Why Wicked Never Wins: An Examination of the Early Origins of the Evil Female Villain of the Fairy Tale Narrative

48 Pages Posted: 8 Feb 2020

See all articles by Priti Nemani, J.D.

Priti Nemani, J.D.

affiliation not provided to SSRN; affiliation not provided to SSRN

Date Written: June 11, 2010

Abstract

Have you ever known a version of the Cinderella story without her wicked stepmother and stepsisters conspiring against her? Have you ever heard the story of Snow White without the jealous queen presenting her with challenge after challenge? Would the Sleeping Beauty even have a story without the curse of an angry fairy? Various components of the fairy tale narrative are open to revision; but, without the wicked stepmother, the jealous queen, or the angry fairy, the plot of these fairy tales cannot progress.

Historically, the evil female character plays a central role in the fairy tale narrative, active since the earliest documentation of the tales in Western Europe. Why did it come to the earliest tellers of the fairy tale to illustrate evil for their young audiences in the form of a female? What external forces caused the negative characterization of the powerful female in the fairy tale genre? Why is the surrogate mother figure of the fairy tale ascribed with an evil nature? The female villain of the fairy tale is jealous and vain, self-interested and active. Who is similar to her figure, but is documented prior to her appearance in fairy tale literature? In what narrative did the association between the female and the principle of evil originate?

Of course, the stories of Medea, Danae, Cupid and Psyche all come to mind as potential predecessors to the characters of Cinderella’s wicked stepmother and the evil queen in “Snow White.” The parallel becomes disturbingly clear in the stories of Pandora and Eve – the earliest characters that personify evil through the female form. Furthermore, both Pandora and Eve contribute to the many associations between the female and evil in forms beyond the religious myth. These stories of the first female entry into human life describe the first believable assertion that woman poses a tangible, distinct threat to the male’s morality and welfare. Eve and Pandora, both created as man’s companion, unleash upon mankind vice and evil.

Similar to the religious myths of Eve and Pandora, the female villain characters of the fairytale present the male character of Prince Charming with the central obstacle in his journey to marriage. Rather than denying their urges to act in obedience to the laws given to them, Eve, Pandora, Cinderella’s wicked stepmother, the vain queen of “Snow White,” and the angry fairy that curses the baby princess all succumb to their individual desires; but, their wicked actions are committed in hopes of upholding male expectation. The wicked deeds of these women are, in fact, acts of desperation. Although each of these female characters strives to uphold male expectation, when she actually executes male expectation, she immediately becomes a source of active evil.

Despite the ways in which the entertaining fairy tale plots of “Cinderella,” “Snow White,” and “Sleeping Beauty” differ from the creation stories of Pandora and Eve, all partake in an unforgiving narrative of a powerful female. Pandora, Eve, and the evil fairy tale female each personify and release evil within their relative stories; however, each of these women acts out of a deeper motive that is rarely shared with the audience. Although her actions are evil, her motives are not as self-interested as they may seem. Under her wicked exterior, this female character’s malicious nature is a result of her struggle to maintain the expectations of a central male character. This Article discusses the way in which the figures of the mythical first females- Pandora and Eve- ultimately steered the characterization of evil female fairy tale characters, like Cinderella’s wicked stepmother, Snow White’s jealous stepmother queen, and the angry 13th fairy who curses Sleeping Beauty.

This Article argues that the legacy of Eve and Pandora shape the characterization of the villainous figure of the fairy tale due to an ongoing but underlying process of patriarchalization. Part I examines the earliest representation of the female in religious myth – the Mother Goddess of Ancient Mesopotamia. This section discusses the way in which the once empowered female deity is deconstructed to create weaker, negative personifications of female power, as shown in the Greek myth of Pandora and the Christian myth of Eve. Part II discusses the way in which the earliest of fairy tale narratives adopted religious motifs, including the motif of the evil and powerful female. Part III extracts and compares the various evil female characters of the fairy tale, as first depicted by Giambattista Basile in Pentamerone (1636) and later in Charles Perrault’s Histoires ou Contes du Temps passé (1697), in the stories of “Cinderella,” “Snow White,” and “Sleeping Beauty.” Part IV argues that the way in which the early motifs of religious myths have been repeatedly adopted by fairy tale literature illustrates an ongoing process of acculturating young females to social constructs of gender identity. Part V concludes with a discussion of the way in which contemporary authors in film and television are attempting to break with the common depiction of evil through the form of the powerful female figure and offers examples from ABC’s series Desperate Housewives and Spanish Director Pedro Almódovar’s 2002 film Habla con Ella (Talk to Her).

Suggested Citation

Nemani, Priti and Nemani, Priti, Why Wicked Never Wins: An Examination of the Early Origins of the Evil Female Villain of the Fairy Tale Narrative (June 11, 2010). Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=1807127 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1807127

Priti Nemani (Contact Author)

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

No Address Available

affiliation not provided to SSRN ( email )

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