Classic Literature Fairytales
Today when people hear the word “fairytale,” they often conjure an image of princesses and
princes falling in love and living ‘happily ever after' after defeating an evil queen or sorcerer. We
envision talking animals, magic or castles in far off lands. The fairytales we are familiar with are
rooted in classic literature; stories told for hundreds of years. However, the versions we are
accustomed to have gone through a process called Disneyfication. Disneyfication is the term
used to describe the transformation to resemble the theme park or ideals perpetuate by The
Walt Disney Company. The Walt Disney Company is synonymous with ‘happily ever after.’
Therefore, their adaptions of the classic literature fairytales take on a much more pleasant tone
with good triumphing over evil in the end. The prince and the princess finding one another and
conquering any obstacle that kept them apart in the beginning of the story. The original
literature fairytales read to children centuries ago have a much darker tone than our society’s
Disneyfication interpretations.
The Frog Prince
Disney tells a story of a princess kissing a frog to turn him into his human princely form.
However, in the original literature tale, a kiss does not turn the frog into a prince. There are two
written versions of this classic story. In one story, the frog’s head must be chopped off while in
the second version the princess slams the frog against a wall thereby killing it before the prince
is revealed.
Mulan
The original story has a much darker ending than what we see on our Disney screens. The
warrior daughter returns home to learn her father has died, her mother is remarried and she is
to be a wealthy man’s concubine (mistress). The reality of her new situation is too much for the
young woman to handle so she kills herself at the end of the story.
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
There are two versions of this story both with dark endings. One tale has Goldilocks being
discovered by the bears where they rip her apart and eat her. The less gruesome version has
Goldilocks jumping out a window to escape the bears but sadly she falls and breaks her neck;
thereby dying nonetheless.
The Pied Piper
This tale may be less known by children today. The story tells of a village overrun with rats and a
man who offers to rid the village of them. The town agrees to pay him if he is successful. The
man plays music on his piper drawing the rats out of town. Unfortunately, the town refuses to
pay the money they have promised. The Pied Piper decides to get rid of the children of the
village as punishment. He leads all the children to a river where they drown.
Pinocchio
As soon as Pinocchio is able to walk, he runs away from home. Sadly, the police arrest Geppetto
because they believe Pinocchio was abused. When Pinocchio returns home, he kills the talking
cricket who tries to warn him of the pursuits of greedy pleasures. Pinocchio then sells his school
books for a ticket to the Great Marionette Theatre where he meets a fox and cat who steals his
money and tries to hang him.
Cinderella
Cinderella’s stepsisters try to fool the prince by claiming the glass slipper belongs to them.
Disney kept this detail; however, they omit the way in which the stepsisters go about fooling the
prince. One sister cuts off her toes to fit her foot inside the slipper while the other cuts off her
heel. The fairy godmother of Cinderella is a complete Disney construct. In the literature tale,
Cinderella plants a tree by her mother’s grave and prays under it every day. It is her mother’s
spirit who sends the dress and helps Cinderella secure the love of the prince. When Cinderella
and the prince marry, the stepsisters attend the wedding where their eyes are pecked out by
birds.
Rapunzel
In literature, the prince visits Rapunzel several times in the tower where she becomes pregnant.
The evil sorceress who locked her in the tower discovered her pregnancy and cuts off her hair
while throwing her out in the wilderness. When the prince returns to visit Rapunzel, the
sorceress lowers the hair for him to climb. She tells the prince that he will never see Rapunzel
again and pushes him from the tower where he lands in thorns causing him to go blind.
The Little Mermaid
Disney’s Little Mermaid has the mermaid transforming into a human in hopes of marrying the
prince she loves. This is true in the original literature story. However, there are a few rather
large deviations from the classic tale. In literature, the penalty the mermaid must pay for being
given legs is not only her voice but also every step she takes will feel like she is walking on sharp
shards of glass. Also, the original deal was if she did not succeed in getting the prince to kiss her,
she would die. In the end of the story, the prince marries someone else and never kisses the
mermaid. She is told if she kills the prince then she can turn back into a mermaid and will not
die. However, she cannot bring herself to murder him so she kills herself instead.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Snow White is the most beautiful in all the land. Because of her beauty, the evil queen wants
Snow White murdered. Disney kept these pieces of the story. However, Snow White is not
awakened by the prince’s kiss in literature. In the original story, the prince is overwhelmed by
Snow White’s beauty and wants to keep her for himself. He has his servants carry her glass
coffin to the horses to be brought back to his castle. As the servants carry the unconscious
beauty, they stumble and the jostling causes Snow White to wake. The evil queen is invited to
the wedding not knowing it is Snow White’s nuptials. Once the queen is there, she is forced to
wear burning hot iron shoes and dance until she drops dead. Now for the truly disturbing part of
the story…Snow White is not a grown woman but is merely a seven year old child.
Little Red Riding Hood
The modern Little Red Riding Hood has the little girl and her grandmother being rescued by a
woodsman. Unfortunately, the literature version has no such ending. Literature contains a much
more gruesome ending to the story. Little Red Riding Hood’s grandmother is killed by the wolf.
He chops her into pieces; putting her flesh in the pantry and bottling her blood. When Red
Riding Hood arrives, the wolf, pretending to be the grandmother, offers her food and wine. The
little girl eats the food and drinks the wine not knowing that it is actually her grandmother. Most
versions then end with Little Red Riding Hood being killed by the wolf.
Sleeping Beauty
This classic fairytale is perhaps one of the more disturbing stories. Sleeping Beauty falls asleep
when she gets a splinter in her finger from the spinning wheel. Instead of a young prince giving
her “true love’s kiss” as we know from Disney, the sleeping princess is raped by a married king.
She becomes pregnant with twins from this encounter. The princess only awakens when one of
her twins sucking on her finger dislodges the splinter causing her slumber. She awakens to learn
she was the mother of two from being raped by a king. The wife of the king then tries to have the
twins killed, cooked and fed to the king. She is unsuccessful in her plot and the king has his wife
burned at the stake for trying to murder the children. In the end, the king and princess are
married despite him raping and impregnating her.
Classic Literature vs. Disneyfication
These are just a few of the fairytales we are raised on today. Some ask why would the original
tales be so horrific. Why would you want your children to hear these stories? Parents today
would be absolutely appalled for their small children to hear these tales in their original forms.
Disney has taught us to believe in the ‘happily ever after’ rather than the gruesome endings of
their literature counterparts. The original fairytales served a purpose during their time. They
were designed to teach children hard lessons of life. Reality is that life does not end happily ever
after. Bad things do happen to good people. People make mistakes and ignore what is in front of
them causing serious consequences for them in the end. Disney instead teaches our children
that there is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. The princess will be rescued by Prince
Charming and they will live happily ever after in constant bliss. While these are pleasant ideas,
they are not reality. Classic fairytales exposed the children of the past to the harsh cruel realities
of the world before their reality smacked them in their face. Our children do not have that same
benefit. Instead, the Disneyfication version of these tales allows modern children to maintain
their rose colored glasses of the world and keep a simplistic innocence.