Wesley Dominguez

Professor Hoehne

FIQWS 10105

October 3, 2019

 

The Deception of The Sleeping Beauty

Fairytales are stories told to children about magical and imaginary characters and lands. These stories are passed down from one generation to another. Fairytales are told as happy and ideal dreams to follow when in fact most times there are also negative things happening in the plot. A common story plot of a fairy tale involves a lost or helpless girl who is rescued by a handsome heroic prince. However, fairy tales are deceiving because they overlook the evil and malicious acts in order to make the story seem happy. Walt Disney for example “Must also be criticized for his portrayal of a cloying fantasy world filled with cute little beings existing among pretty flowers and singing (Stone 44).” This pattern of deception is portrayed in the fairytale of “The Sleeping Beauty,” where the female’s beauty is used to distract from her unfortunate events. In the story, Sun, Moon, and Talia, a version of The Sleeping Beauty by Giambattista Basile, the pattern of deception is seen. The story plot is a tragedy that is turned into something positive and happy when in fact it is not.

In the beginning of the story, a woman is introduced as the daughter of a great lord. She is destined for a tragic future before even growing up. This fairytale begins off sad because this great lord loses his daughter, Talia. The plot is that someone is going to save his daughter who has been pricked by a flax and has become unconscious. In the story, Talia is basically in a coma and her wellbeing is overlooked by the wealth that surrounds her and the superiority of the male figures. Basile’s story says, “Lay her out in one of his country mansions. There they seated her on a velvet throne under a canopy of brocade (Burton)” as if all the treasure would make her conscious again and deceive that she is not well.

This happy ending story gets worse midway. Talia is raped by a king and gives birth to two children who are described as jewels. This fairytale enables the reader to deceive the birth of children as something great yet, overlooks that the kids are a product of a tragedy. In Sun, Moon, and Talia the birth of the children are described as “In them could be seen two rare jewels, and they were attended by two fairies, who came to that palace, and put them at their mother’s breasts (Burton).” These kids were not brought by a fairy, they were brought by a king who thought it was okay to rape an unconcsious woman. Fairytales deceive the truth by adding words such as “jewels, fruits of love (sex), and king” in order to make something seem nicer than its reality. When the king found Talia he watched her “charms” and felt his blood “course hotly through his veins (Burton)” he did not contain himself and had sex with the unconsious woman. Thesse choice of words in fairytales make the rape seem as something minor. In an article by Maria Tarter she states, “Our gaze is aligned with that of a prince stunned by the exquisite beauty of a woman who remains inert and on display for the enjoyment of a male viewer (Tatar 47)” The reader is so focused on the look of the beautiful woman that the rape is sugarcoated.

The Sleeping Beauty fairytale is usually told as a story with a woman who has an unfortunate life, but is saved by a king. The story then ends as a happy ever after and pushes aside all the horrible things that resulted in the story’s ending. In Sun, Moon, and Talia by Giambattista Basile, “The Sleeping Beauty” fairytale includes a pattern of deception throughout the plot. The reality of the story is manipulated through magical words, extravagant riches, and a king that supposedly brings a happy ending. “Walt Disney neglected to tell us that Cinderella’s freedom does not always end at midnight (Stone 50),” and that The Sleeping Beauty’s life is not always beautiful.

 

Works Cited

 

Stone, Kay. “Things Walt Disney Never Told Us.” The Journal of American Folklore, vol. 88, 

50. 347, 1975, pp. 42–50. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/539184.

 

Tatar, Maria. “Show and Tell: Sleeping Beauty as Verbal Icon and Seductive Story.” 

Marvels & Tales, vol. 28, no. 1, 2014, pp. 142–158. JSTOR, JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.13110/marvelstales.28.1.0142.

The Pentameron of Giambattista Basile, translated by Richard F. Burton (Privately printed,

1893), day 5, tale 5. Translation revised by D. L. Ashliman.