratives. They also imply a critique of popular tales in their most popular forms. They require that we go back and interrogate the "happily ever after" ideals that we have come to accept and that we view them fiom an unfamiliar perspective or in light of a different set of values. They awaken us to the totality implied in the fairy tale ideal of a perfect existence. Finally, such taIes often offer an alternative vision, a vision that is less than total, less than absolute, a vision that celebrates diRerence and finds hope not in perfect closure but in imperfection, nonconfomity, and in the power of dissent. It has been the purpose of this paper to introduce a new form of fairy tate critique, one that is concemed not so much wïth the specific world-view suggested by these tales as with the totality with which such world views achieve dominance in the typical

"happily ever after" fziry tale ending. The basic premise of my argument has been that, regardless of the fom in which it may corne, the fairy tale dream of a perfect existence itself has homfic implications. "Happily ever after," as it is presented wïthin the conventional fairy tale, is a totalitarian realm in which no thing/party/perspective remains that runs counter to a specific vision of absolute perfection. Thus, the mere existence of different points of view or even the slightest of imperfections results in fairy tale crisis as it threatens the colIapse of, or blocks the establishment of the fairy tale ideal. "Happily ever afier" is brought about only through the total elirnination of al1 flaws or the total destruction of dissent and the resultant establishment of an absolute order. In short, the conventional fairy taie resolution is problematic in its very attempt at being non problernatic.

This is a problem shared by al1 tales ending "happily ever afier," regardless of the world-view or political or ideological perspective from which each may be told. As the third chapter of this study suggests, there are also a great nurnber of tales that do not subscribe to the conventional fairy tale approach. Through a survey of some of the most interesting of such tales 1 have endeavoured to provide an answer to the question that this study would seem to suggest: If "happily ever afier" is not a satisfactory way to end a fairy tale, what is? Such counter narratives as the ones examined offer an answer to this question by taking a new approach altogether in creating a type of tale that resists closure

even in its ending, that celebrates dissent, difference and even conflict over any vision of

absolute happiness. However, one might argue that this study Ieaves us with a larger,

heretofore unanswered question concerning the importance, or even the relevance, of

such a study.

To answer this question it might be helpfid to include, in this thesis conclusion,

some of the factors contributing to the genesis of the study at hand. In doing so I would

suggest that, before any real research has even begun, let alone the process of fonnulating

ideas and witing thern dom, significant meaning is to be found in the very choosing of a

thesis topic. To choose a topic is to make a cornmitment to allot a great deal of time and

energy to a speciflc area of study The choice itself, therefore, becomes an argument; it

cames a message: this issue is important and deserves a closer look. It is wïth this in

mind that 1 chose the fairy tale genre as rny area of study. Althouyh fairy tales have been

ofien dismissed and relegated to the nursery by mature adults or even by "serious"

literary scholarship they, nevertheless, remain an important thread in the fabric of most societies. Fairy tales, unlike much literature, transcend such boundaries as class distinctions and generational or educational gaps; they are an integral part of an overall, colIective, consciousness. One need be neither a child nor a scholar to know what to expect from "a Cinderella story" or to anticipate the end result of making such observations as, "what big teeth you have!" Fairy tales are a part of us and of the language that we speak. Therefore, it would seem reasonable to assume that to learn something about fairy tales is to learn something about ourseIves. The fact that such narratives are "mere" fantasy serves only to underline the importance of the fairy tale genre. Fairy tales do not simply contribute to our collective consciousness, they also originate out of our coIIective consciousness. They are storïes told by the "folk for the

"folk." If fairy tales are fantasy, they are Our fantasy. This is why 1chose fairy tales as the focus of my thesis and this is why they are important. By reading them carefully we can learn what it is that we fantasize about, what it is that we desire and what it is that motivates us.

Ultirnately, it is at this point that fairy tale analysis cornes into contact with the theories of Michel Foucault. According to Foucault Our desires and motivations are rooted in our "will to knowledge," which is synonymous with our "will to power." A closer look at fairy tale endings reveals that even our persona1 utopian dreams are informed by and based upon this will to power. Total dominance, in the guise of happiness or "goodness," is the tnie key to the fairy tale idea1. Here it must be noted that, as AIlen Megill points out, Foucault, too, has his owm brand of utopianism. His utopianisrn, however, is like none we have ever seen, especially in the typical fairy tale dream. Foucault "speaks of a 'Philosophy of nonpositive afirmation' whose sole aim is to 'contest' the existing ordef' (Mefjll 197), rather than to overthrow it or replace it with a new, better, order. "Foucault thus opts for a peculiar brand of permanent revolution - permanent because it seeks to realizv no image of an ideal society" (Megill 198). In this,

Foucault's utopianism shares very much in common with the anti-fairy-tales discussed in the final chapter of this thesis. Such tales, like Foucault himself, value dissent over conformity and find hope in the continued existence of deviant bodies and behaviours.

The typical faiv tale, on the other hand, envisions a world in which dissent and deviance are eliminated. Hence, the standard faiv tale ideal of %appily ever after" becomes problematic, regardless of ideological stance, in that it dreams of a utopia governed completely and absolutely by a single ideology, power and point of view.

One might argue that this is of no real concern; fairy tales are fantasies, after ail.

Real utopia, absolute totaiity, is not feasible. Flaws and imperfections, dissent and different points of view \Nil1 always exist. However, the fact that such a totalitarian realm as that envisioned in the typical fairy tale "happily ever after7' ending is destined to remain mere fantasy, does not negate the importance of the issue. Indeed, most of us, as ive exit the nursery and gather life experience, corne to realise soon enough that perfection, the "happily ever after" drearn as it were, is not possible. Yet, many of us ako tend to hold onto the belief that such perfection is desirable. The way that we read and wite fairy tales says much about the way in which we read and live life. Simply put, fairy tale ideology extends beyond the realm of the fairy tale. It might even be argued that many of the most homfic events in history, as in fairy tales, have grown not out of a given world-view but, rather, out of the uncompromisingly idealistic vision that accompanies this world-view. As an effective illustration one might consider the unlikely similarities of such opposing philosophies as McCarthyisrn and Stalinism. These movements, of course, occupied opposite ends of the political and ideological spectmm.

Nevertheless, both shared in common a somewhat similar methodology in their attempt to establish, through the elimination of dissent, very different visions of a more ideal, more perfect, existence.

Such visions, though, are not the sole property of lefi wing dictators and right wing extremists. We might consider the fact that, even in nations and communities where crime rates are extrernely low, successful political campaigns are often run on a platform of "getting tougher on crime." The common desire would seem to be one not for relative security but for the absolute absence of deviance, regardless of the totalitarian implications involved in bringing about such an absence. Needless to Say, it would be unfair, not to mention foolhardy, to suggest that fairy tales are to blame for such a desire.

Yet, the fairy tale dream of "happily ever afterYydoes, indubitably, promote and perpetuate a utopian desire for a resolution in which al1 flaws are eiiminated and al1 threats to a single prevaiiing order - whatever form that order rnight take on - are annihilated.

Even if we do concede that the "happily ever after" in any form implies a totalitarian vision, though, does this de-legitimize fairy tale critique that is focused on the fact that most fairy tales, in their most familiar forms, promote and/or perpetuate a biased world-view that is often sexist, classist, racist, and oppressively puritanical? The short answer to this question is both yes and no. First it must be noted that some of the most convincing critiques, and some of the most interesting re-wrïtings, of traditional fairy tales have corne fiom feminist-oriented critics and witers, like Karen Rowe or Angela

Carter, who suggest "that the traditional fairy tales are unacceptable today because of their atavistic notions of sex roles and their ideology of male domination" (Zipes Don 't

Bet ... 11). Likewise, critics and writers inth decidedly Marxist leanings, such as Jack

Zipes and The Merseyside Fairy Story Collective, have added much of value to the field of study. These offer an important interrogation of traditional tales and their underlying biases. What they do not offer, however, is a viable alternative. Rather, such critiques and re-writings tend to impose a whole new set of biases on the narratives at hand. It should be remernbered that even the Brothers Grimm - and especially Wilhelm

Grimm - were somewhat of fairy tale critics and revisionists. Much Iike modem day

critics the Grimm found many of the tales that they gathered to be unacceptable in form,

content, and especially in ideology. "Even though the tales that the Grimms collected

may, in fact, be traced back hundreds of years, they infised them with their own

psychological needs, utopian dreams, sexual preferences, and sociopolitical views" (Zipes

"Dreams of a Better Bourgeois Life.. ." 206). Further, they often modified the tales so as

to make them consistent not only with their own ideological stance, but also with the

world-view that prevailed in their time and geographical location among mernbers of their target audience. A more shocking example of such an approach to folklore was advocated by Ernst Lorenzen who, in a 1938 article witten in the context of Nazi

Germany, "demanded that teachers focus on a unified world view that reflected the old

Germanic peasant culture, in order to guarantee that the discussion would have relevance to the folk Reich of the present. Ali other approaches should be discarded [... 1, as they had nothing to offer to enhance the current community under National Socialisrn"

(Kamenetsky 71 ). In effect, it is often those critics and writers that pose the most spirited challenges to the implied ideological biases of such fairy tale writerlrecorders as the

Brothers Grimm who also fa11 into the trap of repeating the same methodological impulse of such in critiquing or modiQing the tales according to their own ideoIogical biases. In either case, the prospect of perkction, of an absolute realm that is consistent with the specific ideological bias of a given writer or critic or socieîy or reader, is presented as being the thing most desirable. Having said this, however, it must be recognized that fairy tales are different from

most fonns of literature in that they originate out of oral tradition an4 thus, "no fairy tale

was ever meant to be written in granite. Like al1 oral narrative forms, the fairy tale has no

'correct,' definitive form. Instead it endlessly adjusts and adapts itself to every new

culture as it takes root (Tatar HardFac~~... 191)." Familiar fairy tales have been told and

re-told, witten and re-witten, in different forms and languages, by authors fiorn a variety

of eras, locations and backgrounds. The end result is an underlying dialogism; fairy tales

comment upon one another and communicate with one another across space and time. If a

solution to the problem of totality within the standard fairy tale vision is to be found, it is

to be found in this dialogism. If the tales are read - as they should be - as being voices

within the larger dialogue, as being smaller parts contributing to an organic whole, rather than as being written works based upon and related to yet isoiated from one another, the fairy tale dream becomes a less than total prospect. The wolf, the witch, the splinter, the pea - al1 are destroyed but ternporarily; al1 will return to offer a dissenting voice, to introduce an imperfection and to bring about fairy tale crisis. In the end, it is not the resolution but the conflict of the fairy tale, the inevitability of new, less than perfect, beginnings, that offers hope. Fairy tales end only to be begun anew and, likewise, "the story of storytelling is a tale that will never be done" (Warner [intro] xxv). The challenge

- for fairy tale critics, writers, and readers alike - is to resist the temptation of being comforted by the utopian fairy tale dream and to value, instead, the prospect of the unavoidable failure of "happily ever afier." Works Cited

Andersen, Hans Christian. "T'ne Princess and the Pea." From Hans Czristian Andersen:

Ihe Cotnplete Fa@ Ta/es and Stories. Trans. Erik Christian Haugaard. New

York: Doubleriay, 1974. 20-2 1.

Basile, Giambattista "Sole, Luna, E Talia (Sun, Moon, and Talia)." HaIlett: 36-40.

Bettelheim, Bruno. "The Stmggle for Meaning." Hallett: 306-324.

Bottigheimer, Ruth B. ed. Fuiy Tules and Society: Illusion, A//zision und AD--,.J:-- ut uL41gIII.

Philadelphia: U. of Pennsylvania P, 1986.

Carroll, Lewis. Alite In Wonder/und.Ed. Donald Gray. 2nded. New York: Norton, 1992.

Carter, Angela. "The Company of Wolves." Zipes, Triuls and Tribularions... : 27 1-280.

Cashdan, Sheldon. The CVitclt Mùsr Die: Ho w Fairy Taies Sirape Our Lives. New York:

Basic, 1999.

Cousins, Mark & Athar Hussain. Theoreticd Tr-ud~tionsin The Soczai Sciertees: hhklzel

Foucault. New York: St. Martin's P, 1984. de Vos, Gai1 & Anna E. Altmann. New Talesfor O/d: Folkfales As Liremly Fictions /;Or

Yoting Adzdts. Englewood: Libraries Unlimited, 1999.

YnttnJ~s, UCIUY Alan. "Fairy %!es frorr! a Fo!k!~ristic Perspective." Ecttigheizer: 259-269.

Fllisnn, Halm- "'ttepenf Harlecpin!' Said the Sic!ct~ckMz-" !3e1i_ders~n:789-799-

Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punis/z: T?le Birth qf rhe Prison. Trans. Alan Sheridan.

New York: Pantheon. 1977.

--. Power Krtowiedge: Seiecred Itttetvrews &- Ûrizer SP?rrrrzgs i 9 72-igiT. Irans. Coiin

Gordon et al. iu'ew York: Pantheon, i 980. Galloway, Priscilla. Trzrly Grinzm Tules. Toronto: Lester, 1995.

Grimm, Jacob & Wilhelm. "Ashputtle." Hallett: 59-65.

--. "Brier Rose." Hallett: 48-50.

---. "Hansel and Gretel." Hdett: 100- 105.

---. "Little Red Cap." Hallett: 27-30.

-. "Rurnpelstiltskin." HalIett: 1 14-1 17.

-. "Snow White." Hallett: 65-73.

Hallett, Martin & Barbara Karasek, eds. Folk & Fairy Tales. 2nd ed. Peterborough:

Broadview P, 1996.

Henderson, Gloria Mason, Bill Day, and Sandra Stevenson Walker, eds. Liferatzcre und

Ourselves: A T/zemutic Introduction for Readers and CVriters. 2nded. New York:

Longman, f 997,

Hessel, Franz. "The Seventh Dwarf." Zipes, Spells of Enclzantrnent: 6 13-6 14.

Hruschka, John. "Anne Sexton And Anima Transformutions:Transformations As A

Critique Of The Psychology Of Love In Grimm's Fairy Tales." Mylhlore 20.1

(1994): 45-47.

Jacobs, Joseph. Ei~gZislzFuiry Tales. New York: Dover, 1967.

---. "Jack and the Beanstalk." Jacobs: 59-67.

---. "The Story of the Three Little Pigs." Jacobs: 68-72.

Kamenetshy, Christa. Chikiren S Literat ure hz Hitler 's Germany: The Cultural Polis, of

National Socialisrn. Athens: Ohio UP, 1984.

King-Smith, Dick. me Topsy-Turvy Srorybook. London: Gollancz, 1992.

Kunert, Gunter. "Sleeping Beauty." Zipes, Spells of Enc/~mtmenr:70 1. Kunnzler, Rosrnarie. "Rurnpelstiltskin." Zipes, Spells of Enchantment 7 16-7 17.

LeGuin, Ursula K. "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas." Henderson: 875-880.

Leventon, Carol. "Trunsforntation's Silencings." Criricul Essuys on Anne Sewon. Ed.

Linda Wagner-Martin. Boston: G.K. Hail, 1989. 137-149.

Luthi, Max The Fairytale As Art Form And Porrrazt Of Man. Trans. Jon Erickson.

Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1984.

McGlatheq-, James M., ed. The Brothers Grimm and Folkrale. Urbana: U of

Illinois P, 199 1. h4eçil1, Allan. Propliefs of Eitrern@l: iVietxhe, Heidegger, Foucault, Derrida. Berkeley:

U of California P, 1985-

Meinert, Anneliese. "Little Red Cap '65." Zipes, TriuZs und Tribztluîiorzs.. . : 223-224.

Merseyside Fairy Story Collective, The. "Snow White." Hallett: 2 1 1-21 8.

Mueller, Gerhard O. W. "The Criminologicat Significance of the Grimms' Fairy Tales.''

Bottigheimer: 2 17-227.

Panttaja, Elisabeth. "Going Up in the World: Class in 'Cinderella."' Wesrem Folklore 52

(January, 1993): 85- 104.

Perrault, Charles. "Cinderella: or, The Little Glass Slipper." HaIIen: 53-59.

---."Little Red Riding Hood." Hallett: 25-27.

---. "The Sleeping Beauty In The Wood." Hallett: 40-48.

Rohrich, Lutz. Folktales and Reulity. Trans. Peter Tokofshy. Bloornington: Indiana UP,

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Rowe, Karen E., "Feminism and Fairy Tales." Hallett: 325-345.

Sexton, Anne. The Complete Poems. Boston: Houghton Mimin, 198 1. Stone, Kay F. "Feminist Approaches to the Interpretation of Fairy Tales." Bottigheirner:

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Tatar, Mana. "Beauties vs. Beasts in the Grimms' Nursery und Houselzold Tales.'?

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--. O~-WÏfhThew Heads!: Fauytales and the Wzweof c'/liZdhaod. Princeton: Princeton

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---. The Hurd Frlcrs of the Grir~zrrls' Fuiry Talès. Princeton: Princeton UP,1987.

Thurber, James. The Lirtle Girl aid rlze ?$rolf:Zipes, Trials and Tribulurions.. .: 209-2 10.

Viorst, Judith. ". .. And Then The Prince Knelt Down and Tried to Put the G!ass Slipper

on Cinderella's Foot." Zipes, Don 'r Bet ... : 73.

Wamer, Marina- From tlze Beusf to tlze Blonde: On Fairy Tales and Their Tellers. New

York: Noonday, 1999.

Zipes, Jack. Don 'r Ber on the Prince: Contempormy Fernrnrst Fulrl, Tales in North

-4merica And Er?,oirtnd New York: R-outledge, i 969.

---. "Dreams of a Better Bourgeois Life: The Psychosocial Origins of the Grimms'

Tales." McGlathe-: 205-2 19.

..- --. -Mar?iists and the Iilumination of Folk and Fairy Tales." Bottigheimer: 23 7-243.

---,ed. Spells of Enchantment: The Wondrozrs Fais. Tales Of Western Cidtzrre. New

York: Penguin, 199 1. -. Tlze Trials &- Tribulations of Little Red .?iding Hood Versions of the Tale in

Sociocdtural Contexl. South Hadley: Bergin & Gawey, 1984.

Works Consulted

Arbuthnot, May Hiil, et al., eds The Arburfznor Anthology of Children S Literature. jrd

ed. Glenville: Scott, Foresman, 1971.

Bettelheim, Bruno. The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance ofFoiry

Tules. New York: Vintage, 1977.

Dundes, Alan. Analytic Essays in Folklore. Paris: Mouton, 1975

--. Folklore Matters. Knoxville: The U of Tennessee P, 1992.

Lurie, Alison, ed. The Oxford Book of Modern Fairy Tales. Oxford: Oxford UP, 1993.

Luthi, Max. Once Upon A Tinle: Oiz the Narztre of Fairy Tales. Trans. Lee Chadeayne &

Paul Gottwald. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1970.

Nicolaisen, W.F.H., "Why Tell Stones About Innocent, Persecuted-Heroines?" Western

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Stone, K. "And She Lived Happily Ever After?" Women & Language 19.1 (1996): 14-18.

Zip~s,Jack. Happily Ever Afrer: Fairy Tales, C/zildrerr, and Tlle Culture 1ndustr-y. New

York: Routledge, 1997.

---,ed. The Outspoken Princes And The Gentle Knîgfzt: A Treasuty Of Modern Fairy

Tales. New York: Bantam Books, 1994. Appendix: Famous Last Words

Although conventional fairy tales do tend to end with a "happily ever after"

resolution, it is interesting to note that relatively few of them put to use the "happily ever

after" phrase. More ofien than not the realisation of the fairy tale drearn is rnerely irnplied

in the icieal circurnstances described in the last few Iines of a tale. When read in isolation

from the tale itself, however, the more totalitarian, and ofien homfic, aspects of the fairy

tale ideal become readily apparent. To illustrate this point, 1 have gatkïered together

below, for convenient cornparison, the closing lines of several popular fairy tales. In

reading these lines it is important to remember that al1 corne fiom tales that have been

widely read as ending happily. As different as each may seem, al1 are saying essentially

the same thing, al1 are painting a picture of fairy tale perfection in resolving fairy tale

conflict and ending "happily ever after."

"The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood" (Perrault): - The ogress was so angry to see her plans go awry that she jumped head first into the vat and the vile beasts inside devoured her in an instant. The king could not help grieving a little; after all, she \vas his mother. But his beautifid wife and children soon made hirn happy again.

"Brier Rose" (The Brothers Grimm): - The prince and Brier Rose were mamed in splendour, and lived happily to the end of their Iives.

"Cinderel la" (Perrault): - Cinderella, who was as good as she was beautiful, took her sisters to live in the palace and arranged for both of them to be mamed, on the sarne day, to great lords.

"Ashputtle" (The Brothers Grimm): - So both sisters were punished with blindness to the end of their days for being so wicked and false. "Snow White" (The Brothers Grimm): - She [Snow White's stepmother] \yas forced to step into the red-hot shoes and dance till she fell to the floor dead.

"Snow White" (The Merseyside Fairy Story Collective): - The rnirror would not leave her [the wicked Queen's] hand. She fell with it and hurtled screarning dom and dom until she was shattered into fragments on the rocks below.

"Little Red Riding Hood" (Perrault): - At that, the wicked wolf threw himself upon Little Red Riding Hood and gobbled her up, too.

"Little Red Cap" (The Brothers Grimm): - ...and as for Little Red Cap, she said to herself "Never again wilI 1 leave the path and nin off into the wood when my mother tells me not to."

"Rumpelstiltskin" (The Brothers Grimm): - ... and in his ~umpelstiltskin's]rage he stamped his right foot so hard that it went into the ground up to his waist. Then in his fuy he took his lefe foot in both hands and tore himself in two.

"Hansel and Gretel" (The Brothers Grimm): - They began to run, and they flew into the house and threw themselves into their father's arms. The poor man hadn't had a happy hour since he had left the children in the forest, and in the meantirne his wife had died. Gretel opened out her little apron, the pearls and precious Stones went bouncing around the room, and Hansel reached into his pockets and tossed out handfùl after handful. ALI their wonies were over, and they lived together in pure happiness.

"Jack and the Beanstalk" (Jacobs): - Then the ogre fell down and broke his crow~,and the beanstallc came toppling after. Then Jack showed his mother his golden harp, and what with showing that and selling the golden eggs, Jack and his mother became very rich, and he married a great princess, and they lived happy ever afier.

"The Story of the Three Little Pigs" (Jacobs): - When the IittIe pig saw what he was about, he hung on the pot full of water, and made up a blazing fire, and, just as the wolf was coming down, took off the cover again in an instant, boiled him up, and ate hirn for supper, and lived happy ever afienvards.