Initially I thought there would be much criticism of the story of Sleeping Beauty available, but I was only able to find one decent journal arcticle written by Tina Hanlon that looked at the fairy tales and how they have received much criticism in the past century but now how these fairy tales are being saved by storytellers that use elements of these traditional tales to tell new and developed stories.
Hanlon initiates her discussion by stating recently there has been disagreement about interpreting gender roles in fairy tales. Historians in the industry have proved that traditional "tales reflect the cultural biases of the societies in which they are retold and that they affect children and adults in complex ways." (Hanlon 1998) Ultimately there is evidence that the teller of the tale puts their own individual twist on the story to tell it according to their values and beliefs. Many critics in the 1970s stressed the abundance of "passive and victimised" (Hanlon 1998) females in these well-known fairy tales such as Sleeping Beauty and warned us about the effects on women that they provide. Although there has been a great deal of criticism directed at these tales, recently psychoanalytical critics have stressed the therapeutic value of folk tales as they believe they are similar to dreams that reflect our subconscious fears and desires. Although Hanlon suggests that the story of sleeping beauty seems to be one of the most sexist ideas in fairy tale traditions in which the innocent female waits for the right male to save her, she says it also encourages us to rethink the significance of these old traditional tales. Hanlon discusses the writer Jane Yolen who continues to use the idea of Sleeping Beauty to write new innovative stories that preserve the old but familiar elements of the original story.
When critics have been critcising Sleeping Beauty there has been a number of interpretations of the sleep the princess undertakes. Some ideas outlined by Hanlon are that it might represent passive victimisation, sexual exploitation, the healthy process of achieving self-fulfillment or being protected by loved ones from danger. Yolen has said that every individual's perceptions of a story can differ as the individual is affected by reading and personal circumstances. So what she is really saying is that critics can criticise all they want but when it comes down to it people interpret stories and tales differently due to how they read a story and what personal experience they have had in ther lives. Yolen has written many different stories based on the story of Sleeping Beauty but introducing a few of her own values and beliefs into them. For example Hanlon states that women traditionally appear inferior to men as they are depicted as dreamers and men are shown as doers but in Yolen's stories she demonstrates dreamers as not being weak due to men and women both needing to realise that dreams outline our human fears, wants and ideals. Yolen writes not fully separating from the traditional plot of Sleeping Beauty but by putting more of the dreamer into the prince and more of the doer into the princess.
Hanlon goes on saying despite how much we love the romance in this fairy tale classic, it really shows traces of female passivity and patriarchal domination. Critics despise the sleeping female waiting for the prince to rescue her and feminists have stressed in the most famous fairy tales girls spend more time sleeping and waiting, being recued while men explore, conquer and protect the helpless. It is pointed out by Hanlon that critics see the prince in this tale as doing nothing besides appearing at the right time, but he also decides to enter through the briars and risk his death which is a very courageous act to do for a girl that he hardly knows.
Hanlon says that Sleeping Beauty can be seen to demonstrate society's efforts to suppress women and shelter them from knowledge and deny them the experience of experiencing the outside world. This is seen when the King burns all the spinning wheels in the kingdom. He is happy after he has done this because he thinks that he is protecting his daughter from danger, yet her inner needs seem to be ignored. His actions are seen by all as a loving attempt to protect the princess. Hanlon suggests that this act only make the princess more curious when she is left alone one day to explore the palace by herself and this provokes her to want to touch the spinning wheel as she has never seen one before.
Hanlon concludes by saying that readers may be inclined to read new tales that display independent and outspoken women and avoid old tales that feature the passive princess depending on a brave prince, although Yolen's versions of the Sleeping Beauty ideas can make it difficult for readers to ignore the links between old and new storytelling elements. Hanlon also says that if we reject our fairy tale heritage, we as readers will be in danger of losing our dreams.
