Intro:
The role of the parents in fairy tales are crucial to the development of the story, and will be illustrated using the examples of Dead Parents and the Evil Stepmother. In many stories, there are examples of absentee parents or dead parents, which forces the protagonist to grow up either in foster care, with one parent, or with a step parent. By removing the birth parents from the equation, the author is able to incentivize the protagonist to grow up and accept responsibility (18). Whether this means killing off both parents and being raised in foster care, losing one parent and having the other parent remarry, or being raised by a single parent, the tragedy of a parent's death is a powerful motivator and helps the author achieve the purpose of the story, which in Disney films, often "are about growing up" (18).
One of the scenarios that is usually seen when the protagonist only loses one parent is that the father usually remarries (the mother usually dies in Disney films) (18). When the father remarries, a stepmother is introduced into the plot (stepfather if the father dies). Stepmothers are stereotyped as "evil, wicked, greedy, or selfish" in the eyes of society, whether this conclusion is drawn from older fairy tales or modern movies (19). This factor serves the author's purpose because it creates another instance where the protagonist must "grow up" (18). Since it's typically the heroine's dad that remarries (Cinderella, Snow White), the stepmother often become the heroine's "most bitter enemy and tried to think of ways to make it worse for her from one day to the next" (20). This is because, specifically in the Grimm tales however often present in Disney tales, there are never stepmothers who aren't wicked (20). Their wickedness serves the author's purpose by creating challenges that the protagonist must overcome in order to "grow up," obstacles that wouldn't ordinarily be present, thus allowing them to make whatever self discovery necessary to teach the intended moral of the story.
Dead Parents:
In fairy tales, dead parents serve as a powerful motivator. The death of a parent serves the purpose of providing a time "when [characters] have to accept responsibility" (18). Since many Disney movies are roughly 90 minutes long, in order to jump start the emotional journey the character must ride to discover their inner self and resolve whatever conflict they need to resolve, "it's much quicker to have characters grow up when you bump off their parents" (18). Having dead parents not only provides incentive to start the emotional journey, but it serves as a duel purpose in providing an additional obstacle the protagonist must overcome. This incentive can be seen in Frozen, Cinderella, and The Princess and the Frog.
Frozen:
The morals of many Disney stories revolve around themes such as growing up and accepting responsibility, and Frozen is no exception (18). The two main characters, Elsa and Anna, lose both their parents when their parents' ship gets lost at sea, forcing them to step up and take responsibility for their kingdom (21). Since their parents were the King and Queen, Elsa, the older sister, is forced to take on the role of Queen the day she turns 18 (21). Her coronation day is where everything went wrong, thus starting the emotional journey she need in order to come to terms with her powers. By "bumping off" Elsa's parents, she had to grow up much quicker than she would have had they not gotten lost at sea (and are considered dead) (18).
Cinderella:
Like many other Disney movies, Cinderella has the theme of parental loss evident since both of her parents die within the first two minutes of the film (23;22). Since her mother was dead before the animated film even started, her father remarried to provide Cinderella with a new mother (22). Her new stepmother, upon the death of her father, turns out to be "cold, cruel, and bitterly jealous of Cinderella's charm and beauty" (22). In the Disney animation, there is not a large part of the plot devoted to the death of Cinderella's parents, but the live-action version elaborates further on the matter (23). We watch as Cinderella's mother departs after giving Cinderella advice: "have courage and be kind" (23). Within a half hour her father also dies, and her stepmother forces her up into the attic (23). This version of the classic tale shows Cinderella actually grieving, however both films show that her parents' deaths helped her to grow up and accept responsibility in her life (18). Not only is she looking out for herself (since her stepmother isn't going to do it), but she's also hyperaware of other people's suffering (23). Her parents' death started her on an emotional journey which she further discusses with her prince, and she has to work through her grief in addition to all the chores her cruel stepmother demands of her (23). Even though the obvious purpose in both versions of the film is to find true love and marry the prince, the death of Cinderella's parents is what causes the stepmother's true colors to be revealed, ultimately resulting in Cinderella to dream of a prince rescuing her from her abusive lifestyle (22).
The Princess and the Frog:
Another Disney princess who lost a parent is Princess Tiana from The Princess and the Frog (25). In a few scenes, the audience sees how her father James is a decorated military soldier, and is assumed to have been killed during World War I (25). When Tiana was young, her father dreamed of opening a restaurant called "Tiana's Place," named after his daughter, and his death motivated her to work hard to achieve that dream (25). He made Tiana promise not to lose sight of what was important, but because her father's death forced her to "grow up to quickly," she became extremely determined to open her father's dream restaurant (25). Due to her dedication, she lost sight of what's important in life, like having fun and loving her friends and family, working all the time to raise money for the restaurant (25). Since children grow up much quicker "when you bump off their parents," the rhetoric behind the death of her father is to provide that incentive to accept responsibility, which Tiana clearly does (18). This is one of the few princess films that doesn't start off with the protagonist wishing to find love, but over the course of the movie love develops, so Tiana achieving her dream to open up her own restaurant is one of the main goals of the movie in addition to turning herself and her prince back into humans (25).
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"apparently the prerequisite for all of your dreams coming true is your mother f---ing parents need to be dead as f---"
-Jenna Marbles (24)
Evil Stepmother:
Having an "evil" family member, most commonly an evil stepmother, is another challenge the protagonists often must face and overcome. Stepmothers most notably have negative stereotypes, being called "evil, wicked, greedy, or selfish" due to the many fairy tales that portray stepmothers in that manner (19). These cruel, abusive, and stereotypically evil women are often envious of their new stepchild as seen in many movies, specifically the Disney princess films (20). Dating all the way back to the original Grimm fairy tales, stepmothers have been portrayed as wicked, and that is often due to the inheritance of a new child whom they do not wish to care for (20). They see their own ugly children (if they have children) and become jealous of their often beautiful and kind stepchild, so they sabotage the life of their stepchild while pushing their own children ahead in life (20). However, since they don't have much to work with from their own children, they are often bitter, wicked, evil, and jealous (20). In addition to creating life challenges for the protagonist/stepchild, the purpose of having a stepmother in stories was to illustrate how there were blended families back in the day, often due to death by childbirth or food shortages (20). Stepmothers are still present in modern films, and continue to play the same, stereotypically wicked roles as their ancient counterparts (19). Cinderella, Snow White, and Rapunzel are three examples of princesses who grew up in less-than-ideal situations involving an evil stepmother/witch.
Cinderella:
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Cinderella has one of the worst evil stepmothers out of all the Disney films. Cinderella's stepmother is even considered to be one of the most hated Disney villains (27). Over the years, there have been many adaptations of the character, but they all showed the same wicked traits (26). From A Cinderella Story with Fiona to Ever After with Rodmilla, and the 1950s Cinderella to the 2015 Cinderella with Lady Tremaine, the character of the evil stepmother has been portrayed from a variety of angles (26). In both of the non-classic versions, neither stepmother was able to deliver the same levels of brutality, wickedness, or cruelty seen in the two with Lady Tremaine (26). However, the most recent adaptation has managed to deliver a stepmother full of jealousy, hatred and evil, making her "the most vicious one of all" (26). The wickedness, cruelty, and evilness of the evil stepmother has profound effects on Cinderella, particularly through the abuse of her stepdaughter. This is psychological abuse, not physical abuse, and the evil stepmother abuses Cinderella because of her jealousy of Cinderella's "beauty and wholesome charm, so she treats her stepdaughter like a servant" (27). Rhetorically speaking, the purpose behind having a manipulative stepmother is to teach Cinderella to be strong, to "have courage and be kind" despite the challenges (and chores) her stepmother presents (23). Without the evil stepmother, Cinderella's story wouldn't have transgressed, because if her father had married a stable and respectable women like Lady Tremaine pretended to be up until his death, she never would've had to grow up and take care of herself, wouldn't have suffered the emotional and psychological abuse, and wouldn't have dreamt of a prince to take her away (27). Her stepmother's wickedness helped teach the moral of the story, which is often said to be "to find true love," however it can also be said the moral of the story is to teach children to be strong in the face of adversity, to have courage in the midst of fear, and to be kind even you are not shown kindness (23).
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Snow White:
"Mirror, mirror, on the wall, who's the fairest one of all?"
The first iconic Disney villain, the Evil Queen was determined to be "the fairest in the land," except her stepdaughter Snow White stood in her way (28). The queen, is cold, cruel and vain, in addition to being jealous of Snow White's beauty (28). The queen doesn't want to age, so when she continuously sees Snow White's beauty and youth, she gets jealous (29). Her jealousy drove her insane, so she concocted a poisonous apple in order to kill Snow White (28). Because of the Queen's determination and desperation to be the fairest, Snow White suffers throughout the course of the story (28). Snow White is not only envied, but the Queen sends her huntsman after Snow White to kill her and cut out her heart (28). The huntsman spares Snow White, bringing home a pig's heart instead, but she was abandoned in the forest with no way home (28). This experience forced Snow White to grow up and take care of herself, and eventually the seven dwarves she lives with. The rhetorical purpose to having the Evil Queen in the story is to "exist as the contrast to Snow White" (29). The queen is depicted as being "older, sexually experienced, [and] wise," which inherently makes her "evil" in comparison to Snow White being "young, virginal, naive, and good" (29). The Evil Queen presents the challenges in the story which Snow White must overcome, and without whom the plot wouldn't take place. |
“When she breaks the tender peel, to taste the apple in my hand, her breath will still, her blood congeal, then I'll be fairest in the land!” |
Rapunzel:
In Disney's Tangled, Rapunzel doesn't really have a stepmother, but instead she was taken from her birth parents and raised in secret by a witch. However, Mother Gothel qualifies as an evil stepmother on the basis that she isn't Rapunzel's birth mother, emotionally abuses Rapunzel, and ultimately has evil intentions for keeping Rapunzel locked up in a tower (30). Gothel's motivation behind kidnapping Rapunzel is "to keep herself from aging and prolong her life" because Rapunzel's hair has the same magical healing powers found in the flower Gothel was hiding for over 400 years (30). Similar to Lady Tremaine in Cinderella, Mother Gothel often emotionally abuses Rapunzel through her berating and demeaning comments, and usually blames Rapunzel if anything goes wrong in their lives (30). This passive-aggressive witch uses "scare tactics and lies" in order to manipulate Rapunzel into staying in hurter and never venturing into the outside world (31). However, when Flynn Rider happens upon the tower and frees Rapunzel, Gothel finds out and attempts to bring Rapunzel back using the Stabbington brothers to do her dirty work (31). After having lied to Rapunzel for 18 years about who her real parents were, when Rapunzel discovers what Gothel has done and finally confronts her, she causes a switch to flip that reveals Gothel's true nature (30). The story ends with Gothel tying up Rapunzel and Flynn Rider coming back to the tower to find Rapunzel (30). However, Gothel ends up fatally stabbing Flynn in the back, and the only way Rapunzel can use her hair to save him is if she's Gothel's slave forever (30). Flynn proceeds to cut off her hair, causing Gothel's aging process to accelerate (30). Love and loyalty prevail while the evil is vanquished.
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Even though throughout the entire story Gothel repeatedly says that "the world is intolerant of joy and happiness, and will destroy any ray of sunshine it finds," this is not the moral of the story (30). Because Gothel is overprotective (selfish), Rapunzel learns how to stay strong and take risks, even if it means going against her "mother's" wishes (30). Additionally, Rapunzel finally learns how to stand up for herself, which is an important lesson to be taught (30). Gothel's overbearing, critical, and sarcastic nature motivated Rapunzel to finally take life into her own hands and leave her tower like she's always dreamed of doing, thus the purpose of Mother Gothel. Like many evil stepmothers before her, Gothel created the obstacle Rapunzel needed to overcoming in order to discover who she really was and teach the moral of the story.
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Conclusion:
The role of parents in fairy tales have a significant impact on the protagonist. While the death of a parent is very sad and traumatic for the hero/heroine, it often forces them to grow up rather quickly and take on responsibility in their life in order to carry out the plot of the tale and teach the intended moral of the story (18). The role of the evil step mother is often to abuse the stepchild so as to fulfill the stepmother's own selfish desires, ultimately providing incentive for the protagonist to leave and change his or her lifestyle. Without birth parents present to nurture the protagonist, they learn to fend for themselves, resolve their inner conflicts, and teach the moral of the story over the course of their literal as well as emotional journey.