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Gary Gee
Dr. Lynda Haas
Writing 37
15 November 2015
Sleeper and The Spindle: A Story for the Times

Fairies tales have been told for centuries, many have been created, altered, and even reimagined all across the world. Whether the tale came from China in the 11th century, Germany in
the 19th century or even Switzerland in the 15st century, fairy tales move and redefine themselves
in different places at different times. They could have been made to pass the time or adapted for
scholastic purposes. The time period, the culture, the purpose of the tale, and the audience of the
tale are all rhetorical aspects that affect how the conventions of the fairy tale are expressed.
Because they have been around for so long, across so many cultures, and presented to so many
audiences, the genre presents a unique perspective on how texts are shaped and changed by the
rhetorical situation from which they arise.
Two of the tales that have been reformed over time is the story of Briar Rose and
Little Snow White. In 1812, the famous German fairy tale collectors and academic scholars,
the Brothers Grimm, published these two stories. Brier Rose is about a princess who falls into
a deep sleep due to the curse of an evil fairy, and is later saved by courageous prince who
fearlessly cut through deadly thorns and kisses the princess to wake her up; they live happily
ever after. Little Snow White is about an evil mother who is jealous of her daughters stunning
beauty, plots to murder her, and is able to put Snow White in a deep sleep for a hundred years. In

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2014, Neil Gaiman, a well-known author of multiple notable fairy tales, mixed the two stories
together and into a novella called The Sleeper and the Spindle. In this story, there distressed
Queen named Snow White doesnt want to get married. She hears of the sleeping kingdom
across the mountains, so she decides to call off the wedding for the moment so she can go on a
journey to save the other kingdom. Like the prince of Briar Rose, she cuts through bushes of
thorns and in addition she fights off hordes of walking zombies to reach the castle where she
kisses the sleeping girl hoping to save the kingdom. However, the sleeping beauty is actually an
evil witch, but is later killed by the real princess of the castle. The story ends as the Queen rides
off to the East, avoiding marriage in order to go on further adventures. As a 21st century reimagining of Brier Rose and Little Snow White that changes in historical context and
purpose, The Sleeper and the Spindle reinvents classic genre conventions such as the passive
female heroine and the happy ending of the story.
An archetypal character convention in old versions of tales is the passive female role, the
female in traditional tales rarely do anything except wait to be rescued and get married to a
prince. According to Marcia R. Lieberman Since the heroines are chosen for their beauty, not
for anything they do, they seem to exist passively until they are seen by the hero, or described by
him. They wait, are chosen, and are rewarded (386). In Brier Rose, the most active thing the
princess does is get pricked by the spindle. She picked up the spindle, but no sooner did she
touch it, than she pricked herself with it and then fell down into a deep sleep. She falls asleep
without any hope of getting back up on her own. But that doesnt matter because Princes, who
had heard about the beautiful Brier-Rose, came and tried to free her, there are dozens of male
heroes ready to come in and save the day. In Little Snow White, almost the same scenario
happens. Snow-White lay there in the coffin a long, long time, and she did not decay, but looked

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like she was asleep, for she was still as white as snow and as red as blood, and as black-haired as
ebony wood. Now it came to pass that a prince entered these woods and happened onto the
dwarfs' house, where he sought shelter for the night. He saw the coffin on the mountain with
beautiful Snow-White in it. In both stories, there a powerless girl who is trapped, waiting for the
prince charming to notice them.
The Sleeper and the Spindle completely shuts down the passive female hero. The hero is
the brave Queen ruling over the kingdom. She called for her first minister and informed him
that he would be responsible for the kingdom in her absence (Gaiman Kindle Location 173-174)
By saying this, it implies that the Queen is the one controlling the kingdom, not some male King.
She is the one that goes on the journey to save the sleeping girl. She called for provisions, and
for her horse, and then she rode out of the palace, towards the east. (Gaiman Kindle Locations
177-178). She is the one that puts on the armor and sword, She called for her mail shirt. She
called for her sword. (Gaiman Kindle Locations 176-177) It is rare to find a story where the
woman holds onto the weapons, but Gaiman does so in his story. And in all of these quotes, it
starts off with the words She called, this is an emphasis on the powerful active Queen. There is
no passiveness to be shown by this female heroine, she outclasses all males in this story. Snow
White goes from a nave girl to a commanding woman in The Sleeper and the Spindle which
reflects 21st century views on the role of women.
The 19th century belief was that women were mothers not workers. In an article by
professor Kathryn Hughes, Wives, daughters and sisters were left at home all day to oversee the
domestic duties that were increasingly carried out by servants. The men were the ones who
were proactive, they went out to work and make money, while the women stayed home taking
care of the household. She goes on to add that Women were considered physically weaker yet

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morally superior to men, which meant that at the time women werent viewed as people who
would go out and save the world with their strength, they were viewed as honest and good. This
could have been a factor in determining the characteristics of the fairy tale female role in the 19th
century considering how most fairy tale heroines at the time were portrayed as passive but also
kind and pure.
Things changed during the 20th century, an era of social movements had arrived including
the feminist movement. Myra Marx Ferree and Beth Hess, both professors of sociology, state
Public awareness and public opinion about feminist issues changed especially dramatically in
those early years and have continued to move in a more feminist direction (196). The view on
females has changed through the 20th century aided in part by the feminist movement during that
time. Women are no longer just housewives, they have become more equal with men. In 1920,
women composed of 20 percent of the civilian labor force, compared to over 45 percent today
(Ferree and Hess 2). Woman make up almost half of the work force today. In comparison with
the 19th century view where women could not even participate in work, this is a very significant
figure that shows that societys women are becoming active. That is one reason why in Gaimans
The Sleeper and the Spindle, there is a female protagonist that becomes the knight in shining
armor. The 19th century and the 21st century have very different gender standards.
Another fairy tale convention is the happy ending. Fairy tales almost always end with the
words happily ever after or something of that sort. In Briar Rose, the story ends with Then
the prince and Brier-Rose got married, and they lived long and happily until they died. In
Little Snow White, the story ends with You shall become my wife." Snow-White loved him,
and she went with him. Their wedding was planned with great splendor and majesty. The
standard in the 19th was women becoming good wives, so the happy ending involves a man and

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a woman marrying. In Sleeper and the Spindle, there is a different kind of happy ending. The
Queen happily rides off to the East for more adventures, leaving her stress about marriage
behind. The two stories have very different endings and that is due in part to the differences in
the authors purpose for their tale and the historical context of the time.
The Brothers Grimm, a fixture of fairytales in 19th century Germany, had the purpose of
creating a national identity, while at the same time pleasing and entertaining the people with their
fairy tale collection. Maria Tatar, Chair of the Committee on Degrees in Folklore and Mythology
at Harvard University, states The main purpose of the proposed volume was not so much to earn
royalties as to salvage what was left of the priceless national resources still in the hands of the
German folk. The Grimms therefore were willing to forgo royalties for the benefit of appearing
in print. Still, the brothers expressed the hope that the volume in the offing would find friends
everywhere and that it would entertain them as well (11). They were willing to give up the
money to get the gritty truth of German culture. But, they also wanted to make stories that were
well-liked by the public. They actually were later overcome by the amount of critics on their
stories and changed them into more public-approved stories. According to Jack Zipes, a wellknown fairy tale scholar, the brothers remade many of the stories revised the prefaces and
introductions, added illustrations in a separate small edition directed more at children and
families, and embellished the tales so that they became polished artistic "gems (1). The fact
that the 1812 version of Briar Rose did not change means that the story was already popular
enough. The happy endings are a key part of stories being liked, people want to see the good
guys winning in the end. If it ended with all the people that tried to save Aurora dying and the
kingdom staying asleep, it would not be a popular fairy tale. A fairy tale, like all books, is a
journey to read, people want that journey to end on a satisfying note. If the ending was

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depressing, people would feel depressed. The feeling of the protagonist winning is subtly
transferred to peoples real lives. So that happy ending was needed for the purpose of gaining
better reviews on their tales.
Neil Gaiman, on the other hand, had a different purpose in mind. According to an article
by the Telegraph, "You don't need princes to save you," says Neil Gaiman, speaking about his
new fairy tale, The Sleeper and the Spindle. He is a writer that advocates a womans active role.
Tara Prescott, a writing lecturer for the University of California, Los Angeles, states Neil
Gaimans reputation of strong, independent female characters is common knowledge in our
circles (1). Gaiman wants to impose upon the literary world more female leads, more feminine
characters with power. Following the tenets of the fairy tale genre, Gaimans rearticulation
reveals that not all princesses are beautiful virgins, not all stepmothers are wicked, and not all
princes are charming and handsome. Instead, Gaiman illuminates the valorization of
dehumanized women and the gendered nature of power (Prescott and Drucker 178). Gaiman
takes the 19th century conventions of fairy tales and modernizes them. The purpose of Sleeper
and the Spindle is to empower women. In the story, the main thing is that the queen makes her
own choices, she decides to step away from the locks of wedding, and chooses to journey freely.
There are choices, she thought, when she had sat long enough. There are always choices.
(Gaiman Kindle Locations 513-514) The story teaches woman should follow their own choices.
If women dont want to get married, dont get married. If women want to go off and save
kingdoms, go save kingdoms. The story also illustrates how strong women can be, how they can
live on their own. Gaiman breaks the classic convention of a happy fairy tale ending with the two
getting married to show that women have power to do what they want.

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In historical context, the general public in the 19th century would find that a woman
needed to become married because being a housewife was their role. According to professor
Kathryn Hughes, Women were assumed to desire marriage because it allowed them to become
mothers rather than to pursue sexual or emotional satisfaction. Having a story end with a man
and a woman getting married would be considered the norm or the typical happy ending in the
19th century. Seeing a woman decide not to marry would be very out of place in the society, so
aligning with the standards of the time, both Briar Rose and Little Snow White end with
marriage. At the start of the story, Gaiman immediately takes away the woman marrying as a
satisfying thing. She wondered how she would feel to be a married woman. It would be the end
of her life, she decided, if life was a time of choices. In a week from now, she would have no
choices. (Gaiman Kindle Locations 78-79) Views of marriage have changed today, it isnt as
emphasized as it was in the 19th century.
The tales of Briar Rose and Little Snow White have many different versions written
in different time periods for different purposes. The Sleeper and the Spindle changes many of the
conventions of those two stories. They are completely different due to the fact that they were
made in different time periods and for different purposes. Brier Rose and Little Snow White
were 19th century fairy tales made to preserve German culture and entertain people, while The
Sleeper and the Spindle was a 21st century re-imagining made to empower women. Different
circumstances lead to different versions of conventions.

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Works Cited
Ferree, Myra Marx, and Beth B. Hess. Controversy and Coalition: The New Feminist
Movement across Three Decades of Change. 3rd ed. New York: Routledge, 2002. Print.
Gaiman, Neil, and Chris Riddell. The Sleeper and the Spindle. New York: Harper Collins,
2014. Print.
Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. "Briar Rose" The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the
Brothers Grimm. Trans. Jack Zipes. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2014. Print.
Grimm, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. "Little Snow White The Original Folk and Fairy Tales
of the Brothers Grimm. Trans. Jack Zipes. Princeton, NJ: Princeton UP, 2014. Print.
Hughes, Kathryn. "Gender Roles in the 19th Century." The British Library. Web. 4 Nov.
2015.
Lieberman, Marcia R.. Some Day My Prince Will Come": Female Acculturation Through
the Fairy Tale. College English 34.3 (1972): 383395. Web.
Prescott, Tara, and Aaron Drucker, eds. Feminism in the Worlds of Neil Gaiman. Jefferson:
McFarland &,, 2012. Web.
Tatar, Maria. The Hard Facts of the Grimms' Fairy Tales. Princeton: Princeton UP, 2003.
Print.
Wood, Gaby. "Neil Gaiman on the Meaning of Fairy Tales." The Telegraph. Telegraph Media
Group, 14 Nov. 2014. Web. 16 Nov. 2015.

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Zipes, Jack. "Introduction: Rediscovering the Original Tales of the Brothers Grimm." The
Original Folk and Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm. Trans. Jack Zipes. Princeton, NJ:
Princeton UP, 2014. Print.