Exploring the Themes and Meanings Behind the Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm
This article briefly mentions the sexual abuse of Sleeping Beauty, as told in the original Brothers Grimm tale.
Fairy tale. It’s a magical word. It brings up a feeling of nostalgia, memories from the past; the stories we were told as children. Rapunzel. Cinderella. Sleeping Beauty. Little Snow White. The Shoes that were Danced to Pieces. The Iron Stove. From well-known tales of princesses and knights to lesser-known mottos of the world and what it holds, fairy tales have been around forever. And what about the ones I’ve just listed? What do they all have in common? It’s simple; each of the fairy tales listed above are only a few of the 200 plus tales written by the Brothers Grimm.
Of course, word has gotten around by now that the sweet and innocent Disney adaptations of such literary works don’t exactly align with how they were written back in 1812. For example, Cinderella’s step-sisters actually cut off part of their feet to fit into her slipper. The prince takes one of them with him, only to notice on the way back to the palace that the bottom of the carriage is filling with her blood. He takes her back and trades her out with the other step-sister, who also bleeds out into the carriage, until Cinderella is eventually revealed. Sleeping Beauty — or, Little Briar Rose, as the tale was…
