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  • Essay / Story about The Wicked Stepmother Show by Marina Warner

    Never Underestimate Envy Before Jimmy Fallon became today's successful television personality, a comedian named Louis CK ruined Jimmy's chances from performing on the Dana Carvey Show in the 1990s. In a 2015 interview between Jimmy and Louis, Louis revealed that he judged the Carvey show auditions. Louis saw Jimmy Fallon audition for this show. When the panel was deciding who would be on the show, all the women at the meeting said, "he [Jimmy] has to be on the show!" However, Louis said “never; I'll quit the show if you hire this kid. In the 2015 interview, Louis revealed that looking back, he was completely jealous of Jimmy's charisma, youth and full head of hair; Louis didn't want to feel upset watching Jimmy every day, so he "torpedoed Jimmy's chances of getting on the show" (The Tonight Show). Jimmy never appeared on the Carvey show. This situation reveals that envy is insidious; if you are not careful, the envy of others will destroy you. The evil bogeyman who becomes jealous of his daughter's beauty is the perfect embodiment of this destructive force of envy. The details of evil stepmother stories have changed throughout history, reflecting the current state of society; However, tales of evil stepmothers have remained unchanged in that they have always envied their essence. The Evil Stepmother Scarecrow reveals that when humans come into contact with someone who seems superior, they then become envious and attempt to destroy that person; as a result, modern audiences learn that they must downplay exceptional qualities and view them as a sacrifice in order to deflect the dangers of envy. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on 'Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned'?Get the original essayIn Marina Warner's 'Wicked Stepmothers' chapter on a story called 'Cupid and Psyche,' Warner reveals that the urge grows the mother-in-law to destroy her competitor in beauty, which shows that the evil mother-in-law symbolizes jealousy. “Cupid and Psyche” is the first story in history in which the evil stepmother makes an appearance. Cupid's mother, Venus, orders her son to murder Psyche, his rival in beauty. This story of jealousy represents the soul striving to achieve inner peace. The word psyche means “soul” in Greek. So when Venus wants to murder Psyche because she is jealous of Psyche's beauty, this action represents Venus wanting to purge the part of her own soul that is causing her pain. This idea reveals that humans who destroy others out of envy are not doing so simply to destroy another person, but with the ultimate goal of bringing peace to themselves. Furthermore, it is not necessarily beauty itself that arouses envy; instead, beauty symbolizes any display of superiority that arouses envy. Finally, this story about envy was published in the 2nd century AD, showing that envy is an emotion that has been present in humans for millennia. Envy is an emotion so powerful that it can even drive a person to murder. People should therefore downplay their talent or image in order to protect themselves from another person's envy. Two thousand years later, the Brothers Grimm published the tale of Cinderella, the Wicked Stepmother, in the 19th century which is much more violent than the current Disney version of Cinderella; this shows that the portrayal of the evil stepmother scarecrow depends on the actual circumstances surrounding the authors of the story. The Brothers Grimm grew up in the StatesGermans in the early 1800s, at the center of military conflicts such as the Napoleonic Wars and the French Revolutionary Wars. As a result, the violence in their version of Cinderella was in keeping with the authors' real-life environment. In the Grimm version of "Cinderella", a wicked stepmother torments the girl because she is jealous of her beauty and charm. When the prince announces that whoever has the foot in the shoe can marry him, the wicked stepmother says to her daughters: “Cut off your toe.” Once you are queen, you will no longer need to walk” (Grimm, 83). When Cinderella legitimately marries the prince, the sisters come to the wedding during which “pigeons tore out one of their eyes” (Grimm, 84). These depictions of graphic violence are absent from Disney's American versions, which reflect peacetime on American soil. Although the United States was involved in wars around the time Disney released Cinderella in 1950, there were no major military conflicts on American soil like there were in the German states. Despite the changes in violent descriptions, envy was a common factor and remained central to both stories. The comparison between Grimm's violent "Cinderella" and Disney's toned-down version of "Cinderella" shows that the environment surrounding the publishers affects the representation of the evil bogeyman, but does not affect the presence of envy. “Cinderella” Version, There are the Norwegian and Native American versions of “Cinderella” in which envy is common in all three stories, showing that envy is common in all cultures. In the Grimm version of Cinderella, when the prince marvels at Cinderella's beauty, the sisters "stand in a corner, pale with envy" (Pitt). Similarly, in the Norwegian version of "Cinderella", the story is almost identical to Grimm's version; the Norwegian story also says that "the stepmother and her daughter were jealous of the princess because she was so adorable." (Pitt). In the Native American version of "Cinderella", instead of a king, there is an Indian warrior named Strong Wind who has the ability to turn invisible. When he wants to find a woman to marry, he becomes invisible and tells his sister to ask women if they can see him. If they falsely answer “yes,” then he rejects them. Finally, a young woman answers honestly, but "her older sisters were very jealous of her charms and treated her very cruelly" (Pitt). This shows that envy is common in different cultures. Among the different cultural versions, female hatred is a common theme in "Cinderella", which reveals hatred and sabotage between women. Because women must outperform their competitors to obtain the symbolic prince, it is no wonder that "female friendships are so problematic, even though that is how we are trained to view our relationships with other women" (Baum ). The element of envy gives us deeper insight into female relationships. Because the destructive force of envy is common to these different cultural versions of “Cinderella,” it shows that the story of the wicked stepmother, which is about envy, is part of human emotional dynamics. The Brothers Grimm revised "Snow White" from having a wicked mother to a wicked stepmother to make the story more believable, showing how envy can arise even in the family. Snow” is about the wicked stepmother who orders the death of her stepdaughter because she is jealous of her beauty. In Grimm's first version published in 1812, “there is no stepmother.” (Gidwitz). Instead, the Evil Queen is the girl's mother. In the 1812 version, the mother commands the girl.hunter to “stab her [Snow White] to death” instead of simply killing her and bringing back her organs. Then the Brothers Grimm revised it for the stepmother in the 1857 version to make the story more believable and acceptable to children. Because jealousy and violence within the family are a taboo subject, it is important to make the story credible; thus, the revised story of the wicked stepmother can educate people about the dangers of envy within the family. For example, Joe Orton was a famous playwright in the 1960s. He was in a relationship with Kenneth Halliwell, but their relationship deteriorated as Orton became more successful. Orton tried to help Halliwell launch his career, but Halliwell failed, which only made him feel inferior. In 1967, Halliwell killed Orton with a hammer, and Orton's diary revealed that "Halliwell's illness came from envy" (Greene). This real-life example shows that envy can arise in close relationships such as family relationships. Furthermore, it is difficult to imagine an older mother being jealous of her daughter, yet one essay analyzes "Snow White" through a Jungian perspective according to which "the older woman's envy of of the beauty, sex appeal and desirability of the younger is evident in our culture. , as evidenced by the booming cosmetics industry (Buchholtz). “Snow White” shows that envy can even lurk in the family. With the Brothers Grimm's revision of their story, it shows that it is important to make the story of the Wicked Stepmother believable so that people can learn important lessons to apply in their own lives; for example, do not arouse envy in relationships, even if they are family relationships. The contemporary film of “Snow White” titled Mirror Mirror was released in 2012; he mocks the emotion of envy because it is a way for us to deal with the dangers of envy, showing that envy is becoming particularly problematic in modern society. In Mirror Mirror, the film turns the story into a comedy with moments such as the Queen having her lips stung by a bee, receiving a manicure from worm creatures, and having her skin refreshed with feces of parrot. The fact that we have to deal with envy using humor reveals that envy is becoming more and more problematic in today's environment. For what? Today we live in an increasingly democratic world; the Polity IV scale shows that the number of democracies in the world increased sixfold between 1900 and 1998. In a democratic environment, the feeling of envy is increased because there is more equality among peers and because “the powers of demonstration are despised” (Greene). In contrast, an aristocratic environment has obvious vertical communication links and inequalities between peers, such as servant and master, in which there is a clear division between social ranks. Here, displays of power are accepted based on belonging to a high social rank, so it is less likely that one will come to envy someone of a higher rank. For example, Guy Kirsch writes in his essay on envy that "even if I do not feel envy towards Bill Gates, I envy one of my colleagues who charges higher course fees than me", which is similar to the master- phenomena of servitude in an aristocratic environment. As Marina Warner wrote, we use humor to face our fears. Because we use humor to portray the evil scarecrow of the mother-in-law in our contemporary society, it reveals that envy becomes problematic in our democratic society. Another contemporary remix of “Snow White”.