




“Once upon a time there was a little girl.” This cliché sentence is the start of a typical fairytale every young girl hears during movies, bedtime stories, and books. These empowering fairytales can give young girls the desire to be strong and powerful when they are older. Feminism is shown to empower women throughout fairytales because usually in these tales, the princess receives her wish or her prince charming and lives happily ever after. However, the stories told might not be realistic in today’s world because the specific gender roles displayed in fairy tales are not always accurate and relatable. In Margaret Atwood’s conversational dialogue “There Was Once,” she takes a more realistic approach to the modern fairytale compared to Charles Perrault’s short story “Sleeping Beauty in the Wood.” Comparing the two works together allows for the reader to see similar concepts and language while simultaneously being able to point out the differences in gender roles from the stereotypical fairytale and the modern version of a fairytale.  

The use of similar language between the two writings allows the reader to make comparisons through the different styles that they were written in. The start of “Sleeping Beauty in the Wood” is a typical fairytale that describes the princess in an admirable way; “the Princess had all the perfections imaginable… the most beautiful person in the world” (Perrault 503-504). These admirations are most often unrealistic in today’s society of imperfection and flaws. Atwood begins her dialogue by correcting herself after every sentence to develop a story on a more realistic approach. She does this by describing how the typical girl is not actually perfect in appearance and is not always flawless and glamorous. Society has made many girls think that they need to become this perfect princess when in fact; the idea of perfection is a fairytale in itself. Atwood helps the reader see this by her specific language and imagery. This realistic approach to the modern fairytale allows readers to put the two stories “Sleeping Beauty in the Wood” and “There Was Once” in perspective to each other to show how fairytales lack real-world concepts such as feminism, stereotypical beauty, and imperfection.

Opposed to what many think, the fairytale is not just about the princess, it is also about the prince and his gender role. Typically, a prince in fictional tales tends to be a handsome and charming young man who becomes the hero by the end of the story. In fairytales, the bravest character of them all is the prince who is usually sent to rescue the defenseless princess from danger. In Perrault’s story the prince is described as “a young and amorous prince [who] is always valiant” (Perrault 506). However, this idea of a perfect strong man coming to the rescue is not always accurate in the real world. This weak, helpless perspective of women displayed in these stereotypical fairytales sets the gender roles that women are dependent on their powerful male counterparts to always save the day. Atwood’s dialogue counteracts with this idea of male and female gender roles by omitting a prince in her storyline altogether. Without a prince, the reader is able to understand how a woman can defend herself in this world without the presence of a male figure.

Stereotypically, at the end of a fairytale the young princess falls in love with her prince and they get married and live happily ever after. But realistically, especially in today’s society, a “young girl” does not marry until she becomes a woman. Atwood expresses her opinion on marriage and womanhood through exclaiming, “It’s woman pal. Woman.” (Atwood 513). Through this quote Atwood is demanding a change that it is women that wed in today’s society, not young girls as portrayed in “Sleeping Beauty in the Wood.” This change is evident in today’s society when looking at the way a woman lives her life. In this century, it is common for a woman to wait to marry later in life after completing her college education and after she has succeeded in her career.  Most women realize that they need to uphold a strong independence and not lean on others to be happy. This is another example of how times have changed since the 1600s and gender roles of women do not always describe women to be as dependent on their significant other. 

The conflict between the protagonist and the antagonist of every fairytale allows for a great conclusion. Whether the antagonist being the evil stepmother, wicked witch or bad fairy godmother, the negative portrayal on women is commonly shown throughout traditional fairytales.  In “Sleeping Beauty in the Wood”, the old fairy casts a sleeping spell on the princess which causes her to sleep until her prince saves her by awakening her with a kiss. Another example, in Perrault’s story, involving an evil woman antagonist is the Ogress who demands to “eat little Morning for my dinner tomorrow.” (Perrault 508). This quote inclines such a violent act for a woman. However, Atwood disagrees with the negative roles woman always play. Atwood changes the antagonist to a “stepfather” to again break the norm of a female antagonist portrayed in stories. She introduces the role of a stepfather of being a “twisted, repressed, middle-aged men” since they tend to give off such “bad behavior” (Atwood 512). Men today have easy access to social media, which allows them to develop unrealistic expectations of women. Atwood describes how the men in today’s society show dominance, which would lead to make more sense as a negative character. This negative variation in diction towards men allows for the roles to change when introducing an antagonist into the story. 

When looking at the different views of beauty, men, and parental figures between Charles Perrault’s short story “Sleeping Beauty in the Wood” and Margaret Atwood’s “There Was Once” we can see the typical gender roles of a fairytale does not always translate into modern society. The portrayal of perfection in a princess and bravery in a prince should not be expected of real world women and men in today’s society, along with the dependency women have for men. Times have changed since the 1600s and women have become more independent thus asking for a transformation in the typical gender roles in fairytales. The unrealistic gender roles Atwood remarks about are a way to make a modern fairytale more relatable to this century’s children. Shifting the antagonist to a male figure allows for a different plot to arise and the common gender roles to change. The different time frames of “Sleeping Beauty in the Wood’ and “There Was Once” which were written during, refers to the change in opinions of authors throughout the centuries. But if people want to change the gender stereotypes of fairytales, the aspects of the typical fairytale itself will need to be adjusted and altered to meet the standards of today’s society. 



