Comparative Analysis of Perrault’s Sleeping Beauty and Maleficent

Narratives are cultural devices that represent their era, playing an important academic role in reflecting and developing the values, ideas and attitudes of their context, and even warning the audience about what could happen in the future. Appropriations are a clear example of this where composers are able to maintain the popular themes and plot of a story while still reinforcing key issues and values of the current society in which they are a part of at a subliminal level to still maintain the story but also provoke the audience to think about their own actions in the world. This can be seen through the many appropriations of the popular Sleeping Beauty In the Woods by Charles Perrault in the late 17th century and Maleficent the new take on Sleeping Beauty from Robert Stromberg in 2014. Through the changing roles of the main characters, such as Phillip,. Maleficent and Sleeping Beauty, the clear changes in the textual purpose of the narrative, of young love versus the idea of feminism and the ideals placed on women, both Perrault and Stormberg were able to tackle real life problems, reflecting society and in turn shaping society by placing these narratives as influencing factors in front of their audience to help make real decisions throughout their own lives which holds as an important aspect to maintain the narratives importance over time.

Firstly the most prominent contrast between Sleeping Beauty in the Woods and Maleficent is the expressed gender roles. This can be seen through the different ways all of the characters are displayed, more specifically both sleeping beauty and the Prince are shown. In Perrault’s version of sleeping beauty, his characters are direct creation of the roles given to both men and women in the society of the 17th century, ones that would’ve connected and greatly influenced the individual at the time. The comparisons can be seen as maleficent challenging the ideas of Prince and Princess form. In past narratives the princess has been depicted purely as a love interest or an even prize to be won, seen through may Disney interpretations of fairy tales like Tangled, Cinderella and sleeping beauty, with their main purpose being placed on finding love, relationships, marriage + and needing protection, working in correlation with the form of damsel in distress. As well as their main values can be seen as their beauty and their superiority. This form is demonstrated through sleeping beauty in the woods all throughout the story and can be seen Cleary through the grand christening, the idea of her beauty expressed through the first ‘gift’ bestowed up on “she should be the most beautiful person”. This demonstrated the importance of beauty in society built off of Perrault’s 17th century context where status, such as her royal belongings, and looks were obsessed over which promotes the idea of the sociological function of the myth. Perrault uses this idea to enforce this idea upon his own society, using the way that the audience sees the princess to inspire them to want to be just like this and aim for this high expectation of beauty and status.

This is further reinforced through the introduction of the prince and the archetype of this prince, the strong and fearless protector. This is shown through the Prince, who upon hearing that there is a beautiful princess awaiting in a castle becomes determined to be this savior she was awaiting. These archetypes are challenged in Stromberg’s appropriation, Maleficent, due to the context in which it was published. Maleficent largely rejects the idea of women being weak and needing a man’s protection or saving, reflecting the way in which individuals view their world where 2014 introduced a large amount of promoting women empowerment and rejecting the sexist ideas that had been built upon for many years, for example Perrault’s version of Sleeping Beauty. This can be seen through the idea of true loves kiss, where the idea that Prince Phillip was the only one who could save Aurora challenged by the visual scene of Aurora and Maleficent shows women empowering women. This idea presents as a new moral lesson, about women empowering women, an important lesson to teach not only young girls but young boys as well, shaping the ways they see their own future and how they will view themselves, and do not need to rely on the stereotypes that created these archetypes. The contrast between Sleeping Beauty in the Wood and Maleficent is important to really reinforce these ideas, where the stereotypes may have maintained its relevance to leave a lasting impression on the 17th century audience but have now evolved over time with society.

This contrast further continues with Maleficent challenging the ideals placed on women for the centuries before its release, showing the audience how they no longer have a role in their current society. Perrault’s Sleeping Beauty in the Wood was released at an extremely convenient time to reinforce society’s notions of ‘ideal’ women during the times they were told. A beautiful woman who could sing, dance, and play music would certainly have been popular in 17th century Versailles. This can be seen through the opening christening though each of the gifts given by the fairies built out of metaphors and both visual auditory imagery to highlight their importance, where the Princess would be the “…most beautiful person… temper of an angel… wonderful grace… dance to perfection… sing like a nightingale… play every kind of music with the utmost skill.” Within these gifts the idea of female curiosity is not mentioned which shows dramatically how it was not valued as a female characteristic but rather warns off women of the time, shown through the introduction of the evil fairy’s curse “…she declared that the princess should prick her hand with a spindle, and die of it.” This curse alarms the king and he hides all spindles away from his princess, however due to her curiosity she inevitably finds the spindle that leads to her doom. This is seen as a way to warn society off if women curiosity, showing that it is not their place to go searching around but rather to fulfill or the ideas stated beforehand, reinforcing their importance in Perrault’s society. While all these ideals are challenged through Maleficent female curiosity is largely affirmed rather than looked down upon. This is support throughout the movie, for example when Aurora is young, wandering around, chasing after the butterfly, curious to see what it is and experience the joy it brings, and furthermore when Aurora and Maleficent travel through the woods, allowing Aurora’s curiosity take over and experience the new encounters, the tracking shots used to show the occurrences of the new experiences continuously occurring, with no threats to Aurora. The negative connotations on curiosity were important to challenge as it reflected the current society that Stromberg was in, one where women’s roles are not confined to being a good wife or a good mother, but exploring and finding their own future. This was an important lesson to teach young women especially teenagers who would experience these idealistic expectations brought upon by narratives that in the past that had left a lasting impression on the society and had to be challenged. Maleficent successfully challenges these ideals brought on by composers such as Perrault, not only curiosity, to reflect the society that they had evolved into now, not one that had been created and carried on through narratives over time and create new, realistic ideals for young women to live up to.

The biggest contrast between Maleficent and Sleeping Beauty in the Wood is the pure textual purpose communicated by the composers. Written and published in the 17th century, Perrault wrote about an important aspect of life that he could recognise clearly and portray to his audience, the idea true love and young marriage. These ideas are referenced in the written moral of the story, ensuring that if the audience were not able to comprehend the underlying message of the narrative that by the time they finish reading they would. It reads as “Many a girl has waited long, for a husband brave or strong… young blood must when young blood will!” This clearly demonstrates the textual purpose, and Perrault’s ability to portray this and reflect his modern day society enabled Sleeping Beauty in the Wood to further extend its importance. Sleeping beauty in the wood portrayed an important meaning to its audience and had the power to influence and shape the society in which it maintains its relevance. Many women reading the narrative become inspired by its outcomes, the happy ending where men and women find each other, fall in love, get married, have children and live happily, ever, after. This inspiration leads to them wanting to find their own one true love, giving Sleeping Beauty in the Wood the power to shape its audience worldview and future actions. This can also be said with Maleficent, however, Maleficent displays its own textual purpose, of feminism and the idea of whether anyone is truly good or evil. The general story of Sleeping beauty displays Maleficent as the evil witch, the villain who doom’s Aurora to death but is ultimately defeated in the end. Stromberg’s Maleficent challenged this idea, introducing a second side of the story, her side, showing the audience why she does what she does. Ultimately the actions of Maleficent are justified, or explained through the actions that were committed against her. The audience shows the great betrayal she faces of a man, whom she thought was a friend took advantage of her trust and took a huge part of her identity, her wings. This betrayal is what leads to the cursing of Aurora, however, the idea of Maleficent being good, or just like every other human is introduced. The audience sees the good through her connection with Aurora and her determination to protect her. Maleficent’s character develops greatly “I swear no harm will ever come to you” with this young girl Aurora Maleficent’s perspective of the world has changed reinforced through the close up shot of Maleficent’s face, showing the tears in her eyes. The audience is forced to consider the idea that there is more than just one side to a story and is also introduced to the idea of feminism and women empowerment. Maleficent no longer gives men the power to have control over her or to fuel her anger but accepts herself as a strong woman, reinforced by Aurora’s love and support for her. The textual purpose contrast between Sleeping Beauty in the Wood and Maleficent is dramatic and shows the evolution of societies. Women’s roles are no longer defined by their physical skills and looks, dependent on a man to get them through life but reflect modern day society where Men and Women are equal, both with good and bad aspects about them but ultimately showing the audience that women can be strong and powerful too.

Cultures are ever changing with the eras that they pass through and through appropriations of narratives societies are able to identify and examine these changes. Sleeping Beauty in the Wood and Maleficent were published centuries apart and clearly reflect their own societies whilst still maintaining the core ideas of the narrative. Through the comparison and challenging of the prince and princess archetypes, ideals placed on women and the textual purpose of both narratives, each had the power to influence the society in which they were published in, representing and reinforcing their core values, ideas and attitudes. Through narratives individuals are able to refer back to something in order to help guide them through their individual lives, make decisions and interpret the way they see their world and without them they would be lost. 

Works Cited

1. Perrault, C. (1697). La belle au bois dormant [Sleeping Beauty in the Woods]. Paris, France: Charles Perrault.
2. Stromberg, R. (Director). (2014). Maleficent [Film]. United States: Walt Disney Pictures.
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