An interesting category exists of women in fairy tales... those that refuse to marry. These women are shown as spoiled, vain and willful. By refusing to marry, these women suffer some form of punishment. It is inferred that they refuse marriage to preserve their freedom and identity. Any refusal to wed is denied or disallowed. When a stubborn princess succumbs to marriage, and consequently, her husband, it is a cause for celebration. While marriage occurs in “The Blue Fairy Book,” few go into detail of the married life. A child may learn that a woman who disobeys her husband’s command may be subjected to her husband’s expression of fury. While punishment from the wife’s husband is allowed, a domineering wife is viewed as abominable while a “helpless, threatened, passive wife” (Lieberman 394) is approved.
In tales that show marriage, one or both parents of the main character are deceased. This is seen in several stories such as “The Sleeping Beauty, Little Thumb, and Hansel and Gretel.” Marriage is integral to the reward system in fairy tales and few lives are shown beyond the act. It can be said that stories which contain marriage are more concerned with the courtship process. Courtship is the most important part of a woman’s life. It is a time where she can be briefly viewed as a person, instead of as a means to an end. When the deed has been done, she ceases to be a human, a person with thoughts, dreams and an identity. Children who see this courtship process and its abrupt end may develop the thought that courtship keeps the excitement going so it must never end “since marriage is literally the end of the story” (Lieberman 394).
Lieberman, Marcia R. "Some Day
My Prince Will Come: Female Acculturation through the Fairy
Tale."
College English 34.3 (1972): 383-395. Print.
College English 34.3 (1972): 383-395. Print.
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