February 14th

 

        Although the tale of Sleeping Beauty often evokes a sense of adventure within its male characters and a submissive, passive woman, there are similar takes on the classic tale that allow for the woman to rescue the man and take ahold of the normal rhetoric. In the words of the introduction, the females of these stories, "remind us of the pleasures of beauty but also the attractions of morbidity." 

        In Perrault's version of Sleeping Beauty, the prince finds his beauty over 100 years after she was put to sleep. His love pushed them together, against his mothers wishes and ended up giving him two young and beautiful children that he had to keep from his family and his city. His mother, an awful woman, took advantage of this and wanted to children gone, only to be destroyed in the end by her own evil desires. We can see as readers from this the beauty of true love and the power of family as well as the morbidity of the ogress and her desires for death.

        The Brothers Grimm version, a much lighter version if I do say so myself, they offer a unique take on the story that sums up quite nicely. The beauty is put to sleep at year 15 as told by the 13th wise woman that was brought to the castle as she was attracted to the morbidity of the girl out of spite. The girl was then revived 100 years later by a prince who took great pleasure in her beauty and was initially interested in the castle in which she resided, hidden away from the public and hard to reach. 

        In Marquez's version of the story, he does a modern take on the fairytale with a man and a woman on a flight to New York. In this version, the woman who was physically not doing anything (she was sleeping the whole plane ride and could be considered passive), was beautiful in the eyes of the narrator and he took much pleasure in just looking at her. I think the 'morbidity' in this scenario was the fact that he was so infatuated with her and she had no idea nor paid him any mind. 

        While the poem's end made sense, the beginning confused me, so I can't comment much on Owen's take. 

        Overall, the stories of sleeping beauty rained true to a woman who was unable to do much, a man who took pleasure in her beauty, a demising factor that was attracted to the "happy ending" and then the ultimate success of the couple, except for Marquez's version. I still however am very intrigued by the use of the number seven even in these stories as it seems to be a common thread in these fairytales. 

        

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