Margaret Atwood's short story, "There Was Once," bears a striking resemblance to Charles Perrault's well-known fairy tale, "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood," however; there are critical distinctions between them that illustrate the polarity of their messages.  The latter is about a princess enchanted with sleep for a hundred years until a prince comes along and saves her. The former contains two narrators with clashing styles.  Narrator one wanted a similar ending in "There Was Once" but Narrator two argued for a more realistic tale. The story being told is a blended version in which both narrators voice their opinions. "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood," provides the stereotypical fairy tale foundation for the story, "There Was Once." Both stories begin by having a young girl in a predicament, but redirects towards a happy, romantic ending. This is where the stories differ but also become similar because between the two fairytales "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood" and "There Was Once", they both have foreseen endings that changes whenever a character does not like the way the story is being told. The narrators of both tales alter important details and remove key plot points in order to mold the stories to his or her own bias.

Fairy tales often depict a damsel in distress that is revived by the all-conquering theme of true love. Atwood reveals an irritated perspective of the improbable optimism associated with many fairy tales and wants to change the heroine to be more relatable. In the beginning of, "There Was Once," the first narrator describes the main character as, "beautiful as she was good," whereas the second narrator in the story retaliates by commenting that the word, "beautiful," should be changed to, "more average," because of the highly-competitive societal pressures that burden women (Atwood 305). The main protagonist in Perrault's story, Sleeping Beauty, is described as a beautiful princess with angelic qualities.  Perrault writes, "One would have taken her for a little angel, she was so very beautiful," (Perrault 298). Perrault's definition of beautiful is set to a nearly unachievable standard because most young girls lack royal entitlements and few, if any, possess perfect qualities. The tale, "There Was Once," portrays a story that will captivate the readers with a main character who has the, "right image of our society, today," (Atwood 305). A role model with achievable qualities would be more relatable than someone who is physically intimidating, and would allow readers to put themselves in the story.

Perrault's plot changes throughout the story because the characters do not like when the story has a twist to the predicted ending.  In the fairytale, "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood," the clerk of the kitchen saves the children and Princess because the Queen ordered people to be killed and served to her as supper (Perrault 301). Switching up the children and Princess for lamb creates a relief for the clerk of the kitchen because he cannot stand the thought of killing innocent people so he takes matters into his own hands. Atwood's second narrator argues throughout the story about how exhausting it is to keep hearing all the same kind of stories over and over again, "I am so tired of negative female images! And stepmothers  --  they always get it in the neck! Change it to stepfather, why don't you?"(Atwood 306). By suggesting the change from stepmother to stepfather the view of the whole story changes because according to the second narrator of, "There Was Once," middle age men and women have different ways of parenting. It has been observed that men are more competent whereas women are emotionally dependent. Taking that into account Psychology Today explains, "fatherhood turns out to be a complex and unique phenomenon with huge consequences for the emotional and intellectual growth of children." Therefore, if in the tale, "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood," the King told the clerk of the kitchen to kill the children, or it was up to the King what to do about the children and the Princess, the story could have gone in a completely different direction. Atwood did not want the same viewpoint as an original fairy tale. To make it different from the typical evil stepmother, the suggestion of a negative male image was proposed.

When deciding how to write a story, the author has to know that he or she cannot make every reader happy. The narrators in, "There Was Once," have a dispute over the skin color of the main character. While the first narrator describes a vague girl, the second narrator wants a more specifically detailed main character.  The two narrators argue, "I don't know what color...but this isn't about me! Everything is about you." (Atwood 305) The narrators end up moving on to a new subject in the story because they cannot agree on the tiny details that seem so important only to the one telling the story. In, "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood," the old fairy gave the newly born princess a fate of death by stating, "the Princess should have her hand pierced with a spindle and die of the wound." The whole kingdom was very upset by this gift bestowed on the newborn and the other fairies did not like the sound of the Princess dying. So the young fairy quickly changed the destiny of the Princess by altering the spell, "instead of dying, she shall only fall into a profound sleep, which shall last a hundred years, at the expiration of which a king's son shall come and wake her." (Perrault 297) The young fairy was trying to please the crowd despite her fellow companion's wishes. Making everyone happy is nearly impossible because everyone likes and dislikes things differently. "Knowing your audience before you write will make the process of writing easier because it simplifies the decisions you have to make." (Paul) Instead of making every single member of the audience happy, an author could focus on what type of audience he or she is targeting.

The ideas from the story, "There Was Once," were very noticeably based off the tale, "The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood," because of how Atwood's first narrator describes the situation of the female main character. Both authors Perrault and Atwood change the plot of the story once one of their characters opposes the direction the story is going. From the important details to the key plot points, the story alters to favor the narrator's liking of how the story goes. Fairy tale authors have the freedom and power to redirect readers and alter expected outcomes. With this freedom and power, comes a delicate balance between stylistic satisfaction of the author and dedication to the comforts of the readers.  A comparison of Perrault's and Atwoods's texts reveals the importance for an author to carefully select their audience and create a plot that reflects the interests of targeted readers.
