Fairy Godmothers: Helpful or Hurtful?

By Anja Wuolu, College of Saint Benedict

she/her/hers

Most people in the western world have a pretty good idea of what a fairy godmother is. Perhaps, as children, even fantasized about having one. They are incredibly kind, helpful creatures who move the story along by solving problems. They will give the protagonist costumes, offer advice, and assists in whatever way possible. Sometimes, a fairy godmother is exceedingly helpful, offering advice and magical presents to the person. Other times the fairy godmother gets in the way or even causes problems. This paper investigates “Donkey Skin,” A Thousand Cranes, “Cinderella,” Pocahontas (1995), Ella Enchanted, “A Fairy’s Blunder,” and Shrek 2 (2004), in order to explain that good fairy godmother assists the protagonist without trying to solve her problems.

First, it is important to define a fairy godmother. For the purpose of this paper, it is an older female character who looks after a younger character or characters. The fairy godmother tries to do what’s best for her charge(s). She uses whatever magic is at her disposal to assist her goddaughter, but she allows her goddaughter room to grow. There are some classic examples of fairy godmothers who are very good for their charges whereas others are less helpful or even harmful.

“Donkey Skin”

In “Donkey Skin,” a fairy godmother character helps disguise a princess who is fleeing an undesirable marriage to her own father (Lang 14). Not knowing what to do, she begs her fairy godmother for help. “you must demand the skin of the ass he sets such store by. It is from that donkey he obtains all his vast riches, and I am sure he will never give it to you” (Lang 14). Peculiar like always, the fairy godmother doesn’t quite explain herself. After her father has the donkey’s skin removed for her, the fairy godmother fashions clothing made from it—a hideous costume which makes the princess impossibly ugly. She goes by the name of “Donkey Skin” and finds work on a farm (Lang 15). If Princess Donkey Skin didn’t have the help from her fairy godmother, she wouldn’t have gotten out of the marriage so easily. Donkey Skin would’ve either ended up marrying her own father or she would’ve had to figure her own way out if it. Perhaps if the fairy godmother had merely advised her or helped her figure out a way to escape on her own, Donkey Skin would’ve been more independent. As the story stands, neither Donkey Skin’s nor her fairy godmother have a very developed character.

Donkey Skin tries to be a commoner but it is difficult, as she was raised a princess. She sometimes washes herself clean and wears fine clothing in the private of her own room. One day a prince visits the farmhouse,

which was famous throughout the whole kingdom for its age and beauty. He opened one door after the other, admiring the old rooms, when he came to a handle that would not turn. He stooped and peeped through the keyhole to see what was inside, and was greatly astonished at beholding a beautiful girl, clad in a dress so dazzling that he could hardly look at it (Lang 16).

The prince instantly fall in love with the girl and demands to know the girl who they call Donkey Skin. After series of confusing conversations with his mother, the prince for Donkey Skin’s hand in marriage. While many princesses in her situation would be delighted to explain everything, Donkey Skin stands open-mouthed and helpless. Unable to speak for herself, “the princess hardly knew how to find words to reply” (Lang 21), her fairy godmother comes to the rescue. Immediately when the princess struggles, “the fairy godmother appeared…in a few words she explained the history of the princess, and how she came to be there” (Lang 21). Although the princess is the main character, she never changes or faces conflict. Her fairy godmother saves her every time she goes through any sort of trial.

True, Donkey Skin has to do menial tasks on the farmhouse. But the labor does not allow her to grow as a character. The fairy godmother shows up and saves the day whenever Donkey Skin needs help. This is not a very good fairy godmother. Donkey Skin’s godmother smoothers her and doesn’t allow her to overcome a single challenge on her own. There needs to be some struggle for the main character in order that she may grow up.

“A Fairy’s Blunder”

In “A Fairy’s Blunder” (Lang 298-310), a foolish fairy named Dindonette creates the fountain of youth on an island. She sees that all the young people are complaining about being young and all the old people are complaining about being old. Trying to solve these problems, she curses the only water supply with this spell. Not only does it make old people young, but it makes young people old. In a matter of months, all the young people die of old age and the old people die as babies without someone to take care of them. Dindonette doesn’t know what to do about her mistake. Instead of coming clean to the other fairies, she hides her mistake, hoping everyone will forget about it. Obviously, she is a terrible fairy godmother. While she doesn’t have a specific charge, Dindonette looks after an entire village. This village would’ve been better off left alone.

Centuries later, another fairy named Selnozoura brings two children to the island (Lang 300). Her two charges are more or less godchildren. She doesn’t know what became of the deserted village initially, but can use magic to figure it out. Unfortunately, it’s much too late for the children, who drank the well and are already aging. Selnozoura had been planning on marrying the two once they were older, having acquired them from different parents. The two grew old and Dindonette said she could only reverse half of the spell. Eventually Selnozoura, with some help, manages to transform both the children back into young adults. They’re married and everyone lives happily ever after.

Selnozoura is a good fairy godmother. While she does arrange the marriage between the two children, she doesn’t smother them. She rescues them only when they are in deep, fairy-caused trouble. Dindonette proves to be a terrible godmother. In this story, awful godparenting is linked to death while good godparenting is linked to marriage and happiness. Meddling with minor complaints only causes problems which are much larger and worse than the original complaints.

Shrek 2 (2004)

Shrek 2’s fairy godmother character is evil. She is the villain of the story and she tries to separate the beloved ogre couple. In the movie, Shrek and Fiona travel to Far Far Away to meet Fiona’s parents. The last time Fiona saw them, she was a little girl getting locked away in a tower. Her parents are astonished by her transformation into an ugly ogre instead of a beautiful princess. While her mother is more accepting, her father and fairy godmother do not approve of Fiona’s husband, Shrek.

Fairy Godmother tries to help Fiona fulfill the dream of being a princess. Not just a princess married to an ogre but a princess married to a prince. Specifically, Fairy Godmother wants her to be married to Prince Charming. He is Fairy Godmother’s son and this causes her some bias in picking out a prince for her godchild. Like Selnozoura, Fairy Godmother wants to play matchmaker. She isn’t trying to be evil; she “only wants what’s best.” To Fairy Godmother, Shrek doesn’t seem worthy of Fiona’s hand in marriage.

While both Donkey Skin and Fiona have overzealous fairy godmothers, Fiona also has a mind of her own and a backbone to stand up for what she wants. Jeana Jorgensen’s essay, “A Wave of the Magic Wand: Fairy Godmothers in Contemporary American Media,” mentions that although Fairy Godmother’s name in Shrek 2 is literally Fairy Godmother, she is anything but typical. Her character has a personality, complete with good and bad traits, likes and dislikes (Jorgensen 220). Jorgensen concludes that fairy godmothers either “enforce tradition or challenge it” (Jorgensen 225). While in some ways Fairy Godmother goes against the typical kind of Godmother because she is the villain, everything she represents tradition. She tells Shrek again and again that “ogres don’t live happily ever after,” (Shrek 2). Her definition of happiness is physical. She thinks happiness is a material that can be bought. Shrek is ugly, not especially wealthy, and an outsider. In Fairy Godmother’s eyes, Shrek is in the way of Fiona’s happiness.

Fiona does not want to follow Fairy Godmother’s plans. This allows for Fiona’s character to develop and grow. Fiona goes against the fairy who was assigned to her at birth, and makes choices for herself. She stands up against the fairy’s decisions for her. Fiona chooses not to marry the man picked out for her, nor to live like her godmother’s idea of a princess.

This movie demonstrates how oppressive overbearing mentors can be very well. Fairy Godmother uses magic to try and convince Fiona to fall in love with Prince Charming. While he went along with it at first, Fiona’s father, the king, realizes how overbearing Fairy Godmother is. He realizes that not only does Fairy Godmother hold back his daughter from overcoming challenges on her own, but that she prevents his daughter from doing what she wants. It’s one thing for a fairy godmother to get rid of all Donkey Skin’s problems, it’s another when Fairy Godmother is actually creating problems for her goddaughter.

Fiona is a strong character, and not just because she can hold her own in a fight. Fiona cares deeply about her loved ones, even when her dad doesn’t get along with her husband. She overcomes the challenges her fairy godmother puts in her way. She still lives happily ever after despite not living the bubbly, luxury life that her godmother picked out. Fairy Godmother inhibits Fiona’s happiness by trying to solve all her problems.

Ella Enchanted

In Ella Enchanted, which is a modern spoof on Cinderella, a troublesome fairy casts a spell on Ella at birth. She has two fairy godmothers. The one, Mandy, is her family’s cook and her actual fairy godmother. The other is a troublesome fairy named Lucinda.

Mandy doesn’t even reveal herself to be Ella’s fairy godmother until Ella’s mother dies (Levine 22). After she finds this out, Ella begs Mandy to break Lucinda’s curse but Mandy is unwilling to do so. Ella drops a bowl and it shatters on the ground. Mandy uses magic to sweep it all up into the garbage (Levine 27):

“That’s about all I do, honey. Small magic that can’t hurt anybody. Handy, sometimes, though. No sharp bits left of the floor.”

I stared into the bin. The shards lay there. “Why didn’t you turn it back into a bowl?”

“The magic’s too big. Doesn’t seem like it, but it is. Could hurt someone. You never know” (Levine 27).

Mandy is an ideal fairy godmother. She helps Ella with her problems, but she doesn’t solve them for her. Ella is allowed room to grow. She overcomes challenges with help but she has to do it by herself. Throughout the novel, Mandy maintains a good relationship with Ella. She gives her presents, including jewelry and a magical story-telling book. Mandy also offers Ella advice and even a job in the kitchen when Ella’s evil stepmother forces her to earn her keep in her own house.

Lucinda isn’t officially Ella’s fairy godmother, but she does affect Ella in a profound way. Lucinda places a curse on Ella at birth, forcing the girl to obey any direct command. Not only must Ella accept orders from her parents, but from anybody who tells her to do something. Lucinda is an example of a very bad fairy godmother. She gives “gifts” in the form of curses. When Ella tracks Lucinda down and asks her to remove the curse, Lucinda just tells her to be happy she has a curse (Levine 156). This forces Ella to be grateful for the dreaded curse. Not only is Lucinda blocking Ella’s potential by forcing her to follow a life she didn’t choose, but Lucinda is preventing Ella from realizing it.

Ella is not the only child she gave obedience to. Eventually, Mandy convinces Lucinda to try living with the “gifts” she bestows on other people. Like Dindonette, Lucinda’s mistakes cause a lot of people a lot of harm. Lucinda’s magic causes married couples to be unhappy and children to hate their lives. Previously oblivious to all this, Lucinda agrees to try out some of her more famous curses on herself, thinking it will be fun. Lucinda returns six months later, repentant and sorry (Levine 194). She swears off “big magic,” and assists Ella only in small ways. She gives her jewelry and provides a carriage for Ella to attend the ball. Lucinda finally realizes that Ella must live her own life. She also realizes the other “gifts” placed upon people are more hurtful than helpful.

All through the story, Ella is physical incapable of refusing to obey commands. She finally breaks the curse herself by refusing to follow an order (Levine 228). Mandy couldn’t break her curse, and Lucinda couldn’t break her curse. Ella has to do it herself. This allows for her to grow and develop. Although Lucinda starts off as a terrible, overbearing, and excessive fairy, much like Fairy Godmother in Shrek 2, Lucinda redeems herself. Mandy stoically stands by her principles throughout the entire novel. She helps, does “small magic,” but doesn’t interfere in peoples’ lives dramatically. Ella transforms into adulthood, and unlike Donkey Skin, she does it mostly on her own. While Mandy and Lucinda provide her with some assistance, Ella takes her life into her own hands when it comes to wooing a prince, tricking trolls, and surviving her stepfamily.

“Cinderella”

“Cinderella” is perhaps one of the most well-known fairy tales and has one of the most well-known fairy godmothers in it. Unlike Disney’s version, in the Brothers Grimm, the “fairy godmother” is a tree. Following her mother’s death, Cinderella plants a hazel branch over the grave (Grimm 119). The tree is watered by Cinderella’s tears every day,

She wept so hard that her tears fell to the ground and watered it. It grew to become a beautiful tree. Three times a day Cinderella went and sat under it and wept and prayed. Each time a little white bird would also fly to the tree, and whenever she made a wish, the little bird would toss down what she had wished for (Grimm 119).

This tree is quite unlike the other fairy godmothers. In the footnotes, Maria Tatar writes “Sometimes it is a calf, a cow, a fish, a goat, or some other animal that is connected to the mother and becomes Cinderella’s magic helper or donor” (Grimm 119). This non-human godmother allows Cinderella a lot of power, but requires that she ask for it. Throughout the story, Cinderella never asks for help outside of specific things. An assortment of birds assist her in completing chores, putting together clothing, and finally pecking the eyes out of her stepsisters (Grimm 127). While it is a tree full of birds and not a person, the facts that it’s connected to Cinderella’s mother, helps without solving Cinderella’s problems make this tree an excellent fairy godmother.

Cinderella needs to ask the tree for help. Her problems aren’t immediately solved, but she is given assistance. In this way, Cinderella has to tackle her own problems and take her life into her own hands. Like Ella, her options are limited but she has an array of talents at her disposal.

Pocahontas (1995)

While Disney rejects the Grimm’s tale of a tree in favor of Perrault’s old lady fairy godmother, in Cinderella (1950), there is a magical tree in Disney’s Pocahontas (1995). Grandmother Willow in Walt Disney’s Pocahontas is an excellent fairy godmother. While she doesn’t give Pocahontas any gifts, she constantly gives advice. It’s up to the protagonist to solve her own problems. With the tree’s help, Pocahontas is able to understand how she can save her lover. It’s also evident that she knew Pocahontas’s mother, and probably played the fairy godmother role here too. One author claims that “Grandmother Willow is the clutch character in this story. In fact, she’s the one who literally points Pocahontas in the right direction” (Berman 2016). Can fairy godmothers be expanded to any female character who offers advice to a younger female character?

Without Grandmother Willow, Pocahontas might have been confused. She would’ve still be capable of everything, just as Ella could’ve completed every task without Mandy if need be. But Grandmother Willow is a comfort, a teacher, and a voice of wisdom.

A Thousand Cranes

Another mystical grandmother is found in the story of a young Japanese girl named Sadako. Based on a true story, she was two when the United States dropped an atom bomb on Hiroshima. It killed her grandmother immediately and the play begins when Sadako develops a radiation sickness around the age of 12. Her friend Kenji tells her if she makes 1000 paper cranes, the gods will grant her a wish. She dies before she can finish the cranes but her classmates finish the cranes for her.

Her grandmother, Oba-Chan, helps Sadako travel into the afterlife. As her grandmother guides her, she asks Sadako what she would’ve wished for. Sadako replies, “To make you live. To make me better. I wished that there will never be a bomb like that again” (Miller 26). Sadako’s bold wish isn’t something her grandmother can grant. Like any fairy godmother, Oba-Chan has her limitations. She does the best she can to help Sadako but cannot solve her problems for her. Oba-Chan’s main contribution is helpfulness. Wisdom of both life and afterlife make her very wise. Sadako would have probably made it to the afterlife without her grandmother, but the wise, helpful old woman is a comfort. Oba-Chan can help her granddaughter understand the reality of her situation just as Grandmother Willow explains life to Pocahontas. In both cases, the protagonist has to follow her own path.

Conclusion

While a literal fairy godmother needs to be a fairy, many non-fairies fit the fairy godmother trope. Also, plenty of actual fairies prove to be terrible godmothers. Grandmother Willow and Oba-Chan offer wisdom and comfort to their charges. Selnozoura and Mandy help raise their godchildren, but don’t meddle in their lives excessively. Lucinda, Dindonette, and Fairy Godmother from Shrek 2 all try way too hard to help their godchildren, and end up causing more problems than they solve. Lucinda and Dindonette see the error of their ways. Lucinda comes clean and changes her lifestyle. Donkey Skin’s fairy godmother causes harm to her charge because she prevents Donkey Skin from growing in any way on her own.

A good fairy godmother will give her goddaughter freedom to make her own mistakes. She should offer her charge gifts and wisdom without telling her what to do or giving her everything. People need to learn to grow, and they cannot learn if everything is given to them. Also, when a charge’s growth is obstructed by excessive planning, it is impossible for the charge to grow naturally. People need freedom to discover their own potential. A good fairy godmother will be there if her goddaughter needs help.

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Works Cited

Berman, Rachel. "Clutch Characters: Grandmother Willow." Oh My Disney. N.p., 15 Apr. 2016. Web. 04 Mar. 2017.

Cinderella. Distributed by RKO Radio Pictures, Inc., 1950.

Grimm, Jacob, Wilhelm Grimm, and Maria Tatar. The Annotated Brothers Grimm. New York: W.W. Norton, 2004. Print.

Jorgensen, Jeana. “A Wave of the Magic Wand: Fairy Godmothers in Contemporary American Media.” Marvels &Tales 21.2 (2007): 216+. Literature Resource Center. Web. 14 Feb. 2017

Lang, Andrew. The Grey Fairy Book. Fairfield, IA: 1st World Library Literary Society, 2007. Print.

Levine, Gail Carson. Ella Enchanted. New York: HarperCollins, 1997. Print.

Miller, Kathryn Schultz. A Thousand Cranes. Woodstock, IL: Dramatic Pub., 1990. Print.

Pocahontas. Burbank, CA: Walt Disney Home Entertainment, 1995.

Shrek 2. Universal City, CA: DreamWorks Home Entertainment, 2004.