Exploratory Essay

Uncategorized 5 Minutes

Anjali Bali

Professor Hoehne

FIQWS Composition

October 7 2018

The Passive and Active Tropes of Sleeping Beauty

The timeless classic of “Sleeping Beauty” retains a multitude of different iterations and adaptations all telling the similar tale of a damsel in distress. Our protagonist presents many passive features which can barely qualify her as a heroine. However, this similar theme of a passive beauty is no coincidence and is placed in these tales on purpose. The time period in which many fairy tales were developed consisted of a patriarchal society (McGoogan, Cara. “’Sexist’ Sleeping Beauty and All the Other Fairy Tales That May Need Updating for a New Generation.” The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 24 Nov. 2017,). While these ideals are outdated for progressive thinkers, it is possible that those ideals can still resonate with young girls today since fairy tales have similar tropes and are still prominent.

The tale of “Sleeping Beauty” has been modified throughout time but the stories all share similar events and morals. The protagonist is a beautiful, young woman who is cursed to fall asleep for a prolonged period of time, only fated to wake up from the kiss of a prince or male “hero”. The idea of a passive character represents someone who depends on the actions of others to determine the events in their life. A passive character is only responsible for reacting in a story rather than initiating. On the contrary, an active character is the cause of events and does what is necessary to ensure the fate that they want. In Charles Perrault’s “The Sleeping Beauty of the Wood”, the princess was described only as “the most beautiful ever seen”. Everything she said or did was a reaction to the actions of others. Additionally, her actions were described as “tender” or “rejoiceful” as if she was incapable of harboring any negative emotions. Her character was made to be gentle and innocent, only reacting to the actions of others. Unlike the protagonist, the prince was described with much more vigor and character in Perrault’s version. Upon hearing about the princess, the prince was described to be “fired” with passion to find her. His spontaneity was further validated when he “jumped immediately to the conclusion that it was for him to see so gay an adventure through, and impelled alike by the wish for love and glory, he resolved to set about it on the spot” (“The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood.” Perrault: The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood, www.pitt.edu/~dash/perrault01.html). The reader can infer that the prince retains an “adventurous” and impulsive nature that would seem almost out of place for a female protagonist of that time period. Even in other versions like “Sun, Moon and Talia”, the prince is the character who determines the fate of the protagonist and takes risks to get what he wants. In the case of Basile’s “Sun, Moon and Talia”, he disregards his marriage to pursue an affair with Talia. This trope of passive female leads and active male leads is significantly present in many renditions of “Sleeping Beauty” as well as other fairy tales. This theme can beg the question of “why?”.

One of the earliest origins of the “Sleeping Beauty” tale come from Giambattista Basile’s “Sun, Moon, and Talia” in the early 1600s (SurLaLune Fairy Tales: History of Sleeping Beauty, www.surlalunefairytales.com/sleepingbeauty/history.html). During the 1600s in Europe, gender roles and sexism can be argued to have been greatly prominent in works like fairy tales. The character Talia’s beautiful appearance was frequently mentioned as her only important attribute. In the story, the king engaged in sexual actions while she was asleep and when she woke up she gave birth. In that time period, the king’s actions were justified through his “ambition” and willingness to get what he wanted. These works reflected societal beliefs. Between the Renaissance era and the Age of Enlightenment, women in Europe were considered significantly inferior to men and were forced to take on domestic and maternal roles (Https://Www.saylor.org/Site/Wp-Content/Uploads/2012/10/HIST201-8.2.3-WomenRenaissancetoEnlightenment-FINAL1.Pdf). Men during this era were responsible for taking action, providing for themselves and others, and had the ability to venture out in this society. This reflected the idea of active male roles. The Sleeping Beauty character was only given purpose and life through the arguably selfish act of the prince.

Additionally, this restriction to a passive, domestic sphere was also justified by Catholicism and the church during the time period. Since the church was primarily male dominated, there existed a notion that households symbolized “small kingdoms” in which men held all authority as king (Https://Www.saylor.org/Site/Wp-Content/Uploads/2012/10/HIST201-8.2.3-WomenRenaissancetoEnlightenment-FINAL1.Pdf). Any women who did not conform to the conventions of this society were ostracized or thought to be a witch in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Since men were able to obtain an education and write during this time, most works such as fairy tales were written from a man’s biased perspective which generally idealized passive women because of societal conventions. Furthermore, these gender roles are what normalized the “damsel in distress” concept. This concept perpetuates that women in many aged tales required saving from a heroic male figure. Additionally, it implies that women need a male figure for the fulfillment of a “happily ever after” ending in which they get married. Some argue that “political correctness” has no place in children’s tales as they are “meant to be taken as fantasy” while others claim that these stories can be detrimental to the mentality of young girls (Collett, Michael. “Are Fairy Tales Sexist or Is Political Correctness Complicating Good Stories?” ABC News, 6 Apr. 2017, www.abc.net.au/news/2017-04-06/fairy-tale-sexism-and-political-correctness). In addition to the theme of passive young female characters and active male characters, there is another demographic who can be interpreted as active. The inclusion of older women in fairy tales, who serve as a villain most of the time, are also active characters. They stand apart from convention and cause events to happen because they are not “ideal”, passive women. In “Sun, Moon, and Talia”, the older woman figure was the king’s wife who persecuted Talia for the affair with her husband. The wife acted out of her own agenda and tried to cook Talia’s children. She also tried to set Talia on fire. An ideal, passive character would not go to these lengths out of personal gain. Also, in Perrault’s “Sleeping Beauty in the Wood”, the old fairy was offended she was not invited to the king and queen’s event so she cast a curse on the baby as an act of revenge. Thus, the active characters are generally men or older, “undesirable” women.

In conclusion, gender roles are argued to be extremely prominent in a plethora of fairy tales such as the “Sleeping Beauty” story. These ideals are dispersed into different tropes and themes such as active and passive characters. Although active characters are needed to make events happen, passive characters are also essential to the telling of stories. The subliminal insertion of these beliefs into fairy tales serve to immortalize the standards and conventions of a time period even if they are fantasy.

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