Lessons to Females through Fairytales - Essay Example

Lessons to Females through Fairytales In Histories or stories from the time past (1697), Charles Perrault presents fairytales including “Cinderella” and “The Little Red Riding Hood.” Charles Perrault’s tales are presented as lessons to benefit late seventeenth- century women striving to meet societal expectations (Jean 276). The analysis of the two stories is therefore reveals the lessons that female fairytale readers can learn. The societal expectations on women are depicted in the two stories. The moral lessons from the stories are also analyzed literary so as to offer a wide angle of view to the female readers. Thus in this paper, I tend to illustrate the specific lessons that each fairytale directs towards the female, aristocratic readers in the seventeenth- century France. In “Cinderella,” a noble born woman is relegated by her stepmother and her two stepsisters to the position of a poor house servant and she complains not (Perrault and Johnson 56). Despite all Perrault presents a situation where the lady is married to the prince and her life changes completely (Perrault and Johnson 58). On the other hand in “Little Red Riding Hood” a young beautiful girl is born she is doted by her mum and her grandmother even fonder to her. The latter makes her a little red hood where her name hails (Perrault and Johnson 66). However, the grandmother falls ill and the mother sends Little Red Riding Hood to take her a cake and a pot of butter. On her way she meets a fox who would have wished to eat her but spares her on account of the nearby tree cutters. The wolf then uses the information from the girl about the grandmother’s location and pretends his way into her house and kills her and later the girl too (Perrault and Johnson 66). The title characters, Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood, are presented as individuals of low social status. These characters also do not have academic independence and general freedom as the other characters do. For instance, Cinderella’s stepsisters are at liberty to attend the ball whereas she is not. Moreover, they are subject to their families. This is an implication that there is a lot of control from external forces, such as family members, over the two protagonists. For instance, Cinderella’s stepmother employs her in the meanest chores in the house for fear of her making the stepsisters appear abhorrent (Perrault and Johnson 55). Additionally, she sleeps in poor conditions- a wretched straw bed compared to the stepsisters who sleep in beds of latest fashion. Cinderella’s situations makes her not to receive an invitation to the ball which as Perrault puts was only for people of fashion. Little Red Riding Hood on the other hand wears the red hood alone there is no instance when there is change of it mentioned (Jean 283).While these two stories have different endings, they concur in the objectives that the author desires to achieve. The major aim is of the two stories is to teach young female readers about duty and obedience, as evidenced in each tales moral teachings presented at the end of each story (Jean, 278) Perrault presents women as being expected to be passive in the society. For example, Cinderella quietly suffers the abuse directed at her by both her stepsisters and stepmother without informing her father for fear of being scolded because the stepmother had influence in over him. She is hesitant to even think of any way out but instead waits passively until the chance comes for the prince to sail her to the destination of freedom (McClintock and Perrault 122). On the other hand, Little Red Riding Hood is not informed by her mother of the danger of talking to strangers. She goes ahead and does this and her fate which is death by the same wolf she had talked to and who also had killed the grandmother. She fails to even wail or notice the fox even after getting into the room (Perrault and Johnson 69). As such women are presented as people who suffer in silence. Women are portrayed as people who are hesitant to fight for their autonomy but, instead, fight for beauty. For example, Cinderella’s stepsisters prepare days before the ball since they believe in the value that is borne in their appearance (McClintock and Perrault 182). Likewise, Cinderella is worried about the clothes she would wear should she make an appearance to the ball and uses the chance from her fairy godmother to up her beauty and dressing (Perrault and Johnson 56). On the other hand Little Red Riding Hood’s grandmother is only focused in making her a hood instead of giving her the advice of not talking to strangers. In a nutshell, women strive to please men in society (Jean 283). On this account, Little Red Riding Hood doesn’t believe in herself as a decision maker, as she lets the wolf decides which way she should follow instead. The stupid act results in the deaths of both her grandmother and her. As evidenced in both stories, a woman’s worth is seen in the manner she dresses. The red hood earns Little Red Riding Hood her name since it suited her (Perrault and Johnson 66). On the other hand the prince fails to consider all the women paraded before him and notices Cinderella whose clothes were more beautiful than the rest. The Fairy godmother only helps her get the best clothing and beautify herself. Additionally, Cinderella does everything she is told by the godmother and even extends her thinking just to get to the ball. The stepsisters send for the best hairdresser and also spend the most of their day talking about how they should be dressed (Perrault and Johnson 58). The wolf could be viewed as problems that face the females after them inviting it in their lives. They end up succumbing to the same problems later. The godmother could also be viewed as the way out of bondage. Beauty also serves the same purpose of freeing one (Jean 282). The two stories have present very different endings with the employment of fear tactics to literally scare female readers into accepting the duties that are delegated to them by their families and respective communities. The consequences of defying the expectations of the society are also outlined. For instance, Little Red Riding Hood faces the repercussions of her ignorance to the duties assigned to her. Her mother who would have at least warned her prior to the journey, and also the grandmother who would have advised her against talking to strangers faces loss and death respectively. Shifting her course also costs Little Red Riding Hood (Perrault and Johnson 68). On the contrary, Cinderella who bears the burden with grace ends up enjoying the fruits of her obedience by having domestic happiness (Jean 277). The story about Little Red Riding Hood and that of Cinderella have a variety of morals that can be directed to female readers. As can be seen from the paragraphs above, it is essential that female readers understand the in-depth meaning of every situation than it seems. Female readers have a lot to learn from the stories. This can be useful in different perspectives. For example, the story of Little Red Riding Hood presents a female reader with the intelligence that there are problems (wolf) that face them and they come through channels that are concealed. On the other hand Cinderella’s story presents the reader with the opportunity to trust the blessings of a godmother and apply knowledge where necessary. Works Cited Jean, Lydie "Charles Perrault’s Paradox: How aristocratic fairy tales became synonymous with folklore conservation." Trames 3 (2007): 276-283. Print. McClintock, Barbara, and Charles Perrault. Cinderella. New York: Scholastic Press, 2005. Print. Perrault, Charles, and A. E. Johnson. Perraults Fairy Tales. London: Woodsworth Editions, 2004. Google Books. Web. 7 Nov. 2014. . Read More