Grimm's Fairy Tales (Day One)

1) What is the function of gender in these stories? What messages are transmitted through them concerning the roles of men and women? Why do you think this is the case? When we think "fairy tale" what does this imply concerning gender roles? Do these stories support or subvert this accepted convention (or possibly both)?

As I read these tales, there seems to be a common theme among most of them. In almost every tale, it begins saying that there is a beautiful woman, who is usually wealthy or a princess. This shows me that the tales glorify women and consider them very important and delicate. Women are loved by all because of their beauty, which is also a theme within the tales. Men are the rugged and rough ones who are doing all of the manual labor and tasks while the woman is simply there to look at. I think that the message in these tales is not a good message for women because it sort of makes it seem like women are incapable in some way adn being beautiful is the only important thing. On the other hand, in mostly every story, the woman is being punished for something. For example, in Briar Rose the girl falls into a deep sleep because of her finger getting pricked on the spindle. The handless maiden gets her hands chopped off by her own father because he does not want to be taken away by the Evil One. In the twelve brothers, the woman is considered the prize possession but then she sacrifices herself for her brothers because she feels like they are more important than her. In Little Red Riding Hood, the grandma and the LRRH are both manipulated by the wolf which shows that the women are weak and easily manipulated by men. When I think of a fairy tale, I think of a happy ending for everyone in the story that is not evil. This holds to be true in all of the tales that I have read for today. Both women and men in the tales are given an opportunity to be happy. This is a good characterisitic of fairy tales because it gives equality to both men and women.

2) What is the role of violence in some of these stories? Why does violence play such an important role? What types of violence are present? Why do you think this is the case? Is there an implied message here or is it violence for the sake of violence? (especially since some of these tales seem to border on slasher film territory)


When I read these tales, I was shocked by the amount of violence in them. Not only was there a lot of violence, but it was gruesome things like chopping people's heads and hands off. I think violence was incorporated to convey reality and show that there are always good people and bad people in the world. These tales teach us lessons and allow us to choose whether or not we want to side with the good or evil. In the tales there was both physical violence and violence that was talked about. In the Twelve Brothers the brothers made a pact that they would kill every maiden because they were going to be killed because of a maiden(their sister). This was only talked about and they never harmed the sister. In Hansel and Grethel there was physical violence when Grethel shoved the witch's head into the oven and they watched her burn. It was also disturbing when the tale was telling about how the witch likes to make children fat to eat them. In Little Red Riding Hood there was violence when the wolf ate the grandma and LRRH and also when the hunter cut open the belly of the wolf and placed stones in it. I do not remember the stones part ever happening and I think its really weird. In the handless maiden, the Evil One wants the father to cut his daughter's hands off and he does. Her hands are replaced with silver ones and then she eventually grows new hands because an angel and God see that she is not evil and they help her. In Roland, the witch cuts off her own daughter's head because she thinks it is her stepdaughter in the dark. The witch was killed by the thorns on the flower scratching her. In all of the stories, the violence is gruesome and not typical ways of violence. I do not understand why some of the violence is so disturbing, especially in tales that are read to children, but I do think there is some message behind it. I think it instills fear and shows that there are consequences for acting violent.