Who Are Grimm Brothers?

Fairy tales are an integral part of human lives. These short tales open up a whole new world; from Walt Disney’s point of view - a world that is filled with imagination and hopeful dreams. Due to the beliefs that fairy tales provide for people, they take a huge part in shaping one's identity. Nonetheless, fairy tales were not always joyful and wonderful to read. Long ago, the Grimm brothers composed a book filled fairy tales. Their book contains fairy tales in their most original form: dark, gruesome, and frightening. These tales were in no way suitable to young audiences, however, with time the tales began to transform. Oral tradition along with a society's beliefs have translated into fairy tales, and have changed fairy tales themes and morals.
Throughout time, “Scholars [have] disagreed about what exactly a fairy tale is, but they have several things in common. To begin with, a fairy tale is a form of folk tale - a traditional story that doesn’t have a definite author but belongs to everyone equally” (Mondschein). Nonetheless, fairy tales throughout time have come to be defined as a traditional story that doesn’t belong to one person but instead is shared equally among its readers. Due to the fact that fairy tales are not owned by one person in particular they are loved by many people around the world. Any one is able to enjoy these stories no matter their social, economical, political class or race, ethnicity, and gender. The Grimm brothers were Jacob and Wilhelm.
Throughout their lives, Jacob and Wilhelm were inseparable best friends. Their close relationship came about, due to the fact that when they relied on each other a lot during their childhood. They wanted to follow in their father's path by studying law. Their decision to study law also came about because their father passed away, and they felt that by studying law they could connect with their father more. They ended up going to the University of Marburg to study law. While in Marburg some of their professors inspired them to look into german folklore. Friedrich von Savigny was the professor who first awakened the Grimm brothers interest in german folk literature. He was a great influence on the Grimm brothers research methods and expanded their way of thinking. The Grimm brothers were taught antiquarian investigation in which age and rarity was greatly valued. Other inspirations included Achim von Arnim and Clemens Brentano who were German romanticist. Johann Gottfried Herder was another influence on the Grimm’s brothers writing style, since he taught them to value natural poetry over artistic poetry. Natural poetry meant sticking to the simplicity of the story unlike artistic poetry that in an elaborated writing
style. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm interest in German folklore led them to the creation of the book “Children's and Household Tales”. For this book, Grimm brothers collected the fairy tales orally, since they wanted keep the fairy tales in their original form. To the Grimm brothers, “the socalled nonsensical dialect, mannerisms, turn of events, even if they seemed grammatically incorrect” (Dégh) meant that the fairy tales were in the purest form. The Grimm brothers first collected the tales from their family members, friends, neighbors, and other close acquaintances; later on, the Grimm brothers traveled around Germany collecting many more fairy tales from household servants, nursemaids, and low class people. The Grimm decision to ask the lower class for the stories was because they kept the stories true to their origins, and the brothers felt that asking the upper class meant getting tales that were changed to fit the upper class preference. When the Grimm brothers first released their book, the stories written in there were intended for adults rather than children due to their strong adult content. Greenspan says, the themes of premarital sex, graphic violence, child abuse, anti-semitism, incest, and wicked mothers were the most prominent in the stories. The theme of premarital sex is seen in “Rapunzel”; in this story, Rapunzel and her prince spend many night together which eventually leads to her pregnancy. In “Snow White”, graphic violence is seen when the wicked queen is forced to dance in red hot iron shoes, eventually leading towards her death. In “Cinderella”, the stepsisters cut of their toes to be able to fit into the glass slipper, and later on in the story the stepsisters eyes are pecked out by doves. “ Show White” also shows the theme of child abuse; at a young age, Snow White is taken to the woods by the huntsman to get her heart. The theme of anti - semitism is seen in “Cinderella”, since Cinderella is described as being aryan while her stepsisters are not, and the step sisters race is put down. Their race is put down simply because they are of mixed races. The theme of step mothers is seen in “Hansel and Gretel”, since their mother persuaded their father to abandon the children in the woods, due to not having enough money to feed them. Due to society's views the Grimm brothers tales were suitable to the children of the time period. However, due to the “pressures of success and popular demand [...] the Grimm [turned] more and more to the audience of children” (Dégh), dark themes were toned down or completely erased from the tales. Since the Grimm brothers fairy tales were not suitable for young children, the tales began to change. When the audience changed the Grimm brothers decided to include illustrated images in the newer publishings of the book.
The Grimm brothers stories were first accepted by many people in society because of society’s views on children's innocence.
Due to the time period the society's way of thinking, many felt that the Grimm brothers tales were appropriate for the children to read, however, many of the stories were still under parental guidance. “In the past, children were seen as miniature adults who had to work for their keep as soon as they were able” (Mondschein). When the children were of age they had to help support their families. In our day and age, children are able to enjoy their childhood to the greatest extent. Children do not have to worry about helping out their families until much later, since them not working will greatly affect their families income. The idea of having to go out and look for a job as soon as one was old enough can be seen in the Grimm brothers life. After, their father died the Grimm brothers knew that the only way to help support their family was to study to be able to get a
job. The work done by the Grimm brothers set up new a movement for children’s fairy tales. Their worked paved the road to make children’s literature more entertaining; while teaching children valuable life lessons. When the Grimm brothers were creating their book, fairy tales were not considered to be “real” literature. “Fairy tales are [...] a form of folklore [..and] works of low culture [...] For centuries, fairy tales were usually considered outside bounds of refined taste [...] they were raw material to be polished up into works of “real” literature” (Mondschein). They were considered to be low cultured because they did not contain valiant knights or saints in the stories. Since the Grimm brothers tales lacked what it meant to be a real piece of literature, the fairy tales were perceived as pure entertainment for the low class. Since they were not considered real literature people did not take them seriously. People refused to acknowledge fairy tales value unless they were polished up and turned into real literature. To be “real” literature valiant knights and saints had to be added to the tales. The fairy tales did end up changing but not right away. First of all the, Grimm brothers were compelled to change the awkward wording and vulgar language of their tales. When the Grimm brother’s first published “ Children’s and Household Tales” they were to keep German literature intact. Later studies show, that fairy tales also served “[...] as primers for relatively affluent European children and served to impart moral lessons to them [...] while continuing to contain symbolic imagery that legitimates existing race, class, and gender systems” (Baker-Sperry and Grauerholz). Wealthy upper class children were taught important life lessons while keeping the idea of social, economical, and political beliefs unharmed. The tales of the Grimm brothers traveled all over the world to the hands of many people. The class, race, sex, and any other social factor did not keep the readers from enjoying the tales. However, due to the fact that he tales were made in Germany the fairy tales contained German beliefs. The Grimm brothers wanted to be more realistic with their fairy tales; and their tales did not always have positive endings. They were more focused on getting the moral of the story across. “What is important, then, is that there is a sort of moral to the story, even if it is represented by the main character’s failure to to learn” (Mondschein). To them dying due to failure to learn was considered to be more important than creating a happy ending for their readers. Their tales were more focused on realistic events. As these fairy tales became more prominent in the media they came to be portrayed differently. Walt Disney never stayed true to the “theme or original characters” (May). Disney films ignore the origins in order to be successful, and this is seen the classic films such Snow White, Cinderella, Pinocchio, and Bambi. In “Snow White”, the film is filled with cute scenes of animals, dwarfs, and songs. The film also eliminated the severe punishment of the witch, and instead made her die from an accident in a storm. In “Cinderella”, the punishments of the stepsisters and stepmother is erased completely to make them suitable for children. Disney also added Jaq and Gus cute animal sidekicks, to lighten up gloomy moments with silly antics and speech impediments. In “Pinocchio”, Disney’s main objective is to portray Pinocchio as a puppet who just wants to do good. To get this across the original stories characters personalities and responsibilities were changed to fit the objective. In “Bambi”, the original story is altered to the point where it just contains too much humor. In these films, Disney steers away from the true stories in order to make them more suitable for families. Moreover, the films based on American societal views. The films main objective is to satisfy the viewers emotional experiences. They teach us the basic lessons but steer away from the original stories; leaving out many important factors to their concept. Even though a stories origin can be lost the basic ideas always remains. When Baker-Sperry and Grauerholz studied children's fairy tales they realized that some details were kept in tact; even if they are are gruesome as the Grimm brothers or as lovely as Disney films. The Grimm brothers taught children that one has to pay greatly for their wrongdoings, while Disney films sugar coat everything to get the lessons of family, love, and friendships across in their films. Baker-Sperry and Grauerholz concluded that children’s fairy tales always teach children a moral lesson. In “Hansel and Gretel”, the reader is taught not to trust strangers. In “Cinderella”, the reader is taught that hard work gets you rewards. However, in both the Grimm tales and Walt Disney is the theme of beauty is highly emphasized. An experiment by Baker-Sperry and Grauerholz was conducted to figure out what children fairy tales are able to tell us about society's values during a time period. Studies Baker-Sperry and Grauerholz “suggest that feminine beauty is a dominant theme and that tales with heavy emphasis on feminine beauty.” Fairy tales have become more about showcasing the character's beauty. When the Grimm brothers first released their tales, the book did not contain any illustrations of the characters. However, as the popularity of the books shifted more towards children, the books were released with illustrations. The illustration in the book helped to see what the characters looked like which helped set the stage for how the characters would always have to look like. Not only has feminine beauty become more prominent but studies have also shown that it goes for men as well. Beauty is emphasized on these tales because of the notion that beauty will get one great rewards just like the characters in fairytales. “Beauty is often rewarded, lack of beauty is punished” (Baker-Sperry and Grauerholz). The most known feminine beauty tales and notions are clearly seen in Snow White, Cinderella, and Sleeping Beauty. Throughout the stories they are described throughout their physical appearances. As time goes on the world around us changes, nonetheless, what a society creates is able to live on. The Grimm brothers brought fairy tales to the public eye. The public did not acknowledge their work until much later on. Their work was not accepted since it did not fit into societal standards. The stories they created ahead of their time. They were real pure stories of the time period, yet many people did not what any of that. They wanted to read fictional stories; stories that led them to a world of imagination, and away from the reality of life. The Grimm brothers focused their tales on the reality of life because they wanted the reader to learn that life is not always happy endings. Because of the focus on the reality of life there were many main character deaths, tragic endings, and very explicit adult themes in their book. Disney on the other hand brought their adaptations of fairy tales to the whole world. They have created films which can be shared with anybody no matter their age, gender, race or ethnicity. Walt Disney has also emphasized the idea of forgetting and forgiving those who have hurt the.
Though the Grimm brothers and Walt Disney have different interpretation of fairy tales, they serve as gateways for children and adults to learn valuable lessons in life. One of the most memorable lessons will be that good will always win while bad will always lose. This lesson is important to learn because it impacts how people interact in a society. This being that people can either be helpful to others or they can be hurtful to those in society. The tales also serve to keep character archetypes in the media. By keeping the archetype the ideas invested in them are able to live on for future generations.