Sleeping Beauty vs. Snow White Essay

Every small girl make-believes to be a princess and struts around conceive ofing a prince charming. Even when they grow up and go a adult female. they’re still waiting for that prince to come brush them off their pess. so they can fall loony in love and unrecorded merrily of all time after. This phantasy is much because of Walt Disney films such as “Sleeping Beauty” . “Snow White” . “Cinderella” . “Little Mermaid” . and many others. These narratives have been passed down for centuries and legion versions exist today. There are many readings of the narratives and their significances that most people don’t even acknowledge. Though the narratives all seem different. some of them still have similar significances. “Snow White” and “Sleeping Beauty” are two narratives that have a common significance.
Sleeping Beauty and Snow White are both characters that are unrealistically beautiful. Sleeping Beauty for case. had just tegument. bluish eyes. long light-haired hair. and an impossibly thin figure. This sets unrealistic criterions for female beauty. Besides the narratives show a dependance on males for the female individuality. The princess is kiping. merely waiting for her prince to come salvage her so she can restart her topographic point as princess and “live merrily of all time after” . Snow White was besides poisoned and laid sleeping until her prince came to salvage her. In a manner. this is stating that adult females are merely waiting about for a adult male to come salvage them from ordinary life. so that they can hold their ‘happily of all time after’ stoping. Another point that shows up in “Cinderella” is that the stepmother who raised three kids on her ain. which shows independency. is made the scoundrel of the narrative. while inactive Cinderella is the loveable victim. In these fairy narratives. they show intertwine a adult female is nil without a adult male. They give the image that a adult female has nil to make but wait for her prince. and so one time he comes her life will be fulfilled. In today’s universe it’s rather obvious that these things could non be more false.
Harmonizing to Bruno Bettelheim. the legion versions of “Snow White” and “Sleeping Beauty” represent a immature miss turning up and going a adult female. though it is showed in different ways. In “Sleeping Beauty” . or in Grimm’s version “Brier Rose” . the expletive put on the miss by the evil faery represent new limitations imposed on a female. It can be interpreted as the beginning of menses. The 13 faeries represent the months of the calendar. The 12 good faeries represent the 12 traditional months of the twelvemonth. and since there is no 13th month. the 13th faery represents menses. Besides the evil faery realizes the girl’s potency for going the object of desire and out of jealousy attempts to forestall the miss from of all time going a adult female.

Further on the representation of the expletive as menses. there is the King seeking to forestall it from go oning. because he does non understand it. However. the Queen understands the expletive and its importance. being a adult female herself. and does nil to halt it. So of course when the miss sees a spindle for the first clip. full of wonder. Se pricks her finger and falls asleep. The absence of the girl’s parents when she pricks her finger represents the parents’ inability to assist kids through the assorted tests of turning up. The King and Queen’s waiting symbolizes the delay for sexual fulfilment. It shows the terminal of childhood and a clip of quiet growing. from which she will rouse mature and ready for sexual brotherhood ( Bettelheim. 232 ) .
In the narrative of “Snow White” . Bettelheim explains how it tells of how a parent ( the Queen ) gets destroyed by green-eyed monster of her kid. who in turning up surpasses her ( 195 ) . The Queen is non merely covetous of Snow White’s beauty in some versions. but besides covetous of the love of the male parent for the miss. They are jealously combating to be the King’s favourite. Since Snow White is more beautiful. she has more power and able to win over her male parent. Bettelheim uses Freud’s Oedipus composite for understanding the struggles between Snow White and her stepmother. The King and Queen in narratives represent absolute power. such as a parent holds over the kid. When the child’s place in the household becomes a job. they try to get away to get down the route to happening themselves. Snow White’s clip with the midget represents her period of growing ( 201 ) . When Snow White eats the apple. the kid in her dies. and is left to rest in a glass casket. which represents waiting for adulthood. until her prince comes ( 213 ) .
Both these narratives represent a miss maturating into a adult female. and holding an older adult female jealous of their beauty. seeking to forestall them from turning up. These characters have to travel through a hibernating period of resting. so they can make sexual fulfilment and awake matured. ready to get down a life with their prince. There is besides person in both narratives. a male. who does non understand the maturing period. and attempts to forestall it. In “Sleeping Beauty” it was the King and in “Snow White” it was the seven midgets who tried to assist her. This shows that despite a parents efforts to prorogue being able to make adulthood at the proper clip. it happens however.