Gender Roles in Fairy Tales

A detailed Summary of Gender Roles in Fairy Tales

Encouragement of Gender Roles Through 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

and idealistically live happily ever after.

The first thing that gets the reader's attention is of the main character's unforgettable beauty. Despite

prince. Beauty is an asset of the girls', as Leiberman says, "focus on beauty as a girl's most valuable

All of the female protagonists are rewarded in the end by marrying a handsome, rich prince. Cinderella was rescued, taken to the prince and was married. Sleeping Beauty was married and in the end rescued a second time by her prince and lived happily. Snow White loved her prince as soon as she woke and a wedding was arranged. Rapunzel, too, was saved by her prince and lived happily ever after.

Some common words found in the essay are:
Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Marcia Leiberman, Karen Rowe, Queen Rupunzel, White Rapunzel, Karen Rowe's, Tales Female, Ogress's King, Leiberman Cinderella, sleeping beauty, fairy tales, snow white, cited ccm, perrault cited, ccm package, cited ccm package, leiberman cited, leiberman cited ccm, female protagonists, beauty snow white, handsome rich, package 187, sleeping beauty snow, ccm package 192,

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

Category: English

join now Save Paper

Saved Paper

Save your papers so you can locate them quickly!

Newest Essays

Testimonials

"Thank You So Much!!! You have saved me once again!!!"
Jack M.
"With so many papers to chose from, I was able to get ideas to help me with all of my classes. Thank You!"
Brian P.
"I've used this site for the last 3 years to help me come up with ideas for my papers."
Sara J.
"I use this site every week to help me write my own papers!"
Rachel W.
"I love this site!!!"
Marie N.

Gender Roles in Fairy Tales

Related Essays

Professional Essays

Saved Paper

Newest Essays

Testimonials