In a message dated 97-12-11 05:54:52 EST, Gdbassham wrote:
> << Queens in fairy tales are sexual and powerful. And, it seems to me,
> invariably evil. A king may be good or bad, but if a queen is present in
> the
> story, she's wicked.
>
> Or is this too sweeping a generalization? Are there fairy tales in which
> the
> queen is good or at least neutral? >>
>
> I can only think of dead queens--like Snow White's mother.
>
> Although now that I think about it, I can't remember a king in a fairy tale
> who was
> neither evil nor ineffectual.
>
> -- Gayla
>
And Becca Stoler wrote:
> >Sleeping Beauty. Her mother just hangs back with her dad while the fairies
> >take Aurora off into the forest for 16 years. (a note: Prince Phillip's
> >mom is dead)
> >
> >I can't think of other Disney movies -- Cinderella is the only other
> >princess one that comes to mind.
>I know it isn't a princess, but Dumbo had a mother, who tried to protect him,
>and was locked up for it...
Somebody else mentioned that Disney really changes the stories of fairy tales,
and the recently re-released _The_Little_Mermaid_ fits both as an example of a
story (at least the movie version, I can't remember many of the details about
the original story) about a princess in which the queen (mother) is missing (I
presume dead, but I don't think it ever really says), and where the Disney
version is very different from the fairy tale. VERY different. If you can
find episodes of Faerie Tale Theater at your local video rental store, they do
a much better job of telling the original story.
Barbara Benesch
BJBenesch@aol.com
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu May 25 2000 - 19:07:41 PDT