Violence and Morality in Fairy Tales
Exploring the relationship between violence and morality in two classic fairy tales
With subject matter that would be more appropriate for an episode of Game of Thrones than a Disney movie, the earlier versions of some of our most beloved and well-known fairy tales contain macabre and gruesome depictions of murder, dismemberment, cannibalism, incest, rape, and more. A far cry from the wholesome and sanitized G-rated versions we have today.
It is important to note that the context for many of these tales was a cautionary warning of the harm that certain practices or behaviors could bring. Think of them as an extreme GI Joe PSA. In many of these stories, lying, cheating, stealing, and other exploitation often brought a violent and painful death to the offender.
Psycho Step Mom
At the end of the Brothers Grimm version of Snow White, the wicked queen is forced to put on red hot iron shoes and dance until she drops dead. (Ouch!) This is after the narcissistic queen attempts to murder her seven-year-old stepdaughter on four different occasions. The first time, she orders her huntsman to stab Snow White and bring back her lungs and liver so she can cook and eat them!
The reason for this psychopathic behavior? Because Snow White is prettier than her. Thankfully, the huntsman has pity on Snow White and lets her escape. After learning she is still alive, the queen uses every method at her disposal to dispatch Snow White including disguises, poison, and witchcraft. Needless to say, when the queen’s death finally arrives, she doesn’t elicit much sympathy.
There have been several variations of the Snow White story throughout the years with certain details being changed. The most significant is that in the original Grimm Brothers 1812 version, the evil queen is actually Snow White’s mother. Who because of her all-consuming vanity, puts a hit out on her own daughter.
Due to some backlash, later versions of the story would have Snow White’s mother die shortly after her birth and her father would marry a wicked and vain woman who would then become the familiar antagonist.
The evil stepmother would become a common archetype in many fairy tales and folklore. It was more palatable for readers of the time to be disgusted with the actions of a stepmother than with a child’s biological parents.
It is worth noting that both Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm received honorary doctorates from the University of Marburg in Germany. Their scholarly work focused primarily on linguistics, folklore, and medieval studies. All of which would inform their work. Although they are not the authors of the stories within their collections, but rather curators of many traditional oral and written folk tales. Their environment and worldview would play a major role in the edits and revisions they would make.
Snow White and the Bible
Another significant factor in their versions was the audience that they were writing to. Germany in the early 19th century was a majority Christian nation, and the Christian ethics and worldview were dominant for both readers and writers of the time.
In fact, we can see several biblical themes within the story of Snow White. The main flaw of the wicked stepmother is envy. Her jealousy and vanity become her obsession. One translation of the story says that she was “proud and haughty.” Anyone familiar with the King James Bible will immediately recognize this terminology.
Another part of the story says of the queen, “Then her envious heart had rest, so far as an envious heart can have rest.” That sounds like something straight out of the book of proverbs. We also see the Christian hospitality and kindness of the seven dwarves. We are told that the queen is skilled in witchcraft and uses it in her efforts to murder the innocent Snow White.
The most obvious biblical imagery occurs when the queen in disguise tempts Snow White with a poisonous apple which she bites. Disobeying the orders of the dwarves not to accept anything or let anyone in. Does this scenario sound familiar?
The evil queen is essentially the personification of the devil. Done in by her pride and envy, the would-be murderer and cannibal does not seem to have any redeeming qualities. So, when she finally meets her brutal end, it feels like justice is served. Evil is punished and innocence is revived and rewarded.
Justice and Punishment in The Goose-Girl
We see these themes play out in another Brothers Grimm tale called The Goose-Girl. In the story, a princess is taking a far journey to join the prince she is engaged to be married to. She is accompanied by her rotten and unfaithful servant girl and her talking horse. (Because fairy tales)
When the pair and their horses stop to rest, the princess tells the servant girl to bring her some water. She refuses and tells the princess to get it herself. After this happens a second time, the servant girl not only refuses to bring her water but orders her to trade clothes and horses with her so that she can pass herself off as the princess and live in royalty.
She then makes the princess swear an oath not to say anything under threat of death. When they arrive, the servant girl presents herself as the bride-to-be. The princess although quite sorrowful honors her oath and says nothing. However, the king inadvertently learns about the deception and informs his son.
They then have a banquet that everyone attends including the real princess who had previously been relegated to tending geese. Because she is all dolled up, the servant girl usurper doesn’t recognize her. During the feast, the prince asked the servant girl what should be the punishment for someone who was guilty of what she had done.
Amazingly though, this does not set off alarm bells for her, and she pronounces that such a person should be put naked into a barrel with nails on the inside and dragged through the streets by horses until they are dead. So guess what happens to her? Then the real princess and her groom reigned over their kingdom in peace and happiness.
Once again we see evil punished and innocence revived and rewarded. In this case, the villain of the story unknowingly decides her own fate by pronouncing such a punishment. The story is an example of contrasts. On the one hand, we have the princess who keeps her oath and does not reveal the situation much to her detriment. She is graceful and longsuffering and in the end, she is rewarded for those traits.
On the other hand, we have the servant girl who is disobedient, unfaithful, a thief, and a liar. She even has the poor talking horse killed so that it won’t tell on her. She temporarily gets what she wants through her deception, but in the end, she is punished in a rather extreme way.
Some Final Thoughts
Though some of the subject matter in fairy tales can be lurid (especially in the earlier versions) there does seem to be some consistency when it comes to violence. It is usually either used by an evil character to illustrate their wickedness, or it is used to punish the wicked and restore justice.
In many of the stories, innocence is juxtaposed with evil in order to contrast the difference. Often the innocent characters are wronged and made to suffer through injustice while the evil characters are temporarily given what they desire. At the end of the story, things are set right. The wicked character is punished (usually violently) and the innocent character is rewarded and usually lives happily ever after.
As stated earlier, these tales offer a blend of entertainment, cautionary advice, and moral guidance. When we hear the phrase “The moral of the story” it can be applied to many of these fairy tales.
Just as children’s entertainment today contains lessons on manners and behavior modeling so did the stories compiled and published by the Brothers Grimm. We tend to forget that during their lifetime, most children had a working knowledge of the bible and a familiarity with scripture and the many violent accounts therein. Therefore the descriptions of violence in some of the Grimm stories would not be as shocking or foreign to them as we would think.
Of course, it is up to the discretion of all parents to decide what is appropriate for their children. I appreciate that some children may be too young or sensitive for some of these stories and that’s fine. For everyone else, I recommend reading at least some of the stories within the collection. They are a great spark for imagination and creativity. They are classic literary works that entertain us as well as speak to the human condition.
