Blog Entry 5

In “Snow White” written by the Brothers Grimm, the first paragraph describes a queen who longs for a child who was white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as the wood of the window frame. In the next paragraph, the king and queen have Snow White- but the mother does not live. This is already contrary to Disney’s interpretation because Snow White is portrayed to be an orphan. Walt Disney’s release of this movie occurred in 1937- during the Great Depression. 

Although the stories partially shared a similar message against narcissism and vanity, Disney’s version had some hidden messages as well. The Prince was made to represent him while the dwarfs represented his workers and animators. Another similarity between the two is the themes. Both versions had sexist views of women along with their domestication. Men were shown as hardworking while the princess cooked and cleaned and could not help herself when presented with an obstacle. 

A huge difference between the two depictions of Snow White was the amount of murder attempts made by the Evil Queen and how they were executed. In the original story, there are three attempts to get rid of Snow White. One by suffocating her with a stay-lace, another by combing her hair with a poisonous comb, and finally, giving her a poisonous apple. “Once inside she made a deadly poisonous apple. On the outside it looked beautiful-- white with red cheeks.” However, in the film, the apple is all red and it is the only attempt made by the Evil Queen. 

In the movie, Evil Queen tries to get rid of the dwarfs so that they can’t shelter Snow White and protect her. She uses a boulder to try and crush them, but it just kills her instead. This is different than the original because the Evil Queen died at the wedding while wearing hot iron slippers.

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Photo 2 (Drawing By Walter Crane)

Blog Entry 4

In “Cinderella,” all of her problems in life are solved when she is found by Prince Charming and marries him. Cinderella’s life mainly consisting doing chores and making sure that she handled everything for her family so that they were content. 

Her one request from her mother that is told in “Cinderella” as told by the Brothers Grimm (translated by Jack Zipes) was “[to] be good and pious.” (Grimm and Grimm, Zipes, pg 79). The narrative arc “rags to riches through magic and marriage” is very common in fairy tales. This same arc is shown in “Brier Rose” when the curse takes place. In order to lift the spell, the prince kisses her and she regains consciousness as if nothing happened. Magic. But the story cannot end without marriage. The final sentence in the Brothers Grimm’s version is about their wedding. “The wedding of the prince with Brier Rose was celebrated in great splendor, and they lived happily to the end of their days” (Grimm and Grimm, Zipes, pg 174). According to the narrative arc, the damsel in distress’ problem isn’t completely solved until she marries the male character, usually a prince, who saves her. 

This expectation of all issues going away if you have fortune or marriage is completely unrealistic. Money can do a lot of things, but it can’t grant permanent happiness. It’s likely temporary. Marrying someone doesn’t solve all of your problems either or else marriage could have prevented wars. This narrative arc only functions in fairy tales because this is normalized in these stories. The use of magic is not questioned, neither is the theory that riches and marriage will solve any issues that you have. 

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Blog Entry 3

Magic, miracles, and motifs. All of these are used in your typical fairy tale to help create a story with an interesting plot. A fairy tale, or “märchen” in German, can be defined as a fictional story usually aimed for a children’s audience that contains magical elements. In the novel “Once Upon A Time on the Nature of  Fairy Tales” by Max Lüthi, he states “the fairy tale portrays an imperishable world.” (Lüthi, pg 45). This quote is significant because it shows that ageing and perishablility are not focused on in fairy tales. An example given in the novel is when Lüthi discusses a witch removing the eyes of a heroine and how the eyes can be put back years later as if nothing had happened and the removed body parts hadn’t decayed. (Lüthi, pg 45). 

In comparison to a legend or saint’s legend, the miracle within the story is the main focus of the plot, but in fairy tales, the miracle is throughout most of the story and loses its star-of-the-show factor because the plot takes over. In fairy tales, there are motifs that stand out and help distinguish the story. These are typically what the fairy tale is easily recognized by. In Little Red Riding Hood, a motif would be her red cape.

Little Red Riding Home interpretation from Fairytalez.com

For almost any fairy tale, a motif could be the damsel in distress. In Lüthi’s novel, it is said that the ‘fairy tale’ age for children is between 5 and 10 years old. After this age, there is a phase where the children take a realistic point of view and become disposed toward the idea of fairy tales. 

When Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were attempting to find fairy tales for Clemens Brentano, they would often invited story tellers to where they were at the time and document the stories since fairy tales were almost always shared orally. Once they began publishing their own fairy-tale novels, they contaminated the plots with bourgeois-appealing plot-lines and Christian expressions so that their stories would be more inclined towards children and more appreciated by the educated middle class. 

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Blog Entry 2

In the movie "The Brothers Grimm" from 2005 starring Matt Damon and Heath Ledger, there were noticeable differences between the novel translated by Jack Zipes and the movie. There are also similarities between the two. 

In the novel and the movie, some details that were synonymous in both versions were the fact that the family was poor after the father passed away, Jacob and Wilhelm were brothers, people told them fairytales, the French occupied Germany which establishes that it is happening at the same time period as the novel, and that Jacob was outgoing. 

Some differences were the idea that the brothers were con-artists, there was magic, they constantly argued and disagreed on things, girls went missing and the brothers investigated it, and they were not shown to be religious in the movie. In the novel, the boys were raised around religion and it played a large role in their childhood and adult life. 

Theatrical Poster for "The Brothers Grimm"  downloaded off of Wikipedia

Other distinctions that varied from the novel were Jacob seemed to be inferior in comparison to Wilhelm, they did not work for the French government, and Wilhelm was not portrayed to be ill. In the novel, Wilhelm was unable to complete his education due to health issues involving his heart and respiratory system. He was sent to Halle for medical treatment and then resumed his academic career afterwards. The brothers weren’t as closely attached in the movie as they were in the novel either which is a very noticeable difference.

Painting of Jacob and Wilhelm from 1855
from Wikipedia

The movie, directed by Terry Gilliam, contained more fiction than fact in comparison to the novel translated by Zipes. It could’ve been due to the fact that the true story behind the brothers would not have the same Hollywood appeal as his version did.

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Blog Entry 1

The reason I chose ‘From Grimm to Disney’ as my FYS was because my childhood was greatly influenced by Disney movies. I had every single movie made by Disney on VHS and DVD and we kept the collection in its own room within our basement. Almost every Halloween I would dress up as my current favorite Disney character and have the decorations in my room change to accommodate for the rotation of characters as well. Trips to Disney World were always my favorite family vacations even if it was the same scenery and rides every time.

Growing up, my favorite Disney movie was Beauty and the Beast. It still is my favorite fairy tale. However, since this class revolves around German literature and not French, my favorite German fairy tale is most likely Rapunzel. I find it obscure that the Brothers Grimm chose to make her hair the feature that she would be known for and I am excited to learn about the origin behind that fairy tale. 

Within this class, I am hoping to expand my knowledge on how the Brothers Grimm intended for their tales to be delivered versus how child-friendly Disney interpreted them and made them all have a happy ending. I already know that the original tellings of these fairy tales have dark and twisted plots, but I didn’t know about the original plotlines until I entered high school. I always thought that Disney created these storylines on their own. By the end of this seminar, I am hoping to expand my knowledge on German culture, learn about the Grimm brothers and the deep meanings behind their work, and improve my writing and oral presentation skills.