Fairy Tales Re-visited Gender Concepts in Traditional and Feminist Fairy Tales

Author(s): Lisa Rettl

Source: AAA: Arbeiten aus Anglistik und Amerikanistik, 2001, Vol. 26, No. 2 (2001), pp.
181-198
Published by: Narr Francke Attempto Verlag GmbH Co. KG
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 AAA - Arbeiten aus Anglistik
und Amerikanistik
Band 26 (2001) • Heft 2
Gunter Narr Verlag Tübingen

Fairy TalesRe-visited
Gender Concepts in Traditional
and Feminist Fairy Tales
Lisa Retti

"Fairy tales are the bedtime stories of the collective consciousness" Madonna
Kolbenschlag wrote in 1979 in her enlightening book Kiss Sleeping Beauty
Good-Bye (Kolbenschlag 1979: 2), which deals with the implications of
traditional fairy tales on women's psyche. But still a lot of work has to be
done on fairy tales as a literary genre from a feminist-theoretical perspective,
such as discussing them as literary artwork as well as a cultural phenome-
non. Astonishingly enough, a genre discussion from a feminist literary view
point has been neglected, which is rather problematic: itleaves theory and
definition of fairy tales to a male view point that still tends to overlook and
trivialise gender based hierarchies. Basically, it can be assumed that the
majority of criteria that have been set up and accepted as genre definition
excludes feminist fairy tales from the genre and the literary fairy tale canon.
I start from Roland Barthes' assumption that "Literature is what gets
taught" (cit. in Gossman 1982: 342) and follow Jack Zipes, who regrets that
the "more regressive tales of the Grimm brothers, Andersen and other classi-
cal writers are used in schools, libraries, and homes without a blink of the
eye, but the unusual, forward-looking, fantastic projections of the liberating
fairy tales have not found general approval among adults who circulate the
tales" (Zipes 1982: 323). Hence, itshould be seen as one of the basic goals
of a democratic, civil society that its circulating tales be also adapted to the
requirements of modem societies. Part of this adaptation, maybe even a
requirement, is the de-hierarchization of gender on an unconscious level,
which introduces people to a de-genderized and non-hierarchical way of
thinking and at the same time could enlarge the consciousness of alternative
patterns of action. Fairy tales, which implicitly embody a variety of role mod-

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182 Usa Retti

els, could be seen as a great chance for such an enterprise, especially ifwe
consider that the interactions between fairy tales and life are even more
complex, even more powerful and influential than any other form of literature,
because the "tale takes up and continues 'initiation' on the level of the imagi-
nary" (Eliade 1963: 201).
An important basis for a more effective "distribution" of modern fairy tales
would be a new theoretical approach to the genre discussion: in order to
define fairy tales we would have to develop criteria not based on patriarchal,
sexist categories, as has so often been done. Detailed analyses and investi-
gations of literary and linguistic aspects of feminist fairy tales are require-
ments for such a liberating and gender-neutral genre definition.
A possible method for analysing fairy tales is provided by poststructuralist
theory. This approach enables us to go far beyond the traditional gender
discussion: investigating fairy tales in terms of subject/object positions opens
a way of understanding them as a powerful social force and a cultural prac-
tice; at the same time itmakes clear how gender identities and relations are
constituted, reproduced and maintained, and how new dimensions of gender
might be created.
Whereas women remain trapped in inequality in the discourses of the
most popular and widespread traditional fairy tales as well as in theoretical
discourses, feminist fairy tales show a way out of patriarchal dualism, under-
mining itby using various strategies.
To underline this assumption, I will briefly focus on theoretical discourses
on fairy tales by two leading critics, Vladimir Propp and Max Lüthi, who set
up criteria that have been widely accepted as "objective" and "true". Their
assumptions will implicitly and explicitly be re-read and re-discussed in terms
of powerful discourses and dominating subject positions.
In the second and major part of the paper, while applying the same
method, I will concentrate on a feminist fairy tale - Prince Amilec, written by
the British author Tanith Lee, whose narrative strategies will also be dis-
cussed interms of subject/object positions.
First of allI would like to reveal the most basic problems and difficulties in
defining fairy tales as a genre, eventually suggesting a broader understand-
ing of the term genre as such.
Folklore and fairy tales have been a field of particularly male interest,
accompanied by the attempt to define neat categories of classification; how
scholars have tried to achieve this goal might be characterised best by
Vladimir Propp's urgent appeal to his colleagues for observing the rules of
logic: "In the classifications of the natural sciences there are and can be no
errors of logic. We must also aim at similar results, although our data are
qualitatively different" (Propp, 1984: 47). Actually, the logical methods of
natural science as applied by folklorists have led to a dead end: thousands
of motifs have been depicted, identified, classified and fixed in voluminous

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 Fairy Tales Re-visited 183

reference books, only to find out that there seems to be no end to this pro-
cess.1
Itseems to be an impossible task to define fairy tales according to motifs,
formal or structural criteria, because fairy tales are multi-dimensional and all-
embracing, their boundaries therefore remaining unclear on many different
levels. They are multi-dimensional because they combine various aspects:
1. countless variations of ambiguous motifs mingle with the closest neigh-
bouring fields of the tale (the saga and myth), which makes a clear differ-
entiation based on motifs difficult.

2. fairy tales are varied in shape and form (depending on nationality, time of
telling (or writing) and the teller's (writer's) intentions, social and political
environment etc., factors that I subsume for practical reasons as motiva-
tion), which makes a definition based on formal criteria similarly difficult.

By all-embracing, I mean that the investigation of fairy tales leads into many
different scientific disciplines, among them psychology, history, sociology,
ethnography, folklore, linguistics and, of course, literary studies.
Therefore itseems to be more reasonable to use a rather broad percep-
tion and definition of the term genre - basically "that particular groups of texts
can be seen as part of a system of representations agreed between writer
and reader" and that this definition is based on identifying certain characteris-
tic features, "but each one also exists in a relationship of difference from the
general rule" (Guide to English Literature, 1989: "genre").
For the European tradition, Max Lüthi pointed the way; he focused on
formal criteria in order to define fairy tales as a genre. According to him, two
characteristics (among many others) seem to be key criteria: linearity2 and
mono-dimensionality.
These two aspects shape nearly all levels of the tale: language, syntax,
narrative strategies and protagonists as well.
According to Lüthi linearity embodies a simple, straight, ongoing line of
action that starts with the information of the hero's goal (the female form is
not missing incidentally) and his attempt to reach it.Each adventure that the
hero has to experience represents a single, isolated unit in the tale - we do
not find flash-backs to former adventures, nor any hints as to what is going
to happen next. This is also valid for the fairy tale figures: they have no inner
life, they do not develop psychologically, and they are not bound to time,
space and environment. In Lüthi's words fairy tale figures "are isolated,
wandering offinto the world alone. No light is cast on what goes on inside

1 The most widely used system offairy tale classification is theso-called AT-index (designed
Antii
bythe Finnish folklorist Aarne) and later translated bythe folklorist Stith
Thompson.
2 The term "linearity"
is mytranslation ofwhat Max Lüthi calls "Linienstil

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184 Lisa Retti

them, only on the line of their path, only on what relates to what happens;
everything else is blanked out. They are tied neither to their surroundings nor
to their past, nor to any psychological depths or malformations, they are
shielded from all of these, they are isolated. In the extreme case, they are
nothing more than figures that carry the action" (Lüthi 1990: 55).3 Characters
remain either good or bad, diligent or lazy etc. Crucial for fairy tale heroines
and heroes is that they are human beings without supernatural abilities of
their own, a feature that differentiates fairy tales from saga or myth. The most
easily identifiable feature in the fairy tale is the stereotyped representation of
the characters, which is also part of linearity. These stereotypes are always
presented in opposing dualities: rich/poor, clever/stupid, beautiful/ugly,
good/evil. Lüthi claims that the fairy tale aims to create a world that is basi-
cally good, and he concludes that good and beautiful as categories are part
of the "correct, normal world". Therefore the heroines and heroes are usually
good and beautiful, (even ifthey temporarily take the shape of the ugly); and
finally the victory of the beauty over the beast means that the (correct) good
world is (re-)established (Lüthi 1990: 40-46). He claims that "Since the fairy
tale as a whole aims at depicting a world that, despite many an incongruity is
on the whole in order, the combination of beautiful and good - both specific
terms for 'right' - is what is normal" (Lüthi 1990: 41 ).4
In poststructuralist thought, we do not have a distinction between these
dualistic categories such as good/evil, but we think of dominant and less
dominant discourses. The so-called happy ending, for example, is, according
to Lüthi, also part of establishing a "good and correct order". Looking more
closely at the nature of the happy ending, itcan be assumed that this means
marriage and kingdom for the well-behaved and severe punishment for those
who have failed. The poststructuralist way of interpretation bears the great
advantage that we need not perceive such an idea as everlasting truth, but
it makes us understand that such an idea has obviously been part of a
dominant discourse, which can be changed by substituting itwith a more
liberating and more democratic one that is not reduced to the question of
good and evil.

3 Translated byDavid Wright. The fairy sie wandern einzeln indie

tale heroes "sind isoliert,
Welt hinaus. IhrInnenleben wird nichtausgeleuchtet, nurdie Linie ihres Weges liegt im
Licht, nurdas, was Bezug zum Geschehen hat; alles andere istausgeblendet. Sie sind
weder an ihre Umwelt noch an ihre Vergangenheit noch an irgendwelche Seelentiefen oder
seelische Deformationen gebunden, sie sind von alldiesen abgeschirmt, isoliert. Sie sind
imExtremfall reine Handlungsträger Figuren" (Lüthi 1990: 55).
4 Translated byDavid Wright. Lüthisays: "Da das Märchen imganzen darauf abzielt, eine
Welt zu zeichnen, die, trotzmancher Unstimmigkeiten, imgroßen inOrdnung ist, istinihm
der Zusammenhang von schön und gut- beides Spezifizierungen von 'richtig' - das
Normale" (Lüthi 1990: 41).

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 Fairy Tales Re-visited 185

Accepting the traditional happy ending as defining criterion of the genre

also means accepting and acknowledging patriarchal values as universally
true.
Lüthi shares his positions with Vladimir Propp, who claims that fairy tales
embody thirty-one identifiable, stable functions. His major thesis is that
"Functions of characters serve as stable, constant elements in a tale, inde-
pendent of how and by whom they are fulfilled. They constitute the funda-
mental components of a tale" (Propp 1977: 21). Within these functions Propp
identified seven spheres of actions and seven types of protagonists. Propp
differentiates between the action of the VILLAIN [sphere 1], the DONOR
[sphere 2], the HELPER [sphere 3], the PRINCESS (a sought-for person)
and HER FATHER [sphere 4], the DISPATCHER [sphere 5], the HERO
[sphere 6], and the FALSE HERO [sphere 7].
Let me have a closer look at sphere 4, the action of the princess and her
father. For Propp she is a "sought-for person" who cannot exist outside the
relationship with her father: The princess and her father cannot be exactly
delineated from each other according to functions. Most often itis the father
who assigns difficult tasks due to hostile feeling toward the suitor" (Propp
1977: 80). In terms of poststructuralist theory, the princess clearly is the
object (or is objectified), she is not the acting protagonist but the one who is
guided and controlled by her father (who takes the subject position at the
beginning). Ifwe look at thè remaining functions of the sphere, the princess
remains more a spectator than an active actor. The most active function on
that list5 is the branding of the hero. In Propp's examples itbecomes clear
that the branded person is always a male, whereas the woman is the one
who does the branding (Propp 1977: 52). Later this function enables her to
recognise the hero and distinguish him from the false hero.
Although the punishment of the hero is assigned to the princess' sphere,
she does not decide autonomously ifor how he has to be punished; she
simply remains a witness. Moreover, marriage cannot be evaluated as
activity. Thus, the princess serves either as a reward for the hero, who has
gone through the actions and adventures of the tale, or represents the
"sought-for person", which means that she was the initial cause for the
ongoing action. By depicting this particular sphere of action as female, we
also get an implicit hint as to what the sex of the hero is. In such a context he
has to be male, as traditional fairy tales are always based on the concept of
heterosexuality. Ithas to be pointed out that Propp's initial assumption and
definition of function is not correct when he claims that "function of characters

5 the princess' sphere: 1.) A difficult

Allthe functions thatare within task is proposed tothe
hero.
2.) The hero is branded. 3.) The false hero orvillainis exposed. 4.) The hero is recognized.
5.) The villainis punished. 6.) The hero is married and ascends the throne.

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186 Lisa Retti

serve as stable, constant elements in a tale, independent of how and by

whom they are fulfilled" (Propp 1977: 21). It might be unimportant for the
function whether itis Jack, Ivan, or Hans who serves as a hero, but gender
and gender relations do matter. On no account are the identified functions
independent of gender; indeed, they only work within patriarchal gender
relations.
This brief description and discussion of Propp's and Lüthi's work on fairy
tale theory shows that neither a definition of the genre according to fixed
stereotypes or features, nor a structural typology is useful for classifying fairy
tales and defining the genre. They might be seen as useful for interpreting
traditional fairy tales but must be seen as an obstacle to a genre definition
that takes discursive processes and literary development into account.
In the following discussion I will focus on narrative strategies and new
thematic discourses by which non-sexist and more liberating subject posi-
tions are introduced to the tale.
In Prince Amilec, a fairy tale for adults and as well as children, the British
author Tanith Lee uses a well-known fairy tale motif to play with the stereo-
typed images of "typical" fairy tale characters: the princess and the prince,
the king and the witch. Before I concentrate on this inversion of stereotypes
I will have a short look at the motif, which is in itself extraordinary for the
genre because itdoes not depict female characters according to their tem-
peramental type (beautiful and good or ugly and evil); they are actually
neither portrayed as absolutely perfect nor absolutely wicked. The princesses
of The Yellow Dwarf, Goldilocks, Trusty John or King Trushbeard are de-
scribed as beautiful but spoiled, vain but wilful young ladies whose main
"problem" is that they refuse to marry anyone (Lieberman 1972: 198). As was
pointed out by Marcia Lieberman, these princesses are presented as "repre-
hensible because they refuse to marry; hence, they are considered 'stuck-
up', as children would say. The alternate construction, that they wished to
preserve their freedom and their identity, is denied or disallowed [...]. There
is a sense of triumph when a wilful princess submits or is forced to submit to
a husband" (Lieberman 1972: 198). Princess Bellissima (The Yellow Dwarf)
refuses to marry because she is quite happy alone; nevertheless, she is
forced by a train of circumstances to promise to marry the ugly Yellow Dwarf.
Although she tries to avoid this fate by agreeing at last to marry one of her
suitors, the dwarf intervenes during the wedding and kills Bellissima's future
husband, whom she had come to love. At the end, the princess dies of a
broken heart.
Although Bellissima is one of the severest "cases", the other princesses
do not do much better. They are forced by their angry fathers to marry the
first man (usually a beggar) to enter the castle. Although the princess experi-
ences a period of poverty and suffering with her beggar-husband, this one
usually turns out to be one of the princely suitors whom she had rejected

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 Fairy Tales Re-visited 187

before. Again, the theme does not go beyond 19thcentury discursive practice
-
with its categorical imperative for women to marry; otherwise and this is
illustrated rather -
drastically they will suffer a terrible fate.
However, in Tanith Lee's writing this depressing motif is transformed into
a lovely and amusing fairy tale where the most striking narrative feature is
her inversion of stereotyped characters, even at the very beginning of the
tale:

"In a palace by the sealived a beautiful princess. She had eyes as green as
apples, long red hair, and a very nasty temper indeed" (Lee 1972: 48).
The fact that this princess represents a rather unusual kind of royal heroine
is already clear by the "language of hair" (Warner 1999: 353). Red-haired, not
a witch but a princess, nasty-tempered and beautiful, she refuses to marry
and defends her subject position rather unconventionally whenever her father
proposes that she should think about marrying: "'I don't want to get married,'
said the princess 'And I won't!' And she picked up a china dog to throw at her
father", who "dodged out of the room, just in time" (Lee 1972: 48).
The king (who cannot, according to Propp, be exactly delineated from his
daughter according to functions), on no account being as authoritative as his
counterparts in traditional fairy tales, seems to be helplessly desperate but
unwilling to take any measures against his daughter, telling his secretary that
he was "getting too old for all this running about" (48). Actually, it is his
secretary (also an unexpected protagonist in a fairy tale) who takes action
then, sending some messengers with the princess' portrait to other king-
doms. What Lüthi claims to be an essential feature of fairy tales, namely the
close co-existence of the usual and the unusual (of the "normal" and the
"supernatural"), is here applied by Tanith Lee, however, in a very subtle,
comical way. (Whenever Lüthi talks of "unusual" forces in the fairy tale, he
certainly means the appearance of witches, wizards, speaking animals etc,
whereas their appearance perse is "normal" in the fairy tale). In Lee's story
the appearance of the "real" supernatural element, the witch, is not perceived
as an unusual force of the tale at all; the unusual rather seems to be the
figure of the secretary (immediately evoking the image of a female busy
typing) in the setting of an old fashioned kingdom.
The princess' portrait was also seen by the "handsome young prince
named Amilec," who "immediately fell in love with the princess in the picture"
and no sooner "were the messengers out of the room than Amilec grabbed
his cloak and was riding full speed up the road towards the sea" (Lee 1972:
49). Once more, there is a common, traditional motif that causes further
action, which is combined with the unusual image of a prince grabbing his
cloak (rather unprincely) and riding full speed. Rainer Wehse inhis essay on
princesses pointed out that falling in love with a picture is an exclusively male
function and depicts the hero/prince as true romantic who neither questions

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188 Lisa Retti

his own decision nor the quality of the princess. According to Wehse's inter-
pretation, the princess holds a stronger position than the hero, because she
is the one who assigns difficult tasks in order to select the best among all her
suitors, whereas romantic elements are not relevant at all (Wehse 1985:
11-12). After the hero has managed to fulfil the princess' tasks, the princess
often (and for different reasons) turns out to be discontented with the hero
and refuses to marry him, but there is no help for it:According to him, the
implicit rules of justice and fairness have to be realized in the tale. So the
princess is forced into wedlock by various tricks and, in spite of her tempo-
rary rebellion, she becomes happy6 (Wehse 1985: 12). His interpretation of
fairness and justice is peculiar: indeed, by a picture the princess is chosen
for her beauty to be the object of male desire (which is called love); then, as
is the case in some tales, the princess tries to avoid marriage by assigning
impossible tasks, at which the hero surprisingly manages to succeed; and at
the end she is forced to submit to the brave hero, which represents the happy
ending (and ifthe "stuck-up" princess does not know that marriage repre-
sents the ultimate fulfilment for a female, she will simply be compelled to
obey!).
However, for the time being Prince Amilec and many other suitors wait
"for a glimpse of the princess, who was supposed to appear at one of the
palace windows and graciously wave to them. Suddenly a window shot up
and a red head appeared. 'Go away!' bawled the princess [...]", telling her
father that she would "soon get rid of them", setting them "such impossible
tasks that they'll give up and go home inside a week" (Lee 1972: 48-49).
task is as difficult as dangerous, and except Prince Amilec,
Actually the first
all other suitors prefer to travel home again when they hear that they should
dive for a ruby bracelet that the princess had thrown out of the tower window
into the sea: None of the suitors felt like eating their dinner after that. Some
went out immediately and began to pack their bags; others flew into a rage and
banged their fists on the table. Prince Amilec put his head in his hands and
groaned. The page felt rather sorry for Prince Amilec, who was the only suitor
who had not been rude to him" (49). Certainly this is not the kind of heroism
that we would find in traditional tales, finding the polite hero in such a desper-
ate state of mind (only heroines may weep bitterly). To the page's advice
(simply forget about the "frightful" princess) Prince Amilec announces that he
would "have to look for her bracelet, even ifI drown in the attempt" (49). At
least what remains of the traditional hero according to Wehse is that the prince
does not question his decision, and is ready to sacrifice his life for her. But

6 Wehse claims: "Aber alles Sträuben hilftihrnicht.Eine ausgleichende, märchenimmanente

Gerechtigkeit sorgt für Fairness. MitList,
aber ohne Tücke, wird sie zur Einhaltung der
ursprünglich aufgestellten Gesetze gezwungen. Sie fügt sich nach anfänglicher Rebellion,
nach einer Trotzphase und Finten, und wird trotzdem glücklich" (Wehse 1985: 12).

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 Fairy Tales Re-visited 189

before Prince Amilec left the palace the page advises him to ask the help of a
witch, who was "supposed to be very clever" (49).
But only in the following passage does Prince Amilec leave behind the
traditional, linear isolated fairy tale hero, who is without inner life and devel-
opment, and transform into a loveable and reasonable hero: "Prince Amilec
wasn't too keen on visiting a witch but "eventually he decided that it
was a lot safer than diving into the sea on his own. [...] At last he came to a
cave with a big front door set in it,covered over by a lot of seaweed. Prince
Amilec knocked, feeling rather nervous. 'The witch will be horribly ugly, with
three eyes and a wart on the end of her nose,' Amilec said to himself. 'But I
mustn't let her see that I'm not completely used to people with three eyes and
warts, or she may be offended and not help me'" (49).
In contrast to the traditional fairy tale we do not only see the hero's action,
but we also learn about his motives, his thoughts and anxieties. By learning
about his feelings we perceive him on the one hand as a quite realistic figure
with common fears, which makes it easy to identify with him; on the other
hand he is definitely a fairy tale hero, finding his paths to the princess' palace
and to the witch's cave easily, neither doubting his love for the princess nor
the existence of a witch. When Amilec first imagines the witch, he thinks
about the common - negative - image, obviously recalling what he had
heard about witches up until that point - similarly to the human world
Amilec's "fairyland society" seems to be highly suspicious of witches, having
stereotyped them as evil and ugly.
Before analysing Lee's witch, I will have a closer look at this negative
stereotypical female category, focusing on the relation between the "histori-
cal" and the ("fictional") fairy tale witch, of which the latter is undoubtedly
responsible for conveying a specific image over centuries, an image that is
even valid nowadays, both mentally and in language use. This assumption is
shared also by Dingelein, who pointed out in his essay that "the existence of
the term 'witch' with particular connotations is due to a 'preservation' in the
fairy tale" (Dingelein 1985: 59)7. Although The Malleus Maleficarum declared
that witches might take many forms - they may be old or young, beautiful or
-
ugly, male or female we can initially observe a concentration on the "cate-
gory" old and female, often widows and midwives.
In the fairy tale, the bodily appearance of the witch may be diverse as well
(because of the witches' ability of transformation), but basically the witch is
depicted as female, old and ugly8. The central characteristic feature of the
"fairy tale witch is her malice and evilness". She therefore is usually depicted

7 Originally Dingelein wrote: "Dass die 'Hexe' inunserer Begrifflichkeit

noch immer eine so
große Rolle spielt, istnicht zuletzt ein Ergebnis ihrer'Konservierung' im Märchen"
(Dingelein 1985: 59).
8 Dingelein provides a detailed enumeration ofattributes thatare assigned towitches ina
great number ofdifferent fairytales.

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190 Lisa Retti

as the villain who tries to harm the tale's hero/heroine. Basic motivations for
her actions are "hatred, envy, resentment and arrogance" (Dingelein 1985:
55). Her methods of doing harm range from eating human flesh to the en-
chanting of the hero/heroine. Her power seems to be infinite and can be
stopped only by her death. The diverse ways to die in fairy tales correspond
to historical reality: she might be burned, drowned in barrels that might be
additionally equipped with nails, tom to pieces by wild animals, thrown into a
brood of vipers, hanged, beheaded, struck dead by a millstone, made blind
or forced to dance in red-hot shoes tilldead (cf. Dingelein 1985: 56)9. The
idea that the combination of the traditional "happy ending" and the severe
punishment of the villain would be part of a particular fairy tale aestheticism
that is claimed to get lost in modern (feminist) fairy tales also throws light on
the personal taste and world view of some scholars.
The White Witch which had been worshipped in pagan beliefs disap-
peared with increasing Christianization, and the image of the White Witch as
wise and healing woman was gradually transformed to that of the Black
Witch, like Eve, the Christian epitome of sin.
Considering that the last witch trial and burning in Germany took place in
1779, witches were not distant figures of the past for the Grimms. The term
witch consequently meant something different to them than itmeans to us
today even though their conception of witches may still be very much alive in
the collective mind. In the Grimms' time many women were still rumoured to
be witches, usually old maids and spinsters who embodied both the idea of
true virginity and at the same time rejected social acceptance, as ifthe
choice of living alone rejected patriarchal expectations for women: "she is
'odd' because she is not half a couple and fulfils no set function within a
nuclear family. She thus holds the same position as the 'fallen woman' with
regard to her society: 'tainted' as her sexually active counterpart is 'ruined',
she is an 'old maid', a target of much the same scorn heaped upon the
sexual renegade" (Pratt 1982: 111).
Rejecting such positions, the witch in feminist fairy tales holds a quite
different position, very often negative attributes and stereotypes are trans-
formed into positive values. The remarkable thing about it,besides the shift
from the object positions to the subject positions, is that it"leads the reader
away from the normative point of view and towards the anti-normative one.
The tension between society and the individual embodied in these narrative
structures creates an implosion of consciousness, opening the way for a
radical in vision" (Pratt 1982: 111).

9 Allthese ways ofdeath can be found ¡nthe German version ofthe Nursery and Household
Tales thatare enumerated byDingelein; additional condensed information on formsof
torturecan be found in:WolfHans-Jürgen (1994), Hexenwahn. Hexen inGeschichte und
Gegenwart. Bindlach: Sonderausgabe für Gondrom Verlag, 231-237.

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 Fairy Tales Re-visited 191

The opening of new discursive visions on witches may range from herb
collecting healers to magically powerful rulers of gueendoms. Speaking
broadly, the witch characters "move away from the margins of patriarchal
space and into a score of centralized being, a place of integrated self (Pratt
1982:111).
We can interpret Tanith Lee's witch along these lines. And together with
Prince Amilec the reader/listener comes to explore this splendid female
world, which seemed so frightening to Amilec at first.
"Just then the door opened, and there stood a very pretty girl holding a
lantern. 'Can I help you?' asked the girl. 'Oh-er, yes. I was looking for the
witch,' said Amilec, brushing offthe seaweed that had fallen on him when the
door opened. 'I am the witch,' said the girl. 'Do come in'" (Lee 1972: 49-50).
After the prince frees himself from the seaweed, again a rather unusual
image of thinking of a royal hero, he follows her invitation, entering a "small
cozy room, where a fire was burning on the hearth" [...] and where the
witch's bat Basil was "hanging upside down in a armchair on the other side
of the fire" (50).
After Amilec recovers from the surprise to find the witch so friendly and
pretty in such a cosy atmosphere, he tells her about the red-haired princess,
how much he wants to marry her and about the ruby bracelet. Although the
witch is convinced that the princess would never marry him, she agrees to
help him: "'Leave everything to me. You just stay here and look after Basil,
and see that the fire doesn't go out.' So saying, she left the room [...]. He
couldn't help being curious and as there was a small round window in the
cave wall, he looked out of itto see where she had gone. The witch was
walking along some rocks that ran into the sea. Suddenly she changed into
a dolphin, leaped forward, and vanished in the water" (50).
Curiosity, a feature that has traditionally been considered female and
evaluated absolutely negatively (because of representing the original sin -
the cause for Eve's fall), is always punished severely in traditional fairy tales
- the women-beheading Bluebeard might be seen as the most prominent
example. Here, curiosity is attributed to Amilec without being evaluated
positively or negatively and without being of any consequence. Amilec simply
meets another facet of the witch, her ability of transformation and transcen-
dence into another world, so "Amilec tried not to be too surprised. He put
some more wood on the fire and hung Basil a bit farther along the mantel-
piece, so the smoke wouldn't get into his fur" (50).
In contrast to traditional heroism, Prince Amilec turns out to be a really
loveable, good character: without representing the warrior type of hero,
slaying beasts and dragons and killing the evilness perse in order to get (half
of) kingdom and a princess at last. The linkage between such murderous
intentions and goodness does not seem to be logical anyway. He represents
a hero whose goodness is based on social sensitivity and caring and nurtur-

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192 Lisa Retti

ing qualities, features more traditionally assigned to women. Amilec also

represents a good example of how narrative strategies embody current
socio-political discourses: Amilec represents the overcoming of fatalist
biologism that has dominated the discourses on gender issues, assigning
women social, nurturing and caring features, whereas men "naturally" tend to
be more aggressive and more active. Here Lee attributed "naturally womanly
qualities" to Amilec, depicting these features as positive for both sexes.
One can observe that, contrary to traditional fairy tales, the protagonist's
responsibility for the world, be itpeople, plants or animals, is a serious matter
in all feminist fairy tales. One of the most illustrative examples for this sense
of responsibility might be seen in Barbara Walker's fairy tales10. It is partly
due to the new earth-consciousness that necessitates a new way of dealing
with nature in general, it is also due to the (eco-) feminist realisation that
patriarchal politics have been based on an (artificial, arbitrary) hierarchical
order of nature that has been used to legitimate the exploitation and
(mis)treatment of both women and nature. Both have been examined accord-
ing to their economical efficiency, not without considering a cost-benefit
analysis. This world view is also embodied in traditional fairy tales - when-
ever a hero/heroine treats any humble creature in a friendly way, itturns out
to be a princess or prince under a magic spell or helps the heroine/hero in
this or another way to succeed. In short, the heroines/heroes always get
rewarded for their being nice or well-behaving, which corresponds to the
cost-benefit mentality. However, the sea witch, returning home and holding
the ruby bracelet in her hands, lets us know something quite different: "'Sorry
I was so long,' said the witch, 'but a sea serpent had got his tale stuck in it,
and I had to pull him out'" (50), though this animal will never turn into some-
thing different, itsimply remains a sea serpent, which does not play any role
in the further course of action.
The witch's anti-materialistic view is reflected also in her answer to
Amilec's question of how he could ever thank her: "'Don't give ita second
thought,' said the witch. 'I haven't had an excuse to change into a dolphin for
ages'" (50). This statement does not only reflect her anti-materialistic attitude,
italso shows how much she enjoys her active life, her ability to transcend; It
is not incidental she transforms herself into a dolphin in order to transcend
into a liquid world, with water being the best symbol of female transcen-
dence.
Happily, Prince Amilec returns to the red-haired princess, proudly present-
ing the ruby bracelet, which she had hoped never to see again.

10 Cf.Walker, Barbara G. (1996), Feminist Fairy Tales. New York: HarperCollins. Nearly all
heroines and heroes embody sometimes implicitly, a sense ofrespon-
sometimes explicitly
forother people and nature.
sibility

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 Fairy Tales Re-visited 193

'"This can't be the right one,' she added hysterically," - a reaction that
seems to correspond to those features that Wehse had identified for this
particular type of princess. Such an image also reflects some male ideas of
women, enforcing negative stereotypes such as the supposed unreliability
and falseness.
After the princess has had to acknowledge that itwas her bracelet, she
immediately invents a second task: '"The second task,' said the princess,
smiling a nasty smile, 'is to find my golden girdle. I have tied itto the arrow of
one bowman, and when he fires, goodness only knows where itwill end up'"
(51).
In fairy tale manner Prince Amilec leaves to look for the girdle, finding out
that itis again an impossible task. Wandering desperately through the wood,
he meets the witch, who was "just taking Basil for a fly"(51 ).
Once more she offers her help. She tells Amilec to hold Basil and trans-
forms herself into an owl. When she comes back with the golden girdle, she
apologises again for being late because of having helped some doves whose
nest had been tangled up by the girdle. This time, when Amilec wants to
know how he could repay her, she actually expresses a wish "'Come and
have a cup of tea with me,' said the witch. And so he did" (52).
Back in the palace the princess reacts even more nastily than before,
again surprised that Amilec has managed to find the girdle. So she gives him
a third task - breaking her pearl necklace, she tells the prince "On itare one
hundred and fifty pearls. [...] I want you to find them all, and return them to
me in one hour's time" (52).
Again the witch agrees "You collect me some seaweed in the basket, and
I'll go and do what I can" (52-53). Half an hour later, having transformed
herself into a mouse, she brings one hundred fifty-one pearls, remarking that
the princess is unable to count.
This time the princess, already waiting, snaps '"I'm yours, you pest, but
before I marry you I want a splendid wedding dress, and ifI don't like it,I
shall change my mind.' By this time Amilec was getting a bit fed up with her
tantrums, but he thought that, of all her demands, this was the most reason-
able" (53).
Again Amilec visits the witch, who has become a close friend of his. And
while drinking tea and playing with Basil in the witch's cave, he tells her
about the wedding dress. She again promises her help, but this time she will
bring itto the palace herself.
Next day, when all the court gathers in the palace, the witch enters the
room, wearing the dress, telling him that she "thought itwould look better with
someone wearing it.It's made of moonlight and starglow, and the glitter on
a mermaid's tail" (54). Now Amilec realizes that he is in love with the witch,
proposing to her "'May I humbly ask to be your wife? I promise to look after
Basil, and I'lllive in the cave, ifitwill make things easier". 'Dear Amilec, said

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194 Lisa Retti

the witch. 'Basil and I both love you very much, and will be delighted to
accept'" (54).
The tale ends with marriage between Amilec and the witch, but the con-
cept of marriage is not based on male superiority in this case: the man does
not choose the heroine because of her overwhelming beauty and then de-
fines her life. Basically, marriage seems to be used more as a symbol for
"true love" than it is regarded as an actual necessity and goal of society.
More important than marriage itself is the implicit concept of love that clearly
contrasts that of chivalrous romance. In feminist fairy tales, love is founded
on friendship, mutual respect and tolerance, it is non-possessing and not
self-sacrificing. Itrejects the traditional concept with its implicit idea that love
hurts, but propagates happiness based on self-realisation without giving up
one's identity11. Lieberman points out that in traditional fairy tales marriages
are generally a constant event, but only few marriages are shown indeed.
The reason for this putative paradox is both cause and effect: "[T]hese
stories focus upon courtship, which is magnified into the most important and
exciting part of agirl's life, brief though courtship is, because it is the part
of her life in which she most counts as a person herself. After marriage
she ceased to be wooed, her consent is no longer sought, she derives her
status from her husband, and her personal identity is thus snuffed out"
(Lieberman 1972: 199-200). Although Lee does not focus on conjugal life
either, it is clear that both characters have both their own subjectivity and
their individual identity. The cornerstone of their love is the acceptance of
diversity and otherness "So Amilec and the witch got married and lived
happily ever after with Basil, although Basil was asleep most of the time"
(Lee 1972: 54).
According to the logic of traditional fairy tales, itcould be assumed that it
serves the red-haired princess right that itwas the prince who refused to
- -
marry her in the end, which is in terms of patriarchy a terrible fate in itself.
Furthermore she was left for another woman, which supports the patriarchal
dictum that women have to be aware of other female rivals. However, as "for
the red-haired princess, when she had finished shouting and screaming, she
told the king that what she really wanted to do was travel. The king was only
too glad to see her go, and packed her offas soon as possible" (54).
Instead of seeing a severely punished and a forever suffering princess,
we find a young woman who has developed an active subject position - from
knowing what she did not want she was able to define what she really
wanted to do. The status of her active subjectivity is brought to completion at

11 This idea is also reflected clearly in:Desy Jeanne (1982), "The Princess Who Stood On Her
Own Two Feef , in:Jack Zipes, ed. (1989), Don't Bet on the Prince, New York: Routledge,
39-47.

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 Fairy Tales Re-visited 195

the end of the tale, which I consider to be a really nice one: "One day, how-
ever, the princess came to a kingdom where there was a very handsome
prince, and she thought he was just the kind of young man who would be
good enough for her", and talking to the prince's mother, the queen, she
learned that "the only trouble is, he always makes princesses complete
dreadful tasks before he'll even look at them. [...] However, I've heard that
there's a wizard who lives in the wood, and he might help you, ifyou asked
him nicely" (54).
The tale ends with the princess' thought that the "wizard will probably be
horribly ugly, with three eyes, and a wart on the end of his nose, but itcan't
be helped" (54).
Lee's use of the concept of circularity in a fairy tale is not only satisfying
but also far reaching in its meanings.
Again we find an emphasis on the newly gained subject position of the
princess; now she is not the person who is chosen but she is the one who
actively chooses. However, she does not select any prince, but one whom
she considers to be "good enough for her", which of course implies not only
her subjectivity but also her positive self-esteem and self-evaluation.
Equally important is the socio-political implication of the circular narrative
device: the ending of the tale is simultaneously its beginning, which
emphasises what has already been mentioned: at the end the princess takes
over the prince's role, being more active than the chosen prince, but getting
help from an active wizard. So all forms of gender discrimination dissolve,
emphasising gender's equal rights to an individual identity without the current
tendency of egalitarianism. It prevents the tale from spreading the sexist
notion that only princesses are chosen, whereas the prince performs heroic
actions in order to win her hand, as is suggested by Wehse. Italso under-
mines the notion that "beautiful" can always be equated with "good", which
carries, according to Wehse, a special meaning: "good" embodies all positive
characteristic features of humankind, a fact from which he concludes that a
princess' beauty means more than simply having a pretty face, such as
today's models on the frontpages of magazines, whom he considers mean-
ingless12 (Wehse 1985: 10). His assumption that fairy tale princesses are
more meaningful (!) than the cover girls on the front pages, whom he inter-
prets as "bereft of content", has to be rejected again, as he completely fails to
notice that both are rooted in the same patriarchal values and misogynist
fantasies (regardless which meanings he personally favours - that of sub-
ordinated wife- and motherhood or that of anorexic Barbie). Basically

12 He argues: "Dass eine Prinzessin 'schön' ist,bedeutet imMärchen demnach mehr als nur
eine Indikation wohlgestalteter Gesichtszüge oder ebenmäßiger Körpermaße, wie wirsie
sinnentleert heute etwa auf den Titelbildern von Magazinen und Illustrierten
antreffen"
(Wehse 1985: 10).

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196 Lisa Retti

Wehse regrets a supposed lack of meaning in the magazines' front page

models, thereby favouring the linkage of moral value and beauty, which is a
concept embodied in traditional fairy tales that "fuse morality with romantic
fantasy in order to portray cultural ideals for human relationships" (Rowe
1975: 209).
In feminist fairy tales it can generally be observed that beauty is not
necessarily equated with "universal goodness", which seems to embrace
more or less Christian male ethics (and ugliness is not equated with evilness
either).
Moreover one can claim that this course of action is based on a concept
of goodness that differs considerably from the traditional definition, and as a
matter of fact, itenforces different narrative strategies. One can observe that
the concept of "goodness" may take on many different shapes in feminist
tales, referring to diverse features such as tolerance, transcendence, earth-
consciousness, respect for nature (and all living beings), social responsibility,
activity (that is not linked to sex), holding a strong individual identity versus
a collective identity and the ability to transform, change and transcend.
However, the point is not to "categorise" feminist concepts of "beauty" or
"goodness", but to be aware that within the process of revising this beauty
and goodness, there are a myriad of possibilities for feminist expression
which cannot be limited to dualistic categories.
For women and men, children and adults, feminist fairy tales therefore
offer a chance for liberation from the "old silent dance of death" that is em-
bodied in traditional concepts of family life and marriage, and for those who
have freed their minds, these tales "became a dance of triumph, a dance into
speech, a dance of authority" (Gilbert/Gubar 1979: 208).
In terms of what has been said so far we can conclude that there are two
major problems in defining the genre of fairy tales on a non-sexist basis:

a) dualistic categories of stereotypes versus multidimensional, non-exclud-

ing stereotypical categories;

b) different concepts of love, romance and marriage: whereas the traditional

one is based on men's superiority and women's inferiority, the feminist
one shows an egalitarian, non-hierarchical world view based on mutual
respect, tolerance and acceptance of individual diversity (subject posi-
tions).

Although these positions appear so much opposed to each other at first that
there is no way of finding a common definition of the genre that embraces all
these types of discourses, itmay help to consider the problem in terms of
poststructuralist theory.
Not only are the tales discourses, the theoretical studies on them are also
discourses which create meanings that are part of the constitution of our

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 Fairy Tales Re-visited 197

identities. In this context itmight be claimed that all efforts that have been
made to narrow down the genre reflect patriarchal meanings, trying to narrow
down individual identity (= diversity) for a collective identity (= singularity).
My analysis suggests that we should accept a more open definition of the
term genre which embraces diverse meanings and which also takes the
development of the genre into account. From the outset itis assumed that
fairy tales have fewer features in common than what has been assumed
before - so we have to focus on their diversity.
Rethinking gender roles in fairy tales (and in general) is an ongoing
process and discourse, which is part of the construction of reality. In doing
so, feminist fairy tales may be seen as a "pathway to the authentic self, to the
roots of our selves beneath consciousness of self, and to our innermost
being" (Pratt 1982:178).

References

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Kinder- und Hausmärchen der Brüder Grimm"; in:Rainer Wehse and Sigrid Früh, eds.
(1991), Die Frau im Märchen. Veröffentlichungen der Europäischen Märchengesell-
schaft. Vol. 8. Kassel: Roth, 50-59.
Eliade, Mircea (1963), Myth and Reality. New York: Harper & Row.
Gilbert,Sandra M., and Susan Gubar (1979), 'The Queen's Looking Glass", in:Jack Zipes,
ed. (1989), Don't Bet on the Prince, New York: Routledge, 201-208.
Gossman, Lionel (1982), Literature and Education , New Literary History 13:2, 341-371 .
Wynne-Davies Manon (1989), Guide toEnglish Literature, Britain: Bloomsbury Publishing.
Kolbenschlag, Madonna (1979), Kiss Sleeping Beauty Good-Bye: Breaking the Spell of
Feminine Myths and Models, New York: Bantam Books.
Lee, Tanith (1972), "Prince Amilec", in:Princess Hynchatti and Some Other Surprises.
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48-54.
Lieberman, Marcia K. (1972), '"Some Day My Prince WillCome': Female Acculturation
through the Fairy Tale", in:Jack Zipes, ed. (1989), Don't Bet on the Prince, New York:
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Rowe, Karen E. (1975), "Feminism and Fairy Tales", in:Jack Zipes, ed. (1989), Don't Bet
on the Prince, New York: Routledge, 209-226.
Warner, Marina (1999), From the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales and Their Tellers.
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198 Lisa Retti

Wehse, Rainer (1985), "Die Prinzessin", in:Rainer Wehse and Sigrid Früh, eds. (1985),
Die Frau im Märchen. Veröffentlichungen der Europäischen Märchengesellschaft. Vol.
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History 13:2, 309-325.

Lisa Retti
Villach

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