Abstract:
This thesis explores the ways in which fairy tales affect our socio-political realities, and
how by manipulating these tales we are able to manipulate the roles we actually play in the
society. This paper believes that fairy tales are a tool of patriarchal acculturation, and we retell
these stories to fit a feminist narrative, we challenge this acculturation, and we are able to
negotiate spaces for women in society. It looks at the idea of space and the archetypes of the
princess and the witch. While in traditional telling they are binary opposites, retold versions
show how princesses need not be passive paragons of patriarchal virtue, and a witch is only
human.
