A Feminist Interpretation Of Western Traditional Fairy Tales

Traditional fairy tales come from folklore. They reflect human being's collective wisdom and shared experience. However, as part of traditional culture, fairy tales have been marked by patriarchal ideology. The images of the heroine and the hero in traditional fairy tales correspond to the expectations towards the two sexes in patriarchal society, especially the heroine's second place is in agreement with women's being the Other in The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir---the remarkable French feminist. At the same time fairy tales are loved by girls. Thus the fairy tales read in childhood and adolescence may greatly affect their character, personality and sex-role identification in society. Therefore, in this dissertation, I mainly employ Simone de Beauvoir's the Other theory to reveal the cultural inclination in the English-version fairy tales written by Charles Perrault (France), the Grimms (Germany) and Hans Christian Andersen (Denmark) as well as their influence on adolescent girls'growth by drawing support from children's psychology.The dissertation is divided into four chapters. In Chapter One, the three writers'living and creating background are introduced. Though they were from different countries, different ages and different classes, their fairy tales aimed to defend and promote the morals and values that were advocated by the classes or communities where they lived. Especially Perrault's and the Grimms'fairy tales were endued with much morality and didacticism.Chapter Two holds that the characteristics and experiences of the heroine reflect the moral standards and models of"ideal womanhood"set by patriarchal society through analyzing and contrasting the main characteristics of the heroine and the hero. The traditional fairy tales are advocating the patriarchal ideology---men's dominance and women's total submission to men.Accordingly, Chapter Three mainly expounds Beauvoir's the Other theory. The formation of women's being the Other is analyzed from the perspective of social history and culture. At the same time, the influence of culture on women is explained in light of opinions addressed in Making Gender by feminist anthropologist Sherry Ortner.The fairy tales created by Perrault, the Grimms and Andersen have been considered as classics of inculcating children with morals, and they are widely read by adolescent girls. Since puberty is a crucial period when a girl forms her character, personality and gender role in society, the fairy tales read in this period are effective in her psychological...