I
really like fairy tales and while I can’t exactly speak for why people still
enjoy reading them after all this time, I know that I like them because the
originals, at least, demonstrate a level of cruelty and brutality that isn’t
found in modern versions of the same stories. That’s not to say the modern ones
aren’t good, too, but the originals were more true to life, while still being
fantastical, just in different ways. Real life is painful and bloody, and
sometimes if you really want something you can’t have, you have to cut off your
toe or your heel in order to fit into the role you want for yourself. Maybe
that wasn’t the message I was supposed to get from Cinderella, but it does sound pretty true. People are willing to do
ridiculous and painful things in order to get what they want. And sometimes you
can do everything right, you can work really hard to get what you want, without
hurting anyone in the process, and still be pushed off a tower by a witch and
blinded by thorns. At least fairy tales leave you with the promise that,
despite being blinded through no fault of your own other than making the wrong
witch angry, maybe you can still find your princess (and newborn twins, oops)
and live happily ever after. Metaphorically speaking, that is.
Life
sucks, and nobody could tell us that better than Hansel and Gretel, I think.
Not only were they starving, but their stepmother obviously wanted them dead,
ordering her husband—their father—to leave them in the woods to fend for
themselves. And their father actually did it?! It seems unreal, but we see
stories like this on the news all the time, with people who everyone says “would
never hurt anyone” doing terrible things to each other, sometimes out of
desperation, sometimes out of love, and sometimes because they are just
honestly terrible people. This part of the story absolutely rings true. The
part with the witch…well, yeah, it’s very unlikely you’re going to run into an
edible house owned by a witch who wants to eat you, but their lives already
pretty much sucked, so it’s not too surprising, within the story. As for the
duck at the end, well, we discussed in class how they were lost and obviously
couldn’t trust any adults in their lives, so a talking animal is the best guide
they could have. And even despite all this, despite everything happening
because their father couldn’t say no to his wife, couldn’t say, “Hey, these are
my kids! How about I leave you in the
woods instead?” they accept him when they return home. That’s a level of
forgiveness I think I would like to have, even if it may seems silly and naïve.
Speaking
of silly and naïve, I think remembering that Snow White is 7 years old in the
original story is really important. At 7, she is pure and innocent, but also
young and naïve, which is how the queen was able to trick her several times. I
think this story is as much about hospitality toward strangers than about not
being an evil person or you’ll be forced to dance in hot iron shoes until you
die (again, metaphorically). The dwarves are unendingly hospitable to Snow
White, allowing her to stay in their house in return for cleaning, taking care
of her by warning her not to open the door for anyone, and when they think she
is dead, they make a beautiful coffin for her. They are under no obligation to
do anything for her, but they do. Then we have Snow White, who tries to be
hospitable in return to the old peddler woman (despite the dwarves’ warnings)
and it backfires on her, multiple times. Is Snow White just a poor judge of
character, or are the dwarves wrong to trust Snow White, simply based on the
fact that she is a young girl? Maybe the fact that the old woman can’t be trusted more accurately
illustrates how evil she is, that she takes advantage of Snow White’s hospitality,
and tries to kill her anyway. Hospitality toward strangers was definitely
valued in medieval society, so I can’t imagine that the story is conveying the
message that strangers are not to be trusted. Even if she is naïve, Snow White’s
kindness toward strangers is considered a virtue, and her goodness makes the queen
seem that much more evil. In modern society, we definitely still have our “Snow
Whites” and our “evil queens,” those people who are so good and pure that
anyone who is mean to them (though hopefully not to the same extent) is seen as
even worse in comparison to their goodness. Although I would say hospitality is
still praised in modern society, we are also much more suspicious, to the
extent that we can’t easily understand why Snow White would continue to trust
an old peddler woman after being tricked several times.
