Female
characters in fairy tales.
Dworkin discusses the roles that men
and women play in Western fairy tales and their implications. For example, she
identifies that females are particularly desirable when they are sleeping (some
like Snow White and Sleeping Beauty are practically comatose). She also points
out that good men are likely to fall under the influence of a powerful female
and harm their children. (E.g. Hansel and Gretel)
Dworkin states; "The good woman must be
possessed. The bad woman must be killed, or punished. Both must be nullified.’
‘The
roles available to women and men are clearly articulated in fairy tales. The
characters are vividly described, and so are the modes of relationship possible
between them. We see that powerful women are bad, that good women are inert. We
see that men are always good, no matter what they do, or do not do.’ (The fathers in Cinderella and
Hansel and Gretel are still described
as ‘good men’ despite failing to protect their children from the evil female
characters).
Dworkin on the ‘princess’ characters in fairy tales:
‘Cinderella,
Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Rapunzel - all are characterized by
passivity, beauty, innocence and victimization.
They are archetypal good women - victims
by definition. They never think, act, initiate, confront, resist,
challenge, feel, care or question. Sometimes they are forced to do housework.’
Dworkin on mothers in fairy tales:
‘These fairy
tale mothers are mythological female figures. They define for us the female
character and delineate its existential possibilities. When she is good, she is
soon dead.’
On stepmothers: ‘She is ruthless, brutal,
ambitious, a danger to children and other living things. Whether
called mother, queen, stepmother or wicked witch, she is the wicked witch, the
content of nightmare, the source of
terror.’
In her reading of ‘Cinderella’, she
states: ‘Cinderella's stepmother
understood correctly that her only real work in life was to marry off her
daughters. Her goal was upward mobility, and her ruthlessness was consonant with the values of the market place.’
Dworkin has
this to say about the prince
character in fairy tales:
‘He is handsome and
heroic. He is a prince, that is, he is powerful, noble and good. He rides a
horse. He travels far and wide. He has a
mission, a purpose. Inevitably he fulfils it. He is a person of worth and a
worthwhile person. He is strong and true.
Of course, he is not
real, and men do suffer trying to become him. ‘
On
the role of the fairy tale in our culture:
‘Women
live in fairy tale as magical figures, as beauty, danger, innocence, malice and
greed. On the personae of the fairy tale - the wicked witch, the beautiful
princess, the heroic prince - we find
what the culture would have us know about who we are.
The
point is that we have not formed that ancient world - it has formed us. We ingested it as children whole, had its
values and consciousness imprinted on our minds as cultural absolutes long
before we were in fact men and women. We have taken the fairy tales of
childhood with us into maturity, chewed but still lying in the stomach, as real
identity. Between Snow White and her heroic prince, our two great fictions, we
never did have much of a chance. At some point, the Great Divide took place:
they (the boys) dreamed of mounting the Great Steed and buying Snow White from
the dwarfs; we (the girls) aspired to become that object of every
necrophiliac's lust - the innocent, victimized,
Sleeping-Beauty, beauteous lump of ultimate, sleeping good. Despite ourselves, sometimes unknowingly,
sometimes knowing, unwilling, unable to do otherwise, we act out the roles we
were taught.’
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