A Comparison on the Original vs. the Adapted Versions of the Grimm’s Fairy Tales

Hey gang, back for another blog on the Giggity Goobers, and today, I would like to talk about the state of fairy tales. I was feeling a bit nostalgic the other day, so I went through my stash of books, and revisited an old book, titled Grimm’s Fairy Tales by Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm. Reading some of the tales in contrast to the adapted, animated, and censored versions that–mainly–Disney had released.



(sourced from here)

First, I want to start off with a classic. Rapunzel. I’m sure you’ve all–hopefully–watched the movie, Rapunzel, released by Disney. And if you’ve read the original tale, you could see that it has been changed a lot. The story begins with Rapunzel’s parents, and the mother–in pregnancy–longs for rampion (a type of vegetable) on the other side of the fence, which inevitably turns out to be the home of a witch. So the father heads over, and the witch catches him. So he promises to give his first born child in exchange for rampion. And so, the child is born, ya-da ya-da ya-da, and Rapunzel is tossed in a tower and locked up. And whenever the witch wanted uppies, she’d let down her hair, and the witch would climb up. One day a prince came, and was like, “Hey, I want uppies too,” so he climbed up. Fast forward a bit, and they kept meeting up until they devised a plan to escape. But due to Rapunzel’s immense stupidity, she blabbered to the witch about her man, and so threw him into the thorns–turning him blind–and stranding Rapunzel in the middle of nowhere. They somehow find each other again, and woo! They live Happily Ever After.

Yeah, this did NOT follow the storyline that Disney made up–though I did find that the AMAZING musical Into the Woods by James Lapine follows the storyline a little closer. Later fairy tales I’m going to talk about follow a similar pattern, but the themes throughout the tales reflect the societal values of the time. The modernized versions try to convey a follow your dreams, and overall optimistic message. They act as aspirational myths for the youth in a society that prioritizes self-reflection, personal growth, and happiness.

 
(sourced from here)

The next tale I read was Snow White. And this one, surprisingly, was followed closer than that of the first tale. The story is the same, Snow White is so beautiful, hunter chases her, gives the queen boar's heart, and she finds herself in the dwarfs’ house. But then, before the Queen gives Snow White the famed poisoned apple, there’s a comb before that. It was probably cut for time purposes, and then she goes and eats the poisoned apple, the prince comes and saves her, and then the end of the witch is much, much darker than that of Disney’s adaptation. She’s made to dance in red hot shoes until her death.

My analyzation on this is that these aspects were cut, probably, because the morales found in stories back then were darker than is accepted in modern times. There was also an overall cultural shift in the attitude towards violence, which might be why the comb got cut, but most definitely why the witch’s punishment got changed. I also found that there was a change in the focus of the story. In the Disney version, the focus was on Snow White’s resilience and the romance aspect. At the same time, the original had a broader focus on telling the moral and overdramatizing some aspects to make it seem more fantastical for the period.

Thank you for reading my blog. Good bye.

Mattox