Fairy Tale and Film

1
Finding Love and Fulfilling Dreams: Aspiring 
Underdogs and Humbled Heroines
1. For a fuller discussion of the Lurie–Lieberman debate, and the way it initi-
ated the study of folklore and feminism, see Donald Haase’s introductory 
chapter (2004). 
2. Lurie points out that the kind of heroine feminist critics most object to (our 
usual trio of Cinderella, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty) are a limited and 
‘unrepresentative selection’ compared to the wealth of European folklore 
and affirms that tales recorded by folklorists, and published in more recent 
collections than the typical Andrew Lang anthology, provide more active 
heroines. Lieberman responds to Lurie’s point about a biased selection 

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174 
Notes to Chapter 1
process by using one of its examples and conducts an analysis based solely 
on Andrew Lang’s 
Blue Fairy
book (published in the late nineteenth century), 
negating to look at alternative heroines in more recent collections or offer-
ing any evidence of wider research to support her argument.
3. Lurie’s claims not only heralded a key debate in feminist criticism, they also 
instigated a re-evaluation of fairy tales, resulting in new collections featuring 
assertive heroines, and a wider cache of characters to inspire audiences and 
later writers.
4. Marina Warner’s book 
From the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales and their 
Tellers
(1995) similarly argues the case for regarding fairy tales as a woman’s 
genre, used to covertly discuss mutual experiences and concerns. In her 1986 
essay ‘To Spin a Yarn’, Rowe makes a similar contention.
5. Ironically, Lieberman did single out a particular strand of fairy tales she 
approved of – Animal Groom tales involving ‘female questers’ who jour-
ney to the ends of the earth for a man, such as ‘East of the Sun and West 
of the Moon’ (ATU 425A), claiming the heroine plays an ‘agentive’ role in 
re-humanising a character. While this plot is seemingly just as regressive as 
waiting for a prince, romanticising self-sacrifice in the name of love, the 
heroine is admired for being ‘active’, irrespective of motivation. Lieberman’s 
article is reprinted in Zipes (1984: 185–200).
6. ‘Kate Crackernuts’ is especially notable because it confronts so many ten-
dencies often targeted by critics – while retaining marriage as the ultimate 
reward. The less attractive girl is the heroine, who disenchants the prettier 
half-sister her mother has disfigured, using her wits to ultimately marry 
them both off to princes. 
7. Stone has since made the most of this ability to imaginatively transform 
tales. (See her essays ‘Burning Brightly’ (1993) and ‘Fire and Water’ (2004), 
in which she explains how two Grimm tales are retold to create heroines 
with greater agency and significance, allowing a punished girl to live in her 
version of ‘Frau Trude’ and changing the gender of the male hero in ‘The 
Water of Life’). These strategies were anticipated by Heather Lyons and 
Carolyn Heilbrun in the late seventies, while the seventeenth-century 
con-
teuses
disguised and cross-dressed their heroines for similar ends: to counter 
the constraints of their gender and time. 
8. Lucy Armitt cites Waelti-Walters in this observation (1982: 80), quoted 
by Armitt (1996: 28).
9. In early versions Snow White originated as the object of a king’s desire 
(a variation collected by the Grimms and later elaborated by Carter), Sleeping 
Beauty is a victim of sexual abuse (a motif discussed later in this chapter), and 
Cinderella’s abasement among the ashes is explicable as a means of deterring an 
incestuous father (an idea that related tale type ‘Donkeyskin/Catskin/All-kinds-
of-fur’ (ATU 510B) expounds, presenting a darker explanation for the heroine’s 
disguise and flight from home, as noted by Tatar (1992) and Warner (1995)).
10. Zipes (2002a) elaborates his evaluation of the transition fairy tales have 
undergone.
11. See Maria Tatar’s