Jameela Wright
Professor Kylee Pastore
FIQWS Composition HA5
29 September 2022
Dark twist of Sleeping Beauty
Anne Sexton’s version of Sleeping Beauty “Briar Rose,” retells the story of Sleeping Beauty, a young Princess being cursed by an evil fairy that at the age of fifteen, she will prick her finger and die, until another fairy changes the death into a hundred-year slumber and then wake up to a prince. In Sexton’s version, however, once Briar Rose wakes up, she is immediately in this trance of remembering her father when she is being kissed awake by the prince. This makes the reader interpret the idea that Briar Rose was abused by her father when she was a young child, due to the response she gives the prince by not wanting to sleep or thinking about her father every time she kisses him. Very few articles and sources talk about the trauma that Sleeping Beauty had gone through when she was asleep for that long, as well as how gender roles can make women not freely talk about their trauma.
Source 1 is a Journal written by Dawn Skorczewski titled “What Prison Is This? Literary Critics Cover Incest in Anne Sexton’s ‘Briar Rose” taps down on the true meaning behind the “prison” that Anne Sexton talks about in her poem “Briar Rose.” The journal starts out by explaining the summary to readers who do not know the gist of the poem and implies on the princess, Briar Rose, being a victim of sexual abuse by her own father. Skorczewski also explains how “survivor speech has been absolutely prohibited, categorized as mad or untrue, or rendered inconceivable: presuming objects (such as a rapist father) that were not statable and therefore could not exist within the dominant discourses” (Skorczewski 309), meaning that whenever a survivor of anything, especially if they are female, always have their voices not heard, or are limited to a certain amount of speech. She touches on the idea that in modern society, the speech of incest survivors has been shut down since “it is too disgusting disturbing to the listeners” (309), implying that society’s focus on certain issues is a lot different from how it needs to be. Sexton’s version of Sleeping beauty is slightly inspired by the Grimms version of “Briar Rose,” and in Grimms version, the father is explained as the male figure who protects his daughter from adultery, rather than introduce and expose her to it. This also indicates that when Briar Rose wakes up from her slumber, she must live the rest of her life in fear of sleeping just so she does not have to go back to that dark place in her mind due to her trauma. That trauma alone makes her weary in trusting any male figure, including the male prince that she loved and married just because of her past. In comparison, Source 2 elaborates on the idea of female identity and feminism in literature with reference to Anne Sexton, considering that Sexton herself is a feminist. Not only was she a feminist, but Sexton also went through a similar traumatic experience with her own father that caused her to have these different views. Not only was both source 1 and source 2 talk about the attention that Sexton tries to bring to the audience about females struggles and victories, but the source also describes the problems that females go through in the modern day and how that can affect people.
Source 2 is a journal by Azadeh Mehrpouyan titled “Female Identity & Culture of Modern Women Writers in Feminist Literature with Special Reference to Anne Sexton”, explains how modern literature adapts the ideas of female identity and culture from women writers. She begins the journal with an introduction of who Anne Sexton was. Sexton was a poet, well known for her way of writing and the way she thinks of poetry as something that should be seen as a shock, but it should also hurt as well. On page 13 of the journal, Mehrpouyan looks at Sexton’s “Briar Rose” and states how she is reclaiming Grimm’s version as a woman’s tale for the reader to see that the women characters are just as important as male characters and are not only chosen because of their beauty. Sexton wants the reader to know that what the female character experiences are better than her looks, and she does this by showing the reader more of how Briar Rose acts and how she feels during those experiences she goes through. Most fairy tales in the modern day only talk about the perspective of men and never really indulge in the point of view of a woman. Others interpret that as the upbringing of the person, meaning that those kinds of writers are like this because of the way they were brought up, which can lead females to have more negative mentalities due to the men they have encountered who were brought up to be dominant. Unlike source 2, source 3 goes in depth about the gender roles in adolescents and how they were brought up to be described as different traits that would either be only masculine or only feminine. It also talks about how parents play a role in how children identify themselves when they grow older.
Source 3 is an article by Selma Korlat et al titled “Gender role identity and gender intensification: Agency and communion in adolescents’ spontaneous self-descriptions” which explains the process of how children start to describe themselves, as well as how they make the opposite gender perceive them as. In western society, young men are typically taught to present themselves as independent, self-asserted, and dominant toward others while on the other hand, young women are taught to present themselves as calm, passive, describe themselves, as well as how they make the opposite gender perceive them as. In western society, young men are typically taught to present themselves as independent, self-asserted, and dominant toward others while on the other hand, young women which explains the process of how children start to describe themselves, as well as how they make the opposite gender perceive them as. In western society, young men are typically taught to present themselves as independent, self-asserted, and dominant toward others while on the other hand, young woman are taught to present themselves as calm, passiveand caring. This is to show that from an early age, children are taught that for them to be considered their gender, they must present themselves as someone who is not their true selves. This may lead to children to feel as though they must live with these traits forever if they want others to like or respect them. The article also talks about the diverse ways parents treat their children based on their genders. For example, parents tend to use more emotional terms and tones with their daughters while in contrast use more powerful and physical terms and tones with their sons. Parents also tend to prefer stereotypical toys for their children based on their gender. For girls, parents would prefer toys like dolls and dollhouses, toy kitchen sets, etc. that show nurturing traits while for boys, parents would prefer toys like trucks and cars, action figures, etc. that show power and aggression. In comparison to “Briar Rose” by Sexton, Briar Rose was preserved as those feminine traits because she was a goddess. And because she was preserved in that way, her father thought that it was okay to take advantage of her since her calm and caring nature should not make it a bother for her. To connect back to source 1, source 3 gives readers a better understanding of why Briar Rose had felt the way she did with this feeling of being stuck in the same place repeatedly.
In summary, Anne Sexton’s Briar Rose depicts the image that women in modern day literature are perceived as passive and that if they were a survivor of any sort of abuse, they should either stay silent about it or make it seems as if it is not as big as it should be. Society’s future storytellers, especially females, would want a world that they can feel at ease to express themselves without worry of being judged or shut down. Society itself may wonder if they can try and make the world a safe space for those writers to feel comfortable sharing themselves with the rest of society.
Work cited
Korlat, Selma. “Gender Role Identity and Gender Intensification: Agency and Communion in Adolescents’ Spontaneous Self-Descriptions.” Digital Object Identifier System, 3 Jan. 2021, https://doi.org/10.1080/17405629.2020.1865143.
Mehrpouyan, Azadeh, and Seyedeh Samereh Abbasnezhad Banehmir. “Feminism and Feminine Culture in Modern Women Writers’ Works: With Special Reference to Anne Sexton and Audre Lorde.” Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences, Elsevier, 27 Dec. 2014, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1877042814061667.
Skorczewski, Dawn. “What Prison Is This? Literary Critics Cover Incest in Anne Sexton’s ‘Briar Rose.’” RCNi Company Limited, 1996, https://doi.org/10.1086/495068.
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