Freedoms Involvement in Life Vs. Fairytales

Freedoms Involvement in Life vs. Fairytales

        In both the classic and the modern fairytales, the characters always lack an important option to life, freedom. These tales other than the most well known princess tales, are insufficient in freedom. This insufficiency is presented as a retraction of freedom or not as an option. In most stories, freedom is as absent as the mother figure; though some stories present both, suggesting a connection between the two.

        Stories such as Snow White and Rose Red and the absurd story by Lydia Millet. Both stories present a change from the norm as well as conformity to the patriarchal  brainwashing. In the stories the girls are given freedom and trust by their mother to wander the woods and the streets of New York. In the original, even the freedom to stay in the woods without worrying their mother. The girls are smart and kind and love each other. This is mostly due to the way they were raised and taught by their mother. The original Snow White and the Seven Dwarves tells a very different version of this idea. The princess in this version, has no freedom or even the option for freedom. Freedom from the trap or tower in theses stories are not even true freedom, now being monitored by the patriarchal agenda. This agenda, to marry a prince and have babies and serve your husband.

        The absurd version of this story goes completely against this agenda. Though the girls do have parents and freedom, their parents are absent and have learned to survive on their own. They go completely against the normality of the story, being welcoming to the stranger and refusing to ever get married because they are fulfilled on their own.

        Fairy tales have always put females in a box of permission and waiting around for a savior. Hence they must not wander too far, or they must not leave the tower and this is brainwashed into the girls that this is of course for their own safety. In the case of the Rapunzel fairytale, she was locked in a tower and awaiting rescue from her prince. After years of being trapped by the evil witch, Rapunzel got a glimpse of the outside world and finally realizes what is wrong and risks her life. She does earn her freedom through the help of her prince, convincing women that they should be thankful to the men saving them and that they need a man to save them .

        This freedom is not the kind of freedom described in Snow White and Rose Red because the freedom in princess tale is with a prince, and not given at the beginning. With most of the stories, freedom from evil is granted to the main character or the oppressed at the end, but not throughout the whole story. This is upsetting about these tales. The characters are controlled by fear or by an older guardian; they do not have the freedom to roam or go out past a certain time or even go home because of the evil threat. That is why Snow White and Rose Red is such a rare fairy tale, because it is so incredibly unique in the undertones of the tale.

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