Sleeping Beauty Wakes, Grows Up

An Analytical Essay on Sleeping Beauty

To a father, there is nothing in the world more cherishable to him than his daughter. And, as she is his only legacy into the future, he feels it his patriarchal duty to protect her from the harsh realities of life he has already experienced. Though he can’t keep her young forever, he’ll do everything in his power to prolong the process. While his acts of protection are out of love, his parental barricades may end up harming his child more than helping her. The irony of a father’s love causing harm is nothing new to today’s society; in fact, this theory has shown up in many ancient fables, tall tales, and mythologies. A prime, yet underrated example of this can be found in the Grimm Brothers’ version of “Sleeping Beauty,” the tale of a beautiful, young princess cursed with an early “death” upon her fifteenth birthday. Though the most obvious antagonist in this infamous tale would be the wise woman who casts the spell during the princess’ infancy, this may not really be the case. Though the young princess is initially blessed with gifts of beauty, riches, and “everything in the world one can wish for” from the other wise women, a question arises. Is this really “everything in the world” a young princess would want? What about love, freedom, or even womanhood? Through their use of rhetorical strategies—mainly symbolism and strands of character flaws—the Brothers Grimm prove that it is the original curse of “death” that is most beneficial to the young princess, giving her independence, sexuality, and most importantly—birth into adulthood. Maybe beauty, modesty, and wisdom are everything a father would want for his only daughter, but is it not every young girl’s dream to grow up, fall in love, and start a family of her own?