Wicked Jealousy: Reflection
Wicked Jealousy: Reflection
I started this paper with the idea that I would compare and contrast several versions of the wicked stepmother fairy tale from around the world. This was problematic in that I was mistaken in the assignment I was supposed to do. I was assigned to examine a common element that appears in my chosen fairy tales. This forced me to change the focus of my paper. I wanted to retain the examination of the wicked stepmother, but I decided to focus on the element that seemed to bring the wickedness out of these stepmothers. The jealousy of the previous marriage is a very common trait in these tales and I wanted to explore that idea in the paper.
Though I had to reincorporate the jealousy examination into the paper, this proved difficult because I really liked the structure of the paper as it stood. It is presented in blocks that examines the common traits and the issues of the stepmothers on a tale by tale basis. I felt by doing this, it would make it easier for the reader to understand the motivations and the differences of each stepmother without having to refer to the original fairy tale.
I liked starting from the geographical sense, because in searching for the wicked stepmother style of fairy tale, I had not considered that a good stepmother would be found in the fairy tales of other cultures. I remember Dr. Kate saying that many of these wicked stepmother tales were reflections of the writer’s own issues with their stepmothers during an increase of divorce. It was interesting seeing a stepmother who loved her stepchild without the jealousy of the former marriage harming their relationship
Matsuyama was my favorite tale. It subverted my expectations of a step mother above the rest of the fairy tales. It was nice to see kindness being rewarded without the Disneyification being present.
I really enjoyed presenting the paper in a web friendly format. I tried to present my paper a bit like a book, pictures throughout and color for each of the four tales. I wanted to make the discussions of each fairy tale distinct, so I color coded each of the titles and separated each with a banner.
Reading and experiencing these fairy tales growing up, the villain is often merely presented without much more of an examination by the characters around them. The primary motivations of a villain is often set aside and it is merely their actions that draw the ire of the person reading or watching. I had not considered the driving force for a villain before writing this paper. It has made me want to examine these stories more deeply, to try to understand the character’s and the author’s motivations of a villain. In this case, I do feel that the jealousy of the father’s truest love is the driving force behind the stepchild’s suffering. The wicked stepmother is representative of the author’s own experience with their stepmother, exaggerated to the fullest and a catalyst for the eventual happiness of the step child.
Wicked Jealousy: Reflection
I started this paper with the idea that I would compare and contrast several versions of the wicked stepmother fairy tale from around the world. This was problematic in that I was mistaken in the assignment I was supposed to do. I was assigned to examine a common element that appears in my chosen fairy tales. This forced me to change the focus of my paper. I wanted to retain the examination of the wicked stepmother, but I decided to focus on the element that seemed to bring the wickedness out of these stepmothers. The jealousy of the previous marriage is a very common trait in these tales and I wanted to explore that idea in the paper.
Though I had to reincorporate the jealousy examination into the paper, this proved difficult because I really liked the structure of the paper as it stood. It is presented in blocks that examines the common traits and the issues of the stepmothers on a tale by tale basis. I felt by doing this, it would make it easier for the reader to understand the motivations and the differences of each stepmother without having to refer to the original fairy tale.
I liked starting from the geographical sense, because in searching for the wicked stepmother style of fairy tale, I had not considered that a good stepmother would be found in the fairy tales of other cultures. I remember Dr. Kate saying that many of these wicked stepmother tales were reflections of the writer’s own issues with their stepmothers during an increase of divorce. It was interesting seeing a stepmother who loved her stepchild without the jealousy of the former marriage harming their relationship
Matsuyama was my favorite tale. It subverted my expectations of a step mother above the rest of the fairy tales. It was nice to see kindness being rewarded without the Disneyification being present.
I really enjoyed presenting the paper in a web friendly format. I tried to present my paper a bit like a book, pictures throughout and color for each of the four tales. I wanted to make the discussions of each fairy tale distinct, so I color coded each of the titles and separated each with a banner.
Reading and experiencing these fairy tales growing up, the villain is often merely presented without much more of an examination by the characters around them. The primary motivations of a villain is often set aside and it is merely their actions that draw the ire of the person reading or watching. I had not considered the driving force for a villain before writing this paper. It has made me want to examine these stories more deeply, to try to understand the character’s and the author’s motivations of a villain. In this case, I do feel that the jealousy of the father’s truest love is the driving force behind the stepchild’s suffering. The wicked stepmother is representative of the author’s own experience with their stepmother, exaggerated to the fullest and a catalyst for the eventual happiness of the step child.
Bryan Lovelace
Fairy Tale Adaptations (Engl 341)
30 April 2015
Fairy Tale Adaptations (Engl 341)
30 April 2015
