sleeping beauty thesis

A Summary and Analysis of the Sleeping Beauty Fairy Tale

By Dr Oliver Tearle

‘Sleeping Beauty’ is, depending on which version of the story you read, called Sleeping Beauty, Talia, Little Briar Rose, Rosamond, or Aurora. This is because, like many other classic fairy tales, the tale of Sleeping Beauty exists in numerous versions, each of which is subtly – or, in some cases, quite strikingly – different from the others.

In the Italian version published in the Pentamerone , an Italian collection of fairy tales published in 1634, the heroine is named Talia. Charles Perrault, in his version published later in the century, calls her the Sleeping Beauty. The Brothers Grimm call her Dornröschen or ‘Little Briar Rose’, which is sometimes adapted as ‘Rosamond’. In the Disney film, the adult heroine is named Aurora. For the purposes of clarity here, we’re going to call her ‘Sleeping Beauty’ or ‘the princess’.

Nevertheless, the overall plot of these different versions of ‘Sleeping Beauty’ remains broadly the same, so it might not prove entirely impossible to offer a short plot summary.

‘Sleeping Beauty’: plot summary

A king is protective of his beautiful daughter, the princess. An evil fairy curses the princess, pronouncing that she will die when she is pricked by a spindle. However, a good fairy manages to intervene so that the prophecy is softened: the princess will not die if she is pricked with a spindle, but she will fall unconscious for a hundred years. The king bans flax and spinning equipment from his palace, so as to protect his daughter from such a fate.

However, around fifteen or sixteen years later, when the king and queen were away from the palace, the princess was exploring many rooms when she came upon an old woman with a spindle, who knew nothing about the spinning ban.

The princess asked if she could have a go, and the old woman let her – you can guess what happened next. The princess pricked her finger on the spindle, and dropped down unconscious. The old woman fetched help, and everyone tried to revive the princess, but to no avail. So there was nothing for it but to let the princess sleep for a hundred years.

The good fairy cast a spell that essentially protected the princess in the palace, with trees grown up around the building and all of the princess’s servants, attendants, and pets made to sleep for a hundred years too.

After the century had elapsed, another king (of a different royal family) sits on the throne. His son, the prince, heard tales of the palace where the princess slept, and became interested in what he’d find if he ventured there. So he cut a path through to the palace and at length came upon the sleeping form of the princess, falling to his knees at the sight of her beauty.

His timing couldn’t have been better. For at that moment, the hundred years came to an end and the spell was lifted; the princess woke, and seeing the prince she fell in love with him, and they talked a great deal (well, after all, the princess had missed out on a hundred years of news).

The whole of the palace then woke up – the servants and animals that had been put under the spell by the good fairy – and the prince and princess lived happily together, having two children, a daughter and a son whom they called Morning and Day respectively.

The prince returned to his parents, the King and Queen, but said nothing about the princess whom he had fallen in love with, because the Queen was part ogress and there were rumours that she had ‘ogreish’ tendencies – in other words, she wanted to eat people. The prince married Sleeping Beauty in private, without his parents’ knowledge.

A couple of years later, the King died and his son, the prince, became King, and brought his wife publicly to the court. But shortly after this he had to go to war with the emperor of a neighbouring country.

In his absence, his mother, the Queen Mother, sent away Sleeping Beauty to the country, and sent the cook to kill Morning, the young daughter of the King and Sleeping Beauty, and cook her so that the Queen Mother could eat her with a nice sauce. But the cook was a kind man, who instead slaughtered a lamb and dished it up for the Queen Mother to eat. (She couldn’t tell that it was Lamb and not Little Girl that she was eating.) Meanwhile, the cook sent away Morning to be kept safe by his wife in their chambers in the palace.

But the Queen Mother was soon hungry again, and wanted to have Day for her dinner this time. Once again, the cook sent away the little boy and served up a young kid or baby goat for the Queen Mother to feast upon instead. But the Queen Mother’s appetite was insatiable, and next she wanted to eat the Queen, Sleeping Beauty, herself. The cook despaired of being able to deceive the Queen Mother a third time, so he went up to Sleeping Beauty’s chambers with the intention of slitting her throat.

When the Queen saw him, she told him to kill her, so she might join her children, whom she feared dead. The cook told her that her children were alive and well and of how he had tricked the ogreish Queen Mother, and he took her to where his wife was looking after the Queen’s children. Then the cook dished up a hind for the Queen Mother to eat, thinking it was Sleeping Beauty.

But soon after this, the evil Queen Mother heard Sleeping Beauty and her children in the palace, where they were concealed, and she realised she had been tricked! She set about plotting her revenge, ordering that a huge tub be placed in the courtyard and filled with vipers and venomous toads and other dangerous creatures, so that Sleeping Beauty, Morning, Day, the cook, his wife, and his maid, might be thrown in there the next day, and suffer a horrible death.

Next day, the prisoners were brought out for the sentence to be carried out – but just as they were about to be thrown into the tub, the King returned, and, angry that her plan had been foiled, the ogreish Queen Mother threw herself in the tub and was killed by the snakes and toads. The King was reunited with Sleeping Beauty and his children, and they all lived happily ever after.

‘Sleeping Beauty’: analysis

This summary of ‘Sleeping Beauty’ is based on the tale that the Opies include in their The Classic Fairy Tales ; there are some minor differences between the various versions of the tale, which has been told by Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm, among others.

Indeed, the only reason the Brothers Grimm didn’t throw out ‘Sleeping Beauty’ from their catalogue of fairy tales for being too French was the tale’s suggestive affinities with the myth of Brynhild in the Völsunga saga, which was the inspiration for Wagner’s Ring Cycle among other things. (Brynhild was imprisoned in a remote castle behind a wall of shields and doomed to sleep there in a ring of flames until a man comes along, and rescues and marries her.)

It was Charles Perrault, however, who first made the fairy tale of Sleeping Beauty famous, when he included it in his landmark 1697 collection of fairy stories. Yet as we remarked at the beginning of our summary and analysis of this, one of the most famous of all fairy tales, the basic story predates Perrault, and a similar version can be found in the 1630 Pentamerone .

Yet even by this stage, the story of Sleeping Beauty was a few centuries old: one of the stories in the anonymous fourteenth-century prose romance Perceforest features a princess named Zellandine who, like Sleeping Beauty after her, is cursed to end up being pricked by a spindle, an accident which prompts her to fall asleep until – you’ve guessed it – a dashing prince, in this case a chap named Troylus, arrives to wake her up. (Unfortunately, this important medieval collection of tales remains criminally out of print and in need of a good translation/edition: Oxford University Press or Penguin, please commission one!)

‘Sleeping Beauty’ features many of the common tropes of classic fairy tales: the beautiful princess, the evil stepmother figure (the evil Queen Mother), the handsome prince, the good fairy, and the patterning of three (the Queen Mother’s planned meals of Morning, Day, and Sleeping Beauty respectively).

Throw in a palace and a bit of suspended animation, not to mention a cunning servant (that enterprising and kindly cook) and you have all of the ingredients of a classic.

Continue to explore the world of fairy tales with these classic Victorian fairy stories , our history of the ‘Puss in Boots’ fairy tale , our discussion of the Bluebeard myth , and our analysis of the ‘Hansel and Gretel’ fairy tale .

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8 thoughts on “A Summary and Analysis of the Sleeping Beauty Fairy Tale”

Reblogged this on Greek Canadian Literature .

There was me thinking that the story ended when the prince and princess got married. This is marvellous and, indeed, very Wagnerian with the Queen Mother hurling herself to a horrible death, for no real reason, actually. This has cheered up my afternoon no end!

I’m with you. I didn’t realise that at all. I love the Queen Mother’s ‘Ogreish’ tendencies. Many of us have a MIL like that!

I’m glad I’m not the only one! The story is actually much better with the ogre Queen Mother… I can certainly relate!

I think you will find that the story ended once they had married, immediately after the wedding in fact. Who would call their children Morning and Day? Someone has made it up.

Sent from my iPad

Reblogged this on The Slavic Polytheist and commented: Another take on history of Sleeping Beauty

• Pingback: The Sleeping Beauty Fairy Tale | Interesting Literature | Writer's Blog

Just found and love this series about fairy tales! (which I found by looking for the source of Alladin being Chinese.) I own the Opies’ book and it’s indeed lovely. The post about Rumplestildkin was especially fascinating and makes sense in mythic terms– I never saw an analysis we suggests this, but it makes sense. One of the best discussions of fairy tales I have read is the first chapter in Rodger Sale’s book “Fairy tales and after” which features a wonderful chapter on fairy tales. (He analyses Snow White from the angle of the rivalry between an aging and a young, flowering girl displacing her, and suggests that it’s because beauty and youth was the power source for women in those times.) I also read Bruno Bettelheim but at this point I think he’s full of it! I believe that fairy tales are best analyzed in terms of their historical and social context and origins.

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Figuring “Sleeping Beauty”: Metamorphosis of a Literary and Cultural Trope in European Fairy Tales and Medicine, c. 1350-1700

This thesis takes an interdisciplinary approach to a recurrent cultural trope: the figure of the sleeping beauty. Sleeping beauties are young women—paradigms of femininity, paragons of virtue and physical perfection—who lose consciousness and become comatose and catatonic, for prolonged periods. In this unnatural state, these female bodies remain intact: materially incorrupt, aesthetically unblemished. Thus can the body of the sleeping beauty be defined as an enigma and a paradox: a nexus of competing and unanswered questions, uniquely worthy of investigation. This thesis examines the metamorphoses of the figure of the sleeping beauty in literature and medicine between c.1350 and 1700 in order to interrogate the enduring aesthetic and epistemological fascination that she exercises in different contexts: her potency to entrance, her capacity to charm, in both literary and philosophical realms. The widespread presence of the sleeping beauty in literature and art, as well as in the bro...

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The story that many people know of "Sleeping Beauty" comes from different cultures, and tales. For hundreds of years, French and Italian cultures have captivated individuals with stories of cursed maidens who are forced to sleep.

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Figuring “Sleeping Beauty”: Metamorphosis of a Literary and Cultural Trope in European Fairy Tales and Medicine, c. 1350-1700

Sarnyai,, Lili (2016) Figuring “Sleeping Beauty”: Metamorphosis of a Literary and Cultural Trope in European Fairy Tales and Medicine, c. 1350-1700. Doctoral thesis, Birkbeck, University of London.

This thesis takes an interdisciplinary approach to a recurrent cultural trope: the figure of the sleeping beauty. Sleeping beauties are young women—paradigms of femininity, paragons of virtue and physical perfection—who lose consciousness and become comatose and catatonic, for prolonged periods. In this unnatural state, these female bodies remain intact: materially incorrupt, aesthetically unblemished. Thus can the body of the sleeping beauty be defined as an enigma and a paradox: a nexus of competing and unanswered questions, uniquely worthy of investigation. This thesis examines the metamorphoses of the figure of the sleeping beauty in literature and medicine between c.1350 and 1700 in order to interrogate the enduring aesthetic and epistemological fascination that she exercises in different contexts: her potency to entrance, her capacity to charm, in both literary and philosophical realms. The widespread presence of the sleeping beauty in literature and art, as well as in the broader social sphere, over the centuries, indicates the figure’s important and ongoing cultural role. Central to this role is the figure’s dual nature and functionality. On the one hand, conceptualized as allegories, sleeping beauties act as receptacles for a complex matrix of patriarchal fears, desires and beliefs about the female body in general, and the virgin and maternal bodies in particular. On the other hand, understood as material or bodily entities, sleeping beauties make these same ideological questions incarnate. Sleeping beauties are, therefore, signs, treated as material bodies, a tension which this thesis explores. As such, they are prime subjects for cross-disciplinary correlational study and historicist analysis: vehicles for comparison and dialogue between literature, medicine, and religion on the issues of power and passivity, sexuality and gender difference, mortality and beauty, nature and the unnatural or supernatural. Sleeping beauties negotiate the boundaries of human desire for, and capacity for belief in, miracles and wonders.

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The Power of Images in “Sleeping Beauty” Essay (Book Review)

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Introduction

The power of images in sleeping beauty, works cited.

Sleeping Beauty is a well-known fairy tale that is presented in different versions around the whole world. Like many other classic stories, Sleeping Beauty contains several important lessons that different readers can use in their lives. Its editions and representations are hard to count. In this paper, special attention will be paid to the original story written by Charles Perrault in the 17 th century and published by eKitap Pojesi in 2016.

The peculiar feature of fairy tales is the possibility to read texts that are supported by effective visuals. In this book, the illustrators choose black-and-white images. Still, these boundaries do not limit the reader’s imagination. According to Blair et al., images may not have “inherent rhetorical meanings” so that people are free to shape pictures and ideas in the most convenient ways (135). The connection between Sleeping Beauty and “Gendered Viewpoints” maybe not as evident as it should be, but this relationship turns out to be a helpful tool for understanding human behaviors, connecting the reader and the writer, and developing imagination from different perspectives.

Reading fairy tales without pictures is usually not interesting. Even adults find it necessary to address some images and gain a better understanding of a situation, give clear examples to their children, or compare their imagination with the intentions of the author. Sleeping Beauty is a story about the relationships between different people with their dreams, interests, demands, abilities, and attitudes. Through the very first lines, it becomes clear that the author has an idea to be developed in this fairy tale with special respect. A King and a Queen were “so sorry that they had no children, so sorry that it cannot be expressed” (Perrault 3). Not many editors and illustrators can introduce the image of these desperately waiting parents proving the phrase of the author that no expressions can be given in this situation. Blair et al. explain that literacy should not depend on access to visual information, but be based on rhetorical concepts with the help of which a person can use their cultural background and traditions (131). Sleeping Beauty is a good story for developing rhetorical concepts and evaluating human behaviors without multiple pictures, including a protective king, a sensitive and trustful princess, an evil fairy, and a charming prince.

In addition to the possibility to improve an understanding of the story, images help to define the level of relationship between a reader and an author. It is not enough to read sentences and imagine what happens there. Images and viewpoints of the book can be interpreted through the criteria offered by Blair et al. and used as a barometer of influence the author may have on the reader. Black-and-white pictures in the book can be defined as useful guides for the reader to create a colorful picture at the end of the story. There is no need to give detailed images of the whole story. Sometimes, it is enough for the author to support the reader in the beginning and motivate them for taking several independent steps.

In Sleeping Beauty , Perrault focuses on the situation that occurs after the tragedy and the necessity for fairies to protect the whole community against stress, sorrow, and sadness. In the images, the place where the main characters live is divided into black and white with black tones prevailing over the white ones. Such an arrangement of the details shows that the author cannot define a true scope of human grief and suggest the reader using their imagination to understand how it is possible to cope with the situation and what outcome may be expected. Sleeping Beauty is chosen because of two important reasons. First, in comparison to many other classic stories, this story has a root and development, but no strict rules to be followed. The reader can develop personal imagination and think about what was happening to the characters when they were sleeping, if they had dreams, or if they felt something. The second reason for choosing this story is its close relation to images and the power of rhetorical interpretations which are promoted by Blair et al. Some questions, as well as answers, remain rhetorical in the story, and the reader should understand the power of this concept in fairy tales, as well as in other literary works.

However, this reading of the story and its evaluation turns out to be two different tasks because of the necessity to focus on particular aspects of the book, its images, and neglect a list of other strong issues, like the role of gender, the fight between good and evil, or the relationships between parents and children. These concerns cannot be neglected and should be underlined because they influence the creation of an image of a Sleeping Beauty and its impact on modern children, parents, and villains who want to ruin plans and interfere with human lives. Visual and auditory literacy is important for the reader and the general impact of fairy tales. Still, this concept should not deprive a person of the opportunity to focus on other aspects that may be found interesting.

In general, Sleeping Beauty is a story with a strong context and several helpful lessons to be applied to human life. The article by Blair et al. can be used to understand the essence of the book with all its images and words used by the author and illustrator. However, it is necessary to remember that any fairy tale is more than just a collection of letters supported by a picture. It is a strong guide for children to investigate their lives from multiple perspectives.

Blair, Kris, et al. Cross Currents: Cultures, Communities, Technologies. Cengage Learning, 2014.

Perrault, Charles. The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood . eKitap Pojesi, 2016.

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IvyPanda. (2020, November 20). The Power of Images in "Sleeping Beauty". https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-power-of-images-in-sleeping-beauty/

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IvyPanda . (2020) 'The Power of Images in "Sleeping Beauty"'. 20 November.

IvyPanda . 2020. "The Power of Images in "Sleeping Beauty"." November 20, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-power-of-images-in-sleeping-beauty/.

1. IvyPanda . "The Power of Images in "Sleeping Beauty"." November 20, 2020. https://ivypanda.com/essays/the-power-of-images-in-sleeping-beauty/.

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Sleeping Beauty (Essay Sample)

Sleeping beauty.

When I decided to take part in a panel discussion about the role of fairy tales in the modern literature, little did I know that I would learn to allot during the convention. My fellow panelists were editors and authors whose fairy tale work had influenced the modern storytelling context. The title for discussion was, “what does sleeping beauty means in the modern context?”. The question meant that we needed to explore the relevance of the fairy tale within the modern world and make interpretation using sleeping beauty as the primary focus.

As we discussed, the other panelists presented several arguments about why the fairy tale of sleeping beauty continues to be popular even in modern times.  We researched on the topic by digging into the archives to present an old version of the tale. During the presentation, the panelists discussed who the story was really about. During my research, I realized that sleeping beauty had much to offer in our discussion. During the discussion, we recounted some of the oldest and provocative versions of sleeping beauty.

Looking at the old version of this fairy tale, there were startling events presenting the journey of both lovers and their transformation process. Each of them experienced death as two sets of parents prepared to bury their children. Even though the Sultan’s son awakens the sleeping beauty, their relationship is not a  mature one, but the society does not sanction it. When the sultan son revives the sleeping beauty from death, they are considered equal, and their marriage is one between adults.  In our discussion, we noted that sleeping beauty had undergone several changes in the 29th century, when it was published by the  Grimm brothers targeting children. The Grimm brothers maintained some of the darker images from the story, but the sexuality and the humor disappeared.

Victorian publishers tried to  sanitize the fairy tale toning them down the violence, hence simplifying the narrative. During this period authors wanted readers to see the stories as charming by the reflection of gender roles during that time to present appropriate morality. Like other fairy tales, sleeping beauty used emotionally evocative images that were meant to engage the audience and to draw them to the morality behind the narrative. One panelist during the discussion reminded us that the underlying theme of the story is the power struggle between the young bride to be the older groom. The symbols of feminine power struggles are evident throughout the story, and everyone on the panel agreed that  figures of evil fairy were presented like the old woman spinning, the barren wife and the ogres’ mother.

As we noted sleeping beauty in the 20th century has been presented not as a collective identity,  but in several themes, the princess finds herself in many different guises. She is portrayed  as a helpless stay at home girls of the 1950s, a bold heroine,  an oppressed   holocaust survivor, a sexually abused child, among  other  themes.  As we came to the end of the discussion, we noted that sleeping beauty  the main theme has diminished  in many ways  with more civilized version being presented.

In the end, we all agreed that sleeping beauty is a  masterpiece, which present power. In our discussion, we all noted something very appealing about the figure. The princess is seemingly passive, but she is surrounded life threatening events including death.  The older version of the story presents the beauty’s original wit and strength. Even though the many versions have tried to alter her nature,   her transformation continues to shine making it a remarkable fairy tale.

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The sleeping beauty motif in the short stories of D. H. Lawrence

Backhouse, J. L. (1969) The sleeping beauty motif in the short stories of D. H. Lawrence. Masters thesis, Durham University.

In this thesis, ten tales covering almost the whole of D.H. Lawrence's writing career have been analysed in terms of the 'Sleeping Beauty' motif or "the myth of the awakened sleeper" - a motif which has been noted briefly in Lawrence's fiction by several critics. Chapter one begins with a discussion of the Sleeping Beauty legend, its origins and its variants, and leads on to a comparison and contrast of two early tales. The Mitch a la Mode and The Daughters of the Vicar; these are, respectively, examples of Lawrence's treatment of the motif in symbolic and realistic terms. There is a further contrast in that these stories introduce the two types of 'Sleeping Beauty’ women, respectively - i.e. those who reject the awakening which offers liberation, and those who accept "the lover's kiss that awakens the Sleeping Beauty.” In Chapter Two The Horse-Dealer’s Daughter, You Touched We and The Fox are examined; they possess marked similarities of character and setting, but are sufficiently-varied treatments of the motif to warrant individual analysis. Chapter Three is concerned with The Princess and None of That, both variants on the negative aspect of the theme, in that they deal with 'Sleeping Beauty' heroines who ultimately reject any awakening. The Princess is a mature and skilful treatment of this aspect of the theme, whereas None of That is shown to be technically and artistically a regression. With Sun, Glad Ghosts and The Virgin and the Gipsy, all written during the last period, there is a return to the Sleeping Beauty- women who are awakened to new states of being. Symbolism, particularly in Sun, plays an important role, and it is fully discussed. The thesis concludes with a general discussion of the motif as it appears elsewhere in Lawrence's fiction, and of its relevance to his own life; in this connection, evidence is adduced from the novels and the correspondence.

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Home > College of Arts and Sciences > Philosophy > PHILOSOPHY_THESES > 152

Philosophy Theses

Sleeping beauty: a new problem for halfers.

Michael Nielsen , Georgia State University Follow

Date of Award

Summer 8-12-2014

Degree Type

Closed Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

First Advisor

Andrea Scarantino

Second Advisor

Daniel Weiskopf

Third Advisor

Neil Van Leeuwen

I argue against the halfer response to the Sleeping Beauty case by presenting a new problem for halfers. When the original Sleeping Beauty case is generalized, it follows from the halfer’s key premise that Beauty must update her credence in a fair coin’s landing heads in such a way that it becomes arbitrarily close to certainty. This result is clearly absurd. I go on to argue that the halfer’s key premise must be rejected on pain of absurdity, leaving the halfer response to the original Sleeping Beauty case unsupported. I consider two ways that halfers might avoid the absurdity without giving up their key premise. Neither way succeeds. My argument lends support to the thirder response, and, in particular, to the idea that agents may be rationally compelled to update their beliefs despite not having learned any new evidence.

https://doi.org/10.57709/5629427

Recommended Citation

Nielsen, Michael, "Sleeping Beauty: A New Problem for Halfers." Thesis, Georgia State University, 2014. doi: https://doi.org/10.57709/5629427

Since June 02, 2014

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