The Covert Messages Within The Traditional vs Modern Fairy Tales:
"Sleeping Beauty" and "Maleficent"
The genre of the fairy tale has travelled throughout the centuries, with adaptations and readaptations of stories. while the key elements of the story remains intact, different ideologies mingle within the readaptations. In terms of gender roles “Sleeping Beauty” is an old traditional fairy tale, with simplistic stock characters. Meanwhile the new adaptation “Maleficent” takes a completely different turn and proposes modern and complex views. Therefore in comparing “Sleeping Beauty” as a traditional and conservative fairy tale and “Maleficent” as a modern and original one, introduces controversial issues of what makes a fairy tale a genre for children.
The depiction of the characters in the old fairy tale “Sleeping Beauty” is mainly static, with no development. the protagonist is presented as a purely innocent, submissive and obedient girl, who is oblivious of the harm and danger that surrounds her. Her role as a female is to represent an idealized feminine conception that young girls should ought to be.
This is particularly true, according to Jack Zipes, fairy tales usually aim to construct children into the sort of adults their societies need and value. When eventually these traits are rewarded with a happily ever after.
Although the protagonist possess good traits, she is naive and passive, she is unlikely to fight for herself or determine the source of danger that might be coming her way.
The male figure is always the savior, Sleeping Beauty must count on prince charming in order to save her from Maleficent’s unexplained evil. Whereas it is the man who fights and saves the girl, girls in old fairy tales are always depicted doing house chores or helping her fairy god mothers and waiting for prince charming to wake them up from a deathly sleep.
Therefore it is a replicated idea that the protagonist is dependent on the prince to save her life, the patriarchal authority power and wits are traits possessed by male figures, and girls maintain being helpless characters.
In “Sleeping Beauty” Maleficent is ultimately evil, no justification for her evil, she is presented in the first scene casting a spell on the newborn sleeping beauty. However the modern version “Maleficent”, takes a completely different turn; disregarding the typical binary oppositions of good or bad females. It projects a feminist perspective, Maleficent was originally oppressed by the king (father of sleeping beauty) and she later seeks revenge. Maleficent is in fact portrayed as the heroine of this modern movie, she is a hybrid character, showing love, care and forgiveness by kissing sleeping beauty and waking her up instead of prince charming.
As a result of the inversion of gender roles in the new version, the prince’s role is irrelevant, he does not save sleeping beauty, and her father is a man full of pride indulged in his love of power. In addition it is Maleficent’s love that conquers all, conveying motherly love, with a happily ever after in the moors with Maleficent and Sleeping Beauty without any male figures.
In regard to Peter Hunt’s concept of ideology, in these two fairy tales, it unveils certain implications imposed by adults, fairy tales are never neutral, ideologies are injected in the fairy tale whether consciously or not. While the old version portrays young delicate submissive girls who obey and submit, the modern version “Maleficent” reveals a feminist point of view, that a woman can fight for herself, showing the combinations of smart and beautiful in the character of Aurora (Sleeping Beauty) rather than beautiful and naive girls/women or any binary oppositions. This fairy tale had to adapt for the modern world.
For Referencing:
Author: Maha Helmy
Title: Why Disney Is Never Neutral
Date: 7/3/2020
Sources: Jack Zipes: Fairy Tales/ Peter Hunt: Instruction And Delight.
