Genesis Quinones 

Professor Corrine Shearer 

Fairytales and Re-writings 10105 

20 December 2023 

 

 

                                                      Part 1: Rhetorical Analysis: 

         In the article “Once Upon a sexual assault … it’s Not Outrageous for Fairytales to Get a Modern Update” Stephanie Merritt who is an author, and former deputy literary editor of The Observer, talks about the tale of Sleeping Beauty’s ties in rape ideology. The context of this is that in Sleeping Beauty by Disney and “Briar Rose” by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm Sleeping Beauty pricked her finger when she decided to try her hand at it. She fell into a deep sleep and one day a specific prince came to her residence and was struck by her beauty and he couldn’t help but kiss the princess and when he did kiss her she woke up.

          Merritt talks about how the fact of her being unconscious is sexual assault and she talks about the version by Basille, “Sun, Moon, and Talia” where instead of a simple kiss Sleeping Beauty was raped by a king and got pregnant.  Her audience is people who may feel the same way that Sarah Hall, the mother from the UK who asked her six-year-old son’s school to remove the fairytale Sleeping Beauty from the curriculum because of its troubling theme of kissing an unconscious princess without consent. Merritt’s purpose in her article is to talk about how yes, the story of sleeping beauty has ties to rape ideology, but at the same time, she doesn’t know if banning the tale is the right move. She feels that instead of banning it, there should be a focus on reinventing tales like “Sleeping Beauty”, but with a twist that fits modern times and ideology. Merrit has an understanding tone throughout the entire article and she doesn’t shut down what Sarah Hall would want to be done to the tale of Sleeping Beauty, instead, she tweaks the idea of banning it and instead adds the idea of reinventing the tale. 

                                                Part 2: Exploratory Essay: Opinion piece

            Sleeping Beauty is known to be one of the original Disney princesses, who falls victim to a curse put on her as a baby. Sleeping Beauty on her 16 birthday got tricked into pricking her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel. But much to her luck, she was saved by a true love kiss that was given to her by the prince and they went on to get married and live happily ever after. That’s the version that people know and hold dear to their heart. The version it originates from is “Briar Rose” by Jacob and William Grimm.

             In The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm: The Complete First Edition # 50 “Briar Rose” by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, the king and queen struggled with infertility for years and they wanted a child very badly. One day the queen was made aware that they would be blessed with a daughter and it did come true. The king threw a celebratory feast for the birth of his daughter and one of the fairies was excluded because there were only 12 golden plates and there were 13 fairies in total. The 13th fairy that was left out of the celebration appeared. The 13th fairy in vengeance for being left out cursed the princess with death by pricking her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel on her 15th birthday. The 12th fairy, yet to cast her gift on the princess,  used her gift to ensure that the princess would only fall into a deep sleep as opposed to an irreversible death. The king, to save his daughter, had all the spindles in the kingdom destroyed. However, her destiny caught up with her, and on her fifteenth birthday she found a woman in a room using a spindle and spoke with her and she pricked her finger when she decided to try her hand at it. She fell into a deep sleep and everything fell asleep along with her.  One day there was a prince, riding through the country and was told by an old man that a beautiful princess was living in a royal household behind a hedge of thorns. He was told that many died trying to the prince, fearless, embarked on the journey to save the princess and he was peacefully received when he arrived. He saw everything and everyone was asleep and when he saw the princess’s beauty he couldn’t help himself and kissed her. when he did, she and everyone else woke up along with her. From there on they went on to get married and live happily ever after (Grimm Brothers #50).  

           Even though this tale has been passed down for generations, it’s important to take into account the alarming theme in “Briar Rose” and the Disney version of Sleeping Beauty. There were heavy themes of sexual assault in this tale and it’s been a globally neglected theme. It should be acknowledged when reading the fairy tale to children, I believe the tale shouldn’t be completely rejected and buried, but I feel that there needs to be a certain degree of universal awareness. In the article “Once upon a sexual assault … it’s not outrageous for fairytales to get a modern update” Stephanie Merritt who was deputy literary editor of the Observer, 1998-2005, discusses the themes of sexual assault found in the story of Sleeping Beauty. She mentions the mother Sarah Hall from the UK who asked her six-year-old son’s school to remove the fairytale Sleeping Beauty from the curriculum because of its troubling theme of kissing an unconscious princess without consent. Merritt also mentions how Sarah Hall believes that the story of Sleeping Beauty can be used as an example for older kids to discuss consent.  Merritt mentions that as a child, she grew up with the Disney version of Sleeping Beauty and the Grimm version of “ Briar Rose,” and she didn’t take into account that the prince kissing Sleeping Beauty was wrong, she just thought it to be the prince’s role and the princess role. She never realized that the prince had to obtain consent to kiss Sleeping Beauty. She mentions what happened to Sleeping Beauty and how she was rescued in the Disney Sleeping Beauty and the Grimm version of “Briar Rose” was completely sugarcoated. Both fairytales talk about sleeping beauty being woken up by a simple true love kiss, whereas the version that these versions were derived from is a lot more sinister. She talked about how the tale of “Sun, Moon, and Talia” by Giambattista Basile, and states that In the early versions, the sleeping princess is raped and impregnated by a passing king, but ends up marrying him at the end of the tale.  While Merritt acknowledges the ties that sleeping beauty’s story has with rape, she feels that maybe it would be better for these types of takes to be reinvented instead. Merritt went on to demonstrate some examples of reimagined fairytales such as the Shrek movies, Angela Carter’s re-written versions, and Goodnight Stories for Rebel Girls. 

        I agree with Merritt, and while I do agree with Sarah Hall on the fact that there are inappropriate themes of sexual assault in the Fairytale of Sleeping Beauty, I find it to be heavily unrealistic to completely ban a fairytale that has been loved by generations on generations of people. I agree that to combat these inappropriate troublesome themes in the fairytales we have to keep our eyes out for reimaginings of the tale. If we give light to tales that don’t incorporate all the troublesome themes, future generations can go on to become ignorant on the topic, imitating prior generations. I believe that the Sleeping Beauty theme should be taught in schools as a tool for awareness.  It can be used as a way to teach what’s not consent because, in my opinion, it’s a perfect example of it. Sleeping Beauty and “Briar Rose” even though are some of the most famous versions of the tale, should be held accountable for, not banned. They need to be held out with the problems for everyone to see because if not, there will be this continued ignorance among its lovers. 

                                                                        Work Cited 

Grimm, Jacob, and Wilhelm Grimm. The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm: The Complete First Edition. Princeton University Press, 2014. 

Merritt, Stephanie “Once upon a Sexual Assault … It’s Not Outrageous for Fairytales to Get a Modern Update | Stephanie Merritt.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 27 Nov. 2017, www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/nov/27/sexual-assault-sleeping-beauty-fairytales-ban-gender-rape