The fairy tales that I will be basing the big rhetorical analysis essay will be The

Sleeper and the Spindle, Sleeping Beauty in the Wood, and Maleficent. I will be
focusing on the hero convention, the true loves kiss, and the vices of greed and the
drive to be the most beautiful. I will need to research gender roles, certain movements
of certain time frames, movie reviews and interviews, and even sales articles for the
completion of this essay. History itself has a lot to say about a tales rhetorical situation,
but history is a broad term. Things relating to economics, social issues, political
movements, and culture contribute to history, and they are exactly what will need to be
researched in depth. The controlling idea, or thesis, that I will be using for the essay will
be as follows: The different adaptations The Sleeper and the Spindle and Maleficent
put a twist on the classic tale Sleeping Beauty, purposely altering the original tales fairy
tale conventions including that of the hero, solution, and vices to accordingly fit the
audience that they are written for and reflect the influence of the time period.
Introduction
The Sleeping Beauty In the Wood
Charles Perrault (late 17th century France)
Audience: 17th century aristocrats
Salons, traditional gender role conventions (inferior women,
misogynistic), powerful monarchs and absolutism, France major power in
EU, beauty prevalent for women
In The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood, a prince saves and
falls in love with the Sleeping Beauty in the Wood and as the throne
passes down to him, has his family threatened by his ogress mother.
Maleficent
Directed by Robert Stromberg and written by Linda
Woolverton (2014)
Audience: 21st century (PG) children
Modern times; liberal; more accepting of ideals/conventions
not previously condoned; feminism; beauty still prevalent
Maleficent is a film reenvisioning with a twist the Sleeping
Beauty universe through the eyes of the heroine, Maleficent.
the handsome prince is a bit player in a story whose true
center is a love that has nothing to do with happily-ever-after romance.
(Hollywood Reporter)
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/review/malef
icent-film-review-706491
Sleeper and the Spindle
Written by Neil Gaiman (2014)
Audience: 21st century
Modern times; liberal; more accepting of ideals/conventions
not previously condoned; feminism; beauty still prevalent

 Sleeper and the Spindle is a unique mash-up of classic tales

Snow White and Sleeping Beauty, creatively rewoven and altered to
appeal to a different audience than the classics intended for.
... kind of like fusion cuisine. It tastes like both
of them but is actually a new dish. (Gaiman)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/11243
761/Neil-Gaiman-Disneys-Sleeping-Beauty.html
Hero convention, solution, vices of the drive to be the most beautiful
The different adaptations The Sleeper and the Spindle and Maleficent
put a twist on the classic tale Sleeping Beauty, purposely altering the original
tales fairy tale conventions including that of the hero, solution, and vices to
accordingly fit the audience that they are written for and reflect the influence of
the time period.
Hero
The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood
Hero is the protagonist of the tale, one to save the princess
and bring about the solution to the tale. Mentioned heroically in the text in
the scene where she wakes up to him and at the end where he saves his
children and wife from his ogress mother. The hero is hunting when he
comes across the woods where so many have perished trying to save the
sleeping beauty. However, he makes it through and saves her from her
long slumber.
Women were seen as dependent on men. Men were the
heads of households, leaders of the community and beyond, held all the
power, perceived as powerful, while women were seen as helpless, unfit
for power, and basically objects. It is fitting that the only way the princess
will be saved from her eternal slumber is by the presence of a handsome
male prince.
At the same moment, the hour of
disenchantment having come, the princess awoke, and bestowed
upon him a look more tender than a first glance might seem to
warrant.
Patriarchy quotes in this; Louis XIII father of
his subjects
http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/e
td-05242011-185851/unrestricted/Marriage_in_SeventeenthCentury_French_Theater.pdf
Sleeper and the Spindle
In the classic tales hero is usually a male protagonist, one
that rescues the ailing princess and miraculously saves the day. However,
in this tale, the hero is a masculine-ated Snow White, who ditches the

wedding she dreaded so much to set out on a perilous adventure to save

an enchanted kingdom. GLORIFY WOMEN?
Very much challenging the traditional role of the male hero,
the tale is a powerful gesture toward its 21st century audience. With
feminism movements becoming increasingly prevalent and gender norms
themselves slowly but surely coming to a seeming equilibrium, the notion
of a female hero is something that strikes the chord of many readers.
Descriptions of the heroine as capable, clever, courageous, and
competent as a conventional male hero appeals to the increasingly
accepting society.
She called for her mail shirt. She called for her
sword. She called for provisions, and for her horse, and then she
rode out of the palace, towards the east.
Gaiman, Neil (2015-09-22). The
Sleeper and the Spindle (Kindle Locations 176-178).
HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
The queen pondered. Her thumb hurt, and she
was pleased her thumb hurt.
Gaiman, Neil (2015-09-22). The
Sleeper and the Spindle (Kindle Locations 360-361).
HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
QUOTE OF FEMINISM ADVANCEMENTS IN
21ST CENTURY
Solution
The Sleeper and the Spindle
The classic ending expected from many classic fairy tales
is the true loves kiss where the incredibly handsome, incredibly valiant
prince gives the helpless princess the kiss that saves the kingdom or
wakes her from a deathly enchantment. As classic as the ending is the
way the story develops into the climactic endearment. The prince is
introduced, mentioned to be the son of some king from a kingdom, imbued
with characteristics such as beauty, competence, courage, wit, and of
course, is the only one that can save the princess or whatever else is at
stake. The princess is introduced and whatever happens with her, we are
left with a feeling that she is a somewhat ditsy, manipulative, helpless, and
in the end, dependent on the prince to rescue her and change her fate.
However, The Sleeper and the Spindle has a different twist to this.
SUMMARIZE MORE
CONNECT WITH PREVIOUS POINT?
Challenges the traditional solution of a princes true
loves kiss or something similar. Again, like the previous point,

the growing prevalence of feminism and the constant reminder

and now acceptance of gender equality norms is in accordance
to this gesture. A man is not the one to save the life of the
princess and successfully be the solution to the problem. Instead,
it is a woman. Furthermore, it is not even the hero of the story
that physically does the deed. While Snow White does wake up
the evil witch for this to all happen, the one to end this all is
Sleeping Beauty herself. Given the magical spindle life-sucking,
she decides to put her fate in her own hands and stab it into the
witchs chest. She does not rely on a man to change the direction
of her destiny, but is in charge of her own. -- IN FIRST PART?
The old woman, who had once been a
princess, held the yarn tightly in her hand, and she thrust the point
of the spindle into the golden-haired girls breast.
Gaiman, Neil (2015-09-22). The
Sleeper and the Spindle (Kindle Locations 466-467).
HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
17TH CENTURY GENDER ROLE SOURCE
AND QUOTE
Vice: Drive to be the most beautiful
In classic fairy tales, the drive to be the most beautiful was
accurate in not only the tales but in the actual historical context of the time
as well. (INSERT QUOTE ON 17TH CENTURY VANITY). While beauty
was prevalent to a large magnitude in the 17th century, beauty in the 21st
century, while with a smaller magnitude, is also prevalent in the lives of
many. In Sleeper and the Spindle, the enchantress curses the Sleeping
Beauty so that her life force and youth is used to make the former young
and beautiful again.
Unlike the previous points, this is a convention that has
lasted to the 21st century. Sales reports have indicated, along with the
convenience of makeup stores like Sephora and Ulta, steady increases in
all beauty product sales. (QUOTE ABOUT SALES) Women spend
fortunes on cosmetic surgery, skin care products, make-up, and
supplements to maintain the healthy, young, beautiful image that is still
used in daily propaganda. (QUOTE A FEW STATISTICS) Women
considered beautiful are all seen to have a high degree of success in the
world most readily seen, that is, pop culture. Actors, music artists, and
internet stars alike mostly share some extent of attractiveness.
The queen said, Its always the same with
your kind. You need youth and you need beauty. You used your

own up so long ago, and now you find ever more complex ways of
obtaining them. And you always want power.
Gaiman, Neil (2015-09-22). The
Sleeper and the Spindle (Kindle Locations 438-440).
HarperCollins. Kindle Edition.
... women do it because of the feeling of
power they get when regarded as feeling and being beautiful.
http://serendip.brynmawr.edu/sci_
cult/courses/beauty/web4/mjain.html
Conclusion

Bullet points of rhetorical situation material to be covered in the intro, such

as the name of the text(s) you're analyzing, the rhetor (who wrote them, and for films,
directed as well), who was the audience, what was the cultural context, what was the
historical context

a 1 sentence summary of the text(s) to be analyzed --make sure this is a

purposeful summary
Mention princess first
italicize Maleficent

Quotation or paraphrase from a source to be used in the intro to help set up

the rhetorical situation
find quotes of rhetorical situation; more analytical quotes

list of the genre conventions to be analyzed (these may be part of your

controlling idea--thesis)

Controlling idea--thesis. make it be about rhetorical analysis (how do the

conventions you're analyzing reflect the rhetorical situation of the text and make it an
effective text for its audience and context?)
The different adaptations The Sleeper and the Spindle and

Maleficent put a twist on the classic tale Sleeping Beauty, purposely

altering the original tales fairy tale conventions including that of the hero,
solution, and vices to accordingly fit the audience that they are written for
and reflect the influence of the time period.
Give hints of audience (21st century audience) and influence
of time period
Italicize? Quotations? What
Purposefully*
Take out that of
Start with audience?