Disguise in Fairy Tales
Deceit is the purpose of disguise, whether it is well-meaning or not. Cinderella dons the disguise of a beautiful princess to win the heart, mind and affections of the handsome prince. The wolf in Grimm’s “Red Riding Hood” dons the disguise of Red Riding Hood’s grandmother in order to eat the girl after he has already eaten the grandmother. In The Ballad of Mulan, the girl dons the disguise of a man to fight in the Chinese Army. In all three cases, disguise is used to deceive, though the intention would not seem to be malicious in every case. However, in Anne Sexton’s modern re-telling of Cinderella, there is a hint of outlandishness about the Cinderella tale that gives the story an ironic and satirical ending: the prince and Cinderella live happily ever after because they stay eternally youthful, never have to deal with children or dust or dinner or any of the inconveniences and challenges of real world relationships; their story in and of itself as told as a traditional fairy tale is a kind of disguise—a deceiving story meant to shield one from the realities of romance and real life. Real world relationships have all manner of difficulties, no matter how beautiful or virtuous the lovers are: challenges will find them. Sexton mocks the lack of detail on the challenges that lie ahead for the two lovers following their union as though their wedded bliss were to continue eternally even after the conclusion of the honeymoon. In Sexton’s verse, one can sense a wolf lurking between the lines, snapping at the Western fairy tale genre itself for being too syrupy. This paper will show how disguise in the fairy tale is used to deceive and how these tales themselves can serve as a kind of deception when they do not tell all the truth.

In “The Cat and Mouse in Partnership,” by the Brothers Grimm, there is no formal disguise donned by either the cat or the mouse, but there is deception that leads to a very real world ending—which makes this fairy tale one of the more grim and haunting of all the tales by the Brothers Grimm. The cat and mouse find a pot of fat and agree to store it away for the winter, but the cat pretends she has been asked to be godmother on three different occasions and by pretending to be going to a christening she leaves the home and goes to where the pot of fat has been stored. There she eats it all up. When the winter comes and the mouse recalls the pot of fat and says to the cat that it is time to go and fetch it, they cat admits to what she has done and the mouse promptly scolds her. The cat has no remorse and quickly swallows the mouse whole and the Brothers Grimm conclude the tale by stating, “You see, that is the way of the world.” Indeed, the ending is perfectly reflective of an ill-suited partnership and brings to mind the tragic ending awaiting Red Riding Hood if no heroic huntsman is nearby to kill the wolf and save the girl and her grandmother from the wolf’s belly. The ironic and satirical tone adopted by Sexton in her telling of the Cinderella story suggests that there is more truth in the “The Cat and Mouse in Partnership” than there is in the happy ending of either “Cinderella” or “Red Riding Hood.” “The Ballad of Mulan” is but a half story in comparison, as it leaves off with the revelation...…does it affect her family who will surely bear some consequence for permitting the deceit? These questions are not answered in The Ballad and thus it is of a different sort of tale than that of “Cat and Mouse in Partnership” or “Cinderella” or “Red Riding Hood” or “Tom Thumb” because it ends on a cliffhanger, without providing a glimpse of the ramifications of deceit. In each of the other tales, the consequences are clear, whether good or bad, whether malicious or noble, whether selfish or charitable—and, of course, the matter will remain up for debate so long as the two camps remain far from reconciliation. The difference again may have to do with the fact that Mulan is an Eastern myth while the others are decidedly Western, and thus the conclusions drawn in the Western ones come from a Western tradition, whereas the story of Mulan is dealt with on a different type of cultural canvas, where the details of the individual are placed within the larger epic narrative of the whole and thus individual happiness is not treated upon in the same way.

In conclusion, disguise in fairy tales is used for different purposes and viewed in different ways. For some, disguise is used by characters to trick others so that they can improve their own lots, and examples can range from the Cat to the Wolf to Cinderella and even Tom Thumb, who it could be argued deceives to see a bit of the world. Then there are those who argue that disguise is used to achieve rather more socially-concerned ends. In the end, one must look at the character of both the hero/heroine and of the self—for it is the self who does the interpreting and can cast the longest shadow.

Works Cited

“The Ballad of Mulan.”…