Melissa Yeh

In the classic stories of the poor maiden girl who turns into a princess, or the frail, beautiful girl rescued by the prince, the typical archetype takes a particular form paired with specific attributes.  Fairytales build characters to inspire children, as the female protagonists become a role model to young girls.  For these protagonists, the usual stages of the their life are the good girl, the good wife, and the good mother.  Their behavior sets an ideal in beauty and innocence, usually remaining passive in nature.  This leads to their dependence on other characters.

Fairytales are designed to leave an impression on children.  They are designed to teach children how they should behave regularly each day.  Through the interactions of the characters, a framework or model is created to shape the belief system of the child at a young age.  At the same time, the journey the characters go through present a sense of life; they invoke curiosity, “their spirit of wonder,” as well as a growing anticipation to know the outcome.  The natural response of the child is to root for poetic justice and to have a desire for a sense of adventure, all woven into the child’s imagination, creating a lasting impression.  The characters themselves express a range of emotions, attitudes, and feelings.  These include heartfelt love, compassion, faithfulness, and tenderness; the hero figure promotes justice and resolve but also carries virtues such as mercy and diligence.  The characteristics the female protagonist holds also impact the reader at the same level.  Her standards and attitude toward not only other characters but also herself leave an impression and provide an example to the child.  Eventually it leads to developing ideas about family life, what priorities should be determined, and the most important values in life.  However, these personalities have constantly changed along history from the moment they were first written.  As history changes, the standards people uphold also change.  This paper only analyzes how the original fairytale descriptions and plots depict women.   The fairytales reflect the behavior of ideal women in a different time frame, while expressing fantasy and teaching moral lessons to children.

When describing the gender ideology of the main female character, the components can be divided into three highlighted stages in her life: the good girl, the good wife, and the good mother (Erum para. 10).  Not every fairytale covers each stage, yet recurring aspects in different stories build the model of the ideal character.  The good girl stage is the most frequently seen in fairytales.  The stereotype promotes qualities where the young girl is obedient, submissive, and gentle.  Take Cinderella, for instance: she begins with a perfect life with her father and mother, and tragedy befalls her; her mother becomes ill and passes away (Beust & Hale 74).  Her response in significant as she proceeds to continuously listen to instruction and prays to God daily.  Her submissiveness withstands the torment the stepsisters and stepmother put her through.  She remains humble and diligent, never complaining and waiting patiently.  Obedience is emphasized; Cinderella is rewarded for hers through a supernatural agent.  In the Charles Perrault version (and the Disney version), her anguish of being unable to attend the ball is answered by the appearance of a fairy godmother (Beust & Hale 76).  She gives Cinderella a beautiful gown, a coach, and glass slippers.  In the Brothers Grimm version, Cinderella runs to the tree by her mother’s grave, where a white bird flies by to drop anything she wishes for.  In this case, the bird drops a gold and silver dress.  On the other hand, a famous example of disobedience is Red Riding Hood.  Her mother specifically tells her to stay on the path to her grandmother’s house.  As the story goes, she strays off the path and as a result, gets eaten by the wolf.  As children do, Red Riding Hood learns from her mistake, knowing not to repeat it in the future.  The second time another wolf appears she ignores him to avoid his evil intentions (Beust & Hale 315).  Another part of the typical responsibilities the good girl has is taking care of household chores.  She has this expectation, which is meant to influence readers, being young girls, to have the same expectation.  Cinderella worked morning until night; she carried heavy pails filled with water, cooked meals, and washed the floors (Beust & Hale 75).  Snow White was expected to cook food for the dwarves, make their beds, wash, sew, and knit; the home is her responsibility (Beust & Hale 304).

The next stage the female character encounters is the good wife (Erum para. 17).  She is subordinate to her husband and passive.  This does not mean she is unhappy; she is perfectly content with her life and never complains.  Shortly after, she enters the stage of being a good mother (Erum para. 18).  The goal in her marriage is to give birth to healthy children.  In Sleeping Beauty, the king and queen long for children.  The queen especially feels shame for being unable to bear a child.  When they receive the princess, they are overjoyed (Beust & Hale 272).  Rapunzel also has the similar situation where the king and queen desperately want a child.  The mother figure is symbolic toward a good household.  Cinderella’s godmother was helping and caring toward her (Beust & Hale 76).  The absence of a good mother disrupts the harmony of the household.  In Hansel and Gretel, when the good mother dies, the loss affects their lives, as their stepmother wants to leave them to starve in the forest (Beust & Hale 202).  The cycle starts from the good girl to the good wife to the good mother who parents another girl, so the cycle restarts.

General characteristics a female protagonist has are beauty, grace, honesty, and forgiveness.  Another underlying message is it is a prerequisite for a lady to attract a gentleman.  Snow White is known as the “fairest if the land” according to the fairytale; her beauty invokes jealousy especially in the evil queen (Beust & Hale 300).  At the same time, it saved her from the huntsman sent to kill her.  It also influences the reaction of the dwarves, no anger when she was in their home, and the prince who never even talked once to her.  For Cinderella, her stepsisters tried to guarantee she would not go to the ball, to eliminate the competition for the prince’s hand in marriage (Beust & Hale 78).  Even at the ball, she catches the attention of everyone around her.  Specifically her small feet define her femininity and no other girl could fit into the glass slippers (Nanda para. 7).  Masculine traits were less desirable.  Another major characteristic is her passive roles.  She mainly waits patiently for the male lead to come and rescue her from her life.  She is submissive and self-sacrificing as a wife and then a mother.  Rapunzel is stuck inside her tower.  Sleeping Beauty is immovable under her spell.  Cinderella must wait until the prince finds her with the other glass slipper.

These characters teach a lesson, each reflecting that of the women and ideals in the time periods of when the original plots were written.  They define beauty and what is attractive; the move in grace in peaceful manner.  They represent the shape of a role model for young girls.

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