Contradictions in "La belle au bois dormant" by Charles Perrault : a study of morals and morality

Storytelling has existed since the beginning of humanity, in every culture. Today, we are still telling stories that are hundreds of years old. Sleeping Beauty, or La belle au bois dormant, is a classic fairy-tale. In the original version by Charles Perrault it is a story in two parts with a morality poem in the end. In this work, the relation between the story and the lessons that can be drawn from it and its final morality are examined. The aim of this work is to find out if the morality confirms or contradicts the story in La belle au bois dormant, and in what way, and secondly if La belle au bois dormant fulfil our expectations of a fairy tale. In order to give a deeper understanding of the key words, fairy-tale, as a genre, and the role of moral in literature two books aimed for literary education in French schools are used. By defining fairy-tale as a genre and the role of moral messages in literature, they can be compared to our story. Furthermore, by using examples from the story and analysing the story and the morality poem of Sleeping Beauty respectively, thus this essay spreads light on the contradicting messages in this fairy-tale. At the end of this work the conclusion is reached that the morality poem is not in any way confirmed by the story and that the two differ in terms of theme, content, and message, and thus La belle au bois dormant differ from traditional fairy tales because its morality does not support the story.