Abstract
The release of Rapunzel in December 2010 tackles the issue of the female condition by re-interpreting and modernizing a classical fairy tale. In the original one, the heroine is a princess, whose hair are three-meter long, locked in doorless tower. She is victimized and passive, undergoing the will of others, the prince and the witch. On the contrary, in the movie, she is an active heroine who is at the origin of action. This movie reveals that fairy tales reflect a certain idea of feminity present in society.
When reading fairy tales, we tend to think that they are childish and manichean. However, with a deeper analysis, we notice that they are relevant ways to understand society.Fairy tales are not only for children and they are not so insignificant. They convey a particular image of women which has been shaping female identity for centuries. In this respect, we want to understand the impact of fairy tales on women and their identity. To do so we will base our analysis on classical fairy tales and their adaptation by Walt Disney. And this will only concern our generation and the previous one, that is to say people born until the late 1980s.
We want to understand how and why fairy tales have such an influence on our behavior and our subconscious. How do fairy tales take part in shaping a certain image of women in our society? We will organize our ideas around two main orientations: first, we will analyze the representation of women in fairy tales. Then, we will see how these representations contribute to build female models in society?
