Charles Parrault's "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood" and Margaret Atwood's "There was Once" both tell the story of a Fairytale, but in very different ways. Perrault's story is very close to the traditional story of the Sleeping Beauty, while Atwood's is just the beginning of a fairytale. Perrault depicts the princess as a one-dimensional character with a sense of perfection and hopelessness, while Atwood depicts the princess as more of a multi-dimensional character with a more realistic view. Perrault focuses on the Princess's beauty rather than her character. Throughout Atwood's story, the first speaker tries to tell a traditional fairytale but gets continuously interrupted and criticized by speaker 2 every step of the way. Often times people ready fairytales as a means of escape from their less-perfect life, but Atwood's "There was Once", doesn't allow for such an escape, because it's based on reality rather than fiction. By comparing "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood" and "There was Once", we can see how far off traditional fairytales are from real life.

In Atwood's "There was Once", we never actually get past the first line of the fairytale because the first speaker continually gets interrupted by the second speaker. While doing so, the second speaker brings up many points and descriptions that are involved in a typical fairytale. She spends her story criticizing the princess, setting, characters and the ending that are all involved in traditional fairytales. When the first speaker says, "There was once a middle-class girl as beautiful as she was good" speaker two says, "Stop right there. I think we can cut the beautiful, don't you? Women these days have to deal with too many intimidating physical role models as it is, what with those bimbos in the ads. Can't you make her, well, more average?" Atwood points out how in today's society too many women feel like they have to look like the models and women they see in ads and magazines everywhere. She tries to make the character more average looking so that women don't feel like they have to live up to the image of all these perfect looking people. She wants to change the details to create a more realistic and relatable fairytale.

In the very beginning of both stories, the Princess is depicted in the same way, but throughout the story, Atwood significantly shifts her character away from a traditional Princess, whereas Perrault does not.  In "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood" the princess is portrayed as a typical perfect princess figure. She is given gifts by seven fairies in the kingdom and "by this means the Princess had all the perfections imaginable", "that she should have the wit of an angle; the third that she should have wonderful grace in everything she did; the fourth, that she should dance perfectly well; the fifth that she should sing like a nightingale.." and so on. She is saved by a kiss from her Prince Charming, which shows that she is weak because she is in need of a man to save her. She's a very one-dimensional character and doesn't possess many traits. Since the Princess is only known for her beauty, the reader never gets to know anything deeper about her.  In  "There was Once", Atwood deviates from a traditional fairytale. Instead of portraying the princess as perfect, she aims for a more average character. The first speaker says "There was once a girl of indeterminate descent, as average looking as she was good, who lived with her wicked.." Atwood makes her princess have realistic flaws and characteristics that everyone can relate too. She makes her a more average person, so that it's not someone that women strive to be like, but makes them comfortable with the way they are.

Another big difference between Perrault and Atwood's stories are the details of the setting and the plot. In Perrault's "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood", the setting follows the traditional fairytale setting. The Princess is held in a castle in the middle of the woods. The woods act as a shield for the princess and are a big influence on many of the characters. "Scarce had he advanced towards the wood when all the great trees, the bushes, and brambles gave way of themselves to let him pass through" Meanwhile, Atwood's "There was Once" goes for more of an urban setting. The first speaker says "....who lived with her wicked stepmother in a house in the forest." while Speaker 2 says, "Forest? Forest is passe. I mean, I've had it all with all this wilderness stuff. It's not a right image of our society, today. Let's have some urban for a change." She tries to create a setting that is more like the places that we live today, since castles in the middle of the woods aren't your typical home nowadays. Atwood also doesn't begin her story with "once upon a time", when Speaker 1 says "There was once" Speaker 2 says "What's with his was, once?" Enough of the dead past. Tell me about now." Adding onto the element of a modern-day fairytale, Atwood tries to make the story about right now, not about back then or how life was in the past, but how we live today.

Looking at "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood" and "There was Once", it makes us wonder why people get so tied up in fairytales and creating their own so called "fairytales" when they are so far off from reality. Both of these stories tell the story of a fairytale by using very different elements. While both stories have a deeper meaning behind them, it seems as if "There Was Once" has a valuable message about the portrayal of women. Whereas in the "Sleeping Beauty in the Wood", its deeper meaning may do more harm than good because it gives women a false hope of a fairytale and a happily ever after.
