subject: Alterations In Some Of The Most Popular Fairytales [print this page] Storytelling and writing stories might be an ages old art, but it has grown and changed a lot with time. The plots which used to be magical and mythical are now more true to reality. Even the writing procedure which required scribbling on pens or dipping the pen frequently in ink, now only requires printer ink refill or toner cartridges. Yet, there are lots of stories, which are always told without a single change. The same tales that we tell our children have been passed on from generation to generation. These are the well known bed-time stories or commonly called the fairytales.
Whenever thinking about fairy tales, our mind takes us away to a magical, mystical world full of rainbows and ponies. it is Disney which created this whole new world. Disney always has its way of depicting tales, explaining situations and building characters. Snow White was actually the first ever animated feature film, which defined the true attributes of a true damsel in distress. The movie was loved by viewers of all ages. The reason might be that we humans always expect all the things to end well, the good taking over evil and then living happily ever after.
The fact is that many of those stories are in actuall not written with an 'all goes well' ending. As the biggest contributors of these were the famous Grimm brothers, the actual end was mostly gruesome. However, still there was a lesson behind those stories. Thus, the changes by Disney wasn't really intended to add a positive aspect to the lesson of the story but to make it suitable for younger audiences.
One of the most clear change was added in the story is of 'Cinderella'. We remember it as a sweet story with singing birds, talking mice and a cute little fairy god mother. The only bad guy in the story is her step mom and sisters, made worse as the hideous looking step sisters. Aside from their treacherous behavior, who can think of anything evil in the story? Yet, in the actual Grimm version, the step sisters are pretty ladies who desperately cut their own feet in order to fit them in the slippers. Yet that doesn't end it all. The birds fiercely poked the sisters' eyes in the end to serve justice.
Other famous ones include the tale of the piper in which he actually leads the children to a river where they end up drowning. Thus, teaching a great lesson to the treacherous people of the town. Likewise, in the original version of Snow White, the complete first kiss part is missing. Alos, it was not the heart that the queen evil queen ordered, it were the lungs which she wanted to be eaten for dinner. It was actually the jolt of the prince's horse, which woke the lady up. after that, the queen was revenged by dancing to death in red hot iron shoes.
