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Group Presentation: 

• Identify the thesis and central claims in the article/chapter. 
• Thesis: "The three fairy tales under study highlight the bourgeois codes of feminine propriety while at the same time offering their readers a significant perspective on how fairy tales suppress the heroines agency....All three narratives testify to the way Victorian women writers rebelled against traditional gender roles even as their tales seem to confirm the conservative civilizing process."
• Central Claims: 
• **As the female role in the household changes with time, so does the role of feminism in fairy tales  
• gradually occurs and seen with every new version of the tale of "Beauty and the Beast" 
• The cultural shift of the tale:
• moving from fear of sexuality (being devoured by a monster) to the assertion as the strong woman (Molesworth's adventurous princess who searches for and 'rescues her prince balanced between masculine and feminine roles) and this can be seen in with the gradual shift that occurs over time with the three fairy tales 
• Confronting the man becomes the assertion of female autonomy, which inverts gender roles reaching society in an extremely different manner.  
• Give an example of the way the author supports these claims.
• Anne Ritchie's "Beauty and the Beast" 
• incorporates social norms and values
• set in a more modern setting where capitalism had gained control and therefore caused the gender roles to shift 
• more middle class families have more money=want the women to show off their wealth so women gained more freedom to wonder from the home alone, etc..  
• rebels by secretly being sarcastic about the role that marriage plays in a woman's life and how reliant she must be upon it
• Her story may have the women still follow her gender role appropriate for her time she also shows how materialism and beauty isn't everything by allowing "Beauty" to be simple and not materialistic or vain. This fact gets her ready to marry the Beast. 
• Ewing's "The Ogre Courting"
• progressively more feminist
• speaks pretty blatantly about "the horrors of arranged marriages" 
• even shows that men just saw women as an investment (can be good or bad)
• teaches girls not to be threatened by patriarchal power
• **teaches cleverly that there should be a way for women to live on their own and choose their own fate=more feminist then before! 
• Molesworth's "The Brown Bull of Norrowa"
• She gives the heroine masculine traits, which is more acceptable but also keeps feminine traits too, which then became controversial
• she still dresses her characters well, but this is to show wealth
• she does not exude good manners, which is a new change
• she instead brings in a heroine who is clever, and active
• She actively places common symbols and motifs from famous fairy tales into her tales but changes their meanings
• ex. golden balls from "The Frog Prince" symbolizing virginity
• However, she never "drops the balls" for anyone/man. She remains strong and clever throughout the tale
• The princess goes on a quest that shows her masculine and feminine traits
• Then the princess even chooses to reveal herself to the prince=skills are more important then beauty in this story

• **These variations are discussed in great length, because they shows us how much cultural and historical changes influence the fairy tale especially this one.

• Evaluate the argument. Is it strong? Does it use strong evidence? 
• Yes, her use of examples provides the reader with an irrefutable argument. However, I do wish she would have focused more on her own argument instead of telling the fairy tales of the other authors. I wanted to know more about the shift and less about each story in detail.  

• How does it relate with other scholarship we have read in this class?
• "Feminism and Fairy Tales" by Haase
• This correlates with this piece of writing because it speaks about women writers breaking through and feminism slowly grasping some power.
• The thesis even states that it was difficult for women writers to emerge and break away from the "patriarchal social norms" displayed in the first versions of fairy tales. Our essay literally shows (through example) that very process!! It shows how women had to slowly break into writing feminist ideas and that they had to do so slyly so that the men would not truly realize the power of the female protagonist. 

Avital Elyazam fh5568@wayne.edu 

Charlie Miller ck0211@wayne.edu