Critical Lenses

In the fairytale Snow White, a prince is needed in order to wake up Snow White by giving her a “true love’s kiss”. This is demonstrating that women need, and have to rely on men to survive, when in reality women have every capability of surviving on their own.

• Gender Criticism
• Marxist Criticism
• Archetypal Criticism
• Formalist Criticism

Living amongst royalty does not always mean that one is happy and content with their life; for example, in the novel, Snow White, the princess chooses to leave the Kingdom and to live in the woods with the working class dwarves rather than be a part of the oppressive ruling class.

• Gender Criticism
• Marxist Criticism
• Psychoanalytic Criticism
• New American Criticism

In every family with step-parents, there is always a competition between the new spouse and the children, as shown in Snow White, where the evil-stepmother is jealous of Snow White’s beauty.

• Gender Criticism
• Marxist Criticism
• Psychoanalytic Criticism
• New American Criticism

In order to distinguish between all of the dwarves, the author chose names according to their personalities and characteristics, making it easier for the reader to distinguish them.

• Psychoanalytic Criticism
• New American Criticism
• Formalist Criticism
• Archetypal Criticism

In the movie “Beauty and the Beast”, the women who follow Gaston around act as a stereotype on how women are dependent on men and metaphorically follow them through life.

• Marxist Criticism
• New American Criticism
• Gender Criticism
• Archetypal Criticism

As Beauty and the Beast is read now, the plot may be seen as a disturbing love story between a naive young girl and a domineering older man, but in the day it was written, around 1740, this was not an unnatural occurrence.

• Marxist Criticism
• Gender Criticism
• Archetypal Criticism
• New American Criticism

The Beast, a wealthy prince, is able to steal an innocent, young poor girl and drag her away to his castle, never to return to her working class family, just because he is lonely and wants company.

• Gender Criticism
• Marxist Criticism
• Archetypal Criticism
• New American Criticism

Throughout the Lord of the Rings trilogy the fellowship doesn’t contain a single strong female character, and while there are some female side characters none of them really come to the forefront of importance.

• Gender Criticism
• Marxist Criticism
• Formalist Criticism
• New American Criticism

World War II and its effects on Tolkien's son who was a soldier are reflected in the warring armies and evil dictators of Sauron and Saruman in the storylines of The Lord of the Rings.

• Gender Criticism
• Marxist Criticism
• New American Criticism
• Formalist Criticism

In order to create a more realistic world, JRR Tolkien created several languages and myths as part of the linguistic tapestry of The Lord of the Rings novels.

• Gender Criticism
• Marxist Criticism
• New American Criticism
• Formalist Criticism