In most fairytales there is a beautiful female lead or princess, a castle, a handsome prince, and an enchanting setting. "There Was Once" by Margaret Atwood published in 1922 and "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood" by Charles Perrault published in 1697 are stories that revolve around a female character. Both these stories start out with the stereotypical fairytale beginning but take different routes in both plot and style as the story progresses. By looking at the gender of the narrators, description in regards to the female main characters, and the conclusions of the stories, we can see Atwood problematizing the way stereotypical fairytale woman are described even beyond beauty and criticizing Perrault's description of his female main character which is only on the basis of outward appearance. This is important because it shows that authors writing fairytales in different time periods and from different points of view have different perceptions of the role women have in the society and setting in which the story is being told. 

"There Was Once" is a story written by a female, but instead of having a narrator like "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood", it is a story comprised of dialogue. The dialogue is between two people, one person telling the story, and the other is interrupting and critiquing the story. The story teller of "There Was Once" is male which is made evident through the dialogue when the person critiquing mentions a step father and begins talking about middle aged men when the story teller interrupts and says, "Hey, just a minute! I'm and middle-aged  --  " (Atwood 306). He is then interrupted and called "Mister Nosy Parker" which makes evident that he is male (306). The male storyteller in Atwood's story is constantly being criticized for the way he is describing the female lead and for the stereotypical way he is telling the story. The storyteller is criticized for using the setting of the forest, "good and wicked", a young and beautiful female lead, and marriage (304). Atwood uses the dialogue of someone critiquing the male storyteller in order to problematize the stereotypical fairytale elements of the story that center around the female lead. While "There Was Once" is written by a women and told by a man "Sleeping Beauty In the Wood" is written by a male author, Perrault. Perrault uses the elements of a forest setting, a female lead who "appeared to be about fifteen or sixteen years of age", a wicked mother in law, and marriage which parallel the elements the storyteller was describing in "There Was Once" (Perrault 299). As Atwood uses the critics dialogue in her story to problematize the stereotypical fairytale elements that center around the female leads age, setting, and plot elements, she is simultaneously critiquing the paralleling elements in "Sleeping Beauty In the Wood". The male narrator and storyteller perspectives of both "Sleeping Beauty In the Wood" and "There Was Once" are centered on fairytale elements that were "once" (Atwood 304). Atwood seeks to problematize these perspectives and bring up the idea of the "here" showing the role of women in society has changed over time. 

Perrault's "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood" published in 1697 "reflects many of society's traditional patriarchal values of the era" in which it was written (Semsar). The young princess is sentenced to an arranged marriage to the prince by a good fairy when she says, "she shall fall into a profound sleep which shall last a hundred years, at the expiration of which a king's son shall come and awake her" (Perrault 297). Once the princess is woken up by the prince, they are married. "In a classic patriarchal societal structure, a newlywed woman was expected to leave her family and live with her husband and his family" and this would bring about fear in both sides of the family because the wife would feel isolated and the prince's family would look at another mouth to feed (Semsar). "Perrault depicts this fear and resentment in his tale when the princess moves to the young king's castle and has to live with his scary cannibal ogre of a mother" (Semsar). During this era Europeans would have lengthy engagements for arranged marriages and marriage was a "social and economic contract" between two people of the same social class "that ensured offspring" which is shown in Perrault's story when the prince and princess, who are of the same class, get married and have two children, Morning and Day (Semsar). Atwood problematized these ideas of the stereotypical fairytale women that Perrault describes and the patriarchal society in which the story is placed. Atwood does this by having the male storyteller interrupted by a listener critiquing the patriarchal elements that parallel to Perrault's story and suggesting elements that fit in with the time period of 1922 in Canada in which the story was written and females were gaining more freedoms. During this time period more jobs were becoming available to women and "by 1922 women had the provincial right to vote" and "the percentage of women working as domestic fell below 20%" (Anderson). Compared to the time period in which Perrault's story was written, the patriarchal society was slowly fading as women were gaining newfound freedoms and were becoming more then just housewives. By looking at the male gender of the story teller and the narrator in both the stories, Atwood problematizes the stereotypical fairytale elements that were "once" true in a patriarchal society but in the "here" are now gone by using dialogue to critique paralleling elements of both stories (Atwood 306). 

In "There Was Once", Atwood's male narrator tries to describe the princess in many ways such as her looks, where she lives, her family, her economic status, and is shut down by the listener every time. Through this dialogue Atwood is problematizing the way a fairytale women is described even beyond beauty. For example the storyteller says, "There was once was a poor girl, as beautiful as she was good, who lived with her wicked stepmother in a house in the forest" (305). The listener then goes on to critique because she lived in a house "socioeconomically she was not poor" (305). The listener also critiques the physical description of the female and says, "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..." (305). This critiquing goes on throughout the rest of the story where the listener critiques things such as the storyteller labeling the girl poor and young. Though the storyteller is describing the female Atwood problematizes this way he is describing the female even beyond her beauty because he is describing her with things that were "once" instead of realistic descriptions of "now" (306). While Atwood is problematizing the storyteller's description of the female, she is simultaneously critiquing Perrault's description of the female lead, or lack there of. Perrault's "Sleeping Beauty in the Wood" is centered around the female princess character, but the only description of the princess is of her physical appearance. The princess in the story is the main character however not much is told about her except "she was so very beautiful...her cheeks were carnation, and her lips were coral..." (Perrault 298). Due to the patriarchal society that was prevalent when Perrault wrote this story, the only thing important about women was her physical appearance, which is reflected in Perrault's description of only the princess's outward beauty. Perrault describes his princess based on what was "once" while Atwood seeks to problematize what was "once" and focus on the "here" and "now" when it comes to the description of the female characters (Atwood 306). 

The conclusion of both "Sleeping Beauty in the Wood" and "There Was Once" further the argument that Atwood is problematizing the way stereotypical fairytale woman are described and their role in society. Perrault concludes "Sleeping Beauty in the Wood" with the stereotypical fairytale ending where the king "soon comforted himself with his beautiful wife and his pretty children" (Perrault 302). The story was written in a patriarchal society where the man was dominate and took care of the women and this is made evident in the end of the story where the king saves the princess, his wife, and his children from death and they life happily ever after. In contrast, Atwood's "There Was Once" ends with the storyteller saying the fairytale ends with marriage and the listener comments "[t]hen you can scratch the condescending paternalistic terminology. It's woman, pal. Woman" (Atwood 306). The storyteller then proceeds with saying, "[t]here was once" where he is cut off by the listener commenting "[w]hat's this was, once? Enough of the dead past. Tell me about now" (306). Through this dialogue Atwood is problematizing the stereotypical ending and the role woman play. Atwood is making evident the difference between what was "once" and what is "now" by providing no definite ending to her story (306). In contrast to Perrault's stereotypical conclusion of his story where the man saves the woman, Atwood provides the reader with an unclear conclusion showing women have the ability to empower themselves and choose their own ending because the patriarchal society in which fairytales were written is no longer prevalent.

Although there are certain standards stories must meet to be considered fairytales, these standards have changed over time. By analyzing "There Was Once" by Margaret Atwood and "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood" by Charles Perrault, it is made evident that authors from different time periods have different views of the role woman play in fairytales and society. By looking at the gender of the narrators, description in regards to the female main characters, and the conclusions of the stories, we can see Atwood problematizing the way stereotypical fairytale woman are described and criticizing Perrault's description of his female main character. 
