Pace University DigitalCommons@Pace Honors College Theses Pforzheimer Honors College 1-1-2014 The Grimm Fairy Tales Rewritten With Feminist Perspectives Kylie Hammell Honors College, Pace University Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.pace.edu/honorscollege_theses Part of the Fiction Commons Recommended Citation Hammell, Kylie, "The Grimm Fairy Tales Rewritten With Feminist Perspectives" (2014). Honors College Theses. Paper 130. http://digitalcommons.pace.edu/honorscollege_theses/130 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Pforzheimer Honors College at DigitalCommons@Pace. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors College Theses by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@Pace. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Grimm Fairy Tales Rewritten with Feminist Perspectives Kylie Hammell December 2013 English Language and Literature Dr. Tom Henthorne English Department Table of Contents Introduction 3 The Grimm Brother’s The Little Mermaid : Rewritten with an Eco-feminist Perspective 5 Notes on The Little Mermaid 15 The Grimm Brothers’ The Seven Ravens : Rewritten with a Radical Feminist Perspective 17 Notes on The Seven Ravens 22 The Grimm Brother’s Little Red Riding Hood : Rewritten with a Liberal Feminist Perspective 23 Notes on Little Red Riding Hood 27 References 29 2 Introduction When I was little, my great-great aunt gave me an illustrated book of the Grimm Fairy Tales, and I loved that book. The stories may have been gruesome, but in this book, all of the stories had happy endings. As I grew older, I learned that many Grimm Fairy Tales did not have happy endings. That is understandable because life does not always end well. I appreciated that not every story ended happily, but I did not enjoy how women were portrayed in the stories: they were either helpless damsels or ruthless, evil villains. The Grimm Brothers may have written their tales in a time when a woman almost always needed a man to take care of her, and the stories reflect that, but times have changed, and the tales should too. There are many modern versions of the Grimm Tales, especially Disney adaptations, but in many ways the women’s roles have become worse. Not only are there too many damsels in distress, but also if a woman, such as The Sea Witch from The Little Mermaid or Maleficent from Sleepy Beauty, seeks power, they are considered the villains of the story. Just because a woman is ambitious, does not make her evil, and young girls should have role models that show them how to be independent and take care of themselves. This is why I have recreated three Grimm Fairy Tales with three different feminist perspectives: eco-feminism, radical feminism, and liberal feminism. I chose the three Grimm Tales based on my childhood favorites; I wanted to improve the memories I have of these stories. I also chose these three stories because I felt they had the greatest potential to be transformed from stories with helpless or ruthless women into stories that show a female’s greatest strengths. Women and their roles have 3 changed, and I feel that The Grimm Fairy Tales, and other children stories, should reflect that. In preparing to write my thesis I studied both the original versions of the Grimm Fairy Tales and some modern versions. One of the stories I looked at was Anne Sexton’s poem, Cinderella. I liked the poem, but I felt it still did not portray women well. The stepmother was still villainous, and the only thing Cinderella and her stepsisters want is a husband. What I did like about the poem is that Sexton critiques the idea of “they lived happily ever after.” Sexton says that by living happily even after, Cinderella and the Prince are more like “two dolls in a museum case,” they aren’t actually living. In my stories, I do not necessarily critique happily ever after, but I do try to end the stories realistically. Each story ends, but the way I end them makes it seem like the characters’ lives still go on, and that not everything ends with marriage and babies for the women to take care of. 4 The Grimm Brother’s The Little Mermaid : Rewritten with an Eco-feminist Perspective Once upon a time there was a beautiful palace, unlike any palace a human had ever seen, for this palace belonged to the Sea King and was located in the deepest depths of the oceans. The Sea King was a wise, old merman with long white hair and a long white beard that continuously flowed with the ocean currents. The Sea King’s palace was built of the most beautiful coral and seashells, and the king lived there with his wife and five daughters, all of whom were extremely beautiful mermaids. Sirenetta, the Sea King’s youngest and loveliest daughter, also had the most beautiful voice. Whenever Sirenetta sang, the fish flocked from all over the sea to listen to her. The shells gaped wide, showing their pearls, and even the jellyfish stopped to listen. As Sirenetta grew older, her voice matured and became even lovelier, but she noticed that fewer fish would come to hear her sing. Whenever she noticed her missing friends she would gaze upwards, seeking the faint sunlight that scarcely managed to filter down into the depths, wondering if that mysterious world her father hated and forbade her to visit was responsible. “Oh, how I wish to see my friends again. I want to go up and see what has happened to them, discover why they have not come to hear me sing.” “You’re too young” her mother replied, stroking Sirenetta’s hair. “In almost a year from now, when you are twenty-five, only then will the Sea King let you go up there, like your sisters. Then you can explore and try to discover what has happened to your friends.” Sirenetta spent her time missing the fish and wishing to visit the human world to try and find them. She listened to her sisters’ stories, trying to find any possible clues. 5 She would ask them questions to satisfy her curiosity. She waited for the day when she, too, would be allowed to reach the surface of the sea and meet the unknown world to search for answers. Sirenetta spent much of her time in her wonderful sea garden. The seahorses kept her company, and sometimes a dolphin would come and play, but it was never enough for her to forget about her many missing friends. At last, her long-desired birthday came. The night before, Sirenetta could not sleep a wink. In the morning, her father called for her, and stroking her long golden hair, slipped a lovely carved flower into her locks… “There, now you can go to the surface. You’ll breathe air and see the sky. You can seek the answers to your missing admirers. But remember, it is not our world. We are children of the sea and have different customs than the human world. You may watch to look for your answers, but be careful and keep away from the humans: they can only bring bad luck!” As soon as he finished, Sirenetta kissed her father’s cheek and was darting smoothly towards the surface. The Sea King had long known what was happening to her friends and had hoped she would never have to learn, but he could never deny her anything. Sirenetta saw the sky for the first time as she burst through the surface of the water. The sun was just beginning to rise above the horizon, and Sirenetta had never seen anything so beautiful. The sun, halfway above the water, trailed a golden reflection that cast beautiful lights on the heavy waves. High overhead, a flock of gulls spotted the little mermaid and greeted her arrival with shrieks of pleasure. 6 “It’s so lovely!” she exclaimed happily. But she had a mission; she wanted to find out what was happening to the disappearing fish. On the horizon, Sirenetta saw a large object slowly approaching the rock she was resting on. It was made of wood and moved across the water faster than any fish. It was a ship, but it was unlike anything Sirenetta had ever seen before. As the ship drew closer to the mermaid, the sailors dropped anchor and the ship swayed gently in the calm sea. Sirenetta watched the men go about their work and saw them drop something strange into the water. Maybe this was where she could finally find her answers. Sirenetta waited for hours, but her patience was worth it. Aboard the ship, a strange excitement seemed to seize the crew as they started to raise strange ropes from the water. What Sirenetta saw made her cry: her friends were being torn from their homes and were dying. The fish were unable to scream out and slowly died as they tried to breathe. Sirenetta wanted to go and cut the ropes, but she remembered her father’s warning: she must stay away from the humans. As the thought came to Sirenetta, the captain walked into view. He was the most handsome male she had ever seen. Tall and dignified, he was smiling happily, and Sirenetta could not take her eyes from him. She followed his every movement, transfixed by all that was happening. How could a man so beautiful be responsible for such a horrible act? He was killing all of those fish, and Sirenetta could not understand why. As the nets were finally pulled in, the sea grew more agitated. Sirenetta anxiously watched the ship, torn because she wanted the fish returned to the ocean, but worried because the man was in danger.