The Truth Behind Sleeping Beauty 

Part 1: Rhetorical Analysis 

Maria Tatar is a professor of German studies and folklore at Harvard University.  She is the author of The Annotated Brothers Grimm and The Annotated Hans Christain Anderson, and others, as well as contributing to the New York Times and the New Yorker. Tatar wrote the journal article  “Show and Tell; Sleeping Beauty as a Verbal Icon and Seductive Story.” Marvels & Tales, where she explores the arguments supporting and disbarring the story of  “Sleeping Beauty”.  She makes it clear that she does not support the story of  “Sleeping Beauty” but still i issue to demonstrate both arguments, explaining evidence that supports her own and disproving evidence that opposes her. 

In order to get her point across Tatar organizes her article in sort of a sandwich. She presents her own point of view, has evidence from other sources that support her argument, then presents an opposing argument and explains why said argument is wrong. She then divides the article into sections addressing language, storytelling and metaphors and how each of those prove why the story of  “Sleeping Beauty” should be eliminated from society. 

Tatar writes this article to reach feminists, people that support women and oppose the stereotypical demonstration of women. As a woman herself it makes sense that Tatar writes this article in opposition to stereotypes presented in fairy tales such as  “Sleeping Beauty”. Women are constantly attacked in the media or presented poorly, it has only been recently that women have been put in positions of power, and have been seen as more than mere objects or housewives. 

Part 2: Book Review 

Most of us have grown up with Disney, the princesses, prince charming, tiaras, the dresses, the whole nine yards. Disney is where we heard all the stories of the castles and happily ever after, from Cinderella and the Little Mermaid to Rapunzel and The Princess and the Frog. But those aren’t the true stories, not the originals. Take Sleeping Beauty for example, better known as Briar Rose. The original stories go back centuries, with much darker sentiments. 

Giambattista Basile was an Italian writer, he wrote “Sun, Moon, and Talia”, a less known version of the “Sleeping Beauty” we all love. The story has its similarities to the Disney version, a young princess is cursed, her father attempts to protect her from the curse and eventually the princess falls into a deep sleep to then be saved and live happily ever after. Though in this story the princess is not named Aurora or Briar Rose, but rather Talia. When Talia was born her father had her future predicted which concluded that Talia would be cursed by the splinter of flax. When her father heard this he had all flax and similar materials banned, but Talia still touched the splinter of flax after finding an old woman twirling a spindle. Talia then fell into a deep sleep, leaving her father to lay her in a country mansion and leave her there. Many years later a king had been hunting in the woods and entered the mansion that Talia slept in, after the king realized that Talia was unresponsive in her sleep, her took her to the bedroom and raped her. The king then returned to his kingdom and family, and Talia was left pregnant. Talia eventually gave birth to twins named Sun and Moon, as they breastfed from her they also removed the poison from her body which eventually awoke Talia. One day the king that had raped Talia suddenly remembered her and went “hunting” to go and see her. When he found out that Talia had given birth to his children he was ecstatic but still needed to return to his life and his own kingdom. The king began to use hunting as an excuse to go and see Talia but  his wife then became suspicious and questioned the secretary who told his wife about the existence of  Talia and the children. The queen sent out to get the children, pretending that the king was asking for them. When the kids arrived at the palace the queen ordered that they be cooked and served to her and the king. The cook took pity on the children and sent them home with his wife to be protected. The queen felt that was not punishment enough and then sent after Talia. The queen confronted Talia for her affair with the king and ordered she be boiled alive. Right before Talia was put in the pot the king had arrived and ordered the queen, secretary and cook to be put in the pot instead. The cook saved himself when he revealed he had saved the children, leaving Talia, the king and children to live happily ever after. (Basile)

A story with so much violence, unknown at that, brings up the question of how did we get to that innocent Disney version everyone seems to know? Or is the Disney version truly that innocent? Maria Tatar seems to think that that innocent Disney version is not so innocent after all. She explains that feminists try to make the story disappear by pointing out the bad like the passivity and anti-heroine of the story, yet the media from singers, filmmakers and more, all find some way to relate to the story or to portray it, and not exactly in a positive light. Tatar notes that Simone de Beauvoir, a feminist activist and philosopher, had pointed out that in stories women are always paused, frozen even, in their passivity since they are always awaiting a man to come to their rescue and “Sleeping Beauty” truly exemplifies that. (Tatar 142-143) And I could not agree more. Though there are multiple versions of  “Sleeping Beauty”, there is the common theme that an attractive woman falls into a deep sleep and needs to be saved. Though in Basile’s version, the hero is not the man that comes to Talia’s rescue, but rather her children who removed the venom from her system, sort of exemplifying on the love between a mother and her children but still playing into the idea of a woman needing to be saved instead of saving herself or being more active in general. Tatar also brings up the sexualization in “Sleeping Beauty”, how the wording used to describe the prince’s struggle to get to the princess is actually a metaphor for the struggle the prince went through to have sex with the princes while unconscious, in better words, the prince forcefully having sex with the princess, raping her (Tatar 144). Basile’s version is a bit more straightforward with the wording, instead of describing the journey of the prince, Basile states that after the king had placed Talia in the bed he then “gathered the first fruits of love” (Basile 1). He is more straightforward with stating that the king had sex with Talia, but either way it is still rape like in other stories. These stories were meant to be lessons to these young children, and in a way it is, teaching about the reality of the world and dangers, even if the child won’t understand it fully with the metaphors, it’s hinted to look back on as they get older. Tatar also goes into Bettelheim’s analysis of  “Sleeping Beauty” which explores a child’s psychology when reading these types of stories. Bettelheim argued that although there is a clear gender divide in “Sleeping Beauty” there’s lots of other stories which have equal passivity of men and women. He also tries to explain that the portrayal of the feminine as passive and sleeping is meant to relate to how when young girls hit the age of puberty they are passive, sleepy and slow s they start their menstruation opposed to how boys at that age become more aggressive and active, therefore the portrayal of gender in the story is justified (Tatar 144). Tatar explains that Bettelheim’s argument only really supports the idea that “Sleeping Beauty” is a story to be eradicated, despite how he tried to explain the importance of the story for children (Tatar 144). Although Bettelhiem’s argument is valid and does make sense, it does not justify the story. Bettelhiem is feeding into a stereotype that is unfair to both genders. The age of puberty is complicated with changes in behavior but that does not justify a story exemplifying said behaviors because it only leads the children to believe that those stereotypes are the only ways in which they can act because it is what is seen as “acceptable”. 

The story of  “Sleeping Beauty” is a classic, but reading between the lines shows the stereotypes and researching further will reveal the negativity and violence that the story truly holds when looking at the different versions. Feminists and modern day researchers and professors argue the same, stories like “Sleeping Beauty” must be eliminated due to the negativity between the lines and stereotypes they portray to children, bad examples for these kids. Older philosophers and researchers such as Bettelhiem may argue otherwise but the reality is that their arguments only further prove why said stories are inappropriate and unfair to children, so they should be rewritten or even eliminated. 

Works Cited

Basile, Giambattista. Sun, Moon, and Talia. 1893.

Tatar, Maria. “Show and Tell; Sleeping Beauty as a Verbal Icon and Seductive Story.” Marvels & Tales, vol. 28, 2014. Project Muse, https://muse.jhu.edu/article/546501.