The Grim Fairy Tales

As kids most of us, especially girls, have grown up reading various different fairytales. The best part about these fairytales is their happy endings. Isn’t that what we all want? We want to believe that in the end everything will sort out and life will be just fine. Unfortunately, the original fairytales are grim in nature and I’m not sure if that’s how I’ll define happy endings.

We all remember the sweet Little Red Riding Hood who went to visit her ailing grandmother and on the way got distracted by a wolf that eventually ate both the grandma and the little girl. They were saved when a hunter found the wolf and cut its stomach to rescue them. All’s well that ends well, right? But the original story is a little different. The “Wolf” met Little Red Riding Hood in the forest and started conversing with her and got to know about her grandmother. He knew if he played his cards right he could “have” both the ladies. He took a shortcut to the old woman’s house while the misguided little girl took a longer roundabout route. He “ate” the Grandma and when Little Red Riding Hood arrived she stripped and got into bed with the wolf before he ate her up too. The End. No hunter turns up to save them. Frankly, I feel that in this case, the original story teaches better morals than the sugarcoated one. Little girls should not talk to strangers however attractive they might seem. The world is full of wolves that are ready to pounce on such unsuspecting young ladies to satisfy their hunger.

Wondering why the beautiful glass slippers are covered with blood? I’ll get there. In the fairytale Cinderella married Prince Charming. Her evil stepsisters begged her for forgiveness. It was decided to let bygones be bygones and the stepsisters got married to lords. However in one of the earlier versions the stepsisters each desperately tried to prove to the Prince that they were his lady love. One cut her toe off while the other cut her heel off to fit into the glass slippers which finally fit only Cinderella. Prince Charming married Cinderella but when he got to know that the stepsisters had tried to use treachery to win him, he was furious. Their feet were already bloodied and to add insult to injury the Prince ordered the birds to peck out the eyes of the stepsisters as a form of punishment that they will have to live with forever. The orders were carried out to the tiniest detail. Not so charming now, is he?

A similar story revolves around Snow White too. In the story we know, the evil Step mother, in this case the Queen, tries to kill Snow White in order to remain the most beautiful woman. In the end, Snow White however is united with the Prince and the evil Queen falls off the side of a cliff while being chased by the seven dwarves. In the original story however, the Queen was Snow White’s own mother. She was so vain that she couldn’t bear being less beautiful than anyone even if it was her own daughter. She tried to get her killed in all the possible ways she could but wasn’t successful. In the end Snow White married the Prince and the Queen was reluctant to go to the wedding. Upon going there she realized that the bride was none other than her daughter which sent her into a state of shock. As a penalty for attempted murder a pair of glowing-hot iron shoes were brought forth with tongs and placed before the Queen. She was forced to step into the burning shoes and to dance until she dropped dead. The Princes did know how to hand punishments out!

The original story of The Sleeping Beauty is by far the worst because it’s sick and shouldn’t be taught to impressionable young children. The wicked fairy’s curse caused the young princess and every member of the castle to go into slumber for a hundred years. A century apart when a handsome prince ventured into the castle he was awestruck by the princess’ beauty and kissed her causing her to wake up. They got married and lived happily ever after. Well guess what, life is never so simple. In the original story the Prince is awestruck by the beauty of the sleeping princess. In a lifeless castle there’s nobody to stop him. He doesn’t stop at just a kiss but goes on to have full-fledged sex with the Sleeping Beauty which in today’s world is termed as RAPE. She got pregnant and eventually gave birth to twins. One of those twins sucked her thumb causing the poisonous splint to come out and thus bringing her back to life. Once she came into her senses and met the prince and actually fell in love with him and then they got married and lived happily ever after.

The fairytales we read are just a pinker version of the original tales which however are not equally innocent. Some of these tales are horrendous. Apparently our princes were not very forgiving in nature and were dangerously vengeful. Some of them didn’t even consider “consent” as an important criterion prior to carnal relations, which in today's world is unacceptable. However these are the stories we have always held on to as kids. The question is,  in future do we want these princes to be the role models for our sons?