Gender Roles in Fairy Tales

Female characters in many fairy tales are the perfect epitome of women following traditional female roles and possessing qualities of worthiness. I will illustrate how fairy tales inscribe gender roles upon females based on Karen Rowe’s argument “[t]hese tales which glorify passivity, dependency, and self sacrifice as a heroine’s cardinal virtues suggests that culture’s very survival depends upon a woman’s acceptance of roles which relegate her to motherhood and domesticity.” (Karen Rowe cited in Hallett and Karasek 348) I will discuss and analyse this through four fairy tales, Charles Perrault’s “The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood” and “Cinderella” as well as Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s “Snow White”, and “Rapunzel”.

The female protagonists of fairy tales possess qualities in which women are seen and accepted. The

main trait of a virtuous woman is that of beauty. Never is the protagonist ugly, or have qualities less than

perfect in their looks. She is either the most beautiful, angel like or fairest of them all. As Marcia K.

Leiberman states, “ the prettiest is invariably singled out and designated for reward.” (Leiberman cited in

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Approximate Word count = 1431
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)