Rachel Gibbons
GER/FRE 2991
Professor Heiniger
21 April 2014
Prince Charming: Then and Now
Exposure to fairy tales is an occurrence that is almost guaranteed to happen in early
childhood in today’s society. At a young age, little girls start to form ideas about their Prince
Charming and little boys start thinking about being the hero who rescues the damsel in distress.
When I was a little girl, my Prince Charming was tall, handsome, and was a rich prince that lived
in a beautiful castle. My fairy godmother would make me beautiful so that he’d dance with me
and want to marry me. He’d look high and low and do whatever it took to find and rescue me
from the evils of the world, i.e. chores, punishments, and homework, and we’d live happily ever
after. As a child, I didn’t understand the complexities of courtship and truly falling deeply in
love so love wasn’t a major factor when it came to my happiness with my Prince Charming.
As I’ve gotten older, I’ve come to the realization that most of the characteristics of my
ideal Prince Charming have evolved in accordance to my maturity level. I won’t lie and say that
I don’t want a handsome prince who can provide a life of happiness for me. However, I know
that looks aren’t everything and having money doesn’t automatically mean happiness. Some of
the characteristics that have become more important to me are personality, ability to compromise
and communicate, hardworking, and being compassionate and understanding. This evolution of
my ideal Prince Charming made me notice the evolution of Prince Charming in recent fairy tales.
He doesn’t have to be handsome, rich, or even a prince for that matter. As long as he makes the
heroine feel special, heard, loved, cherished, and wanted for who she is, he becomes Prince
Charming to her.
The Prince Charming of old didn’t have a voice, was shallow, spoiled, controlled by his
desires of the physical, selfish and entitled due to his station in life and looks. Although his story
is romanticized for the children it was aimed at entertaining, an adult with a discerning eye
should be able to see through the love story to see who Prince Charming was on the inside. In
comparison, Shrek was the opposite of Prince Charming on many levels. Shrek wasn’t what one
would call handsome, he had lots of personality, he was hardworking, considerate, and
understanding, and more relatable to the current and attainable everyday man. In this paper I
will compare the characteristics of Prince Charming from Cinderella, which is of one of the most
iconic and well known fairy tale movies of all time, to the qualities of the hero from one of the
highest grossing fairy tales in recent years, Shrek.
I hope to show how society’s views
concerning gender roles and what makes someone worthy of the title “Prince Charming” is
behind the evolution of the hero in fairy tales.
In class, we read Cinderella, or the Glass Slipper by Charles Perrault. Prince Charming
didn’t have a single quote attributed to him which made him voiceless. The only thing that he
knew about Cinderella was that she was beautiful. Seeing as this fairy tale was originally
published in Paris in 1697, I can see how it was very indicative of the views of society during
that era. Monarchies were common and every girl dreamed of marrying a member of nobility,
preferably a prince or king.
When I asked myself why it didn’t matter if he was one
dimensional, the only explanation I came up with has to do with his looks and station in life
made it unnecessary to have other layers. He was a handsome prince and any woman that he
chose would be honored, happy, and accommodating to every want and desire he may have in
regards to her. What girl in the kingdom wouldn’t want to be a princess, live a pampered life in
a castle, have the most beautiful gowns and jewels, and have a handsome prince? The qualities
Cinderella had, humbleness, self-sacrificing, obedient, untouched, hard-working, and one of a
kind, wasn’t what made her worthy of being his princess. It was her beauty that took his breath
away and made him want to marry her to the approval of his father and everyone in the kingdom.
He doesn’t know her name, where she was from, or her station in life. Her fairy godmother
made her the beauty that he was enchanted by which lets me know that he was clueless as to who
Cinderella really was. The final affirmation of her worthiness was the fitting of the glass slipper
which proved to the prince that she was one of a kind. One line from the poem at the end of the
story says, “Beauties: that gift is worth more than a dress. It’ll win a man’s heart; it will truly
impress.” (Tatar, p.43) This made me feel as if despite Cinderella’s inner beauty attained by
going through the trails and hardships she experienced before Prince Charming came along and
saved the day, being beautiful on the outside and fitting the glass slipper was all she needed to be
worthy of becoming a princess. This showed the shallowness of Prince Charming and makes
him seem very one dimensional and self-centered when compared the characteristics of Shrek.
Two of the most obvious contrasts between Prince Charming of Cinderella and Shrek
were that Shrek wasn’t a prince in the first place and he wasn’t what most would consider
handsome.
In the beginning of the movie, Shrek was shown to be dirty, crude, abrasive,
mannish, and anti-social.
He lived in a swamp which is the farthest thing from Prince
Charming’s beautiful castle. Although these are definitely not characteristics of the classic
Prince Charming, this showed a more dynamic and relatable character that wasn’t developed just
for the dreams of young girls everywhere. His side kick Donkey compared him to an onion due
to the layers he began to show as the movie progressed.
Another contrast was his sense of humor and his willingness to work hard for what he
wants. Although his motivation for rescuing Princess Fiona in the beginning was because he
only wanted to be left alone in his swamp, he didn’t pass the task on to someone else. He had a
voice and was active in solving his problem of swamp overpopulation. This was the opposite of
what Prince Charming did. He sent his messenger throughout the kingdom to try the glass
slipper on every maiden to find his princess while he stayed separate from the non-royals in his
castle. The hardworking hands-on Shrek is the type of person many women of today’s society
find attractive and desirable when choosing a mate. I want a man who isn’t scared to get his
hands dirty and can take a joke since there is a saying that laughter keeps you young.
Shrek is also considerate and proud of Fiona because when she wanted to be left alone
before she turned into an ogre, he didn’t press the issue or try to force her to come out of the
cave. He respected her wishes and made the effort to learn more about the person he was
growing to care for during their journey. In the time of Perrault, a strong woman was considered
undesirable. However, Shrek applauded that side of Fiona when she helped defeat Robin Hood
and his band of merry men when Shrek, Fiona and Donkey were ambushed. This was not the
case when it came to Prince Charming and Cinderella. Despite the fact that there wasn’t a single
direct quote from Prince Charming in Cinderella, the only thing that mattered to him was her
physical beauty. He never praised the qualities about her that would make her a desirable wife;
he only cared about marrying the most beautiful girl in the kingdom. Fiona was cursed with
becoming an ogre at night and when she kissed Shrek and took his form, Shrek found her more
beautiful even though she was an ogre. This made me feel that Shrek cared about who Fiona
was on the inside and not what she looked like on the outside.
These contrasts are just a few of the ways that fairy tales have evolved over the years.
The hero doesn’t have to be born a prince that lives in a castle to get the heroine and live happily
ever after.
Having qualities such as being considerate, caring, hard-working, having a
personality, and having a voice have become more desirable in a mate than having money, being
handsome, and living in a castle for the most part to today’s society.
Since the newer fairy tales
aren’t just for little girls and boys, but for the parents too, I can see the fairy tale evolving even
farther to reflect the many walks of life. So the next time you watch a fairy tale, ask yourself,
would the hero be your Prince Charming.
Works Cited
Tatar, Maria. The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc.
2002. P 28-43.