

The format he suggests may change the way in which text is received, for example if the main character dies, the audience is left unhappy because there has not been a happy ending.

However Propp’s strict order of characters and events is restrictive. Sleeping Beauty came from a time when the lesson was that women should wait quietly for the man who would give them their role in society, Not such the case in modern twists on fairytales. Women are not necessarily depicted as being an inferior sex nowadays as they were back when the initial story was wrote. ‘Shrek upstages Prince Charming and Princess Fiona saves Shrek from Robin Hood and his merry men’. In Shrek, typical fairytale themes are implemented, however the traditional ideas and social norms found in fairytales are swapped around. Propp’s theory suggests that these character types are found in every story or film but are just rearranged for different effects. Although these don’t seem like the main characters in the story, they hold together the narrative and fill in the gaps that link the events in the story, also without the fairy godmothers we would be missing out on our fix of magic that is needed in any good fairytale. They are also the dispatchers and the helpers who send the hero in the right direction to save the princess. When Was The Original Sleeping Beauty Written The fairy godmothers play a huge part in the storyline of sleeping beauty, you could say they act as the donors who provide an object with magical properties, such as the sword given to prince charming that defeats the villain.
