Fairy Tales Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Fairy Tales - Research Paper ExampleIndeed, in fairy tales, the stepmother is usually mean, deceitful and incapable of loving her step infantren. In this daytime and age when divorce, separation and single parenthood make having a stepmother a fact of life, it is a wonder why fairy tale stepmothers are stillness stereotyped as such. Moreover, because of how everyday having a stepmother is nowadays, it is curious to know how these evil depictions may influence the relationship of todays children with their stepmothers. One reason basis the evil stepmother character is history, supposedly. Author Maria Warner writes that fairy tales may be influenced by the happenings in society during the time the stories were written. Death at childbirth was communal in earlier times so having a new mother was a usual occurrence. Warner believes that making the stepmother wicked in fairy tales served as a warning for readers during that time and points to real-life tragedies where an offspring is killed so the stepmothers child can inherit the fathers riches. (Sellers) Another explanation for this depiction comes from Bruno Bettelheim and other critics who take away psycho-analyzed fairy tales. According to this group, the portrait of an evil stepmother is actually a projection of the bad side a good mother has. (Tatar) Supposedly, an individual does not timbre as guilty hating the bad qualities of ones mom epitomized by the malevolent stepmother. With this image of a mothers evilness, mom is able to anticipate the loving and good-natured parent, always wanting the best for her child. Writer Patricia Watson shares that in Europe during the writing of Hansel and Gretel, peasants abandoned their children because they did not have enough food to guide them (Watson) and thus it was easier to hate a stepmom for this. It is noteworthy, too, how the stepmother is made to be jealous of her stepdaughters beauty or good qualities. In ampere-second White, the Evil Queen who is t rivial becomes angry when her magic mirror says its famous line Snow White is the fairest of all. (Grimm) Her anger led her to think of ways on how to get rid of Snow White in her world. Wanting to look pretty and young is not a problem and cannot e viewed as a mistake on the stepmothers side. Everyone wants to look young and good. What made her evil though is her banishing of Snow White from the castle and trying to kill her. Although having a bad stepmother may be common in this age of divorce and separation, it has not been a regular occurrence for stepmothers to kill their stepdaughter or stepson. In Cinderella, the vain stepmother forces Cinderella to work in her own house, possibly in an attempt to make the pretty stepdaughter dirty-looking and unpleasant. She also makes it hard for Cinderella to attend the Princes ball by giving her so many chores and then lock the child up in her room. (Cinderella) In 2007, a self-study about the relationship of a stepmother and stepdaught er was released to the public. The researchers were members of one family who exemplified one of the most common contemporary family structures a stepfamily. The researchers notice that the wicked stepmother title is most times brought about by anger that the biological child cannot express towards the biological mother and by negative stereotypes that the child hears. (Strawn and Knox) This research is important. It