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Alex Castro
Professor Haas
Writing 37
15 November 2015
Rhetorical Analysis on Fairytales
The change in tastes and preferences, such as our liking of
clothing, music, even storytelling, from plays, to TV shows, and to
written stories, is inevitable as time goes on. To remain popular and
relevant, artists follow the ever-changing trends of society. This is also
true of literary genres, which are not static. For example, the fairy tale
genre has been around for ages and has remained popular because the
tales reflect and grow out of the historical time period and culture in
which they were written. To further examine this change, we can look
at two fairy tales from two different time periods, Cinderella, Jacob
and Wilhelm Grimms 1812 version of the tale, and Into the Woods, the
fairy tale film directed by Rob Marshall in 2014, and see how classic
19th century conventions such the happy ending and true love have
changed to reflect their rhetorical situations of audience and cultural
context. Into the Woods is about a baker who gathers four items for a
witch so that she can undo a curse that has made his wife barren, and
after a giant that was let loose destroys many villages and the bakers
wife dies, he finds a new family with Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood,
and Jack, who are three people who must also move on from their old

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lives. Grimms Cinderella is about a young girl name Cinderella who,
after being tortured ridiculously by her stepsisters, becomes a princess
because the prince discovers that she is the mysterious girl who
attended the ball and caught his. With regards to the Brothers Grimm,
they responded to Romantic nationalism and the sudden increase of
interest in German culture during the 19th century by recording fairy
tales that had been told through oral tradition for hundreds of years,
including popular tales such as Snow White and Rapunzel. Jack
Zipes, well-known fairy and folk take scholar, in his Introduction to his
translation of the 1812 Grimms tales, reveals that in the 1812/1815
edition of Little Snow White and Hansel and Gretel the wicked
stepmother is actually a biological mother, and these characters were
changed to become stepmothers in 1819 clearly because the Grimms
held motherhood sacred (Zipes 18) and like these two stories who
changed for the younger audience, Cinderella too was aimed at a
younger audience to therefore be popularly received. Bruno
Bettelheim, a scholar of child psychology, also supports how well
received Cinderella was, by saying By hearing Cinderella, a story
that speaks directly to their unconscious, children are given tools that
can help them resolve conflicts. Cinderella resolves her difficulties;
children hearing the story can resolve theirs as well, (Bettelheim 1)
which is the notion that children are connecting with Cinderella,
leading to a positive response to the fairy tale. Comparatively, Into the

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Woods was received well by critics; for example, Stephen Holden,
reviewer of the New York Times, says in his review, I suspect that the
success of Frozen may have persuaded the company to modify its
traditional formulas to allow more realism and ambiguity, which is all to
the good (Holden). Holden points out that there is more realism and
ambiguity, two themes that Disney includes because this film has
been adapted for an older audience.
Into the Woods actually contains the exact story of Grimms
Cinderella, where they both have Cinderella go to the ball three
times, they both have her slipper get stuck in goo, and they both even
have the stepsisters cut off their heel and toes. However, a major part
of the story of the film is that it continues after the Happily Ever After
of the Grimms version. Although the story of Cinderella in the film is
definitely subject to a change in the use of the happy ending
convention, its not only Cinderella getting this treatment. In Into the
Woods, as Cinderella and the princes wedding is interrupted, so is
Rapunzel and her princes wedding, also the following unfortunate
events where Jacks mother dies, Reds family dies, the bakers wife
dies, and Cinderella finds out her prince had cheated on her. We go
from the 19th century happy ending fairy tales, with Cinderella
marrying her prince after fitting on the slipper, to this ending where
the characters are surprised at their situations and thankful that the
worst has passed.

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The fairy tale genre has been reimagined so that stories no
longer need a happy ending for the audience to be satisfied. Into the
Woods has been shaped with this different convention and has found
success, because the rhetorical situation has changed, in this case
being the audience. This change signifies a twist in the fairy tale genre
that the Brothers Grimm found popular among their audience. In the
19th century, Grimms had their targeted audience when writing their
fairytales, children, and now Marshall has found a different audience to
portray fairytales for, adults. The story of Cinderella was written for a
younger audience since the tale ends with the girl marrying the prince,
and, as the Zipes statement I quoted before said, it focuses on the
stepmother rather than the mother because the Grimms held
motherhood sacred for the sake of the children (Zipes 18). On the
other hand, Into the Woods is made for an older audience, because it
ends on a darker tone and ends with a moral, something children may
not be able to completely understand as Richard Corliss, a movie
reviewer for Time, notes in his review of Into the Woods, The so-so B
rating for Into the Woods in CinemaScores survey of early attendees
indicates that many viewers thought they were getting Frozen and
instead felt frozen out (Corliss).
The character of Cinderella, in both stories is patient and
humble, and is rewarded after all her trouble with her stepsisters and
stepmother with True love. They both meet their prince and fall in

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love, and both Cinderellas are in love with the idea of marrying the
prince. They do marry; however, Into the Woods again changes up the
story for Cinderella in that she and the Prince are not sure of their
commitments. Grimms fairy tale ends after she tries on the slipper
and the prince looks at her face and recognizes the beautiful princess
once again: this is the right bride!(Grimm 76). Into the Woods has
Cinderella do all that as well, however, the movie adds that the giant
destroying the festivity, to the point where chaos follows. We can see a
different kind of true love be broken when we see that her mothers
tree that she had adored and looked up to has fallen down. The biggest
change in this convention would come from prince cheating on her
with the bakers wife, and Cinderella just not being sure she can be
completely be committed to him and this lifestyle. Also the prince just
reassures that this isnt for her when he tells her that he was raised to
be Charming not Sincere. Here, the fairy tale genre has taken a
complete turn for the worst and all signs of true love are abandoned,
signaling an effort to present a more realistic storyline and characters.
This story throws at us a fairy tale with problems that we could
probably relate to, because they are real world problems. This is not
the average fairy tale where everyone gets what they want and life
goes on, but Cinderella must now cope with losing that fact that he
cheated and no longer having him. Although she takes it rather well,
its a sad moment to see this happen to her.

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To be able to make this change away from the convention of
true love, can be placed upon the cultural context of our time
compared to Grimms time. In the time that Grimm wrote their story,
they were trying to preserve the original feel of the oral stories when
they recorded them and kept it as German as possible. This involved
doing little in changing them from how they heard the stories, and
presenting it to their audience. The German feel was necessary at the
time because of this situation that Matthew Grenby, a historical
analyzer, presents in analysis of the Grimms fairytales, a situation in
which in 1812 and 1815 [the Grimms] had sought to collect Germanic
tales as a gesture of protest against French occupation and a gesture
of solidarity with those people who wanted to forge a unified German
nation. (Grenby) The stories of recorded at the time would be the
closest to the original oral fairy tale genre and include common
conventions like that of true love. In our present time, we dont look
for that or need that so much anymore, rather we find ourselves
entertained and intrigued with the darker story and more of the lesson
that were learning. From Grimms version, we only get that a beautiful
ending awaits us all, but from the film, we get that our decisions come
at a consequence, and that even true love is questionable, even as
much of a major fairy tale convention it is, or one that Disney has
made it out to be. Now that our society is focused on feminism, human

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rights, and fair treatment, the change in story only seems like a
necessity so that the tale can remain relevant.
Cinderella and Into the Woods are therefore a result of their
audience and culture and time. These stories were written with those
things in mind. If you have Grimms releasing Into the Woods and
Disney releasing Cinderella, they would just not work whatsoever. It
would be like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole, the form of the
fairy tale you have cannot fit properly into the way society is and what
it wants from your work. So it is absolutely necessary to adapt to the
time, no matter what change you have to make to get to that. Disney,
and Marshall took note of the audience and culture they needed to
adapt to, and now theyve produced something great and kept with the
times. Like Bettelheim says about the Chinese Cinderella, It is quite
an old story; when first written down in China during the ninth century
A.D., it already had a history,(Bettelheim 1) the history is important
for how the tale takes shape, in this case, that of the slipper was
molded by how the Chinese wrapped their the toes. Both the film and
the text are the way they are, different, to be successful among their
time.

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Work Cited Page

Bettelheim, Bruno. The Uses of Enchantment. New York: Vintage
Books, 1975. Print
Corliss, Richard. REVIEW: Into the Woods: A Disney Musical for Adults
of All Ages. Time. Time Inc. 27 Dec 2014. Web. 13 Nov 2015
Grenby, Matthew. The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers
Grimm. History Today. History Today Ltd. Company. 4 Apr 2015.
Web. 12 Nov 2015
Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. "Cinderella." The Original Folk and
Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm. Trans. Jack Zipes. Princeton,
NJ: Princeton UP, 2014. Print.
Holden, Stephen. Into the Woods, Disneys Take on the SondheimLapine Classic. The New York Times. The New York Times
Company. 24 Dec. 2014. Web. 3 Nov 2015
Marshall, Rob, dir. Into the Woods. Disney, 2014. Film.
Zipes, Jack. "Introduction: Rediscovering the Original Tales of the
Brothers Grimm." The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the
Brothers Grimm. Trans. Jack Zipes. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP,
2014. Print.