How Sleeping Beauty Became a Reference Point for Society
Fairy tales have been around for centuries. Before they were written stories, they were folk tales—and before that, oral songs and prose designed to teach and prepare younger generations for change and hardship. Fairy tales are, quite literally, defined as ‘children’s stories about magical and imaginary beings and lands.’
But while today’s fairy tales thrive on fantasy and imagination, the folk tales and fables they originated from were often darker, whispered with caution and weightier meaning. The difference between the earliest versions and the modern retellings is significant—hundreds of years of adaptation have reshaped many of their core messages. From the very start, fairy tales were never meant to be realistic. They lean into their fiction, exaggerating and enchanting to entertain and inspire. So what changed? And why?
Little Red Riding Hood was a tale celebrating female cleverness and resourcefulness, yet the most well-known versions see her being saved from the 'big bad wolf’ by a large lumberjack man (the original himbo?). I think this change in narrative is why it’s so interesting to look at the origins of popular fairy tales, especially those that Disney has cultivated.
When I started researching, I was drawn to Sleeping Beauty. Part of me wanted to know what the story was originally trying to teach, before the smoothing out of edges and saccharine additions. The earliest known version of Sleeping Beauty appears in Perceforest, a collection of prose published in the early 1500s (though composed by Giambattista Basile in the 1300s). In a tale from the Pentamerone, we meet Princess Zellandine, who falls in love with a man named Troylus. After proving himself worthy of her, Zellandine falls into an enchanted sleep—cursed by a sliver of flax embedded in her finger. Seeking a cure, Troylus consults three goddesses: Venus, Themis, and Lucina (representing love, destiny, and childbirth). Venus advises him to assault the sleeping princess, claiming that love will awaken her. He complies, and although Zellandine remains asleep, she becomes pregnant. It’s only when her child is born and sucks the flax from her finger that she finally wakes.
This version doesn't offer a clear villain. Instead, we get a manipulative goddess guiding Troylus down a convoluted path rather than simply revealing the true problem. The characters are named after Greek and Roman figures; Troylus after the city of Troy, and Venus after the goddess of love. It’s debatable whether there was deeper meaning intended here, as the tale was a small piece in a broader epic rather than a standalone story. Still, the influence of Greek mythology and its themes, like the destructive pettiness of the gods, feels present.
Zellandine ends up marrying Troylus despite the assault, which is both disturbing, and complex. Considering the tale’s 1500s publication, it reflects a time when marital assault was neither questioned nor condemned—a belief that unfortunately still persists in some cultures. Back then, marriage was rarely about love or choice. By having Venus encourage the act, the story softens Troylus’s actions for a bourgeois Christian readership, making him seem more sympathetic.
As a short story in an epic, it’s hard to pull a clear moral from this early version. But when we look at Charles Perrault’s Sleeping Beauty, the idea of the fairy tale as we know it really begins to take shape. His version appears in Histoires ou contes du temps passé, a collection of stories published in the late 1600s. Perrault was a member of the upper class, and worked closely with Louis XIV, and its easy to believe that he shifted the tale to suit elite sensibilities. This is also where we first see the introduction of the ‘dark fairy’ who curses the princess aka our proto-Maleficent.
In Perrault’s telling, the fairy is described as “believing she was intentionally slighted,” leading her to curse the princess. This really introduces the idea of the petty, vengeful older woman- a motif that mirrors the capriciousness of gods from the Perceforest, but reimagined through a more Christian lens. It becomes a warning about the dangers of offending a higher power, and the consequences of misplaced faith, or lack of humility.
When Perrault was writing, France was in religious turmoil. The Wars of Religion between Catholics and Protestants had bred deep political and ideological divides. Books like his were only accessible to the wealthy and educated- mainly older white men. So why remove the sexual assault? And why transform ancient goddesses into fairies?
Jack Zipes, a German professor who specialises in literature and cultural studies, suggested that:
‘The fairy-tale has undergone an undergoes a motivated process of revision, reordering and refinement to safeguard basic male interests and conventions…. Instead of associating evil with the oppressive rule of capitalist or fascist rulers or with inegalitarian socio-economic conditions, it is equated with a conniving, jealous female, with the black magic and dirty play with the unpredictable forces of turbulence it must be cleansed and controlled … This evil is always associated with female nature out of control, two witches and a stepmother with her nasty daughters. The ultimate message is that, if you are industrious and pure of heart, and keep your faith in the male God, you will be rewarded. He will carry you off to the good kingdom and that is not threatened by the wiles of female duplicity.’
Zipes’s theory rings especially true when we examine Sleeping Beauty through its many versions. Each iteration was adapted to reflect the dominant Judeo-Christian, patriarchal norms of its time. These stories were read almost exclusively by the upper classes- those wealthy and educated enough to afford bound books.
Unlike many folk tales, Sleeping Beauty doesn’t seem to hold on to a clear moral. Perhaps one existed in the original oral version, but if so, it’s been lost. The earliest known version appears not as a standalone tale, but as part of an epic prose collection, its lessons buried under centuries of reinterpretation.
A brighter version than Perrault’s came with Little Briar Rose, the Grimm Brothers’ retelling, which likely served as the blueprint for Disney’s animation. Even here, we see significant adjustments from earlier versions. There’s no unconsented touch, just a prince who saves a kingdom after a hundred-year slumber. Rather than fairies, the Grimms used the term ‘Wise Woman’, evoking the archetype of the crone. Visually, they are often portrayed with long noses, warts, deep wrinkles, and claw-like hands, the classic ‘phallic woman’, as some theorists would say, with her features symbolically exaggerated.
The Wise Woman are fascinating in themselves. We imagine them as ancient, revered members of their community, yet one’s sudden vindictiveness at being left off an invitation stands out. Who curses a baby to die at sixteen?
Then in 1959, Disney released its animated Sleeping Beauty film, introducing Princess Aurora, the third official Disney Princess. This version is particularly interesting because, unintentionally, it might be the most feminist of the classic Disney films. Aurora has only around ten lines of dialogue, most of them spent singing about meeting her dream prince. Prince Philip isn’t much better developed (though his relationship with his horse does give him a bit of charm).
Surprisingly, the characters with the most depth and agency are the three good fairies: Flora, Fauna, and Merriweather. They carry the story from beginning to end; softening the curse, raising Aurora, rescuing Philip, and enchanting his sword to defeat Maleficent. They’re the real protagonists of the film. It is their victory.
It’s amusing that they’re styled like fairy godmothers; plump, older, gentle, and yet they wield the most power. In contrast, Maleficent is the embodiment of villainy: tall, angular, horned, dressed in harsh lines and shadows. Her sickly green palette and serpent-like dragon form mark her very clearly as the antagonist (her name literally means ‘to do evil’). She conjures thorny brambles to block the prince’s path, in imagery echoed later in Disney’s other villains like Ursula, Lady Tremaine, and Mother Gothel.
This progression comes full circle in the 2014 film Maleficent, which recenters the story entirely around consent and trauma. Comparing the earliest version of Sleeping Beauty with its modern reinterpretation, we go from a sleeping woman being raped to ‘save her’ (at the suggestion of a goddess named after the Roman deity of love, no less) to a fairy betrayed and violated, her wings stolen while she sleeps by someone she trusted. It’s a complete reversal. And it reflects something deeper: a societal shift. In a world that now values authenticity and transparency, fairy tales lose their escapist purity unless they feel at least somewhat real.
This narrative evolution may even be a return to the tale’s original purpose, before it was ever written down. Fairy tales have roots in folk traditions- stories told to young men and women to warn them of life’s hardships: leaving home, being deceived, facing danger. It’s striking how hundreds of years of patriarchal reshaping had to pass before the story’s original cautionary undertone resurfaced. Maleficent becomes a symbol of that. In earlier versions, she curses a child because she wasn’t invited to a christening; now, she bears Zellandine’s trauma as her own.
Sleeping Beauty may never be known for a strong moral compass, but its evolving versions act as a mirror to society. Subtly, they reveal what each era valued, feared, and expected from its women, and its stories.
References
Cybulskie, D., n.d. Medievalists.net. [Online] Available at: https://www.medievalists.net/2015/06/the-medieval-sleeping-beauty/ [Accessed 3rd March 2021].
Perrault, C., 2003. Pitt.edu. [Online] Available at: https://www.pitt.edu/~dash/perrault01.html [Accessed 10th March 2021].
Course Hero. 2021. Grimm’s Fairy Tales (Selected) Briar Rose Summary | Course Hero. [online] Available at: <https://www.coursehero.com/lit/Grimms-Fairy-Tales-Selected/briar-rose-summary/> [Accessed 13 March 2021].
Sleeping Beauty. 1959. [DVD] Directed by C. Geronimi. United States: Walt Disney Productions.
Maleficent. 2014. [DVD] Directed by R. Stromberg. Unites States: Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.
Zipes, J as cited in Short, S., 2006. Misfit Sisters. New York: Palgrave Macmillan
