Fairy tales often have a chaste veneer, but underneath, they read like bawdy tales told by seamen and other immoralites. In Little Brier-Rose by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, one finds suggestive images such as “When the prince approached the thorn hedge, it was nothing but large, beautiful flowers that separated by themselves, allowing him to pass through without harm.” From an adult perspective, Sleeping Beauty is a tale of puberty, transformation and sexual awakening.
Victorian readers wanted these stories to be charming, to reflect the gender roles of the time, and above all to instruct proper upper– and middle–class children in appropriate morality. Innuendo replaced the overt and troubling activity of carnal sex and violence but… these underlying themes are tenacious.
Quotation from Midori Snyder, Sleeping Beauty
If you see the magic in a fairy tale, you can face the future.
Quotation from Danielle Steel