Grimms Fairy Tales Comparison Essay, Research Paper

All of the fairy tales that I have read have all had a deep meaning or lesson to tell the reader. These stories do not all clearly show the reader these messages. As I have found, in most cases I must examine the text and re-read the stories to try to find out any hidden themes or moral lessons. Fairy tales make good learning tools for children and adults as well. Through examining the Complete Grimm’s Fairy Tales book, I can see that the lessons that are told can be interpreted in many different ways. I did not even understand many of them as I was reading the tales and trying to figure them out myself. I loved reading the stories, sometimes a couple times each, but my understanding of some of the deep themes that they portray are too secretive for my intellectual capabilities. I believe that when I read the stories, I have to have a discussion about what I have read. The approach that is taken during class to talk about the tales is exactly what helps to expand my understanding of the actual meaning that I think the teller is trying to tell. The same thing is done when a parent reads fairy tales to their children, hopefully not the Grimm’s versions, because I have found some profound differences in them that a child might not appreciate. When a parent reads to his or her child, the child can rest easily and create an image of what is going on in the story. Depending on the content of the particular tale, this imagery approach is a visual technique that helps children learn. This technique helps me also, as a college student, to picture what I want to think and visually stimulate my mind.The differences between two different versions of one fairy tale can be quite shocking. I first read the tale Little Snow-White a couple of times, then second I read the Disney version of Grimm’s story titled, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I found some amazing differences between the two tales that alone would keep me from reading the Grimm’s version to my children later in life. These differences were so big that they completely changed the whole course of the tale. The beginning, the climax scene, and the resolution, which of course I thought would have to be the same, were all different. Characters were changed, and the way that the climax built up was so completely different that I almost wanted each tale to be acted out in front of me as I was trying to figure out which tale to read more deeply into. I understand that the people, who revised the Grimms’s version of Little Snow-White into Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, had great intentions. I believe that Disney wanted the tale to be more enjoyable for younger children to read or be read. If I were a child I would find the Grimm’s tale to be creepy and horrifying, but the Disney tale would have made me rest in bed, more at peace.The first difference that I found in the two tales is a subtle one and it does not change the story really. In Grimm’s version of the tale, the Queen is viewing herself in what is called a “Looking Glass”. In the Disney version of the tale, the Queen is looking into what is called a “Mirror on the Wall”. Both of the objects told the Queen the same thing; that Snow White was prettier than she was. I think that a mirror is a more recognizable object for a younger child than a looking glass. This is just one example of Disney making things smoother and more appealing for all types of readers.Both of the tales tells how the Wicked Stepmother begins to envy Snow White, and how she plots to have her killed in the forest far away from the palace. This is where the two stories start to change. Grimm’s tells that the Huntsman sees Snow White begin to cry and he feels pity for her. He tells her to run far away and never come back. Snow White runs all day until she comes upon a cottage in the woods where everything is very small. Snow White enters the cottage, finding food prepared already and beds against the wall. No one is home, so of course she takes a little food from each bowel, not wanting to be too greedy. Afterwards, she found a bed that matched her height, and fell asleep.

Disney tells the story a little differently. After Snow White is led into the woods by a servant, who had to be promised a rich reward from the Queen, the servant mumbled something to Snow White and ran away. Snow White was left sitting beneath a tree in the middle of the woods, where she was stayed the night, crying bitterly. The next morning, Snow White had no idea as to where she was in the woods. She walked until she came across a path, which she followed all the way to a little, tiny cottage. Snow White went into the cottage and began to make food for whoever lived there. When the Dwarfs returned to their cottage, in the Disney tale, they found hot food and a clean house. Of course they wanted to know who had done such a nice thing for them, so they went upstairs, found Snow White, and asked her who she was. Snow White explained her story to them, and they said that she could stay as long as she cooked and cleaned for them.The Grimm’s story tells how the Seven Dwarfs came home and found that someone had been using their things and eating their food. As in the other story, they found Snow White asleep in a bed, and her story was enough to let her stay as long as she cooked and cleaned for them.The rest of the story in the Grimm’s tale tells how the Wicked Stepmother comes many times and attempts to kill Snow White, because Snow White was the fairest in the land. Finally Snow White is tricked into eating a poison apple that her Wicked Stepmother had made and given her. Snow White falls to the ground, dead. When the Dwarfs return home, there is no apple left over, so they have no idea how she has died.Disney shortens things up for the reader and jumps right to the poison apple scene. Unlike the other tale, there is a piece of the apple resting beside her, so when the Dwarfs come home they do know that she was poisoned by her Wicked Stepmother. Both versions of the text tell how the Dwarfs put her in crystal coffin so that they could see her beautiful face still. Also in both tales, the Prince comes across the Dwarfs and finds out about the news. In the Disney tale, the Prince gives Snow White a kiss on the lips and she awakens. The Prince asks her to marry him and she says yes. From that point on, they live happily ever after, and Snow White returns to the cottage every once in a while. Grimm’s tells the tale having the Princes servants almost drop the coffin as they are carrying it back to the Palace for burial. AS this happens, Snow White coughs up the piece of apple and comes back to life. The Prince asks her to marry him and she says yes. When the Wicked Stepmother finds out that Snow White is still alive, she is full of rage and anger. The Stepmother goes to the wedding and sees Snow White, but soon she is made to dance in a pair of iron slippers that had been placed in a fire. She was forced to dance in them, until she was dead.Both of the stories have some similarities, and some differences. I think that the differences are very easy to spot if one reads both of the tales. The stories also both show how envy for somebody should not be used as a weapon against a person. Envy is a strong form a jealousy and that force need to be controlled by oneself.

341