Topic Research: Untold Prison Stories from the Fairytale Police Department

 Topic Selection

Last week, I was tasked with coming up with four different topics do base my semester storytelling project on. After going back and forth, I have decided to go with Untold Stories from the Fairytale Police Department. This story is going to tell the accounts of classic fairytale characters like Cinderella, The Evil Stepmother, and Rapunzel with a little criminal twist. Like Disney, they take classic fairytales and make them new and I am essentially doing the same thing but making them a little more dark. 

Research

I began my research journey by looking into Dan Ashliman's website. He collects different versions of fairytales from all over the world. I looked into Cinderella, Rapunzel, and the Evil Stepmother. 

Cinderella- The Little Glass Slipper: This version of Cinderella was a French adaptation by Charles Perrault. This story began with a gentleman who married for the second time to a very haughty woman. This woman has two daughters in her previous marriage and the gentleman had one sweet and good daughter with his first wife. The stepmom treated her daughters like royalty and the gentleman's son like a peasant. They called her Cinderwench. Of course this story had a king's ball. The ball was held to find a woman for the king's son. The two stepdaughters adorned themselves in expensive garments and fancy hairstyles and jeered at Cinderella who was unable to come to the ball. Cinderella began to cry when they left for the ball and she was left all alone. Then her godmother came and told her she shall go to the ball. The godmother turned a pumpkin into a carriage, a mouse into a horse, a rat into a coachman, lizards into footmen, and her rags into riches. She was beautiful and she promised to be home by midnight. When she arrived, everyone thought she was the most beautiful girl. Cinderella danced with the king's son and he knew this was the girl for him. When the clock struck midnight, she hurried away leaving a glass slipper behind. The king's son was determined to find the girl from that night so he rode around the entire kingdom asking every woman to try the slipper on. The slipper fit and they lived happily ever after!


Rapunzel- Prunella: This version of Rapunzel was an Italian adaptation by Domenico Comparetti and Alessandro d'Ancona. The story begins a woman who had a daughter. When the daughter was seven years old, she would walk past a ripe plum tree everyday on her way to school. She would pick one and put it in her pocket to eat once she got to school. This is how she got her name Prunella. This orchard belonged to a witch and it angered her to see Prunella eating all her plums. The witch caught her and kept her locked in her house as revenge. As the years passed, Prunella became a beautiful woman which angered the witch even more. One day, the witch asked Prunella to get some water from a well and when she did, a young man named Bensiabel approached her to help. This was the witch's son. This angered the witch and she forced Prunella to make bread from a sack of wheat but she didn't know how. Bensiabel offered to help her if he got a kiss in return. Bensiabel helped her escape and save her life. She ran until she reached the house of her mistress. She demanded Prunella tell her which cock will crow during the night. Prunella trembling answered the witch's questions about the cocks with the help of Bensiabel. Bensiabel screamed for Prunella to give him a kiss and tackled the witch to save Prunella. At last Prunella was touched by Bensiabel's kindness and they got married and lived happily ever after. 


Evil Stepmother- Maria, the Wicked Stepmother, and the Seven Robbers: This is an Italian version of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs by Laura Gozenbach. The story begins by telling how a man had a daughter named Maria and his wife had recently died. Maria went to a woman who taught her how to sew and knit and her father became fond of this woman. After they got married, the woman became unfriendly to Maria. The woman wants to kill the daughter but the father refuses. Instead of killing her, the father took the daughter out into the country and left her there. But the daughter found her way home which angered the woman. The father took the daughter into the woods and abandoned her there a second time. This made Maria very sad. When evening came, she made her way to a little house in the woods that belonged to seven robbers. She lived in the house in hiding and when they would leave she would clean the place up. Then she came face to face with one of the robbers. She told them how unhappy she was and how her evil stepmother didn't want her. Then one day a poor old woman found her in the woods at the house. The beggar woman went back to the kingdom and told the evil stepmother Maria was still alive which angered the stepmother. Eight days later, the beggar woman came back and gave Maria a pretty gold ring. When she put the ring on she fell dead. The robbers came home to find her dead on the floor and they buried her with lots of gold in her coffin. The king ordered the coffin to be brought to him and he wept bitterly when he saw the beautiful girl. The old queen went in to see the coffin and was moved by the girls beauty and removed the ring from her finger. Maria was awoken and the young king made her his wife. They lived happily ever after!

More Research Links

https://insidethemagic.net/2020/01/artist-portrays-disney-princesses-as-criminals-getting-mugshots-tm1/

https://mashable.com/2013/08/17/evil-disney-ladies/

https://www.chipchick.com/2020/02/your-fav-disney-princesses-have-turned-to-a-life-of-crime-and-you-can-buy-their-mugshots-for-15.html

https://www.thegamer.com/disney-princes-princesses-as-villains/

My Stories Based on My Research

Cinderella: She is going to be breaking curfew and since she didn't follow her godmother's instructions to be home by midnight, she was sent to jail. She has consequences to face now and it looks like she won't be marrying her prince charming.

Rapunzel: She is being charged with assault, horse theft, and false imprisonment from sources from the witch. I don't think prison life is going to treat that long hair of hers well.

Evil Stepmother: She is being charged for being "wicked, selfish, and cruel" toward her stepdaughter. She has been sent to jail for being caught with wicked pills to make her the meanest mom in the kingdom.


Photos: (Disney Princess Mugshots: Popsugar)


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Reading Week 9: Brer Rabbit, Part A

Image
(Brer Rabbit and Tar-Baby: Wikipedia )   The Calamus Root Brer Fox had done all he could to try and catch Beer Rabbit, but one day he decided he would play a game. The fox asked the rabbit if he wanted to have some confab and the two agreed. They had been told they didn't get along well and weren't acting neighborly to one another. Brer Rabbit then invited Brer Fox to dinner and he agreed. The next day, the rabbit and his wife got up early and gathering some cabbages, roasting ears, and sparrows grass to make dinner. His children sat in the yard all day waiting for the fox to come. After a long time, Brer Rabbit goes and peeps around the front door to see the tip of the fox's tail and quickly slams the door shut. Brer Fox made up an excuse that he was too sick and that's why he couldn't make it to dinner, so the fox invited him to dinner. When he rabbit got to the fox's house, he was wrapped up looking weak. The rabbit looked around and saw no dinner on the tabl...
Read more

Week 11 Story: Sioux Legends

Image
(Chief Black Tail Deer and his family: Wikipedia ) The Rabbit and the Grouse Girls The rabbit to the side of a hill where he saw the grouse girls. He claimed he could get them fine skin with bangles on it to slide down the hill. He asked them to get inside the skin, but the girls were afraid. The rabbit flattered them and coxed them into the sack and quickly closing it shut. Bringing it to grandmother, he asked her to watch it while he went to get willow sticks for spits. The girls begged to be let out and the grandmother let them get away. The rabbit was very angry when he came back.  The Rabbit and the Bear The rabbit was out of arrows and the fall hunt was coming. He needed flint to make the arrowheads and the only place to get it was the old bear chief. The rabbit set out to the bear’s village where he came to a hut. The woman welcomed him with a fire for his feet. The next day, the rabbit went to the bear and the bear showed how his body was half flesh and half flint. The...
Read more

Reading Week 11: Sioux, Part A

Image
  (Portrait of Indian Chief Sitting Bull: Wikipedia ) The Rabbit and the Grouse Girls The rabbit went out in the winter to the side of the hill away from the company of all girls. They were the grouse girls. The rabbit called out to them and told them he could get them a fine skin with bangles on it that tinkles. He ran away to his tepee and brought a skin bag with red stripes and bangles on it. The grouse girls were afraid to get inside it, but the rabbit coaxed them all in. The rabbit then slung the bag over his back and went home. He got to the tepee and told his grandmother he had a bag full of game and the grouse girls began to cry. The grandmother said she would let the grandchildren out. As the old woman opened the bag, the grouse flew up and grabbed her leg. The rabbit got back and was very angry she let the grouse out. The Rabbit and the Bear The grandmother and the rabbit were out of arrows and the fall hunt was coming soon. The grandmother told him to make flint arrowhea...
Read more