Bribery to Riches
Bribery in classic fairy tales plays a large role. The Three Spinners, is a German fairy tale written by Brothers Grimm. It is about a girl who is too lazy to do work and her mother is fed up with her ways. The Queen of the village says she will take the girl in and make sure she works. After days went by and the girl had done no work, the Queen tells the girl she can marry her son (the Prince) if she can spin the flax. This is the first example of bribery in order to complete a task. But, the girl still didn’t know how to spin flax so when three older ladies walked by she told them they could be invited to the royal wedding if they spun the flax for her. In the end, the girl married the prince and the three spinners went to the large wedding. This is a prime example of bribery. If bribery wasn’t included in this story there would be no momentum, nothing would get done. Bribery is so apparent in fairy tales because it creates interest and helps with conflict.
A contemporary retelling that involves bribery is in Beauty and the Beast. The Beast bribes the father by telling him he will live if he gives the Beast one of his daughters. There is many examples where the characters are faced with situations where if they don’t abide, it could lead to death or jail time. Bribery is especially important in this retelling because without the Beast bribing the father, the story would have no conflict, and the daughter would have never met the Beast who she would end up marrying. It is also apparent that the men in these fairy tales use bribery the most to get ahead, and in order to get a wife. Bribery definitely isn’t as prevalent nowadays, but I think it was a trope that was executed really well many times.
Nowadays bribery is all along the lines of money. People with a lot of cash will do anything in their power to get ahead by bribing people with their wealth. A main example that blew up online was the college admissions scandal. Some well known actors and influencers were caught in a large lie. Some bribed college coaches to pretend their children were on the team, when they really weren’t. Other payed to have people take their children’s standardized tests so they could get really good grades. When this all came out to the public, these wealthy parents were caught under fire and their lives and careers are harmed, some facing jail time. This is obviously more extreme than the bribery shown in fairy tales, but it is still similar to the circumstances that some characters face.
