The Red Shoes: Some Fairy Tales are Creepy
Were
fairy tales created to entertain children or to frighten them? Perhaps it
depends on which fairy tales we are referring to. Some are “harmless”, so to
speak, such as Pinocchio written by Carlo Collodi. But there are others like
those written by the Grimm brothers by Andersen the intention of which is a bit
suspicious. The Red Shoes by Andersen for example tell the story of a vain
stepdaughter who is so proud of her red shoes she even wears them to church
gaining apparently divine disapproval. At a party she begins dancing and cannot
stop. An angel then appears to her revealing her shoes are now cursed and
won´t ever stop not even after
she dies (creepy!) to serve as an example to other children. She keeps dancing for days until she finds an
executioner who taking pity on her chops her feet off, and the shoes still with
her feet inside kept dancing around. The executioner replaces her feet with
wooden part. Repented the girl attempts to go back to church, but can´t because the shoes keep appearing in front of her dancing non-stop and terrifying her. Just visualize that scene with shoes dancing with her the girl´s feet still inside. The girl returns home and there in despair she prays for forgiveness. The angel appeared again and the girl dies, finally finding peace and forgiveness with her soul going to Heaven afterwards.
There is a reason why Disney has never used this story, though movies have been made and least one is in the horror genre (2005 Korean film). If only for The Red Shoes, I believe the answer to my question should be: they were meant to frighten. The idea, apparently, was to control children who had at the time these stories were written a lot of more time and much more freedom so the parents of that time had to look for ways to control their children; hence the reason for these stories to be as weird as they are. Now The Red Shoes was not the only story written by Andersen or the Grimm brothers: there were several others from where The Red Shoes came from.
Comments
I’ve never heard about about this one, but I’m pretty sure I won’t read it unless it’s an assignment. However, I respect those who have the guts to read this kind of stories.
I have heard that some Fairy tales for children hide something. It can be something dark or love and I admit that the fairy tale of The red shoes is like a horror movie and I think it shouldn't be read to children because that can be traumatic for them.
It's incredible the variety of words that I find on this webside. I liked knowing the meaning of this word but in the English language because I will be a Bachelorette.😁
I had never heard about this tale, But I have read some Grimm Brother's tales, their tales was creepy and fascinating because them talk about real versions of the Disney's princess movies such as Cinderella, the Snow White and Rapunzel.
I think that these kind of stories are made because writer wants to catch the attention of people. I have never listened about this, but this story remembered me when I was a little girl, my parents used to tells us stories that had happened a long time ago, at that time those stories were really horribles.
The truth is that the story is disturbing for a child to read. In my opinion, there exist many more ways to teach children than to use terror as a resource.